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Mitchell veterans share honor flight experience as a couple
Mitchell veterans share honor flight experience as a couple

Yahoo

time26-05-2025

  • Health
  • Yahoo

Mitchell veterans share honor flight experience as a couple

May 25—MITCHELL — Less than a week ago, on Tuesday, May 20, a journey came full circle for Marty and Cindy Christensen of Mitchell. They had just returned from Midwest Honor Flight's Seed for Success Foundation Mission 25 — a one-day tour to the nation's capital that honors America's war veterans with "One Final Tour with Honor." The Christensens are no strangers to service. Both are veterans with more than five decades of combined military experience. They not only served during the Vietnam War era but also stood side by side during a yearlong deployment to Iraq in 2005. Their participation in the Honor Flight together — accompanied by their sons David and Robert Studsdahl, who served as guardians providing assistance and support throughout the trip — made the experience especially meaningful. "It was really an honor to share this with them," Marty said. "They get to hear our war stories, they might as well get to experience this with us." Marty Christensen served in the U.S. Army for 33 years, rising through the ranks to become a colonel and eventually commanding a reserve hospital in Omaha. A medical doctor by training, he completed his residency at Fort Bragg and was later deployed during both Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Among his lasting impacts was helping implement and refine the Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) used by soldiers during the Iraq War — a game-changer in battlefield medicine according to him. Cindy Christensen's military journey began in the U.S. Air Force, originally motivated by her desire to become a nurse with the help of the GI Bill. But her career took an unexpected turn. "I told the recruiter I just wanted to work in a hospital," Cindy recalled. "Then I found out I was the first female air-to-air missile tech. I didn't know a thing about missiles, but figured I'd give it a shot." Later, she transitioned to the Army Reserves, where she fulfilled her original goal of becoming a nurse. It was at a reserve unit in Omaha where she met Marty. Their relationship developed amid military briefings, hospital wards and training missions. Marty completed three overseas deployments during his military career, earning a Bronze Star for voluntarily extending his second tour in Iraq beyond the usual 90 days. Cindy's only solo deployment was to Saudi Arabia in 1997. In 2005, the couple served together in Iraq for a year, sharing a deployment while married. They decided to retire from military service following that deployment, choosing to close their military chapter together. But retirement didn't slow them down. Cindy went on to teach nursing clinicals at Dakota Wesleyan University and volunteered at the Mitchell Clinic on Saturdays. Marty remained active in veterans' organizations and continued practicing medicine in Mitchell. He retired in 2019. Last year, Marty participated in a Midwest Honor Flight as a guardian for fellow veteran Lyle Sunderland. This year, it was his turn to be honored — and both he and Cindy were selected to participate as veterans. "We decided to apply at the same time and hoped we'd get chosen together," Cindy said. "And we did." Midwest Honor Flight covers all expenses — approximately $853 per veteran — for the one-day journey to Washington, D.C., including flights, meals, transportation and a banquet dinner the night before. Veterans are selected on a "First to Apply, First to Fly" basis, with a current focus on those who served during the Vietnam era. Founded in 2017, Midwest Honor Flight is part of the national Honor Flight Network, which has flown more than 250,000 veterans to Washington, D.C., since its inception in 2005. These flights are designed to recognize veterans — particularly those who never received a proper welcome home — and provide a moment of reflection and honor among peers. Mission 25 included 85 veterans. During the whirlwind trip, the Christensens visited Arlington National Cemetery, the Lincoln Memorial and other iconic sites, with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial serving as the final stop on the tour. "It's a fast day," Marty said. "We left early in the morning and got back late at night, but it's so worth it." This flight marked the 25th mission organized by Midwest Honor Flight, which currently schedules about four trips annually. Mission 26 is set to depart on June 3. For the Christensens, the journey was more than a sightseeing tour — it was a meaningful tribute to a life of service, shared sacrifice, and family legacy. "It was a memorable long day," Cindy said. "I really do feel honored to serve our country."

The Cannes/Oscars Connection: Could One of This Year's Fest Titles Wind Up the Next ‘Anora'?
The Cannes/Oscars Connection: Could One of This Year's Fest Titles Wind Up the Next ‘Anora'?

Yahoo

time21-05-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Yahoo

The Cannes/Oscars Connection: Could One of This Year's Fest Titles Wind Up the Next ‘Anora'?

