[LMBTO] The View From The Balcony - Being a VIP at The London Eurovision Party...

It was a bit smokey before things kicked off but you get the general idea of where I was a week ago!  Between midday and 4.15pm on Sunday 2nd April, I had my press hat on - from 5pm until late...

It was a lot of money to spend (I missed out on the first round of tickets) but definitely worth the expense!  What did I get for that - apart from seeing over half this year's artists perform live?  The plan of the hour or so before the Party itself was outlined in an email that I got a couple of days before the show:
So, apart from 'probably' having a seat (which I did get, thanks to these guys who were in the venue a bit before me - James, Adam, Rodney, Sonia and Tom who were my company for the evening):
I got the proverbial goodie bag which I forgot to take a picture of but there were crisps, two drinks tokens (for those who have been before to the Café de Paris, you know that at £5 a go, free alcohol is not to be sniffed at) and a lovely cake, packed by Alasdair, OGAE President, and made by THE Nicki French (picture by Alasdair's camera):
And the aforementioned lady was there as we all walked into the venue, ready to have a picture taken with me and 'our Lucie':
Now let me say for the official photographer's benefit that getting us to say "Boom Bang-A Bang" as an attempt to get us to smile was not the right phrase to use, especially if you take the picture when we are all at the the "Boom" stage!  Try "Puppet On A String" or "Save All Your Kisses For Me" - you are smiling when you finish saying those song titles - lord only knows what expression I have there!
Now that was the VIP bonuses (including the exclusive Europops to come) - onto the show!  As I was not one one of the balcony chairs directly overlooking the stage and floor, I quickly worked out that I was going to have to go back to basics as far as getting pictures and experiencing the artists 'up close and personal' were concerned, as the pictures I was getting even slightly away from the balcony edge weren't that good:
Having said that, it is obvious who these two are - our superb Party couple Nicki and Paddy!  No longer relying on my mobile camera most of the time, my new Sony Cybershot DSC-W830 came into its own and gave some decent shots.  So I ended up spending most of the evening on my feet!  At least I knew that my old limbs had a seat/stool to crash on if needed though - no four hours standing up for me this year!  I will be using my own material as much as possible to show off the Party atmosphere but I will be also using the excellent videos from the YouTube site for the London Eurovision Party, as they show off the artists superbly well.

So we had a great show - as good as last year's in my opinion and possibly this year was more about the artists than relying on the special guests.  Maybe I am slightly biased this year as I got to chat with five of them earlier in the day!  I am pretty sure that I have got them all in order of performance on the night - as for act number one, this chap was also the last act but there was something different about him then...something long and flicky!

Slavko - Montenegro
I suspect everyone was thinking the same as me:


Maybe there were some technical hair issues as he got it sorted for the end of the show but his first performance was well worth the watch:



There is no denying that this guy has oodles of charisma and is going to be one to watch in Kyiv, assuming he has the sort of stage show that I hope he will have!  If he is this engaging when he has none of the props or nakedness he had in his official video and he can obviously sing spot on live, I think that maybe I have been overly critical of this entry in the past.  Could this be a potential qualifier now?  "Space" is still the same set of double entendres and euphemisms it always was but if the staging is right in Kyiv, it will definitely be memorable enough to get people voting - not so sure about the juror's response though.  A great start to the Party nonetheless...


Kasia - Poland
Kasia was the point in proceedings that I realised that unless I turfed people out of their balcony seats directly overlooking the stage, I was not going to get anything in the way of decent pictures or videos (lesson for next year - VIP package plus 'get there early'!).  I had met this delightful lady earlier at the press event and knew that, along with the fact that she 'had a great pair of pins', she also sung flawlessly as always:



There are a few of the singers this year at the pre Parties who have impressed with their pitch perfect vocal performances - Kasia is one of them and I suspect that her stock has risen amongst Eurovision fans who have attended these events.  I know that I now have a renewed respect for how brilliant a singer she is and as I said at the end of my interview, it would be a real shame if she does not make it to the Final.  The major issue will be on SF night - will "Flashlight" be overshadowed by 'showier' entries?  We'll have to wait and see...


