Five rehearsals left on day 8 - the Big 5 completed the task set on Day 1 back on April 30th. Chanel was one of those and she showed off her "SloMo" in her own distinctive way, although even she had some changes to her routine that I will talk about soon. The other big deal was that we finally got to see the staging to "SPACE MAN", the big unknown of the five left - as for the first rehearsals, I'll leave Sam Ryder until the end. More positive-as-possible reviews coming up - first this morning was France...
If you liked the French National Final set-up then you will have loved watching the second rehearsal of "Fulenn"! It is very similar but more polished and structured without losing the Breton charm - the main difference is that Ahezhave been given specific places to be throughout the performance that looks natural, with a flowing grace. It is still quite dark although the lit fires in the third run through brightened it somewhat and the floor animations added to the whole perfectly. Alvan is still a bit frantic and the dancer still a bit superfluous but if you love how the camera chops around the set, making for that staged 'action', then this is even better. This has now become one of my absolute favourites, pushing its way into my now top 5, up from 8.50/10 to 9.25...
ITALY (Mahmood & BLANCO - "Brividi")
BLANCO has arrived, Mahmood obviously has had some sleep and we have a piano and a pianist. The set up is very much like Sanremo although the clothing is smarter, Mahmood in a long dark suit and Blanco in white loose shirt and trousers. It was clear that this was a rushed combination of first and second rehearsals in three run throughs, and it showed for the first two runs with slightly off vocals and tones, plus some pacing out of choreography. The third run was the charm - all the lighting came together with white beams from the dark arch, joined by a descending lighting rig at the end of the performance; both singers nailed their vocals; BLANCO looked natural again on stage with his sitting on the piano and then closing into Mahmood; and it all was close to looking like their winning show three months ago by the end of the third run through. I am still enchanted by this and I am sure if there had been a fourth go, we would have seen the real deal. A slight drop from 9.50/10 to 9.25 means that Italy are still in my top 3 but only just...
SPAIN (Chanel - "SloMo")
Oh Spain, why do you ALWAYS tinker with staging at the last moment? Why can you not leave perfection alone? Chanel and her dancers had "SloMo" down pat since Benidorm Fest, all the way through the promo parties and at every show she had performed at. So the expectation was that RTVE had spent their money on the most expensive outfits available for Chanel and her dancers and the routine plus song and vocals would be the same...afraid not! The start of the song is in darkness with flamenco footsteps on the stage, there is a fan in the choreography now, Chanel has a part where she sings solo in a way that we have not seen or heard before and there is now more traditional parts to the song than the 100% pop that we were used to. It is as if RTVE have wanted this to be Spanish sounding as well as looking and these changes are how that is being done. The rest of the routine that is the same is still wonderful - the strobe effect, the throw away of the hair pin, the video eye, the lifting and leg change, everything is still in synch but those changes have really thrown me. Of course those jurors and televoters just watching their Final will know nothing of what came before and it will still look synched, slick and very visually entertaining (and Chanel looks incredible with her matador outfit) - for me though, this is now not my #2, down from 9.00/10 to 8.50...
GERMANY (Malik Harris - "Rockstars")
We always have artists who plough their own furrow, who had their staging in their National final, who keep it the same even if it isn't visually stunning or has bells and whistles because IT IS THEIRS and they feel comfortable with it. That sums up "Rockstars" and Malik's place within the choreography - he gigs with multiple instruments and that is what he plays and what we see. He enjoys rapping and pouring out emotion that way and that is what we see with his "Eminem" section. Every time he finished a run through, he smiled and laughed because he nailed it every time, he was happy with what he was doing and I feel that he still can't believe that he will be singing next Saturday in the Eurovision Final. This guy deserves all the plaudits going because Germany's entry isn't rated, it isn't up with the favourites and everyone thinks that this is going to end up in the bottom 5. I hope that he doesn't but I get the feeling that he has done it his way, the German delegation have not interfered with his vision and well done to them for doing that. He will be one of the most relaxed artists in the Final and his career will go on afterwards - a slight drop in score but not by much, 7.75/10 to 7.50...
