[LMBTO] My First Pre-Party Live - The London Eurovision Party

Now she wasn't the best singer in Baku (or London) but Eleftheria definitely was the sassiest, exuding loads of sex appeal.  She will be a Eurovision Beauty very soon, when I find a decent HD picture of her to include!  My effort wasn't clear but did highlight her in all her pouting glory:

The sort of 'interval act' I really enjoy...

Still in my personal top three, Barei was constrained yet again by the smallness of the area that she had to perform in - 'Say Yay!' is going to be all about the dance, the interaction between her and the camera/audience and showing off her sassiness and sexuality in full on a far bigger stage.  This was another chance to show herself off to the fans and in particular show off her vocals which were spot on yet again.  Not one of the show stoppers here but having seen Barei perform in Spain and Ukraine on a decent sized stage, I am confident that in Stockholm she will have the whole package and that this will be one of the possible outside chances to take this year's crown.  I was 'in the right place, right time' at the end of the evening, as I was picking up my coat, to have the briefest chat with her outside the Green Room - she felt that this wasn't her best showing and that her performance in May would be a lot better.  I have no doubt about that - I just said to her that I hoped that SVT wouldn't just put her up first 'to get the party started' in the Final but would give her a decent slot for a win, and that we'd all be in Madrid in 2017!  She smiled at that and was also gracious enough to pose in a couple of selfies with me - I'll show you those later...

After the first toilet/bar break, I moved locations and viewed from stage right - I was also getting more used to my new phone for pictures and experimented with the 4K video...first up was a bit of rock!

I know that the musos among us Eurovision fans see this as very lightweight rock but it is still very entertaining and is the most likely of all the 'band entries' this year to qualify for the Final.  Francois' voice is still the weak link in my opinion but the audibility of his words will be a million times better than here in London and the hook of the music will get the crowd and audience around Europe picking up their phones to vote.  It will be interesting to see what their staging will be like as all the Pre-Parties they have attended have only lent themselves to a straight gig show, something they excel at but the show needs to be bigger in some way in Stockholm.  The air guitar work was top notch too, something the band have to practice for the ESC setting.  It got the second third of the night going nicely and I even found that the position I was standing in gave a slightly better photo:

Maybe I should have practiced on the way to the Party, not for the first third of the gig itself...

Next was another of our guests, Selma from Iceland.  Looking good for 41:


A nice interruption in the proceedings as we were back to another band, one that I was interested to see live, as their official video didn't fill me with hope as to their getting to the Final...


Highway - The Real Thing


This performance was a lot better viewed at the venue than it is viewing it again on screen and this may be the main downfall for this entry.  They gave huge amounts of energy (or appeared to) on the night and I considered that they might be a band worth watching in concert, listening to more of their material but watching their song back later on a monitor, it all looked and sounded a bit flat and I wonder if viewers and jurors will get that impression in May.  I enjoyed their energy and it sounded better there (and they are probably rare Eurovision artists in that they went to see a Premier League game) but I did miss the stern looking blonde dancer that appears in their official video though!  I think that this will break Montenegro's recent good form at Eurovision, unfortunately...


ZOË - Loin d'ici


Next up was the Pre-Party 'darling', the lady who has had an amazing response wherever she has sung and was reduced to tears in Amsterdam, this year's Austrian representative, ZOË.  Elegantly dressed as if she was going to a cocktail party, rather than being dressed like a fairytale princess as she was in her NF, she stole the show once again, attracting massive applause and cheers as she walked on and finished her song.  Loads of emotional delivery in her voice and face went along with perfect vocals as always, although she was maybe distracted by the love from the crowd - maybe her being slightly further away  from the audience in The Globen will be a good thing!  Paddy O'Connell obviously gauged the public mood by making a joke of her tears and bringing her on again to sing acapella:


If Eurovision votes were only from the fanatics, this year's contest would have this lady vying for the title!  Being all in French, I should love it - this is growing on me but I do like others more.  Would I be unhappy if Austria won this year with Loin d'ici?  Not at all...it would be a lovely song to hear at the end of the show and a wonderful story.  She'd be smiling whatever:

Ovidiu Anton - Moment Of Silence


When we were all watching Ovidiu do his set of his Eurovision entry and this classic from AC/DC:


We were expecting to see Romania's unusual and powerful entry in Stockholm, partly to see if he could keep his country's 100% qualification record going and partly to see what sort of comments would come from the lips of Scott Mills and Graham Norton (I had already bagged 'Game Of Thrones - The Musical') but now we might not see Ovidiu in any capacity at all.  The financial problems of TVR, the Romanian broadcaster, has caused the EBU to 'pull the plug' on their participation in Stockholm.  I can see why it was done but the timing sucks big time for fans, organisers and mainly for this amazing vocalist.  I hope that he will be given at least a chance to sing as an interval act in The Globen, as his standing as an artist has been diminished by this decision and the fact he was due to have the biggest gig of his career has been taken away with this last minute decision.  He has an amazing voice and superb stage presence and I hope we will have the opportunity to see his talents again in the future - who knows, maybe he could perform in the Moldovan selection process?  Put in a last minute bid to be the new lead singer of AC/DC?  I loved his stagecraft and style, probably more than some of the other fans there in London (rock ain't really their thing), and Ovidiu's set was one of the highlights of the night for me.