Blanche - Belgium
Now this very unassuming lady looked a bit like she was a fan who had won the opportunity to sing in front of all the others there!  Compared to a lot of 'huge personalities' that were in London performing, Blanche gave a very understated performance which suited the song perfectly (thanks to Mis Trending Videos):



This was not to all of those watching's taste, as many were up for anything uptempo, extravagant and artistic - "City Lights" is never going to be one of those entries, partly due to Blanche's vocal range, partly due to the low key pulsing anthemic beat of the song and partly due to the fact that she is only 17 and quite a shy one at that.  I found that out when I walked past her as she was watching later acts from the balcony - I am certain that a lot of fans passed her by, not realising who it was.  I felt that her shyness was down to her not being that confident in speaking in English but we had a quick chat and found time for a selfie:
This performance proved to me that Blanche can sing "City Lights" live as well as the studio version - the acoustics of the London venue isn't always that brilliant but this was a decent vocal from her.  The venue also doesn't allow much for a staging other than standing there and singing - I would not be surprised to see a lot of imagery and visuals accompanying this track in Kyiv.  I thoroughly enjoyed this and it is still one of my favourites this year - I think that this lady will surprise a lot of fans and viewers...


Manel - Spain
Now, in my opinion, this guy is getting a bad Eurovision press.  Yes, "Do It For Your Lover" repeats the same words almost as much as Spain's 1968 winner did - yes, the Spanish NF was all a bit of a mess and Manel was perhaps fortunate to be in Kyiv but having said that


I got to speak with him briefly on the balcony (another advantage of being a VIP) and he was warm and funny, he cared what everyone thought of his song and he was really enjoying the whole experience.  His song has one major advantage - no-one will hate this light and fluffy slice of pop:



He performed a duet with Lucie, which allowed her to warm her voice up for later in the show:
I like this picture - the pink spotlight actually warms this shot up.  It was a lovely duet, especially considering that they only sorted this out on the day itself :



It's also nice to see an artist who loves to play his instrument - I suspect he has it with him always!  I can still see Spain not doing that well in the Final this year due to its style and lack of complexity but it might pick up some points from those who remember the 'young beach bum with the guitar'.  A beach party is possibly the way to go staging-wise...


Triana Park (well, two of them) - Latvia
 Anyone seen CSI?  The surface of the stool shows why they keep the main lights off and put spotlights on - it shows up a multitude of sins!  In this case, I think that might have been footprints which might have been why Agnese avoided sitting down throughout her set - that privilege fell to her guitarist later on.  As you can see from her video, sitting down would have inhibited her activity and connectivity on stage:



I also got a short video from her left hand side...I can see the attraction of Triana Park being a festival act now:



Loads of energy, lots of attitude - she connected superbly with the crowd and Agnese's vocals were great but I always worry that this might not always be the case throughout a Triana Park performance.  With Kasia and Claudia, for instance, I would be 100% confident that their vocals were flawless - Agnese puts so much energy into her act and that could make this sound less than it could be.  This will be one of the visual highpoints in Kyiv - hopefully this will make it into the Final to help keep it all 'diverse'.  Agnese takes a great selfie along with her bandmate too:


Nathan - Austria
There's Nathan, "Mr Elusive", going all acapella on us at the Party!  Ever since I made the cardinal sin of not interviewing him as soon as I met him outside Ruby Blue at midday, I had seemingly been two steps behind him from then on - even when taking my best picture of him!  Have a watch of the video to get a face on view:



A lot was made of it being two days before his birthday - get with it Nathan, I was a pretend juror at Eesti Laul on mine!  Having said that, this was a class performance and I suspect that a lot of artists would have not risked singing without musical accompaniment (I don't count the off-tune crowd as helping!).  I have to say that I love this song and its chilled nature - this performance brought a nice diversion from the usual fayre there.  This getting to the Final would, like "Line", mix it up a lot and provide a wide variety of genres - I just love this guy's enthusiasm and charm.  And his birthday treat?  Oh go on then, I got Eesti Laul but he got Conchita and the crowd to sing Happy Birthday to him, receiving a cake with a flare in it:



And Scott Mills WAS there...


O.Torvald (half of them) - Ukraine
Blooming rock bands, never keeping still for a decent picture in low lighting conditions!  But how about a picture that shows their energy and perpetual motion?  This picture works for that...and those were the only three on stage.  For some reason, I had no idea that there was a lady in the band:



This is going to be our only chance to brandish the malocchio this year, Dio style, so having such a full on practice run for the fans was great.  Lots of energy and power from the stage with "Time" but most fans have to get used to the sudden end, as those near the front totally missed it.  Whether or not this garners any douze points this year is debateable but I have to say that I'd love to attend one of their gigs, if the footage from their second song was anything to go by:



I suspect that I'd need to brush up my Ukrainian...