For many years after the 1955 film Marty won the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or and then went on to win the best picture Oscar, there was little additional evidence of a Cannes/Oscars connection. But in the last five years, both Parasite and — just months ago — Anora followed in Marty's footsteps. Indeed, within the last year, specifically, the relevance of one event to the other became harder than ever to dispute, as an unprecedented 31 Oscar noms were allocated to films that had played in Cannes — spread between Anora, The Apprentice, Emilia Pérez, Flow, The Girl with the Needle, The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, The Seed of the Sacred Fig and The Substance — and 40 percent of the eventual Oscar winners traced back to the fest, including Anora (best picture, director, actress, original screenplay and film editing), Emilia Pérez (original song), Flow (animated feature) and The Substance (makeup/hairstyling). More from The Hollywood Reporter Cannes: 'March of the Penguins' Director to Judge Immersive Competition 'How to Have Sex' Director Molly Manning Walker Heads Up Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Cannes: Sally Hawkins, Matthew Broderick, Martin Freeman Join Simon Bird's 'Pretend I'm Not Here' Perhaps the increasing overlap is the result of the Academy significantly upping the percentage of its membership that is based outside of the U.S. in recent years, resulting in more cosmpolitan tastes along the lines of what Cannes is famous for. Regardless, speculation is already ramping up about whether or not there are films slated to screen on the Croisette this May could show up at the Dolby next March. Among the likeliest candidates, based on buzz amongst industry insiders and their filmmakers' track records, are Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme (Focus) and Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest (A24). The Phoenician Scheme, which stars Benicio del Toro as a wealthy businessman who designates his daughter, a nun, as the sole heir to his estate, is playing in competition, as did three previous Anderson titles — 2012's Moonrise Kingdom, 2021's The French Dispatch and 2023's Asteroid City — which collectively went on to zero Oscar noms. But Phoenician is said to be Anderson's strongest work since The Grand Budapest Hotel, which premiered at Berlin and went on to nine Oscar nominations, including best picture, four of which resulted in wins in crafts areas, where his films always shine. Highest 2 Lowest, Lee's reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 film High and Low, is a crime-thriller that reunites him with his longtime muse Denzel Washington. Their previous collaborations include 1992's Malcolm X, for which Washington received a best actor Oscar nom, but also several films that were completely overlooked by the Academy. In recent years, though, Lee and the Academy seem to be increasingly on the same wavelength; 2018's BlacKkKlansman was nominated for six Oscars, including best picture, and Lee won best adapted screenplay, while 2020's Da 5 Bloods was nominated for one. I'd also keep an eye on a late addition to the competition lineup, Lynne Ramsay's dark comedy Die, My Love, a sales title that stars Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence as a new mother experiencing post-partum depression. It is said to be a true return-to-form for J-Law, who is also a producer of the project, and could help Ramsay finally crack the Academy, which has entirely overlooked her past work, most egregiously with 2011's We Need to Talk About Kevin. Richard Linklater is always someone to watch. The five-time Oscar nominee's latest is sales title Nouvelle Vague, a black-and-white, French-language competition film about the making of the French New Wave classic Breathless. If there's one thing the Academy loves, it's movies about movies — see: The Artist, The Fabelmans, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Mank, Hugo and La La Land, among others. This one counts Guillaume Marbeck and Zoey Deutch among its stars. Other English-language titles worth keeping an eye on: competition film The Mastermind (Mubi), the latest from Kelly Reichardt, whose slow-paced previous works have failed to resonate with the Academy, but whose latest is apparently a '70s-set heist film and stars Josh O'Connor; competition film Eddington (A24), the latest from Ari Aster, who has heretofore specialized in genre films, which are infrequently embraced by the Academy, but whose latest, which stars Pedro Pascal, Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone and Austin Butler, is apparently about COVID-era politics; another competition film, Oliver Hermanus's The History of Sound (Mubi), which stars 'It' actors Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor in a gay love story set in the early 20th cenutry; and Eva Victor's Sundance-to-Directors' Fortnight closing