UNITED KINGDOM (Sam Ryder - "SPACE MAN")
And so onto my nation's entry and we now know what those 'cages' do, what Sam is dressed in and also how the end has changed. Yes, another change to what we all know but let's start from the beginning of the entry which is the most beautiful opening we have had of any performance this year. The only light is the stage immediately around Sam, even he is in darkness, and as the camera pans in from afar, he starts singing and for that 15 seconds or so, this is incredible. When the lights go up, we see the three cage structures that are possibly meant to be a spaceship around Sam and also we see what he is wearing - the term 'Galactic Matador' has been coined by one of ESC FAN TV's leading lights, Elliot Harris, and that describes it perfectly, although that would have been totally unintentional. The motifs on the jumpsuit are stars and the moon and other planetary bodies but it does look like a matador's costume again, something we have loads of this year with Chanel and WRS! He wore a plain black one in the first rehearsal, perhaps it might be swapped back. His voice is still immaculate, his stage charisma still wonderful WHEN the camera is close enough to show that - for the first two runs, more focus seemed to be made of the 'spaceship' and how that looked from afar (brilliant is the answer to that one) but that does mean that you lose one of the big USP's of the UK entry and that is Sam himself. The other odd addition happens at the end when the cages are lowered by stage hands, the colours on them change to gold and then Sam has a guitar which he then plays as though he has the spirit of Slash from Guns 'n' Roses in him! I have no idea why that is in there - seeing I have seen him perform live, I can't see how that adds anything to the set, apart from it allowing him the chance to play a guitar in front of 200 million people. The Live Blog on the Eurovision blog said it all...
"Sam wraps up Spaceman with an epic guitar solo, just because he can"
The third run seemed to focus the camera a lot more on Sam and for me, that is the way to go. His personality and connection are second to none - spending time away from him should be limited as much as possible. So that was the staging - it is solid and it definitely doesn't make things worse. Sam still sings superbly, he acts wonderfully and is at ease with the performance - I am just unsure how much the staging actually adds to the entry, especially the guitar solo and the fact that the first runs focused so much on the cages and long shots. It is a weird one, as expectations are now so high for this entry that if how this looks visually drops Sam down, it will be a real shame. Being a UK fan for these 'famine years' means that any hint of success is a dangerous thing - we all thought that Molly was going to do the business in Copenhagen and look how that ended up! Once bitten and all that at the moment and that might be why I am being slightly down on the staging now - my rating dropped from 9.00/10 to 8.25...
FRANCE - 1st Half
SPAIN - 1st Half
GERMANY - 1st Half
ITALY - #9
UNITED KINGDOM - 2nd Half
That looks brilliant, but until we know who joins which half from the SFs, it is all conjecture as to how good this really is. Based on today's rehearsals, I would have the Direct Finalists in this order:
FRANCE
ITALY
SPAIN
UNITED KINGDOM
GERMANY
It also means that I now have a post rehearsal Top 40 - big movers up from Day 1 are UKRAINE, POLAND, ESTONIA, AUSTRIA and PORTUGAL; big drops for BELGIUM, LITHUANIA, GEORGIA, ALBANIA and MALTA.
There is no guarantee that what I have seen over the past eight days will be repeated exactly - there will be some who raise their game in the actual shows, some who don't click and there will be some entries that are an unexpected hit that none of us fans are expecting! I am sure that there will be some changes to this list yet again before we get to about midnight on Sunday 15th May. I might even accept the cage getting equal billing with Sam, the 'galactic matador suit and the guitar solo in the UK entry...
The Press Centre is closed on Day 9, as Eurovision fortnight switches to the live event section. First up is the Eurovision Opening Ceremony & Turquoise Carpet from Venaria Reale, a UNESCO World Heritage site that is 12km from PalaOlimpico - if I had been in Turin, I could have attended the Turquoise Carpet part but I will just have to watch it on the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube Channel - I might even do another article about those outfits that even a fashion Neanderthal like myself can appreciate! I have a feeling that this artist will be the one to push the boundaries, given her background in fashion journalism:
All eyes on Vladana on the Turquoise Carpet!