Norma John - Finland
Yes, you know what I am going to say already - my favourites this year, the song that makes my spine tingle, the entry that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up etc.  And it did so again - forget that Leena and Lasse were dressed as though they were going out for a drink, this was all about the vocals and it charmed me yet again - so much so that I took two quick pictures and then let this tale of angst wash over me once more:



Oh my, even watching this back stopped me typing to watch it over again.  Even though I don't expect it to, I would love this powerful piece of musical simplicity to win Eurovision this year - for me, this is spellbinding, enchanting and one of the best Eurovision entries this decade.  Not since Pastora Soler sung "Quedate Conmigo" have I felt the same sensations when listening to a song so for me, "Blackbird" is a winner whatever the end result.  Leena and Lasse even provided a nice response to my message flagging up my interview with them several days later:

I am thoroughly looking forward to seeing this entry in Kyiv...


JOWST - Norway
All of the spotlight is on Aleksander Walmann out front and central with "Grab The Moment" but don't forget Joakim With Steen (we all know him as JOWST), who was quite camouflaged in London:
Now most of the visuals involve the singer and depend on his on stage chutzpah, which here was obvious:



I had a bit of a brainwave just as the music kicked in for this one - as I was in line with JOWST playing his Ableton Push, I thought that I'd get some footage of what he was pressing in the background:



There's been some mumbling about the use of this technology to produce vocal sounds at Eurovision - get with the times, grandad!  Personally I don't see any difference between what JOWST is doing here and what Boris Blank has been doing with Yello for 37 years.  It's just taken a generation or two for Eurovision to catch up!  An intriguing watch and yet again, a superbly interactive performance - this is always memorable what with the interaction between the guys on stage and the pulsing rhythm of the music.  This will definitely get a second outing in Kyiv - not sure of where it will end up on Saturday though...


Ilinca and Alex - Romania



Now I have absolutely no pictures of these guys from the day, mainly because as they were playing I was wandering around the balcony, seeing if I could spot anyone else I knew as, let's be honest, you've read my blog, you've seen what I rank as my least liked song this year, so you can probably tell that I had minimal interest in listening to this on the night!

To sum it up, I have just written this piece AFTER I had posted this blog article on social media!  It was only when I glanced through this before posting the link all over Facebook that I saw that I had missed Ilinca and Alex out completely!  Is that my mind deliberately blocking out a traumatic experience?  Maybe my ears have learnt a technique to protect my brain from this entry in future - I did still take some footage of this to show how crazy some of the fans were for "Yodel It!":


I hate it but I fully expect this to get to the Final, unless they go all 'performing for the crowd' as they did here - this would appeal to the masses in Kyiv but I am sure it would come across as a bit of a mess on tv...could this be my only hope, Obi Wan?


Claudia - Malta
I have already said in a previous post that this gentle power ballad is likely to get lost in the maelstrom of genres in Kyiv but at each of the pre Parties that I have seen Claudia perform at, she has reigned supreme.  Watch this for a virtuoso performance:



Absolutely, amazingly, superbly WOW!  Claudia sings this flawlessly every time and gives it her all - she performs beautifully even though the ear monitors are obviously playing up during her performance.  If "Breathlessly" had been Malta's entry twenty or thirty years ago, we would have been talking about when Eurovision went to Malta after this song won the Contest - unfortunately it is not going to happen in Kyiv.  What will happen is that Claudia's stock is going up in value all over Europe and I could imagine listening to her at Eurovision events in years to come...a wonderful singer, just the wrong era.


Alma - France
Can you tell that Alma is potentially a "Eurovision Beauty"?  I was obviously getting the knack of using my camera in this environment - it helps that I had such a photogenic subject!  Now "Requiem" has gone from being one of my favourites when all in French to dropping down my rankings with the inclusion of what I thought was the needless inclusion of English, something that I complained about when Francesca for Italy did much the same thing last year.  Would this deviation be as jarring as that was?  The live performance at London convinced me:



It didn't make a blind bit of difference to how the song sounded or how Alma performed it!  This was superb and in fact the English worked for "Requiem" as well as it did for "J'ai Cherché" - seamless interaction and as an overall package, Alma actually sells this as well as Amir did.  Her smiles, her movements, her total infectiousness - all of that could make this entry a potential dark horse winner.  At the very least I can see this being a top ten cert in the Final.  Alma's bewilderment at the fan's adoration for her reminded me of how ZOË reacted last year (but without the crying) - she also performed Frances Gall's winning song from 1965:



She is definitely one to watch in Kyiv...