Nina Kraljić - Lighthouse


I think we now have Nina's dress and visual style on record for Stockholm, seeing that it is exactly the same as in Amsterdam.   Unlike a lot of the acts here in London, she was staring straight down the camera's at the end of the venue, awesome connection all the time and she gave great emotions through her facial expressions, very 'old school Eurovision'.  I wonder if we will have a tight view, just on Nina, camera shoot at the Contest itself, only panning out slightly to show off the distinctive dress she is wearing.  I could imagine the only thing in the backdrop being a dark coast scene with a light shining out to sea, or is that too obvious?  This is a very beautiful song, a very haunting lyrical experience and this has been delivered wonderfully by Nina each time I have watched it - live, it sounded great, if a little bit overshadowed by chatting and other noises, something that won't be an issue at the big event.  I would love this to make it to the Final, to give some light and shade to the line-up - it fitted nicely as light relief from the power of Ovidiu and the following singer...


Michał Szpak - Colour Of Your Life


Apparently, according to Nicki French, the sound engineer's choice (I suppose for helping them check their sound levels), this guy hit the mark yet again with his amazing vocalisation and power brought to this entry.  There is no question that Michał will be one of the best male vocalists in Stockholm this year and he delivers as far as putting his heart and soul into the emotional delivery is concerned - it was better sounding live to be honest but I was positioned right in front of one of the speakers at this stage!  His look is distinctive and memorable and with jurors and televoters alike not forgetting his singing, I still think that Poland will be sailing into the Final.  Whether that memorability will translate to votes to power him up the Final scoreboard, I am not sure but this is still one of my favourite tracks this year.  It was an honour to be in the same room as that voice...


Frans - If I Were Sorry


Another complete musical shift - whoever picked the running order, nicely played!  As the man said, it was his first and only event before his home Eurovision and it was totally different to everything else on show, as you all well full know!  This is a definite Marmite entry in as far as you get it or you don't.  It is very, very lyrically clever and 'If I Were Sorry' reminds me of the tales told by Mike Skinner of The Streets about his life and situations affecting him - this song has just the same vibe and I enjoyed it.  It is not my favourite by any means but it does give us something different in the Final line-up that we haven't had much before.  I am not sure whether I am this guy's target audience though - the intelligence of the song appeals, as does the dry humour, but I am not sure that a lot of people will get that instantly, only picking up on the story within after several listens.  He presents it in a 'teenage way', with swagger, a bit of petulence and annoyance, all spot on for the meaning of the this entry.  I am not sure that a Eurovision audience will vote in their droves though for this and I am unsure how juries will take it.  It was a different way to end the second third of the gig...

By the time we had got to the final third of the Party, I had moved again, opposite side of the stage and closer, so my pictures looked a lot better...


Francesca Michielin - No Degree Of Separation



As you might be able to tell from the video footage, the crowd were getting a bit raucous and the bar staff were collecting glasses!  Francesca looked stunning from where I was standing:
She can obviously sing amazingly well live and she puts her heart and soul into her performance every single time.  As I have said before, I am pleased that there is still Italian being sung at this year's Eurovision but this entry still leaves me cold, even when I was standing literally feet away from her.  It was all pleasant enough and she is a skilled musician too (as her second song with her playing on the piano proved) but this entry is all a bit 'okay' for me - not good, not bad.  I thought that maybe I'd get what this was all about live but it hasn't changed my feelings one way or the other.  I personally cannot see this winning or even making the top ten but maybe it's just my 'compass' that's off...

Next up was the last of our 'guests' for the evening, the superb Aminata:

Two songs in her set, unless you include the brief acapella with us fans whilst we waited for the sound guy to queue up the backing track for Love Injected!  Very casual, almost as if she had been asked to stand in at the last minute but it showed off her voice even more  without the 'tattoos' or the red flowing dress.  To be honest, if Aminata had been singing in Stockholm, I could well have seen her winning for Latvia - as it is, she'll have to hope that her songwriting ability and the next artist up do the job instead...


Justs - Heartbeat


The guy with the 1980s leather jacket is back!  It was obvious from the accompaniment from the crowd that 'Heartbeat' is another popular entry with the fans and to be honest, this is as good, if not better, live.  Spectacular vocals, loads of emotion thrown out by Justs to the crowd and almost the same performance as in Supernova.  Yes, he is still wearing the same jacket (maybe it's lucky?) and he still goes a little OTT in his delivery towards the end of this song but it is superb to listen to and I think that not only will this sail through the SF, this has the potential to win the while thing in Stockholm.  The critical thing will be the staging - all we have seen is Justs standing in one place singing, is that it?  He can carry that off but should there or does there need to be more?  This was another highlight live and I am looking forward to seeing it at least twice more in May...


