[LMBTO] Just a fan this year - The London Eurovision Party 2018...

Another Eurovision season, another London Eurovision Party.  My third in fact, after a great introduction to the event in 2016 and then last year with my first as a VIP.  So what was the 2018 edition going to bring to the table, apart from the opportunity to take some really superb pictures on my new Google Pixel 2 XL, the first of which was one of the opening act, Stella Mwangi, above?

Unfortunately it wasn't to repeat the opportunity to be part of the London Press Pack, as I was able to do in 2017 when I was able to interview author Chris West, Norma John, Martina Bárta, Levina, Jana Burčeska and Kasia Moś.  Too many mainstream media outlets wanting to be there (I did see a multitude of tv crews in the background of various interviews shown already) and not enough space for fan sites/blogs meant that I fell by the wayside this year - hopefully 2019 will be see me back in the Ruby Blue!  What it did allow me to do, seeing that I had effectively arrived in London 24 hours earlier than necessary, staying this time at the Hub Premier at Covent Garden with a view:
Was to see a lady that I had met for the first time at the UK NF in Brighton at the after-show party, Joanne Powell.  Her suggestion over a couple of beers was to do what she had done the previous year, which was to hang around the front of the Café de Paris with other Eurovision fans, some too young to get into the actual gig, who take the opportunity to intercept (for want of a better word) the artists as they arrive for their soundchecks.  What sounded like a scenario where a lot of time would be spent waiting for little reward turned out to be the contrary - not only did I see the dedication of some of the younger fans of Eurovision, who had scrapbooks and pictures ready to be signed, but I did also get the opportunity to meet some of the stars, have a quick chat and get a picture taken with them too!  What this time also allowed me to do was to pass my business card onto any Head of Delegation who was with them:
And of course our own SuRie!  I will still try for next year's press event but it was an entertaining five hours in the sun (and cold).
So onto the big event - VIP yet again, although I did spend most of my evening on my feet, wandering about from upper tier to the stage level, partly enforced by the fact that we were moved from the unreserved seating we were at after thirty minutes, as the venue had forgotten to put a reserved placing out for some unrecognisable group of people.  Not sure whether they were that into Eurovision but these things happen.  Seats aren't guaranteed but at least a picture with some of the artists are:
You could have predicted that Nicki and SuRie were going to be there but I hadn't expected Lukas and Gromee to be in the picture too.  Apparently I just missed out on having Mikolas Josef in there as well but I can't complain, especially as I'm smiling in this year's picture (no catchphrases this year!) - with hindsight, maybe I should have worn some colour amongst my attire, as there is a lot of black there...
As per usual, the floor on the venue was heaving seconds before the evening's entertainment was about to start - my usual staging post for pictures was more restricted this year, with security strictly enforcing the 'no standing on the stairs' rule at the start of the show but there were still reasonable vantage points for excellent pictures.  Before reviewing the acts how I saw them on the night, here are the official videos but in a better chronological order than the playlist the LEP team had:



Had a chance to play them all?  The video quality is great AND the crowd noise, although important to add atmosphere, doesn't overpower the performances - nicely done London Eurovision Party organisers!  I'll do a concise run down of the acts and how they came across to me and the audience in general...
So we had Stella and Alexandra performing warm-up duties here in London, much in the same way that they smashed Melodi Grand Prix - they were an instant hit with Stella's 2011 Eurovision entry and "You Got Me".  I have to admit that I knew that they would be wearing those outfits from Norway as they had told me so earlier in the afternoon - it was still a wow moment as they both strutted their stuff on that small Café de Paris stage, especially if you remember the amount of room they had opening the show at the Oslo Spektrum.  A bit like DoReDos this year, destined to always kick the proceedings off with a bang...
The first of the 'Lisbon class of 2018' was Rasmussen, who was wearing his 'hoodie' up for all of his performance, hence only letting me have a decent picture at the end as Nicki presented him with a EuroPops drawing of himself.  As far as his three minutes were concerned, the vast majority of it went really well and got a decent response from the crowd - all apart from his own 'Isaiah and Manel' moment at 2:37.  That was the first time that I'd heard him struggle with that note so I think that it is fair to strike that off as a 'bad day at the office' and move on.  Something for those thinking that we are definitely going to Copenhagen next year to ponder on though...
Ryan O'Shaughnessy slowed the mood for us all with his love song "Together" - I still don't get that it's a song about people in love, it sounds like one half of a relationship wanting out.  Having said that, it was good that Ryan got the chance to explain it all a bit and that the crowd let him do so, unlike some rude b*stards at last year's event when Anja Nissen tried to do much the same thing.  The big plus was hearing him sing this live - absolute knockout performance and the vocals were just like the studio version, which I expected them to be anyway, having seen some of his material online.  Good enough to get Ireland through to its first Final since 2013?  Even sung perfectly like this, probably not but it is their best entry since then...
Next up were Jenifer Brening and Jessika for their 'adopted' nation of San Marino.  Three songs they got to sing and to be honest, the only half decent live one was "Until The Morning Light" sung by Jenifer - now if this had been this nation's entry, I could maybe see why she had beaten Sara de Blue into second place...just.  The weak point for me has always been Jessika's vocals - she is such a lovely person but she has never impressed me with her live performances.  Her studio material really comes across well but whenever I watched her at the MESC, it was obvious that she was never likely to win in Malta.  "Who We Are" has not got better with practice and the interaction between the two, especially during the rap section, is really poor and I can really only conclude that San Marino are likely to be near the bottom of SF2...
Back to a 'Special Guest' section, two on the trot in fact - Margaret Berger up first, singing "Samantha" and her never to be forgotten "I Feed You My Love", with all the requisite arm movements.  It was too much to hope for that the sprayed on white outfit she wore in Malmö would make another appearance but I just closed my eyes and there it was!  Still a kick-ass tune and it would still do the business even five years on.  The next artist was at the Party a year ago but dressed, shall I say, a little more demurely?  Not that Lucie Jones needs to hide her figure or her amazing pair of pins from the world:
A superb set of "Euphoria" (every former Eurovision singer's go to track), "Shady Lady" and of course "Never Give Up On You" - Lucie sounded really relaxed and looked superb.  She is back in her comfort zone of musical theatre and making the occasional visit back to Eurovision land suits her down to the ground - if I got to see her every couple of years, I would be more than happy with that but I suspect that her stints in Brighton and now in London was her way of taking advantage of her great performance in Kyiv, almost 'making hay whilst the sun shines' as far as the fandom is concerned.  She could have just cut us all loose and returned to her 'day job' but Lucie, I love you for obviously loving the fan's adoration of you enough to keep entertaining us like this.  Good luck to her, I say!
Back to the 2018 intake and one of my favourites, as you have probably worked out over the season, is Zibbz.  Of course I got a picture earlier in the day with them and also interviewed Stee in Amsterdam - one of my questions to him concerned the technical problems that they had here in London and in Israel with their screen.  CoCo was obviously having sound issues on stage but showed her true professionalism and her live vocals off perfectly by battling through it and giving a really great performance.  She wasn't the only one on the night to be fair but it did show what a great live act Zibbz are, particularly with the beatbox show after.  They will be one of the star acts in Lisbon for the press and hopefully will get Switzerland to their first Final since Sebalter...
Back to the special guests again and Corinne Hermès, Luxembourg's 1983 winner, was up next.  She was the OGAE UK invited guest and gave a great set which was a pleasant trip back to the past.  She did forget that she was in London however and did all her links in French!  Having said that, it did set us up nicely for the next act...
Madame Monsieur segwayed nicely into the playlist with their Eurovision version of "Mercy" plus a first time outing for the English version.  I'm still not convinced that this will be the hit that many other fans feel it will be - without loads of promo prompting across the continent in as far as what the message of the song is about, its USP is still a bit lost.  Having said that and having seen them perform twice live now, Émilie and Jean-Karl do engage the crowd superbly well and have a lot of goodwill - visually, this alone will help garner them votes with viewers although they will need to be careful not to just play to the crowd and forget the camera, something that happened in the French NF.  Whatever my thoughts, they were one of the highlights in London and got an amazing reception...
Next up was Vanja Radovanovic - the funniest man in the press room, the king of the quip, now singing 'Inje'.  Even in the lead-up, he was cracking a joke about everyone not having a clue what he was singing which was true but he gave an emotional live delivery on a par with anyone else on the night.  Unfortunately, being on after the French love-in meant that everyone was still buzzing with that performance and coming down off the ceiling whilst he was singing.  I know that there is a lot of love for this guy and he will be remembered for a long time after Lisbon...
Next up was almost a Swedish double act - Felix Sandman and Benjamin Ingrosso.  Having watched the two of them in London, seen the crowd response and how they knew all the words, it almost seemed as though Felix was going to Lisbon and not Benjamin.  Felix held the crowd's attention completely and gave such an intense show, whereas Benjamin was definitely missing his lighting rig in London.  He was doing all the moves and sung it well but without the special effects, it showed how weak a song "Dance You Off" really is - not so weak that Sweden need fear a DNQ but I wouldn't be surprised if this risked dropping out of the top ten this year...
And so onto one of my dark horse entries - Poland with Lukas Meijer and Gromee.  Not sure that the DJ had to be stuck so far back - maybe the extension leads were too short to get him further towards the crowd!  Not that he was really needed - Lukas was almost off the stage several times himself but it did mean that a very wide shot was needed to get a decent picture of them both working the venue.  These guys seemed to be 'haunting me' throughout the day but in a good way of course - I needed no 'leap of faith' to have these guys as one of my tips for the top this year.  Great interview in Amsterdam too...
Up next was Ari Ólafsson with "Our Choice" which he sang beautifully, as he always does, live or otherwise, you wouldn't know any difference.  He was amazing with the fans outside the venue earlier in the day, happy to take as many selfies and chat as much as possible.  I also got to talk to his companion across all the pre-parties, Thorunn Erna Clausen, the composer of his song and the co-writer of Sjonni's Friends "Coming Home" - the Icelandic delegation are all delighted with how fans respond to Ari and he is one of the nicest guys on the circuit.  Like many fans, I don't think that this has any chance of making it to the Final but he has a great voice and a lovely stage manner...
The one thing that the official footage does excellently is remove all of the general crowd hubbub, the chatter, the glasses clinking etc. that often plagues some other site's footage as they are at the back of the venue filming.  This is doubly important when trying to listen to such a quiet track as "When We're Old" but I have to say that Ieva Zasimauskaitė held everyone so transfixed with her performance in London that the crowd noise was negligible, especially when she sung her last part in Lithuanian - you could have heard a pin drop.  This love song has really become a fan favourite this year - I hope that is translated to Lisbon so that Ieva makes it to the Final...
We then passed onto one of the 'beacons' of the London Eurovision Party this year - SUZY.  Not only was she good enough to give me a selfie outside earlier that day, she also took the unusual route of entering the stage via the main stairs and thereby giving me a superb picture of her, one that she put on her own account on Facebook.  She looked absolutely amazing in that black and silver dress, got the crowd whipped up into a party frenzy by walking in amongst them all and I really, really hope that she is involved somehow with some of the OGAE events in Lisbon.  She even melted my heart when I spotted her in the crowd, watching another artist's performance - you'll see that in two picture's time...