pic Sorry, Baby (A24), which stars Victor as a college professor trying to recover from a sexual assault, was produced by Moonlight Oscar winner Barry Jenkins and already has A24 behind it. There are also two films in the Un Certain Regard lineup from actors-turned-rookie directors: Scarlett Johansson's Eleanor the Great, starring June Squibb as an elderly woman trying to rebuild her life after her best friend's death, which Oscar specialists Sony Classics have bet on; and Harris Dickinson's Urchin, about a homeless man trying to escape a cycle of self-destruction, which is still seeking distribution. Among non-English-language fare, consider competition film Sentimental Value, which reunites filmmaker Joachim Trier and actress Renate Reinsve, who previously collaborated on 2021's The Worst Person in the World, for which Reinsve won Cannes' best actress prize, and which received a best international feature Oscar nom. The North American rights to this Norwegian-language dramedy have already been acquired by Neon, winner of the last five Palme d'Or prizes. Still seeking distribution are a handful of other films that are entirely or primarily in a language other than English. Said to be outstanding is Mascha Schilinski's German-language competition title Sound of Falling, which centers on four women from different historical eras whose lives are interconnected. It's likely to attract considerable sales interest. There's also Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio's The Wave, which is playing in the Cannes Premiere section and should not be underestimated, given that Lelio was awarded the best international feature Oscar for 2018's A Fantastic Woman, five years after his film Gloria was also the country's submission for that contest. His latest Spanish-language effort sounds charactertistically eccentric: it's a musical inspired by 2018 feminist protests against gender-based violence and Chile's patriarchal government. Any film starring Isabelle Huppert is noteworthy, and Thierry Klifa's French-language The Richest Woman in the World, which is screening out of competition, seems like a great showcase for the Elle best actress Oscar nominee: it's based on the true story of the billionaire behind the L'Oreal fortune, who became romantically involved with a much younger man. Mario Martone, who was behind Italy's 2022 Oscar submission Nostalgia, is back with Fuori, a competition film, adapted from a 1983 novel, about three women who meet in prison and form a lifelong bond. Julia Ducournau's previous French-language body horror film, Titane, was awarded the Palme in 2021, but was not submitted by France for the best international feature Oscar. However, her latest, Alpha, comes on the heels of The Substance, which showed that the Academy may now be more open to such films. Venerated Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has never been Oscar-nominated, but his latest, It Was Just An Accident, about a minor accident that sparks a series of escalating consequences, sounds promising, and the Academy has embraced Persian-language films to a greater extent than ever over the past decade or so. (Just last year, one was nominated for best international feature and another won best animated short.) An interesting case is Directors' Fornight selection Lucky Lu, which is Canadian filmmaker Lloyd Lee Choi's modern-day, New York-set, Chinese-language variation on the Italian neorealist classic The Bicycle Thief. Would Canada ever submit a Chinese-language film as its entry for the best international feature Oscar race? Finally, the closest one could get to irrefutable proof of an increased Cannes/Oscars connection would be if the Dardenne brothers of Belgium — Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, neorealist specialists who have been awarded more total prizes from Cannes than any other filmmaker or filmmaking team, including twice the Palme d'Or — can finally land their first Oscar nom. Their latest, The Young Mother's Home, is playing in competition, and therefore might well end up as Belgium's official submission for the best international feature Oscar, as have four of their previous films. This one is about five women and their children living together in a center for young mothers. Of course, Cannes also often launches awards-contending documentary and animated features. This year, a doc to watch is I Am Not Your Negro Oscar nominee Raoul Peck's Orwell: 2+2=5, about the life of George Orwell, which Neon will handle in the U.S. And strong animated prospects are Ugo Bienvenu's Arco, a Natalie Portman-voiced and produced selection in the Special Screenings section (still seeking U.S. distribution); and A Magnificent Life, a French film about Marcel Pagnol that was directed by Sylvain Chomet, who has twice been nominated for the best animated feature Oscar, which Sony Classics is backing stateside. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked

Midwest Honor Flight vets on Vietnam, 50 years later
Midwest Honor Flight vets on Vietnam, 50 years later

Yahoo

time21-05-2025

  • General
  • Yahoo

Midwest Honor Flight vets on Vietnam, 50 years later

WASHINGTON (KELO) — The waiting list to go on a Midwest Honor Flight trip is sizable, and when it's finally time to fly out to Washington, the journey's different stops are substantial. 'When the day come, it's kind of overwhelming,' Army veteran Lorin Kuehler of the Yankton, S.D. area said. Rep. Johnson under pressure for reconciliation bill 85 area veterans visited the memorials of northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. on May 6 with the nonprofit organization based out of Iowa. 'Arlington [National Cemetery] was wonderful,' Army veteran Darrell Williamson of Sioux Falls, S.D. said. 'It's almost like a religious experience.' The trip in 2025 took place just six days after April 30: the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. Nearly all veterans on the trip served during that conflict's era, and the trip can offer a welcomed contrast for them. 'Seeing all the tribute and the people that say 'thank you' to you, 'thank you for your service,' 'cause we didn't get that when we came home,' Army veteran Joe Chachula of Dundee, Minn. said. 'I was also, got called up for Desert Storm, and when we came back as a unit, that was a lot nicer 'cause we were well-greeted at the Sioux Falls airport, which we never got from Vietnam,' said David Lampe of Madison, S.D., who served with the Navy during the Vietnam War and was called up as a member of the Army Reserves for Desert Storm. For Sam Marty of northwestern South Dakota, service with the Army in Vietnam meant stepping on a landmine and surviving. 'They figured that it, why it didn't kill me is because it was planted upside down,' Marty said. The blast left shrapnel in his head that's still there. 'I'm no hero,' Marty said. 'The heroes are the ones that didn't get to come back and have families, didn't get to become grandparents. They're the heroes.' The Purple Heart recipient was thinking about some of them on May 6. 'Especially those two guys that, the first day I was over there, that got blew up,' Marty said. 'I think about them probably every day 'cause they, their families couldn't even have an open casket.' The wall at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial features more than 58,000 names of lives lost or missing in action. 80-year-old Army veteran Darrell Whitmore of the Custer, S.D. area, who served in Vietnam, had rubbings made of names etched into the wall's granite: William Zemanick, a good friend, as well as Curtis Andersen, a friend whose funeral he attended, and James Wright, whose sister he knows. 'They were part of communities and families, and when they got lost in Vietnam, it affected their families for the rest of their lives,' Whitmore said while seated near the memorial's wall. The end of the Vietnam War profoundly impacted him. 'In 1975, I sat in front of a television and watched the fall of Saigon, and I think it was the saddest day of my life,' Whitmore said. The experience on the trip, almost exactly 50 years later, is different. 'I've had two or three people from my community that have done it, and they said it's going to be the most special day,' Whitmore said. 'And it has been.' KELOLAND's Dan Santella, who accompanied the veterans and their guardians on the May 6 trip, published five additional reports from the journey: about a Dell Rapids couple, a Sioux Falls couple, a veteran living with Parkinson's after Agent Orange exposure, a veteran serving as a guardian for his guardian, and a Korean War-era veteran visiting Washington for the first time. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Neon's Palme D'Or Whisperer Tom Quinn Reveals Keys To Cannes And Oscar Success: 'I'm Happy To Share A Playbook'
Neon's Palme D'Or Whisperer Tom Quinn Reveals Keys To Cannes And Oscar Success: 'I'm Happy To Share A Playbook'

Yahoo

time19-05-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Yahoo

Neon's Palme D'Or Whisperer Tom Quinn Reveals Keys To Cannes And Oscar Success: 'I'm Happy To Share A Playbook'

There was time when studios thought premiering a film in Cannes in May could turn out to be a major hindrance to that movie's Oscar chances nine months later. It was a logical assumption. Voters have short memories, and also, if the film doesn't make a splash on the Croisette, it could be all over for its awards dreams. The fall festival trifecta of Venice, Telluride and Toronto became much 'safer' (financially and otherwise), and a more logical bet to launch an Oscar campaign, requiring only six months post-launch to keep the contender alive rather than nine. After all, the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Picture had matched only once since Marty won the first Palme in 1955. That all changed in 2019, when Cannes' Palme d'Or winner, South Korea's Parasite, upset conventional thinking and went on to also triumph at the Oscars, ultimately taking the top prize there. It was the first time a foreign-language picture won the Best Picture Oscar and the top international film, and it has turned out to be a game-changer led by Neon founder and CEO Tom Quinn. Now, Neon has distributed in the U.S. the past five — count 'em, five — Palme d'Or winners in a row, beginning with Parasite and followed by Titane, Triangle of Sadness, Anatomy of a Fall and Anora. The latter became the second Neon film to win both the Palme and the Best Picture Oscar. Additionally, both Triangle of Sadness and Anatomy of a Fall went on to receive Best Picture Oscar nominations, among other categories. Quite a track record, and proof positive that Neon has been instrumental in smashing the Cannes curse for Oscar (if it ever existed). More from Deadline Scarlett Johansson On Why The Script For Her Directorial Debut 'Eleanor The Great' Made Her Cry: 'It's About Forgiveness' – Cannes Cover Story 'Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning' Cannes Film Festival Premiere Photos: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Angela Bassett, Hannah Waddingham & More 'The White Lotus' & 'Sex Education' Star Aimee Lou Wood Joins Angelina Jolie In 'Anxious People' With Black Bear & WME Selling At Cannes Market Quinn gives Thierry Frémaux much of the credit for selecting the lineups and saying it is just not happenstance. The Cannes Film Festival head is certainly aware of the shifting sands, as he pointed out while announcing this year's films, even though he stated that a year ago he would not have been able to imagine the Oscar success of 2024 Cannes debuts like Anora, Emilia Pérez, The Substance and, for that matter, a whopping 31 nominations overall for Cannes titles. 'If you look at the last seven, eight years, Cannes was great. I mean Cannes and the films of Cannes were great and awarded everywhere,' Frémaux said. 'For the films I have just announced this morning, I really don't know, but what I'm really happy about is the link between Cannes in May and the Academy Awards in March. You can arrive in Cannes in May and be still alive in March almost one year later.' It is definitely something Quinn understands well, and that is one reason why Neon will be back on the Croisette this year with no less than four selections in the official lineups: Orwell, Splitsville, Sentimental Value and Alpha. The fact is, Quinn never had a master plan, and says going back to Parasite it never crossed his mind that, after seeing it in the late-night slot — following Quentin Tarantino's much more hyped and anticipated studio juggernaut Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which went on to earn 10 Oscar nominations itself — it would go on to win both the Palme and Best Picture. Impossible, right? 'There wasn't a direct intention behind it,' Quinn says. 'But what I will tell you, what has always been large in my head, about Cannes, and it's my favorite festival, absolutely, by far. Granted, the Riviera certainly helps. The Lumiere helps. Incredible programming team, but the films that have always seemed large for me were Wild at Heart, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Apocalypse Now. I always had this very romanticized, nostalgic vision of what it meant for these huge American juggernauts. But that was the place that you got validated. The birthplace of cinema — France — and you know, to this day, France for me represents, I think, the safest harbor for cinema.' With all Neon's success at Cannes, and in particular winning the Palme d'Or, the company later tests each of their films in the San Fernando Valley, and Quinn says increasingly the fact they won the Palme is the No. 1 driver of audience attendance at those previews. 'And you have to remember that a lot of voters, while it may only be sending jury members that sit on that committee in Cannes, they're all, if not the vast majority, also Academy voters. So, I think it makes perfect sense, combined with having a really nice lead time, to be able to build a significant campaign, to focus on the theatrical window, and position your film properly. So, each of these films have been released, essentially, the same release date in October. You know, I'm happy to share our playbook because it's so obvious.' In the case of Anora, he says they had not even tested the film before Cannes and had only seen it in early cuts. 'Winning the Palme d'Or, having been there four times previous, you know, we went in to do the work, the work that we do. We go and test the movie, we obviously combine that with where we are critically, and then we do an assessment of where the prognosticators sit, you know, the 80-plus prognosticators, where do they sit across the Oscar race?' he says. 'And so, all of those things collectively, in any one silo, may not mean a lot. But if you take that data set, and you compare it to four other movies, three of which have already been Best Picture nominees, one of which had won, you have a really good concept of where you're going. We knew back in July that this had a really strong path towards securing six Oscar nominations … And I have to say it was pretty stressful. You know, be careful what you wish for, and to hold steadfast, and be confident. It's a marathon. We went through the ebbs and flows of the campaign but always believed that we could get where we got to. So, getting these six Oscar nominations was a celebration, but also a relief that we weren't crazy back in July.' Quinn also credits Cannes premieres and wins in other categories for eventual success getting to the Oscars, such as the Best Actor win in Cannes for Perfect Days. which went on to be nominated for the International Feature Oscar, or the exposure for a sleeper, Robot Dreams, which cashed in goodwill at Cannes for a surprise Animated Feature Oscar nomination. He compared it to Flow, which was a hit in Cannes and went on to win this year's Animated Feature for indie partners Sideshow and Janus against huge, well-oiled competition from DreamWorks, Disney/Pixar and Netflix. Flow was also up for Best International Feature from first-timer Latvia. Does Quinn think the increased international voting bloc in the Academy is making a difference now and making it easier for Cannes to become such a big player? 'I think it's definitely a swing vote, but I would say it still only represents less than 25% of over 9,000 voters,' he says. 'The Academy overall has increased quite rapidly in size, but not just new international voters, but also younger voters. Regardless of age, newer voters, I think, are more energized and participate more, and watch more, and vote first. I would say that new membership, younger membership, overlaps I think pretty extensively with international membership, and it's having a big decisive impact on where these awards are going, because they watch the movies, because they are voting.' At any rate, there is no doubt we will be seeing a lot of Quinn and his Neon team all over Cannes, whether promoting the films they are bringing or looking to find the next Parasite and Anora that just might travel all the way from the Grand Théâtre Lumière in the South of France to the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Best of Deadline Everything We Know About 'My Life With The Walter Boys' Season 2 So Far 'Bridgerton' Season 4: Everything We Know So Far Everything We Know About 'Wicked: For Good' So Far

