[LMBTO] My First Eurovision Live - SF2 (9th & 10th May)...

So we moved onto the next two nights of my time in Lisbon - Jury and public SF2.  Now they were confiscating national flags on the door still at this stage (Wednesday and Thursday) and it would have been annoying to carry a flag on a stick around anyway.  Above was my solution - a retro Latvian football shirt.  Why on earth would a UK Eurovision blogger be wearing such a top to Jury SF2 and my 'Riga Beaver' top for the televised show?


Of course my number one this year, Laura Rizzotto, was going to be performing at both shows and she was really the only act that I definitely wanted to make it into the Final from SF2.  Not having Poland make it would have been annoying but not at the same level as Latvia missing out again.  Where was I watching the Jury SF2 from in the Altice?  Right hand side, halfway along:
Which gave me this view:

A great general view of the stage, the Green Room and a tv screen above us but not really of the acts, at least as far as photographically was concerned:

This picture of AWS was my best shot of any of the artists at Jury SF2 so I decided not to include lots of blurred dots on a stage!  I will flag up my performances of the night when running through the televised SF2 - the best thing about the Jury show happened afterwards.  It wasn't meeting Boog Biagi outside the Altice when it had all finished (although it was great to meet yet another FB person and he looked amazing in his kilt and tam o' shanter) but it was standing outside the back of the Arena, watching all the acts come out of the venue through the Delegation entrance/exit.  It was all Joanne Powell's fault again - she had tipped me off that she had waited there during the day and got autographs/selfies with some of the artists as they were having a break from their rehearsals.  Totally on impulse, at the end of the Jury SF2, I decided to go there and see what happened there.  The answer?


Or so it appeared - all production and delegation staff plus the artists came out in dribs and drabs to get on numerous coaches that would then take them to their hotels - even the ones that were literally ten minutes walk away, for example the Tivoli Oriente, where at least five of the delegations were staying:
Some of the acts were immediately herded into their coaches, whereas quite a few were happy to come across to have a chat, sign some photos, have a dance and have their HoD insist that only one selfie was taken of their artist - have a guess which was which:

Jean-Karl of Madame Monsieur, Gromee, Lea and Alexander all were gracious enough to come over when I was there - two artists went that little bit further for me.  First was Benjamin Ingrosso, who came across as a really down-to-earth guy when chatting to me and having a picture taken too.  More the happy guy from London and nothing like the way he appeared when critiquing other acts on his reaction video in the run-up to Lisbon:

Of course you probably all knew why I would be hanging around the back of the Arena after this particular show - to be able to chat with one artist in particular.  I spotted her coming out of the delegation exit, hollered her name, she smiled and across she came.  My hope to meet Laura Rizzotto in Lisbon had come true:

I was blooming cold by this point so my selfie above wasn't the best aimed - luckily her delegation helper offered to take a more photographically balanced picture of us both (below).  I was delighted that she came across to see us...okay, me!  She was really happy with how her performance had gone and told me that she had tweaked the performance a bit since the rehearsals and felt that it had made the entry much better.  I didn't ask her more as she was then off on her coach so she could rest up for the main televised show:

Just as I was about to go, mission accomplished, a member of the Dutch delegation came around to us, apologising that Waylon had gone straight onto the the coach to go off but that he'd like us to have one of these:

Never look a gift horse in the mouth is what I say!  My own Waylon scarf/bandana - I just have to work out when I will ever wear it...

Tourist time for day five in Lisbon, SF2 day, and we decided to go cultural, go musical and visit the Museum Of Fado, Portugal's own national musical genre:

Now a museum about music can only truly be appreciated by actually being there and listening to the music through the gadget we were given but there were pictures, films and paintings to look at:
It was a fascinating place to look around and if you ever go to Lisbon, search it out.  What we would have done with some time in the evening was to visit a bar/restaurant that was having a Fado night but alas, attending every evening show meant that this wasn't to be.  Back in the Reduced Mobility section for the televised SF2:
This time I thought that I'd get a panoramic view of the Arena facing the stage:
And the Riga Beaver loves you:
Everything was set for SF2 proper - the whole two hour show for those of you who missed it:

So now we have some pictures to work with!  Let's start with the hosts and even Daniela was allowed something pretty to wear:
Same level of entertainment from the hosts - by no means the worst but not that memorable.  To be fair to them, its all down to the script they are given to read out...
Onto the songs now - Alexander Rybak totally smashed the 1500th Eurovision song ever sung and provided a superb show opener for SF1.  Having said that, this being the umpteenth time that I have heard this makes those lyrics sound really, really banal - I suspect that on first listen, the staging takes over and that seemed to work perfectly throughout the performance, tv effects and artist coming together in an amazing charisma injection shot.  The crowd in the Arena were nicely warmed up and the party could continue with...some soft rock and unusual artistic staging:
Too weird, too much on stage, too arty even for a three minute song in a Contest where you really don't want too much for the audience to think about.  Cristina was her absolutely amazing vocal best and if she alone had been the focus for this entry, Romania might have kept their 100% qualification record.  It was close down there between 8th and 13th - four points kept The Humans from having to bring all their mannequins back for two more runs for the Final.  This should have made it but there was perhaps too much of the wrong sort of memories going on and everybody was still coming down off that opening song...
And so onto Ethnicity Central with Sanja Ilić & Balkanika, without Sanja but including 'Old Recorder Man'.  One for those of us who like that sort of thing, a mixture of Balkan wailing and EDM undertones, "Nova Deca" sounded better through a tv speaker than in the hall on Jury SF night with Danica's lead vocals sounding as good as they ever have done.  A visually enjoyable piece too, with the aforementioned lady's smile cutting through the seriousness of all the other participants on stage.  One of those SF acts that just scrape into the Final but justifiably so - without their presence, the Balkan region would have had few representatives this year on Saturday night...
The 1 in 360 process drew to a close by not actually achieving anything more than what San Marino normally got out of Eurovision - one of the bottom places in one of the SFs, putting up artists who really aren't the best vocally with staging that was ridiculous to say the least.  At least Jessika eventually got to sing on a Eurovision stage, despite her live vocals never ever being that good, and Jenifer can now do her own music without having to rap ever again.  The robots all worked well though on command so that was a first for Eurovision - in all, what had promised so much for this microstate earlier this year will probably be consigned where all their other entries bar one rest now...
Coming after something so vocally and visually poor will have boosted the bearded Danes immensely with the stunning show that was "Higher Ground".  Rasmussen and his four walking, stomping Vikings/extras from GOT (delete as applicable) gave a solid sound with their voices although it was the pounding music and the overall look that got them through the SF stages.  This looked so impressive in the stadium but the best for these guys was to come in the Final - all that was needed here was to nail that high note and do nothing wrong, job done...
Denmark lucked out with who was before and after them, didn't they?  Even I could have qualified between San Marino and Russia during SF2!  Poor Julia, stuck atop a Papier-mâché mountain, presumably to hide her wheelchair, and stuck with a song that vocally never suited her and accompanied by backing singers who sounded as poor as she did, crashed out Eurovision, giving Russia their worst ever result and losing them their 100% qualification record.  This was by far the worst sounding entry and yet we find that they were fourth from bottom, above two sets of artists who could actually sing brilliantly.  At least a line has been drawn under the whole 2017 saga of her being banned from performing in Kyiv - Russia will be back, I am certain, stronger than ever in 2019.  They have a far more important international event to deal with this year...
Now this was an entry that looked as impressive halfway down the hall as it did on the tv screen - the 'door farce' that was "My Lucky Day" by DoReDos.  I wouldn't say that it was necessarily better than the 'mirror act' at their NF but it was a lot different and extremely well choreographed - how they did it will be shown in this blog on my 2018 Highlights post, you don't need to know how it was done here.  This choreography was really tailor made for tv though, all the doors opening, the continual movements, the bold primary colours and the catchy, lyrically simple song all designed to wedge this act totally into every viewer's brain and make it a point catcher supreme.  No real issues for the 'Kings of Staging' to make it to yet another Final...
Before Lisbon, I thought that Waylon was going to be playing with his regular band and giving us a 'straight' gig performance.  It was safe to say that after seeing who was going to be on the stage with him, a normal viewing experience was not what we were going to get!  Country rock met Krumping on stage and gave us a visual treat that linked with Waylon's ever perfect vocals - some fans and pundits had an issue with the Congolese dancers supposedly being subservient to the lead singer but for me, that was being PC for PC's sake.  Wasn't Waylon the lead and aren't dancers always the support?  Maybe I'm just trying to enjoy the show.  It was an unusual combination, grant you - I'm not sure how much this sort of dance features in any other Country act but it kept the variety high on the night...
So we had eventually gone full circle - Jessica started off Australians being on stage in 2014 and now she finally got the chance to represent her nation competitively in 2018.  Just her, her mad dress and her dance on stage - having to move so much did affect her vocals a bit as she did get a bit breathless throughout but here in the SF, it didn't seem to matter that much and she had an easy passage into the Final.  Getting the crowd so involved is always a nice touch if it is YOUR concert but at Eurovision, it is never a good thing as is not really connecting with the cameras.  The adrenaline of her maiden performance of "We Got Love" drove this high up the table on the night...
Possibly the most undeserved result of the night was next - the Georgian 'male voice choir' that is Ethno-Jazz Band Iriao.  They were never going to win or realistically finish in the top ten here, partly because "For You" was always such a niche song not suited to Eurovision and partly because it was so typically ethnic for that part of the world with little to stick in anyone's heads apart from the singer's marvellous voices, but they did not deserve to be bottom of this pile.  16th maybe but for a SONG Contest, San Marino and Russia should have been below these singers purely on lack of technical ability and presence of naff staging.  I am merely splitting hairs of course - if you don't get to the Final, being 11th or 18th is immaterial in a way - but this deserved so much more support than it got.  Oh well, back to Georgia sending something that appeals to Eurovision in 2019...