Robin - Sweden
For any entry that relies on its staging from their NF as this entry does, losing some of that does detract from the overall look of the performance.  Robin moved around the stage enough, to be fair, leaving me with a load of blurry images apart from the one above.  The London staging was just an exercise in PR and singing:



And to fair, his singing is spot on but not having the backstage start and the treadmills with four other guys does leave this all a bit cold.  I fully expect the whole package to be as superb as it was in Melodifestivalen and that Sweden have a real chance of taking their seventh win this year.  Robin did get to sing his fifth place MF 2016 entry as well:



Now that works better as a one off solo piece...


Omar - Slovenia
Now this was the best shot of Omar that I got all day and he wasn't even the person I was taking the picture of!  Levina was the interest here and to be honest, whenever I saw Omar at the press event and even on stage in the evening, he always seemed to be ignored by everyone around him, a lot of the press would be interviewing other artists and I got the feeling that he was one of the acts at the Party that people would use as a comfort break.  It's a great shame as he seems a nice guy, he's got a great voice and tries to connect so much with his audience:



However, the song is so slow and melodic that it makes me drift off to somewhere else with my thoughts - this will be one to test how your mobile phone flashlight works but that is about it.  I'm not sure if the revamp has actually improved this at all - it'll be a nice reunion between Omar and Kyiv but I fully expect him to be 'on his way' after the SF...


Kristian - Bulgaria
Quirky look for a traditional type of song - this is really a fairly bulk standard ballad from a male soloist, one who the sound feed into his ear was conspiring to try to make him go off key.  I think because of that, this performance wasn't what it could have been - it seemed quite strained at times, Kristian was concentrating so hard on keeping his vocals as good as they could be that there was little connection and stagecraft with this performance:



I am sure that we will see a far better performance from him and a better connection with the audience in Kyiv - unfortunately this vocal sounded and looked as though he was singing in an early round of X Factor or The Voice.  I have to admit that I do not get this being one of this year's favourites anyway but the presence of such a wonderfully pleasant voice in the Contest this year cannot be ignored.


Levina - Germany
Ah, the lady with whom I had been looking forward to interviewing most at the press event (TICK) and also one of the artists whom I knew would give us a great show (DOUBLE TICK).  The beautiful and statuesque Levina did not disappoint me at all - she looked great in that figure hugging dress, she had oodles of stage presence and sung superbly well, as always:



Of all the songs in Kyiv, I have probably seen Levina sing "Perfect Life" live more than any other song this year, what with having to sing it three times in the German NF alone!  Lots of pleasure and happiness in her delivery, I think that where Levina finishes in the Final will be a surprise for a lot of fans - I really believe that this lady will giving Germany their best result since 2012.  She even went all Amy Winehouse on us:



She was yet another artist, like Norma John, who took the time to reply to my message highlighting my interview with her:
April 2nd 2017 will go down in my Eurovision memories as the day I got to meet and watch one of the nicest, happiest and exuberant artists that I have come across to date...


Anja - Denmark
Now what happened between Anja singing "Halo" and her entry this year "Where I Am" was the low point of the Party, in my opinion.  Absolutely nothing to do with this beautiful and yet vulnerable woman, as was evidenced during her interview at the Israel Calling press conference, where being in the Eurovision Bubble temporarily overwhelmed her, causing her to cry - it was the ignorance and boorishness of some of the crowd, as they decided to use her attempt to explain briefly why she wrote "Where I Am" and where she was emotionally in her life to start up loud conversations and joking, causing her to start and stop her story twice before giving up.  Perhaps it was a miscalculation to try small talk at that stage of the show on her part but


Rant over, I'm sure that those responsible didn't have a clue what they were doing anyway.  As for Anja herself and her two songs, she gave what could only be described as a vocal masterclass ("Halo" thanks to ESCKAZ):



Then onto what we will be hearing in Kyiv - judging by the number of times she has worn that red dress, possibly also the outfit we will be seeing too:



By the way, when she points upwards to her left at 1:21, that was directly at me, sat in a balcony chair overlooking the stage...totally intentional, I'm sure!  She probably picked me out as 'that guy that accidentally elbowed me in the ribs on the staircase' earlier in the evening:


It did get me a selfie with one of the most attractive Eurovision artists ever, I suppose.  Hard life, isn't it?

I personally think that Anja could elevate this ballad, one that obviously means so much to her, to the level of her Australian compatriot Dami Im - if her vocal is perfect and the impact of the performance is at least on a par with the NF one, "Where I Am" could give Denmark yet another top ten, perhaps higher.  It is always a pleasure to watch someone sing who has such a personal connection with their song...