‘Explain that to your mother' says RTE's Marty Whelan after ‘strong innuendo' Eurovision performance
‘Explain that to your mother' says RTE's Marty Whelan after ‘strong innuendo' Eurovision performance

The Irish Sun

time15-05-2025

  • Entertainment
  • The Irish Sun

‘Explain that to your mother' says RTE's Marty Whelan after ‘strong innuendo' Eurovision performance

RTE's Marty Whelan has joked "explain that to your mother" after a major "innuendo" performance on Eurovision. The Song Contest kicked off the second semi finals tonight in St. Jakobshalle, Basel , Advertisement 5 RTE's Marty Whelan was left blushing after a Eurovision performance 5 Erika represented Finland with a dramatic performance of Ich Komme 5 Eurovision viewers pointed out the 'strong innuendo' 16 different acts representing their countries took to the stage to perform against each other in a bid to reach the grand final on Saturday, May 17. Tonight Australia , Montenegro, Latvia, Armenia, Austria , Greece , Lithuania , Malta, Georgia , Denmark , Czechia , Luxembourg, Israel , Serbia and Finland . Advertisement READ MORE IN EUROVISION Throughout her performance, Erika pulled out some raunchy moves using her mic stand. The star strutted her stuff on stage in a full leather bodysuit with thigh high boots . Erika finished off the sexy performance being lifted in the air on top of a giant gold microphone. Just as her performance ended, Marty immediately took a deep breath as he humorously remarked: "Now there she is, explain that to your mother. Advertisement MOST READ IN THE IRISH SUN "That's our final song. I think you'll find that she'll be successful and Finland will qualify, I have a feeling." And Eurovision viewers were quick to react to Erika's sensual performance as they took to social media. Watch first glimpse of UK's Eurovision entry in live semi final as girlband Remember Monday divide viewers Rory wrote: The innuendo is strong in this one!" Alan said: "You can feel the lust coming off the screen." Advertisement Mikey joked: "I can't watch this with parents right now." Peter added: "Well that was a saucy little number!" And Amy exclaimed: "OMG who is this diva!!" Later on in the green room, Erika was interviewed by presenter Hazel Brugger about her performance. Advertisement WORRIED HOST Hazel then brought out a pot of fondue for Erika to try and joked: "There is one rule - if you lose your bread in it, you have to get naked and run around the building, but no cheating!" Erika looked straight at the camera and replied: "Well that's no problem for me." Of course, Marty instantly remarked: "Well that could be a worry." Erika then began to sensually eat the fondue, making for another awkward innuendo moment. Advertisement Marty hilariously commented: "The one thing I don't want now is cheese ." Eventually the camera cut back to the main stage, and Marty hilariously exclaimed: "Thank god, somebody pressed a button." 5 Erika finishing her performance of Ich Komme 5 Erika had a separate innuendo moment at the end of the show Advertisement

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