[LMBTO] Another Eurovision box ticked - EuroStarz In Concert 2017...

If you've been keeping track of my experiences as far as Eurovision events are concerned, you will know that I have done most things in the UK but there was one that had its premiere last year, EuroStarz, that I didn't attend.  Not one to miss out on anything now, I decided to go to the 2017 show on Saturday 19th August, knowing that I would get to see the artists above.  Better than last year's?  Let's see:



Same number of acts, one less Eurovision competitor but arguably a bigger 'headline' act in Anne-Marie David (although I adore Emmelie and will be seeing her at EuroBash in a fortnight's time).  What would this year's Concert be like?  I thought that knocking up a playlist of their previous endeavours would be a good thing to put together:



Two things that sprung into my head after watching all the clips - I had forgotten how different and upbeat "The Image Of You" is to almost every other Albanian entry there has been since 2004 and also that it had taken up to last week for me to release that Salena Mastroianni was one of the backing singers behind Karl William Lund at Eurovision:You Decide 2016!  How on earth I didn't realise that before, I don't know...
Now being the 'old man' that I am now, I remembered how convenient being a VIP was at the London Eurovision Party, how I has able to get a seat and a fairly unrestricted view.  When I saw that a similar option was potentially available here too, I went for it - a Meet and Greet session with all the artists, a free programme and wrist bands as well?  Seemed a good deal - I was all set to attend the gig last Saturday.  It meant staying in a different part of London to others that I had attended, King's Cross this time, an area that I knew reasonably well from my year working in London in 1991/2.  Another inexpensive stay was in order and I found a great place a matter of five minute's walk away from The Star Of Kings, where EuroStarz was being held:
My room at the Hub Premier Inn, Kings Cross?  Stephen Fry might have called it 'compact and bijou' in the 1980s but for £70 plus £5 for breakfast, it was ideal:
One thing I missed out on was securing a press pass in order to interview the six artists - too much indecision on my part as to whether I was going to attend or not meant that all the places had gone.  It did mean that I didn't have to rush into London but also that I didn't really get the chance to chat with all of the singers at EuroStarz - the Meet and Greet, a 30 minute session that happened before the gig itself, was a little on the short side to get around everyone and definitely not enough time to ask them lots of questions!  Memo for next year...
Half an hour vying with the other VIPs for time and space?  I decided to get reasonable quality time with at least a couple of the singers and utilise the short list of questions that I had produced in case I got a late call-up to the press event.

I briefly spoke to Kurt Calleja who happened to be free when I went into the room - nice guy, I suspect I asked him much the same questions that everyone else on the planet did:

• Who came up with the dance - his DJ friend on the 2012 performance but four years earlier;
• Was he entering MESC 2018 - no, his brother is and he didn't want to split the vote;
• Reasons for not participating in 2015, 2016, 2017?  2015 - he threw his support behind Amber, 2016 - no-one had a chance against Ira Losco, 2017 - working on new album.

One of the best sets of the night, Salena sounded on point all the way, she powered through her songs magnificently and gave us something to watch too, considering the tiny stage all the artists were performing on.  She also had the best set of golden boots on since Nadav Gudej went all 'Tel Aviv Tourist Board' on us Eurovision fans in 2015!  Here's an example of her singing "Ready To Kill" to give you an idea of her stage presence and vocal prowess:



Having watched some interviews with her, she has recently changed her management team, so I am hoping that we get to see more of her soon, hands up in the air if you agree:
Come on - I have to link into these pictures somehow...

From two artists who almost made it to Eurovision, we moved onto the four who did.  First up was the 'man with the dance' from Malta, Kurt Calleja:
Not only a virtuoso in English (with his album tracks he sung) but also in Italian, as Kurt provided us all with superb renditions of "L'Essenziale" and the stock Eurovision song for any male soloist worth his salt, "Nel blu dipinto di blu (Volare)".  He got us all singing along to those and of course to his 2012 hit, allowing us to sing the chorus whilst he delivered that unique dance:



It was a good thing that I WASN'T the official EuroStarz cameraman!  I learnt that recording HD quality video on your mobile makes it go a bit hot and causes the camera to shut down after a while.  A thoroughly enjoyable set of songs by Kurt and I got the feeling that the crowd want to see this man back at Eurovision sooner rather than later!

