[LMBTO] The Melkweg Gets 'Eurovision Past' in 2018 - Amsterdam Calling

I've been sort of busy this year, what with my traditional trip to London to watch the London Eurovision Party in the first week of April - I also included a trip to Amsterdam during the second week!  The main reason for this was to go to the  tenth edition of the Eurovision In Concert which would be my first time, along with the press event where I got to interview Saara Aalto, Ieva Zasimauskaitė, Vanja Radovanović, Eye Cue, Stee from Zibbz, Gromee & Lukas Meijer, Ari Ólafsson and of course my favourite Laura Rizzotto.   What I hadn't realised when I made plans for those was that OGAE Netherlands also hosted "Amsterdam Calling" the night before EiC - I thought "Why the hell not?":
As it so happened, a certain person who I spent a fair bit of time with at the London Eurovision Event (and had met at EuroStarz 2017, as she reminded me when I posted the LEP article) was there at Amsterdam Calling too:

Even the camera on my new mobile couldn't do much about the amount of red that was around us!  Joanne is a great Eurovision companion, whether that be in London or Amsterdam - hopefully she enjoyed the experience too...

After purchasing tickets for the EiC after-party (more about that in my next post), we got to watch the Concert.  Much in the same way as I reported on the London Eurovision Party, here are some of the live performances (courtesy this time of ESCKaz, Do Eurovision and ESC+Plus) that formed the backbone of a really superb evening's entertainment:

Amsterdam Calling wasn't covered as comprehensively as other events videowise but hopefully the playlist of what there is gives you a taster and perhaps might encourage you to go to the gigs of some of these performers in future.  No need to put a critique down here - nothing to play for as far as impressing the fans for Eurovision was concerned as all of these artists have 'been there, done that' and had the audience eating out of the palm of their hands.  That was doubly so for our host for the evening, Esther Hart:
That was Justine Pelmelay who really stoked up the crowd with her 1989 hit "Blijf zoals je bent" (the favourite of many fans at the venue, judging by how they accompanied her word for word, note for note), kept it going with a Eurovision medley including a song from 1975 that we'd hear later on, plus a soul medley that I particularly enjoyed, although I sensed that some fans there were almost shouting out 'blasphemy' that she wasn't singing all Eurovision songs!  This was a great set, just the right tempo to increase the pace of the evening and lead us to our first artist from the 2010s...
Nathan Trent was next up, somebody that Joanne had already met earlier in the afternoon at a Meet & Greet and was enthusing about as he sung his set.  We got five songs from this guy - "Satellite" (which sounds a little odd coming from a guy, when you consider the lyrics), "Good Vibes", "Won't Let You Go", the male artist's go-to song "Heroes" and of course "Running On Air".  I had almost forgotten what an amazing voice he has, especially when singing tracks tailored for him - still no idea why he did so badly with the televote in Kyiv but I get the feeling that he'll might be a Eurovision event 'ever present' for years to come, as it sounds as though he went down a storm at the M&G.  I could even see myself, far right by the camera operator, singing along to him!  From someone who has only just joined the 'past Eurovision artist' club , we then moved onto one who has been wowing audiences for years with her repertoire, even me when I saw her play at EuroStarz 2017...
Not headlining here but still one of the highlights of any show, 'Bury St. Edmunds adopted daughter' Anne-Marie Davidlooked amazing in her navy blue dress and held the audience spellbound with her set.  Interlacing other Eurovision tracks with her own, she got the crowd singing along to loads of classics such as 'Boom Bang-A-Bang' and 'Love Shine A Light' but when you have this lady performing for you, you want to hear her two entries from 1973 and 1979.  We got both of those, her winning song "Tu te reconnaîtras" with a revamped arrangement that I had heard at EuroStarz before - still excellent but I suspect there were fans present who wondered why she had done this.  Her prerogative to be fair - any artist must get tired of singing a song the same way for 45 years!  Eventually she got the crowd to pipe down and everyone was melted by her charms!  We jumped from a star of Eurovision 1970s to the run-in to the show's conclusion, with three artists who had all found success (to varying degrees) in the 2010s.  First up, probably the best classical violinist that Eurovision has ever seen (in my opinion)...
Now I have seen this lady at various events (London Eurovision Party 2016 and the foyer of MyBrighton after Eurovision : You Decide) and I never grow tired of seeing Greta Salóme in shorts and boots!  We got what you'd expect from her - incredible delivery of her songs, sound quality and vocal power as though you were listening to her on Spotify and some absolutely awe inspiring violin playing.  She always gives a great show and is a wonderful watch up close - I wanted to to include two pictures of her here to demonstrate that.  Everyone knew all the words to "Never Forget" and "Hear Them Calling" - okay, I did anyway!  To have "Hear Them Calling" performed on a decent seized stage that was big enough to let Greta move and act as she did for Söngvakeppnin and Eurovision 2016 was a real privilege to be present for - another unexpected delight was to see who she called up on stage to do a duet with:
We all knew from the promotional blurb that Emmelie De Forest was going to be singing at Amsterdam Calling but none of us expected a duet with Greta (Emmelie loved this picture and she put it on her FB timeline).  I am sure that nobody would have predicted the actual song they would sing together - no violin, no penny whistle, just some strumming guitars in the background for "Calm After The Storm".  This is why I attend these events as you never know when you are going to experience a one-off, never to be repeated moment of pure class - you would have thought they'd have told me what they were planning in February in Brighton:
Maybe they were discussing it there, who knows?  At least someone caught a segment of their performance and put it online - luckily their voices almost drown out the off key crowd in front!  All we can hope is that Greta becomes one of the pool of artists happy to attend our Eurovision shows - she'll be near the top of the list for must sees...

