[LMBTO] My Second UK NF - Eurovision : You Decide 2017

Recognise it?  The Eventim Apollo, scene of the Greatest Hits Concert, at 4.05pm on Friday 27th January 2017, already with 6-8 fans waiting for the doors to open at 5.30pm, and five minutes after I had picked up my pair of tickets:
Not that I want benefits of my partner having issues with mobility but I got in for free and we got seating downstairs (a blessing and a curse):
CeCe Sammy, Bruno Tonioli and Sophie Ellis-Bextor were in front of us but for all we could hear of their views at the venue, they might as well have not been there!  We literally heard little of what was said by them and by the three 'guests' who did a Q&A session an hour earlier - Alexander Rybak (it'll be obvious why he was there soon), Nigar 'Nikki' Jamal of "Running Scared" fame (she lives in London) and EBU Executive Supervisor Jon Ola Sand (he probably got in free and his board and lodgings paid).  I am sure that the answers to the questions were very illuminating but as soon as we realised we couldn't hear the answers, I stopped listening and took in the atmosphere / chatted with Ellen, my partner / bought a drink etc.  I have to say that I wouldn't have commented much on the panel's views anyway - Bruno was his usual Strictly 'getting up and wafting around' self,  CeCe sounded as though she forgot that she had a microphone, leaving Sophie to be the 'sensible one'!  The only other issue was that any song with a lot of bass went up through the floor, through the accessibility area and up through my legs and body!  Maybe we were sitting on a speaker...
If you weren't there and/or wanted to get the best audio and visual experience, go to iPlayer and watch it there.  Mel Giedroyc was actually a lot, LOT better this year - less lecherous (no Måns Zelmerlöw to slobber over), not too many 'Eurovish' quips and she kept it rolling along at a nice pace, the consummate professional.  Even her comedy intro at the start of the show was good - maybe she'll be okay in Kyiv?

Now we could hear Mel perfectly well and the first act on sounded pretty good too, kicking off proceedings off very nicely:

And it being one of my favourite Eurovision entries ever, I still know all the words - missed seeing the Norwegian dancers and Jorunn and Karianne from the performance though.  I suppose they have lives to get on with...

Having one of the best warm-up acts ever at a Eurovision NF to start the show, Mel then explained about the 50% professional jury / 50% televote we were getting this year.  They did focus on some of the jurors in the Circle - absolutely no idea who they were.  The Expert Panel were jurors as well - Mel did flag up Bruno's 1980 UK NF appearance as an 'Ace'.  What surprised me was how many people at the venue had no idea he was involved with the Contest we so love:

Just us Eurovision fanatics then, eh?

Fourteen minutes in and we got to the songs.  Each of them had a little promo, much the same as last year - unfortunately for Holly Brewer, it made her come across as an extra from TOWIE.  Her singing, however, was so, so much better than the acting ability on that particular show:

Holly looked great in her dark dress contrasting her cascading blonde hair and had great accompaniment from her four backing singers.  At the Apollo, it sounded as though she had a shaky start that really put me off the rest of the song, even though the chorus was memorable and the rest of the performance a really strong one.  She definitely had stage presence and I could see that she would always exude that confidence in future performances.  The whole routine looked as though it could be rolled out in Kyiv without much change.  Watching this back on iPlayer, I had quite a different view of this song - Holly was superb!  She connected with the camera all the time and her vocals were spot on, especially the top note towards the end of the song.  Lots of confidence here, she owned the stage and looked as though she loved being there.  There wasn't really any noticeable issues with volume or clarity at the start of the song online - this was the first sign that my viewpoint in the venue was quite different from what others were seeing live on the tv.  Holly was possibly the only artist that looked better on screen than live - overall I had her fourth on the night but watching it back, she would have been my Runner-Up.

Now there has been talk of some technical issues on the night that weren't obvious to us in the venue but that affected one act on the night in particular - that someone being Danyl Johnson.  On the night, he looked great as he had a slick stage routine, he and his singers moved around the stage really well, it was watchable and he seemed to connect with the audience really well.  As the sound quality in the Apollo downstairs was quite poor, I missed what was clearly obvious to those watching on tv - the vocals for this entry were a complete car crash.  To start with, one of the backing singers was given too much volume which was really unfortunate as he was totally off key and it sounded flat as a pancake.  Danyl could not be heard for the first five seconds of his singing and those two 'accidents' really ruined his chances of getting anything out of this process.  Some of his other notes were borderline off too which was a shame as his staging was totally spot on.   On the night, I had him ahead of Holly but based on the tv show, he was absolutely sunk, dead and buried.  A real shame and I think he could have grounds to have another go, given how the bad start was not his fault at all.  I had him originally as second or third but watching it with the errors, I had him down as 5th.

Lucie Jones' promo already set her up for listeners and viewers to imagine that this will at least be a great vocal performance, given her musical theatre background.  And so it proved - the studio version revealed earlier in the week proved that Lucie could sing amazingly well but I felt that it never seemed to 'go to the next level', 'give us any sort of climax' and that despite the lyrics being very powerful and extremely interesting to listen to, there was no journey.  I said then and I quote:

The staging of this entry on the night gave me what I was looking for and more!  Everything WAS about her, her voice, her emotional connection with the lyrics - everything WAS focused on her, the camera, the crowd, the lighting.  She looked classy in her cocktail dress and her musical theatre training shone through, Lucie's voice filling the Apollo and projecting everywhere, I suspect even into the toilets!  She held my attention with every word sung, it appeared she connected with everyone else too on the night, although one of the only criticisms would have been that Ms.Jones wasn't really singing down the camera.  I wasn't keen about the crouching down when singing the highest note but I am getting into Craig Revel-Horwood nitpicking territory here, this performance only getting a 9 rather than 10/10.  The footage on screen was just as good, which shows how damn fine a singer this lady is - pleasing both the crowd in the venue and the audience at home in equal measure.  This was by far and away the best performance of the night - nay, the best of both 2016 and 2017 EYD's.  I couldn't see how anyone would better this and it got my 1st place at the venue and at home, an entry totally deserving of the bookmakers' favourite tag.

From the bookies favourite to the Eurovision fan favourite across numerous websites, Olivia Garcia, the youngest contestant, had a lot to live up to and was thought to be the main challenger to Lucie.  She came across as very down-to-earth in her promo video but she appeared on stage dressed as though she was due to sing in JESC rather than the adult version - the gold all in one shorts outfit looked a bit tacky and it suggested that she should have been able to move around the stage easily, something she never did.  She also appeared to be a bit nervous in the venue but this wasn't really apparent on tv.  She actually came across better on screen and her vocals were very good but it was all very static and even boring to watch, with the flags that appeared on stage seemingly quite prominent at the Apollo but didn't come across visually that well when watched back.  Moving one leg up and down does not make a routine - I have to say that I was getting a bit bored by the time the flags appeared.  On the night I had this down at fifth but overall, after watching it back, I had Olivia in 3rd.

When I listened to Nate Simpson singing his studio version of this song, I always felt that he never quite had powerful enough a voice that this song deserved.  I wondered if he needed some decent backing singers all the way through, make this into a gospel anthem, as he did appear to struggle to hold this together himself.  In the venue itself, the group of people in the same section as us went mad for him when his name was announced, the reason for which became clear later.  The staging of the planets behind him was beautiful and hats off to him for still persevering on his own but it still sounded underpowered and on the edge of going out of tune at times, definitely being a bit breathy throughout.  For me, the song needed a 'bigger sound', whether that via a different vocalist or some more consistent backing - I felt it was the weakest song on the night and only made it to my 4th place overall due to the suspect vocals of two other acts...

After listening to the studio versions, I had Salena Mastroianni up there with Lucie Jones, vying for the win.  The most obviously uptempo pop song of the night, even a solid delivery of the staging and song would have given Salena a chance of the win.  Watching it inside the Apollo, what with the poor acoustics and Salena probably giving, along with Danyl, the most energetic dance routine of the night, this looked great.  Admittedly the presence of the four backing singers/dancers all dressed like sexy soldiers seemed very corny when considering the lyrical content of the song but that seemed to dampen the naffness of the words somewhat.  Salena gave it everything and visually it went down a storm, with the crowd giving Salena the biggest cheer of the night.  Even the lady beside me, who was a huge Nate fan, said that she thought that this entry would win.  I thought that Lucie still had the edge but based on what I saw and could just about hear, it looked as though Salena might take the title.  At this stage, I FaceBooked the OGAE UK group and asked those watching what their impressions were - they obviously had heard the true vocal nightmare that was Salena's singing from start to finish.  Looking at the on screen footage myself, a decent vocal performance had been totally sacrificed for the staging - she was off key for almost the entire song, perhaps bringing it back together during the chorus.  I have no idea what happened to her voice - maybe she had issues with the feedback a la Jemini?  Whatever it was, it was obvious why she didn't win - my second placing for her in the venue turned into 6th and last overall.

As for my voting?  For me, Lucie was by far the best on the night - she got

After that I took my loo break and totally missed the student piece and even The Vamps perform - I would have prefered to just have seen the performances of Loreen, The Common Linnets, Dami Im and Måns Zelmerlöw shown again!  No idea why Joe & Jake couldn't have performed their new song, seeing they won EYD 2016.  And why we had the filler about why Australia is in Eurovision and not anything to do with Jamala, who is the reason why we are in Kyiv this year, is anyone's guess.  It was good to see "Love Love, Peace Peace" again though...

And so, after twenty minutes of filling, we got to the announcement of who won:

Based on what I saw in the venue and then saw back on the recorded footage, there was really no doubt that Lucie deserved to win with her amazing entry.  The only one I felt that, on the night, could have taken it from her was Holly but the right result ensued, although there were some disgusting booing from some sections of the standing section.  It wasn't just me who heard it and I could not believe it - even if it was disappointed fans who felt that someone else should have won, it was still a horrible thing to happen.  It was suggested online that it could have been 'Mooing', which sounds ridiculous but Lucie's character in 'Rent' sings a song where she has to moo ("Over The Moon").  My thoughts about both of these theories:

• If I am being generous and it was a Rent 'in joke' about that song, it is best not to repeat it outside of the show as it sounds too much like BOOING, not MOOING;
• I am 99% certain though that it was BOOING by fans who were being childlike and voicing their upset in the basest way possible.  Rather than being adults and just accepting that their favourite didn't win, leaving the venue and then maybe bleating about it on social media or in the pub with their 'friends', they decide that jeering and booing is the way to go.  Do you know what I say to that?

Okay, rant over!  I hope that none of the fans who read this blog actually participated in that atrocious behaviour ...

That nadir of the evening aside, I had the pleasure of an unexpected meeting with two Eurovision songwriters.  Remember how I said that the group to the side of me (two ladies and a young man) really went into overdrive when Nate walked on stage?  They had a close connection to the guy in the middle of this website picture:
I got to speak with Pete Barringer and also with one of the other songwriters in the block of twenty (Christopher Wortley - fourth from the right, bottom row) briefly as we were getting ready to leave.  DWB Music Ltd as a songwriting team actually had a hand in Holly and Olivia's songs along with Nate's but what I found fascinating was that they have songs competing in Eurovision NFs everywhere - Christopher is still in with a shout in Lithuania and Moldova, whereas Pete is still involved in Poland and Czechia.  I have wished them good luck with all of their entries - maybe there is a good chance of a Brit sitting somewhere in the Green Room in Kyiv...

Something I did this year that I didn't last was join in with one of the after-event drink affairs - the OGAE UK soiree was at The Hop Poles pub in Hammersmith:
A big thank you to James Sheen for yelling across the room to attract my attention and allow me to ease myself in gently before chatting to lots of people I had spoken to previously, including OGAE UK President Alasdair Rendall, and also to those I had never spoken to in person before (Anthony, Nikki and Layla were my last port of call and kept me chatting until after 1am!).  There's some who I saw and still didn't pluck up the courage to chat to - I'm quite shy in person, really, it's true!

After a welcome night's rest at my hotel, this year's NF trip was all but over - just a trip back to Bristol via Paddington Bear Station:
There was a nice bonus too at the end of the 30 hours that we had spent in London - not only did I get in for free but my partner Ellen did too!  Remember I pointed out the panel's podium being a bit in our way?  As the venue's organisers weren't aware at the time of the ticket's sale that there would be a restricted view from the accessibility section we were sat in, they kindly refunded the price of the one ticket we paid for, so Eurovision : You Decide 2017 was free for us!  Okay, free if you forget the train fares, the hotel costs, the taxi fares - but that was so worth it!  We both had a superb time and I am already hoping for a EYD 2018...


My thoughts on it all?  The only downside was the acoustics from where we were sitting - not good at all but I was there for the experience of the National Final.  If I wanted a great view of what was going on and superb sound quality, I would have stayed at home and watched it on my 55" HD tv and cranked up the soundbar!  Having said that, it was, like last year, a thoroughly enjoyable experience and the craic was amazing.  As for the result?