Martina - Czechia
To those of you who have poo-pooed the shortening on this nation's name, I'm sticking with it as it is so easy to type!  Having interviewed the lovely Martina earlier in the day, I knew how passionate she is about this song and how it will appear visually.  I loved her sharp outfit on the night and this was a beautiful exercise in just standing there and singing to the best of her ability:



Her jazz background came to the fore which might be an issue on a televised show, as most of her performance was spent with her eyes closed.  Great for showing your heartfelt emotion in a club, not so great to connect with the viewers at home - hopefully that will be something that can be fixed for Kyiv.  Not a note off key, still a wonderful tune to listen to but still really no clues as to how this will look at Eurovision - as I said in my interview piece, I can see this being a long term favourite of mine but as for getting into the Final this year, I am not so sure as there is lots of competition and this might fade into the background as it is so chilled.  At least I'll have my interview with her to look back on...


Jana - FYR Macedonia
Not sure why I hadn't noticed it before but Jana definitely has an American twang to her voice at times!  She also moves about a lot and this was the best picture I could get of her - that's a lie really, as my selfie at the press event was the best!  A nice look, quite summery for early April - Jana used this performance to connect with the crowd, as she had most of her studio backing track going on (thanks to Wiwiblogs for this):



I don't have any concerns about her live vocals, even though they weren't really shown off here that well - what I had forgotten is that there is a fair bit of vocal 'tweaking' during this song that can only be matched by a backing track.  She was definitely having fun though, laughing and smiling which ironically doesn't match most of the official video!  Even though this is fresh and of today, I wonder if the excellent official video will not be matched by whatever staging that can be set up in Kyiv and that this might leave Macedonia in a lower position than fans expect.  This is an entry that can only be judged on the night in its SF - still a lot of unknowns...


Francesco - Italy
Now Lucie, as the UK's entry at the London Eurovision Party, was always going to close the show but if this had been a neutral setting, there is no doubt that this guy would get the pimp slot every time!  Absolutely superb live singing, stupendous on stage charisma (especially as his gorilla was absent) and everyone in the crowd loved it, singing along, despite the fact that most of us knew no Italian:



The explosions and the confetti topped off this show, with this picture by Tom O'Donaghue from Tomodo Photography summing it all up best:
Superb, eh?  "Occidentali's Karma" has been most Eurovision fan's and the bookies' favourite song this year since Sanremo and with a performance like that, it is hard to see who else could come along and take the Eurovision crown away from Francesco.  I still think that the break where the thirty seconds of the original version had to be lost is still a bit too obvious and ungainly but to 99.9999% of viewers, they will be totally unaware of what they have missed.  At the Party, this song was a great way to end the 'visiting artist' section and had the crowd hyped up nicely for our Lucie...


Lucie - United Kingdom
She looked absolutely gorgeous all night - a bit like a bride perhaps but as she was sat at the sofa next to ours, we were able to see her beauty for most of the evening.  When she came onto stage after Italy's tour de force, she almost had to calm everyone down before she could even start singing, as can be evidenced by my video taken overlooking her on the stage:



She's the consummate professional singer, there will never be a duff note, she will never be off key and she has great charisma and presence, garnered from her years treading the musical boards.  Yep, I was whooping too!  This was the view from on high - how about from the floor?



Of course she was always going to get total fan adulation here in London but there won't be many better vocalists out in Kyiv - a lot will depend on where she gets drawn in the running order, her staging and how other acts do on the night as to where the UK will finish this year.  Whatever happens, we definitely chose the best singer from the NF this year and I think that a top ten placing is not beyond the realms of possibility.  A superb way to end the Party for most people - Slavko came back on to wave his weave around but for most, Lucie's amazing climax was a beautiful way to end.

Now there were special guests that I will mention in passing - Martin Fitch, Ruslana, Conchita and Linda Martin - but if you want to see them perform, have a look on the internet!  I won't go into detail here as they are the past, the artists above are our present and the future...


And so that was it!  I decided that my dancing days are over and left the Party before I turned into a pumpkin - five minutes later I was in my hotel room!  Z Hotel Piccadilly - highly recommended for an overnight stay and going to the press event and Party itself, even if it was very compact:
 And I didn't disappear without trace, seeing the room I was given:
As usual, after the massive highs comes the descent into a bit of a low as I said goodbye to London the next day and returned to Bristol.  Dealing with all the pictures, the videos and my audio interviews has kept the buzz going even now into Monday 10th April as I finish writing up my experience at the Party itself - yet another amazing day in my Eurovision blogging career!  I would never have dreamed what has happened so far this season to me as far as taking the next step into Eurovision 'serious stuff' is concerned...