So here was one of my top ten this year going out of the Contest at the SF stage.  I suspect that this will have miles more longevity outside the Contest than perhaps 90% of the other entries as "Light Me Up" has 'summer smash hit' written all over it.  It is such a radio/chart friendly song that for some reason just didn't connect with anyone who could have voted for it - the diaspora didn't back it, it obviously didn't tick enough boxes with jurors and the public prefered other things in this SF.  Perhaps Lukas didn't have a perfect vocal performance but this was still really catchy and looked great to me - perhaps everyone being dressed darkly didn't help and being spread out didn't mimic the 'club vibe' that this entry had in Poland.  Gromee's 'snake dance' will always make me smile though - I wonder if this had made the Final, would this have taken off with a bigger audience?  We will never know...
Ah, the start of the heat and the pyros that even I felt and smelt halfway down the Arena!  I loved the techno box and the on screen effects sort of worked but there was probably too much in the way of staging, so much so that this was really 'the hot mess' entry this year.  I think that Christabelle could have got this to the Final with far less going on around her, so that everyone focussed more on her vocals and her stagecraft, which as always was empowering and something worth watching again.  Not sure that dancer worked in this box as much as as they did at MESC.  Ah well, Malta, she and Jessika have had their go now, time for someone new in 2019...
Barely had Malta's flame show died away after an interval before AWS utilised all of Hungary's budget with more...a lot, LOT more!  Plus fireworks and every special effect that was left in the box.  This was just another 'day at the office' for these guys - one of their gig performances that probably was no different to any other in how they sung it, played it, performed it, just with more 'bells and whistles'.  AWS were never going to play to the camera, it just wasn't their way - it is a concert staging or nothing.  Enough jurors and televoters liked this enough to push this entry into 10th place and let them have another go in the Final, annoyingly ahead of two of my favourites - something to keep the Final varied at least and also keeping this 'miracle' alive, when you consider how lucky they were to even be in the A Dal SuperFinal...
You will probably realise that this lady NOT making the Final was a crushing blow for me this year but I had this feeling before the televised show that Laura wasn't going to make it, not sure why.  She nailed her Jury performance and as I saw later, this put her in 6th place going into SF2 night.  I watched this televised show transfixed, everything crossed for her, and hoped beyond hope that one of those cameras would stop in front of the Latvian delegation as the qualifying nations were announced to indicate that she'd sing yet again on the Friday and Saturday.  Even now, I just don't know what more she could have done.  Having watched both SFs again, I realise that Eurovision 2018 wasn't kind to strong women singing solo with a ballad without any dancers - in my opinion Franka should have made it out of SF1 with a wonderfully crafted song and a superb performance but she went the same way as Laura.  "Funny Girl" was sung perfectly, Laura gave a wonderful show, she spotted every camera and moved in just the right way as her choreography allowed.  This was still my number one of 2018 and always will be - if only one jury had given her more votes or more importantly, if Latvia hadn't been swamped by the screamo of AWS and the lighting of our next act then the public might have been more generous towards what was perhaps one of the more seminal entries this year...
Surprisingly enough, I think that this looked far, far better in the Arena as I was able to see all of the lighting rig AND his movements, all of which made this a great entry to watch live.  I actually think that this lost something on tv, that only seeing part of the rig and not all of his moves together lost something and possibly might explain why his SF2 finish wasn't matched by the placing Benjamin Ingrosso finally got it the Final.  But I digress...his SF2 performance was spot on, it sounded just like MF, no issues, totally pop friendly, all the cheesy moves were there, it was obvious that this was going to be a Qualifier and a possible winner.  Sweden were still on for an unlikely win at this point...
Just didn't stand out enough, did it?  Vanja sung "Inje" with the same amount of passion and technical ability but there was never ever going to be much you could do with the staging of Montenegro's entry, the song being so quiet, so downbeat, so emotionally intense.  Giving Vanja a light blue shiny suit and his backing singers all in white did brighten things up but I felt that he always looked best in a military outfit as per the NF and official video.  This sounded spot on both nights but after Sweden and before the club banger up next, this was always one of those entries that was not going to be up the top of anyone's list and it wasn't the most powerful of Balkan ballads...
Now stunts like having a silent spell/pratfall in your performance can either work well (Douwe Bob) or be a disastrous failure (Barei).  The 'technical music fail' here in SF2 worked for Lea - it looked as though it wasn't staged at all (although all of us who were at the Jury SF and those following the press who were reporting on the rehearsals all knew what was going to happen).  It was actually quite smooth and did fool even some of the crowd into believing that it was real - did it gain some votes for Slovenia from those who thought that she was unlucky and hard done by?  We will never really know but it is unlikely that it made a lot of difference to her score, as she was well clear of 9th place.  It was a well worked routine, it got the crowd's attention, it picked up the pace of the show again after Montenegro and this was probably one of the best entries sung in Slovene ever.  A worthy Finalist, even if us 'regulars' had to be subjected to the 'pause' twice more...
What's the best way to end a SF?  Why in a 'piano coffin', of course!  Mélovin gave us more or less the same routine as in Ukraine, bar the amazing start by 'coming back to life' from his musical crypt.  A great way to close the show with that and his fiery stairs, although his female backing singers sounded a bit off both performances but that didn't affect the ease with which he sailed into the Final.  Ukraine are masters of the prop and the dynamic pop song and I was pleased to have been present at Jury SF2 to see that piano work as well as it did - I'm sure that the EBU and RTP were too...
So that was it - we were subjected to the filling of the gap between last song and the announcement of the Finalists with the voting.  The hosts gave us an enjoyable 'history of dance at Eurovision' with Filomena stealing the show yet again, this time by mimicking Loreen's 'crab dance'.  The other highlight was the 'behind the Postcard' section - mainly bloopers but we did see quite a poignant shot of Julia and her husband looking out to sea:
A beautiful image - I hope that she remembers that more fondly than the rest of her time at Eurovision...

