As colours for a carpet go, this one won't be fighting for attention with whatever outfit was passing over it - Moroccanoil was a good sponsor choice!
Not that I am a fashion guru at all but perhaps red isn't the best colour for an official walkway after all! The Opening Ceremony was today but first the artists of Eurovision had to traverse the Turquoise Carpet in Rotterdam. Unfortunately five delegations had to miss out...
- Poland and Iceland, as one of their delegation tested positive for COVID;
- Romania and Malta, as they are in the same hotel as Iceland and everyone is being justifiably ultra cautious; and of course
- Australia, who aren't in Rotterdam.
That left 34 acts to walk down that 200m of fabric, meets the hosts and speak to the few press onsite at the event. Online, we only saw the Carpet interviews that allowed us to look at the outfits - the show is below if you had missed it:
I have been watching these events from 2014 in Copenhagen onwards, apart from last year when I was actually at the Orange Carpet event myself in Tel Aviv! This one was one of the slickest and coordinated ones I have seen (probably due to the need for social distancing and keeping crowds apart as much as possible), the hosts were brilliant and on the whole the questions asked weren't too cringy. There was arguably only one fashion faux pas that I saw but as I have tried to be as positive as possible all this Eurovision, I am not going to stop now - here are what I thought were really nice outfits (pictures by Andres Putting - you can see these all full length in the video)...
When you have a tall, elegant and beautiful singer to costume, it must be very difficult to get it wrong! Ana Soklič was the first standout with a classic black 'one shoulder' dress, complete with matching chocker and jewelry. Not the singer this time but his backing vocalist and twin brother! Xillan Macrooy accompanies his brother Jeangu on stage and on the Turquoise Carpet, wearing here what appeared to be a lilac knee length jacket - very striking and definitely the pick of the Dutch outfits today.
Sometimes you don't need a big name label to get a great look - Tusse revealed that this lovely emerald green suit AND his Eurovision outfit were both from H&M! I can sense a modelling slot happening once he returns to Sweden... For an outfit that really suited a singer as far as their personality is concerned, this tartan effect suit looked amazing on Lesley Roy. She has such a confident and strong attitude and this look was so her... The youngest artists here at Rotterdam also had the most classic outfit of all and wore it so well - Stefania looked absolutely amazing in her wrapround dress, with the sparkly choker and belt to match...
This picture really doesn't show off Anxhela Peristeri's outfit well enough - needless to say that I loved it and it just shows the confidence this lady has to wear it. It was only later that I saw on her Insta account that the show's producer had decided to not show that much of her outfit:
No idea why...
Keeping with the fashion of her official video for "growing up is getting old", VICTORIA looked the part with her red hair and houndstooth jacket. Her natural beauty is heightened by this outfit, given its simplicity and obvious style... Last on the Carpet (order of appearance as per running order in SF1 and SF2) were Fyr & Flamme. 'Bond villain' was one description of Laurits and 'camp chic' another I saw linked to Jesper - to me, they looked relaxed and wanting to be comfortable whilst being stylish too... Special mention to this guy too - he wasn't wearing anything outstandingly stylish but kudos to Kendrik for putting pictures of Montaigne, RAFAŁ, Daði & Gagnamagnið, ROXEN and Destiny on his outfit, a nod to those who had been prevented from having their moment on the Turquoise Carpet by COVID. Respect due to Vincent Bueno as well who gave a shout out to all of them as well.
So that was it as far as the opening event of Eurovision 2021 went - we really are there now aren't we? Day 10 sees the start of the shows and we really then have got the nightmare of the past two years behind us. Press rehearsal and Jury show for SF1 are here - I'll give you an idea of what is going, whether any act suddenly gets supercharged that is unexpected. What I will say now is..
GOOD LUCK TO ALL THE ARTISTS OF SF1 -
GO FOR IT AND JUST DO THE BEST YOU CAN!