As for Emmelie, once she was into her own set, she quickly lost the leather jacket and her shoes (not sure why she bothers wearing them on stage in the first place), and gave a really passionate and powerful vocal performance, first with her new track "Sanctuary", then with the UK's 2017 entry (that she co-wrote) "Never Give Up On You" but especially with that song we all know and love (well I do anyway), "Only Teardrops".  I have seen her live at Eurobash 2017 and this was a far better performance in my opinion, she seemed far more relaxed and in control in Amsterdam - perhaps more importantly she connected better with her audience.  I think that this being a proper concert venue put her at ease far more than in a hotel conference room - she got a great response too from the crowd at the Melkweg.  We moved on from Emmelie to what I thought was going to be the last artist of the night - somebody that I hadn't seen perform live before, unlike possibly most of the rest of the fans at Amsterdam Calling.  Not that it mattered - as soon as her name was announced, everyone went mad!  Forgive me for putting four of my pictures up here but she does give some really good poses on stage:

Poli Genova - one of the best live sets that I have ever seen!  She might have the weirdest dress sense but she is one of the most charismatic, funny and generous performers that I have seen at a gig.  Now I know why everyone raved about her, why they all got massively excited when a concert of hers was announced and how any tickets for her shows gets snapped up in an instant!  The crowd at the Melkweg loved her from the first second and lapped up everything she sung, including "Euphoria" and "My Number One", alongside her Eurovision entries "Na Inat" and "If Love Was A Crime".   I loved where she took someone's mobile and filmed herself singing ILWAC - I am amazed that as I write this that it doesn't appear to be online anywhere!  I know that Poli has a place in every fan's heart and has a place at any Eurovision event for as long as she wants but I have to admit that I'd love her to give the main Contest just one more go sometime - I think that with the right material, she could give Bulgaria a win, unless she's waiting to see if she'll be one of the hosts at Sofia 2019...
To finish the night off, we were treated to a surprise performance by Esther and none other than lead singer from Teach-In, Getty Kaspers!  She and her fellow band members will always hold a special place in my heart as Netherlands 1975 were the first act that I watched during my maiden experience of the Eurovision Song Contest at the age of 8!  The same year as The Shadows provided me with my blog name, as you all know by now.  Listening to "Ding-A-Dong" again was a real treat, especially it was being sung by the lady herself - a terrific way to end the evening, at least as far as I was concerned.  Many of the fans present stayed late into the early hours for a dance but I'm too old for that sort of thing - I went off to find a €30 taxi ride back to my hotel near the AFAS Live arena but that didn't dampen my excitement about what I had just experienced.  Amsterdam Calling was an excellent gig with a superb line-up of Eurovision artists of years past, perfectly balanced in pace and tone, all topped off by the superb host herself Esther Hart.
So that was the Friday night and early hours of Saturday morning in Amsterdam - I had the press event to come later that day (nine hours after I drifted off to sleep) and obviously the main reason for being in The Netherlands, Eurovision in Concert itself.  Of course I took pictures and videos of the event - you wouldn't expect anything different, surely?  You'll also expect my next post to be all about that gig plus the After-Party too - yet another tick off my 'Eurovision bucket list'!