Onto act four - now I knew who that was going to be half an hour before the gig, as she had told me herself during the VIP Meet and Greet - Anjeza Shahini:
After our long chat beforehand, this set was the one that I was really interested in seeing and hearing - Anjeza didn't disappoint on either count.  A wonderful voice, great stage presence and a beautiful smile throughout - if only I had recorded anything of any worth on my device but the background volume around me was starting to increase, so I will wait for the material produced by the EuroStarz team.  Anjeza provided us with all her FiK songs, in addition to her Eurovision entry as well - yet another set that I would have paid to see on its own, let alone as part of a six.
I seemed to have spent a lot of my time at the Star Of Kings in the presence of this lady, one way or another - time thoroughly well spent!

Next was the artist with almost certainly the biggest vocal range - Mihai Traistariu:
Superb singer and someone who knows his audience - all bar one of his songs that night were Eurovision classics from other winners ("My Number One", "Fairytale" and "Rise Like A Phoenix").  Once he had got the crowd to sing all those with him, "Tornero" was unleashed!  This guy is a vocal phenomenom and I was delighted to hear in his interviews that he is going to enter the Romanian selection process each year until he returns to Eurovision once more.  Unfortunately no live recordings from me of Mihai - I am not sure that we would have heard his voice that clearly anyway, despite his five octave range, given the crowd participation that was around me by this stage of the evening!

What Mihai had done by warming up the vocal chords of the crowd was get us all ready for the headline act of the night - the one, the only Anne-Marie David:
The highlight of the evening for most fans, to have a Eurovision winner yet again at EuroStarz is a massive coup for the organisers!  As in her interviews, she talks more than most artists on stage but this was really insightful, chatting to Karl about her previous Eurovision life and her musical theatre career:
I am a musical theatre fan too and to hear her sing "Memories" from Cats and of course "I Don't Know How To Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar was heaven.  It was also superb to hear her talk about how she got the part of Mary Magdalene at the age of 18 and meeting Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber - amazing stuff.  Of course, she also sung her two Eurovision hits - the 1979 French entry "Je suis l'enfant soleil" was much as you'd expect, a small venue version of what she sung in Israel but when we got to her 'magnum opus', 1973's "Tu te reconnaîtras", we all had a surprise, as least those of us who hadn't interviewed her earlier on!  Anne-Marie had decided to have new arrangements for the song in all the languages she has sung it in written and we were treated to the first performance of the English version, "Wonderful Dream":



I got the feeling that there were some fans in the audience who might have been a bit disappointed at this - to be honest, I really enjoyed it and was honoured to be there for this new presentation.  I have to admit that I was a fan only of the original French winning version anyway - but regular readers know what a sucker I am for 'the language across the Channel'!

Right at the end of the gig we got an encore and a totally unexpected one it was too!  All six artists were on stage, singing a medley of UK Eurovision entries!
The highlight of this had to be Mihai singing our 2009 entry "It's My Time" (with the help of the tablet in front of him).  It was a great way to end the performance part of the evening.  "DJ OGAE President" Alasdair Rendall played loads of Eurovision tracks to take us through to when the security man kicked me out of the Star Of Kings at 1.30am Sunday 20th August...



From what I saw, everyone in attendance, artists and fans alike, had a great time!  A brilliant selection of singers on offer, an extremely good host controlling events on stage and everything flowed nicely - even the beer was good and seemed to be served within seconds!  My first experience of this concert was a very, very good one and I am already looking forward to the 2018 one, assuming it is in the same venue, the Star Of Kings - as pub venues go, it coped really well with the crowd and had great acoustics too.  My heartfelt compliments to Caroline, Michael and Tania for organising this event - my only regret was not attending the 2016 one!  I will be keeping a closer eye out for when the 2018 one is so I get in quicker for a 'Press Pass'...

There was an official photographer and obviously live filming going on - I'd recommend keeping your eyes open for those pictures and videos on the EuroStarz website.  I will be as hopefully I'll be in some of that footage!  So all there is to say in summary is: