[LMBTO] Eurovision 2016? En Av De Bästa Någonsin...

And for those of you who don't understand Swedish (or haven't yet mastered Google Translate), my headline says:


What a difference a year makes, eh?  Regular readers will remember that I wasn't exactly enthralled with the ORF coverage of the Contest last year (Eurovision 2015 - All A Bit 'Meh') but the one thing that a Swedish win, courtesy of the bare chested guy above, meant was that the actual production of this year's Contest should have been in very experienced and safe hands.

But was it?  Of course it was - this was one of the best produced shows that I can remember, from the initial Red Carpet show all the way through to the Eurovision Final itself.  I know that Sweden are becoming dab hands at this hosting lark and winning the ESC brings with it the chance to improve your presenting of the show - I am sure that ORF would like another go to show that they could get it right.  What's my reasoning for Stockholm 2016 being, in my eyes, so good?  I am sure that those of you who were there will have their own reasons but from the viewpoint of a UK blogger watching online and on tv, they are:

The Globen itself
For a change, the venue itself seemed to be the perfect size for those at the Contest (from an outsider's point of view) but also for getting a decent visual view of all the acts, the green room and the crowd.  Gone are the days where the stage appears to be nothing more than a platform for the acts to play on - the modern day venue has to have a backdrop, floor lighting and a satellite stage.  Thinking back to other recent Contests and there always seemed to be something 'a bit too big' - Copenhagen's B&W 'shipyard' was too cavernous for some acts, leaving them tiny 'ants' on a massive stage and in some cases ruining their chances of a decent result.  The Globen stage was just the right size for all acts this year, whether they be solo singers such as Justs and Poli Genova, the band from Cyprus or Georgia and the back screens for Russia and Iceland:
Most recent venues had satellite stages that needed almost three minutes to get to it and therefore a lot of acts decided not to use them or appeared to be almost running to get to them - the Globen small stage was set up just right, there if needed for a quick 10-20 second traverse to it and the crowds were right on top of the performer, giving a sense of 'adoring fans touching their favourite artist'.  Laura from Belgium probably used this the best with her geeing up the crowd as she ran towards them, entertaining the Globen as her backing singers joined her for an amazing finale to "What's The Pressure":
The backdrop allowed innovative staging and light shows but it wasn't too overpowering or underwhelming - all in all, this venue looked great from start to finish and more importantly gave all artists an equal chance of a decent show, irrespective of how many people were on stage and what they were doing, without penalising them purely by the size of the arena.


Petra and Måns

When the guys at the top of the article were announced as being our hosts this year, I did think "Oh no, not Petra again".  The reason for this?  I have to say that I like to see different presenters of the ESC, hosts that have differing styles of presentation, that bring something new to the show.  Petra had hosted the 2013 show and I had seen her live at the Greatest Hits Concert last year and to be honest, I was not a great fan of how she spoke, her humour or the way she put across the script that had been written for her.  As for Måns, not having watched a lot of Swedish television, I had no idea what his presenting style was like, so I imagined that this year's show would rely heavily on Ms. Mede's shoulders...
How wrong I was!  An inspired choice by SVT - both were witty, engaging, didn't put a foot wrong all through the three shows (an amazing achievement) and provided me with a full insight into their many talents.  Måns is an excellent, charismatic and funny presenter whilst Petra, in addition to her obvious hosting skills (I can now admit that I've warmed to her) is a very competent singer and knows a few dance moves.  Both had suitable gravitas when dealing with this year's competitors and whilst presenting the voting process in the SFs and the Final.  In some years, the hosts have been less than inspiring and have almost provided breaks in the flow of the shows - this year, these two added to the spectacle of the Contest and put Stockholm 2016 up there with the best.


The public show's scripts and routines



I am sure that our two talented hosts might have been able to provide some ad-libbing but without decent material, even Petra and Måns would have struggled their way through almost ten hours of television presenting!  The amazing links, routines (like the one above and the one below):



the jokes (aimed at anyone and everything) and the general information provided made each night a very entertaining evening indeed.  The scriptwriters even made Lynda Woodruff funny!  Maybe Ukraine won't need Petra and Måns but maybe they could get some tips from the SVT scriptwriters...


The comradery between artists
Maybe this has always happened but this year's bunch of artists seemed to bond together really well - from light-hearted moments such as the picture above at the Israel Pre-Party, through to artists stepping in to defend the honour of others they had felt to be wronged in some way.  There are also lots of instances of contestants (notably Sanja) singing along with the entries before them whilst waiting to go on backstage.  Nobody seemed to come across as a diva, at least from an outsider's point of view (maybe some in 'The Bubble' might say differently) and it all made for a great atmosphere, especially at the London gig, where Poli and Amir were singing together and artists who had previously sung were cheering and whooping for those on stage.  Maybe the environment this year helped a lot - each of the Pre-Party venues seemed very welcoming, there was little in the way of agenda or controversy and the host nation took everyone to their hearts.


The Postcards



The EBU and the host nations have these off pat now - this year's selection were pleasantly different in that they focussed on the artists themselves and their home nation, what they do to relax and not having any 'humorous link' inflicted on them.  Nice, simple and down to earth - it's quite restful to just sit back and watch all of them in one go.  My favourites?  Minus One for providing a nod to the rock 'n' roll lifestyle by dropping a television out of a window and Nina from Croatia providing the most grounded view of her life, making me believe that I could bump into her in the street or sit down by the side of her in a coffee shop  and be unaware that she was there.  All in all, SVT got even these forty second snippets spot on...


The entries themselves
To have a great music show, you need great music!  Obvious really but some years we have had lots of out of tune artists, very poor choreography and entries that would have been shouted down by the host broadcaster if suggested as an interval act - this year, not so much.  We are unlikely to have a 'perfect storm' year, where every single entry is superbly sung, staged immaculately and provides superb entertainment but every act played a part this year and made watching and listening to ESC 2016 a real pleasure.  Even Serhat chucking his hat away into the crowd was 'worth the admission money'...okay, maybe just a small portion of it!  You've read my reviews and thoughts throughout the 2016 season so I won't go into it all again but I am sure that most fans would agree that there were some damn good entries out there...


The utilisation of visual technology for the entries
Russia, Iceland and Belarus all took on the visual 'gauntlet' thrown down by Sweden last year and tested the medium to certain degrees.  You may be surprised to hear that I think that IVAN's CGI backdrop was the best of the bunch as it linked in nicely with him and the song's message.  It was also all done in a light hearted way with his fellow IVAN 'band members' and the CGI wolves which worked extremely well over the three minute visual experience.  Sergey might have got the top three with his 'throw everything but the kitchen sink' approach and deservedly (in my opinion) got the top televote, as it took interaction with a visual medium to a whole new level at Eurovision - it was all a bit OTT though.  Greta's artistic approach really needed 'uniqueness' to have worked - if it had been the only such entry this year then it would have had a wow factor but in a class of three, where Iceland's was the 'darkest' in tone, it lost out.  However, the ability of these delegations to bring these stage shows to Stockholm and be able to work with SVT to get them all to work almost perfectly was an amazing achievement.  I think that this might be the pinnacle of this sort of interactive visual art but who knows?  Ukraine might surprise us with what they are able to do with regards to staging...


The camerawork by SVT


One of my main bugbears with ORF last year was the diabolical production techniques and their camerawork in particular - I know that the delegations are involved too but it seemed a common issue that the Austrian producers made bad choices constantly when it came to camera angles and positions.  Hardly any of that this year - there were worries that SVT loved to zoom in and out a lot when filming Melodifestivalen but there was little of that here in Eurovision.  Watch the above performance of Iveta strutting her stuff - her immaculate stage show, on-stage charisma and open sexuality are actively helped by the choppy camera flicks and very 'close' close-ups throughout.  This was the best example but not the only one - Minus One's SF performance had a real 'rock concert' feel to it with the constant changes in camera shot between all the band members and the inclusion of the subliminal 'wolf graphics', whilst Jamala's 'no bells, no whistles' staging with most of the focus on her singing, panning out just enough to show the floor art and the 'glowing tree', was superbly done too.  Another tick to the SVT team...


The vote presentation
I got it totally wrong on the night at this stage - anyone else think that Australia had it in the bag after the jury votes had all come in?  SVT and the EBU said that if we all used the Melodifestivalen method of announcing the votes then we'd have a gripping finale to the Contest.  At this stage I thought that they were in for a damp squib moment but of course, we now know that the televote brought a stunning end to Eurovision 2016.  Petra and Måns held it together brilliantly and gave us the tension and nail-biting climax that everyone was praying for - whatever anyone thought of this process before Stockholm, you can't say that it didn't deliver on its promise!  I can't imagine that we'll be going back to the old way anytime soon, despite the winner not winning jury nor public vote...


As you can tell, I thought that the shows were absolutely superb - the only part of the official process that has been bettered elsewhere in the recent past (by Copenhagen, in my opinion) was The Red Carpet.  The Stockholm one was so much better than the Viennese effort last year but it still lacked some coordination on the carpet itself.  Copenhagen had one of the hosts doing a quick intro and asking a couple of questions at the start of the walk - try that next year Ukraine, you'll get my vote!  The other thing that I'd suggest for this sort of event is apart from having Eurovision savvy hosts (an absolute must), try inviting a fashion expert along who can identify what the artists are wearing and who designed the outfits.  For instance, did anyone know that Gabriela wasn't wearing just 'Office Chic' but something designed by Victoria Beckham:
Having a fashion expert to hand might have also revealed who on earth designed one of Nina's 'Barbara Dex' candidate outfits!

Last year's Eurovision made me reassess how I viewed the Eurovision Song Contest - was I getting in so deep that I was now being hyper-critical of how a show looked?  Was I now too much of a fanatic that I was judging every little mistake and every little annoyance on the screen?  I was wondering if this was how all future Contests were going to be and it was me, not ORF and Vienna...