Like in Jury SF1, we got to see the other Direct Finalists perform, France, Germany and Italy.  Before Lisbon, there was only talk about one of these vying for the win, with the other two barely being mentioned.  Madame Monsieur has always been considered a favourite by many Eurovision fans, what with all the hand waving and the message of the song.  Having it watched it live in the Arena, it still lacked that method of passing on what the song was about to non-French speakers and after the staging, that was STILL the big issue for me.  It was only after SF2 that I also heard other fans raise that conundrum too, the first time that I had heard such doubt about the French entry since it won Destination Eurovision.  Something I learnt from the Blanche episode last year, stick to my beliefs all the way through, sometimes the world comes to agree with you...
Next up, Michael from Germany.  I hadn't give this a prayer of doing well at all, even though I had heard him sing live a few times.  At the pre-Parties he never looked to have his heart in the song and was never really staged that well, just a guy at a microphone singing.  When I saw him perform at Jury SF2, my opinion of "You Let Me Walk Alone" totally was put on its head - Germany had thought 'sod not having a LCD screen, we'll bring a portable one'.  Out came a fabric collapsible screen, dimensions marked on it and bang!  We had a superb show behind Michael - as he sung each line, the corresponding main phrase appeared behind him, positive reinforcement of the audio with the visual.  Supremely brilliant - whoever came up with this in Germany, take a bow.  He also gave an emotional masterclass, something I hadn't seen him do until now and this entry, from being one that I felt might struggle to avoid the bottom five, was a top ten certainty and now even a surprise dark horse.  His interview with Daniela at the SF, when he revealed the sex of his baby-to-be and sung "Fly On The Wings of Love" playing his ukulele, reinforced his lovely down-to-earth nature and all of a sudden, the planets had aligned for Germany...
Clever use of a prop by one big 5 nation, clever use of tv effects by another.  There was enough lyrics of each language on screen to make some sense of the Italian entry, to get the essence of its back story and that made Ermal and Fabrizio's message all the more potent, putting the angry delivery into context for everyone to see.  Couple that with the fact that jurors all over Eurovision land love the Italian language and this was now a contender for something better than my lower mid-table position before Lisbon.  Still one that I would never be able to sing along with but Italy now had a chance of yet another decent finish...

And so we were at the results stage - ten through, eight out:

There were only two out of my top ten that I wanted to get through - Poland and of course Latvia.  I wasn't to know how close Laura had come to getting through - it was her televote that stopped her making it, no accounting for taste.  A bigger vote from one of the juries and who knows?  12th in the SF was still a major improvement on the previous year but my hopes for following her into the Final had been extinguished.  7 out of 10 was better than the previous night but only 13 of my favourite twenty had made it to Friday and Saturday night.
So what would the Jury and televised Finals bring?  I had tickets for each - the Altice Arena had provided those for Saturday night due to Ellen's mobility, whereas I had bought a standing ticket off a friend who had upgraded to seating.  I was a bit downhearted, having seen my favourite go out at the SF stage for the third year in a row but I knew that I was going to a Eurovision Final in my first ever year at the Contest itself.  My mood improved immensely on the Friday though due to two reasons:


Why?  It was down to this lady again...
All will become clearer in the next article!