Now these guys weren't meant to be the first act
we saw in full on stage in Turin...
It took the livestream key 20 minutes to get wound up!
It was meant to be show opener Ronela Hajati that was up as the first full rehearsal that us press people got to see - instead we kicked off with Latvia's Citi Zēni instead. Now I am lucky enough to have the advantage of press accreditation, which means that I get to see all of the second rehearsals, where each act has 20 minutes to have up to three run throughs. You get to see the best bits in a 30 second YouTube that I had embedded here - let's have a more detailed look at the 14 nations who had their last opportunity to tweak anything before next week's shows. I will be continuing my 'as positive as possible' review take on all the entries, so if you want stinging critiques, you best go elsewhere!
LATVIA (Citi Zēni - "Eat Your Salad)
If you liked this at Supernova then you'll like "Eat Your Salad" here! It is effectively the same staging but on a bigger stage, with some nice floor animations to go with it. Everyone is still in bright primary colours, everyone still does the same routine, although the vocals with 'Big Red' need a bit of tightening as compared to when they won in Latvia. I still love this and I would still have this sailing into the Final, although with an 8.5/10 rather than a 9.0.
LITHUANIA (Monika Liu - "Sentamentai")
Now I loved Monika during the promo parties and I was convinced that her charisma and camera connection would be enough to get her into the Final. I'm not so sure now and that is mainly due to the factors that she cannot influence, those being lighting and the 'immovable sun' behind her. Perfect vocals, same choreography as in Lithuania and she looks amazing but the scene is quite dark and the only way that the delegation has tried to fill the stage is to have two of her via the magic of tv. She wasn't connecting with the camera that much today and I wasn't convinced she was in top gear either, so there might still be a chance for her and her nation to take it up to 11 and reach the Final. She was 8/10 before, now 7.25...
SWITZERLAND (Marius Bear - "Boys Do Cry")
We only had one full live performance to go on before back in Switzerland but this is a real gem of a song. I found Marius to be very endearing in his delivery and manner on stage, and even the little touches worked with broken heart light effects on the floor, shone on his face and even on his jacket pure perfection. Your eye is drawn to him and his exaggerated arm movements and your ear just picks up on his easy listening style, similar to Harry Connick Jr or Michael Bublé. I love this and if we consider that entries seem to have been placed in pairs this year, I'd have this easily ahead of Lithuania. It won't be for everyone but I smile whenever I hear "Boys Do Cry" now. Up a tad from 7.75/10 to 8.0...
SLOVENIA (LPS - "Disko")
So they now have a disco ball which is fine and someone has decided to have the band around it and the drummer above it. Hopefully somebody in production will put something around the wheels that the ball was pushed on to make it look less amateurish? It looks as though they are having a great time and this is a huge moment in their career but LPS are still down near the bottom of my preferences, dropping down from 5.75/10 to 5.5...
UKRAINE (KALUSH ORCHESTRA - "Stefania")
Now it doesn't help Slovenia at all that this is on straight afterwards. Especially as this second rehearsal by KALUSH Orchestra with "Stefania" has given me my first WOW MOMENT of Eurovision 2022. Watching the first run through totally blew me away - where to start?
- Vocals on point
- They all move effortlessly and into the right positions without it looking choreographed
- It is perfectly lit
- The LEDs that have been ruined by the 'blackhole sun' have somehow survived for Ukraine to give a perfect shape, with hands actually now cupping the top edge of the shape and eyes that are perfectly either side of the semi-circle and you can still see the crying of yellow at the same time as blue is introduced into the lighting
- When the six band members are swaying, in front of them on the floor are light panels with shapes swaying with them, first time with black figures on orange and then figures coloured in national folk costumes
- The break-dancer now has a pair of hands to dance on, giving some context to that part of the show
- Towards the end, four of the band members walk forward and follow three paths of yellow that intersect at the point of the stage
- The song and music is now part of a very well constructed whole, where it doesn't matter that it is a mix of Ukrainian rap and folk, as the choreo and staging balances that all out
The only thing I could see wrong with this? The Steadicam man was slightly slow in swapping between the rappers as they sung their own bits! Everything about this works - this is definitely a potential winner, was 8.25/10 for me, now 9.5...
BULGARIA (Intelligent Music Project - "Intention")
It is amazing what some pyros will do for an entry, especially a rock one! Two run throughs and "Intention" looked fairly pedestrian, third one with loads of pyros and it looks totally different! Ronnie's vocals have always been spot on and we even got to see him throw his hat away in that third go, the beginning of the set is superb in that we have a split screen with the lead guitar and Stoyan on drums doing their bit, plus this is a very tried and tested rock band staging. Will it get IMP through to the Final? If so, it will be borderline but the staging I saw was enough to let this go up from 6.75/10 to 7.25...
NETHERLANDS (S10 - De diepte")
This will be a Jury favourite for sure in a week's time and it appeals to quite a few fans too although it has never grabbed me in that way. The staging is very dark and yet stylish, S10 looks amazing and her vocals are spot, but the issue has always been about the delivery of this song to me. She has plenty of emotion in her voice but not in her facial or physical delivery of this track - "De diepte" has always been solid rather than superb for me, hence why I only saw a small rise from 7.25/10 to 7.75...
MOLDOVA (Zdob şi Zdub & Fraţii Advahov - "Trenuleţul")
Now there are some who are disappointed that we are not getting the zany visual delights with ZSZ that we got in 2005 and 2011 - I am not one of them, as I don't think that this entry needs artificial cues like those at all. The song and music themselves are incredibly infectious, the vocals are full on, there is a great change of pace with the guitar piece and the lighting throughout gives this a wonderful glow. These guys now have experience on their side, lots of smiles and the desire to have fun and please - they have succeeded with that, right down to the last 'choo choo' to end the song! If you aren't smiling by the end of this song, you are dead inside - a slight rise from 7.50/10 to 7.75 now...
Croatia (Mia Dimšić – "Guilty Pleasure")
Now we have had issues with the 'sun' on the stage that doesn't move and blocks any LEDs - we had our first major sound issues with Mia's second rehearsals where her in ears weren't working on the first run through and she had to remove them, the second run through backing track wasn't correct and was also out of synch, and therefore only her third run being of any use to her and her delegation. We do have some Croatian in the entry now (for the final minute) and new choreography with three dancers who make up her dream sequence. There is a wonderful interaction between Mia and the female dancer being the same person and the dancer moving from one male dancer to the other. Mia looks amazing throughout and this is still one of my favourites - fingers crossed everything is sorted for next week. A slight dip in score from 8.75/10 to 8.5...
DENMARK (REDDI - "The Show")
Much like Latvia, Denmark's entry here is very similar to what we saw in their NF, DMGP, although the backdrop had to be changed due to no LEDs. Having said that, the lighting rig does make the rock section actually more visually entertaining, along with the shooting pyros we saw on the third run. Siggy's vocals swapping from ballad to rock are superb and this is a very enjoyable gig performance, totally authentic in how it looks and sounds. It was amusing to everyone that Ihan messed up her stick work on the drums on one run through, given that her ritual backstage is to deliberately drop them to avoid messing up on stage! A slight increase from me, 7.75/10 to 8.0...
AUSTRIA (LUM!X ft Pia Maria - "Halo")
One of my big movers of the day in a very positive way, I now know why Luca and Pia were so happy walking into their Meet & Greet the other day. Austria have one of the best staged entries that I have seen so far - a round lighting rig around them both and his decks to keep any camera angles on them tight, loads of light beams shooting out and superb camera work to keep the DJ vibe going. It helps that LUM!X is fully involved with the whole track, rather than being a spare part like Darude and Gromme were in previous Contests - he knows his job is to whip up the crowd and even though this is a rehearsal, he was giving it large! Pia has help vocally with two backing singers but I have a feeling that her confidence is growing - she asked for the backing to be turned down on the last run and she sounded pretty good. Add in the smoke and pyros from the last run and we could see this fan favourite make the Final - a huge jump from 6.50/10 pre-Turin to 8.00 for me now...
GREECE (Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord - "Die Together")
Now I keep an eye on the two main Greek news sites and they have been dropping hints about how amazing the staging for Greece's entry would be. And I watched Amanda sing today and...personally, I don't think it added anything to the song and incredible delivery by her. Her vocals are amazing, her delivery is pure and entrancing, her outfit is beautiful and the lighting is the lovely blue and white you'd expect from a Greek entry. But the actual set? Chairs that appear to be sunk into the stage? A moment of liquid oozing out of them? A brief look at an LED couple? I don't think that any of that added to Amanda herself, THE major factor in the success of this entry. Still on for a top ten but the staging left me a little cold and a slight drop in score from 8.75/10 to 8.5...
PORTUGAL (MARO - "Saudade Saudade")
Now Portugal were due to be on before Croatia but we all received an email that one of their delegation had tested positive and had to isolate. The rehearsal was put back and we saw that instead of six singers, the first run through had a member of their delegation with a mask on just standing there, followed by the next run where there was just five singers with a gap left. Not that you want anyone to be ill but the reduction in numbers did seem to improve the camera angles and further improve what is now a beautiful entry. We knew that MARO and her singers could harmonise but this is now a wonderfully contained and tightly shot piece that creates another level of intimacy. The subdued lighting works perfectly and MARO provides all the emotional angst you could possibly want from this song. Another of the big upward movers for me, from 6.50/10 to 8.0...
ALBANIA (Ronela Hajati - "Sekret")
And so we reach what we ended up seeing last today despite it being on at 9am BST! The livestream did not work for Ronela's rehearsal and a special ten minute video was put together so we could see what had happened. With hindsight, perhaps it might have been better if that hadn't happened - this for me was the worst of all the run throughs today and it has seriously made me think that what was a cast-iron qualifier is now merely a show opener and warm up act for everyone else, which is a tragedy. "Sekret" at FiK was superb visually and the video looked great but now it is all over the place, with one of the highlights being Ronela swishing her ponytail around. As I want to stay positive with these reviews, I will not go into any more detail but this is a real disappointment now. Biggest drop of the day from 8.00/10 to 6.50...
So up to the end of Day 5, we have had 14 of the 17 SF1 acts perform their last set of rehearsals - my placings with Iceland, Norway and Armenia to come?
UKRAINE
LATVIA
CROATIA
GREECE
DENMARK
AUSTRIA
PORTUGAL
SWITZERLAND
MOLDOVA
NETHERLANDS
--------------------------------
BULGARIA
LITHUANIA
ALBANIA
SLOVENIA
Day 6 will see us complete those last few entries for SF1, start off SF2 and also have the first rehearsals for the Direct Finalists in the afternoon. No views of those but we will get Meet & Greets, which means for this UK blog/radio show that we will finally have this guy in Turin:
We will get the first hint of what Sam Ryder's staging looks like...
I will be praying tonight for the best!