Amir - J'ai cherché


Now by the time I publish this post, France could be the new favourites to win Eurovision 2016.  As of Sunday 24th April at 9pm, Russia's longest odds and France's shortest odds were almost identical.  Amir has had a storming Pre-Party campaign and fans have been betting on this entry in their droves - some bookies are no longer taking bets on Russia, will France follow suit soon?  The reasons for this are obvious - he is incredibly popular amongst fans and fellow artists:
This song is unbelievably catchy and a massive earworm, and his performance capability has improved immeasurably since the first live promo did before his pre-season gig.  All the fans know this song, it is likely that as we get closer to Eurovision week that this will start to be heard outside the fan 'bubble' and this will possibly improve France's chances of their best result since 2001.  He comes across so well just singing this song alone with no bells or whistles that I almost hope that any staging is kept to an absolute minimum - how this entry looks might be the deciding factor as to whether we are going to Paris next year, as J'ai cherché could easily be this year's winning song.  He even sung 'Golden Boy' to keep the crowd going:


Whatever happens in Stockholm, all the fans in the Café De Paris will remember Amir for a very long time...


Gréta Salóme - Hear Them Calling

Before Gréta performed this year's entry, she wanted to perform her 2012 entry, 'Never Forget', but needed some assistance.  No Jónsi available so she asked for someone to come up from the floor - now this could have been disastrous but up came this guy and wow, he was superb!
Now whether he was a plant or just a guy who has practiced this song every day for the last four years, I don't know, but he would embarrass some Eurovision entrants (not this year) with his live singing - it was great!  See what you think:


Whether it had all been rehearsed beforehand or not, the guy can dine out on that for life!  I also managed to get some decent pictures, three acts from the end:
After that, Gréta performed this year's entry 'Hear Them Calling', starting off with her violin solo that she played in Amsterdam:


As I said during my review there, this entry will only come together as what it was in the Icelandic NF when we see it again in SF1, as it is all about the film behind Gréta and her interaction with it.  She is making some of the rehearsed moves but the big stage is needed, the flowing costume must be worn and the choreographed moves only make sense when placed before the film - only then will we see the magnificent spectacle we saw in Iceland and only then will we get the real WOW factor of this entry.  This was sung well and her set connected with us all in a very entertaining way but the whole reason for this entry being my favourite this year is the combined staging and song, not just Gréta singing here.  I know I am in the minority but I really, really would love an Icelandic win this year...


Eneda Tarifa - Fairytale


And so onto the penultimate song of the evening - Eneda looked amazing in her white and black lace-effect dress, so much so that I noticed that most of the security guys had positioned themselves on the stairs to watch her performance:
They might have done so earlier during the Concert but some of them were even singing along at the end - a positive for Eneda to take away, that non-fans were singing her song?  It could be that some of the guards were Albanian, who knows but she gave a superb vocal for the crowd and she also gave 'good face' during the presentation of 'Fairytale'.  I still think that this lost a lot when changed from Albanian to English but Eneda's vocal abilities might give her some good marks from the jurors of Eurovision and might see people pick up their phones, so who knows?  Albania are singing near the end of SF2 so there is hope...


Joe and Jake - You're Not Alone


Onto the finale of my evening (I had already decided by this point that my legs were giving up and that once our entry had been sung, I was off!) and Scott Mills appears to present Joe and Jake to us all.  They have got the 'Ant and Dec' placing down pat now and this was one of their better performances, Joe hitting his 'vocal mark' straight off (which he'll need to do in the Jury and Public Final) and their interaction being some of the best I had seen since the NF.  "You're not Alone" is still as catchy as hell and their act is very, very crowd pleasing, which will hopefully translate to viewers at home, who will then vote for the UK.  It is a better 'gig' performance than any of the other bands (apart from maybe Minus One) and even Scott Mills wants to be associated with them:
Nicki French wrapped up an excellent show with "Don't Play That Song Again", wearing a raincoat again and then that was it!  The lights went up to allow those who had trains to catch to leave and let those who wanted to dance and continue drinking very expensive bottles of lager to continue doing so.  I should have taken the opportunity to have found some of the other fans who I have met on Facebook and via my blog articles but this body needed to head off to catch the last train to Clarksville tube to Lancaster Gate.

Remember I mentioned having a quick chat with Barei as I was leaving?  I know it is a cliche to do so and she probably wondered why this guy old enough to be her dad wanted a picture with her but I asked anyway - she was gracious enough to take a couple of shots and you could say that is another box ticked, have my picture taken with a current Eurovision artist:
 An unexpected bonus to an already outstanding day!  I think we'd make a lovely couple...in my dreams!