| May. 18th, 2005 @ 03:22 pm And so it begins.. |
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The shows starts with Macha in a emerald green outfit and Pasha in a regular suit with a grandfather collar and a green motif setting off Macha's dress. Then there's Hopa (cossacks), energic folk dancing, a Soviet syle military choice DZL (heavy metal ballet). Then the rules are explained. The postcards are annoymous and like last year so unless there is somethiong special in them, I will ignore them.
AUSTRIA
This was signalled as being "Albania" on screen (oops!). The performance is slik, the costumes are the same as before (a pinafore and tracksuits). Very energetic, well performed, yodelling. This is still a serious contender to qualify.
LITHUANIA
Laura in a sexy white dress and knee length boots. Some very nice and simple choreography. The Lovers are in black. The stage has some nice red search light effects and white stars. Laura looks great and sings well. If this was one of the last 5 songs to be performed, it might well qualify, butI don't fancy it's chances from this draw.
PORTUGAL
I now see every song is being introduced as "Albania". The first really poor performance of the day. Rui can't be heard (he's singing far too low). Luciana sings well but looks ridiculous. She looks like she had a bad hair day and put on a baseall cap but the hair still can't be controlled. The dancing is far too much and distracting. A certain non-qualifier.
MOLDOVA
The main is focus on the singer. Now the guitarists are emphasising the "heys" in the song. There's lots of mad running around. Grandma can now clearly be seen early in the show sitting on her rocking chair. Grandma walks up as is introduced as "My Grandma" by the singer. The Ukrainian girls around me love this. It won't get one vote west of Vienna, but it's got a serious chance to qualify from Eastern European votes.
LATVIA
The boys have lovely white jackets and shirts over jeans as they start on stools. The short one (with a nice orange motif on his jacket) walks up then other bigger one follows, they do the chorus in sign-lanuage but the harmonies are not as sweet as earlier in the week. I don't see this qualifying.
MONACO
Lise looks a little shiny in the face (more blusher please!) but the red and pink dress looks stunning. She looks nervous at times but really belts out the song. If Eurovision traditionalists vote this will do well but this is not a qualifier for me.
ISRAEL
Shiri in her pink satin curtains dress has three backing singers in black and a piano and guitarist on stage. This is so much better than the ballads that went before and the performance is strong, warm and attractive. I think that this will qualify, but I seem to be in a minority.
BELARUS
The costume changes are great, the dancing is wonderful but today the voice was a huge disappointment. Angelica looks stunning but she needs to sing a lot better than this. I'm VERY disappointed. This is no longer a certain qualifier.
A break.
NETHERLANDS
OK I take it back. Today Glennis has been squeezed much more tightly into the dress and looks great. (she looked FABULOUS at the welcome party in a black cocktil frock) and I felf slightly guily for being so unkind earlier this week. There are lovely white search lights as a backdrop, Glennis sings magnificently. Now a sure fire qualifier.
ICELAND.
Selma wears a red two piece, with knee length shorts (NOT flattering) and a silly red hood, which she pulls back. Today it left a silly gold leaf on her forehard which was very distracting. This is lively, well choeographed and will almost certainly qualify, but it's far from a winner. It just lacks that certain something.
BELGIUM
Dark suit, red shirt, dark stage. Nuno grabs the mike and walks upstage halfway through. It has tons of emotion and Nuno is singing much better than before, but this nice and sweet song belongs in a musical and it won't qualify.
ESTONIA
Lots of energy, it's all in tune and the dancing is simple and effective. Given that teenagers will be disproportially high in the telvoting, this might scrap in, but it's still one sandwitch short of a picnic for me.
NORWAY
Bloody hell this is powerful on screen. An orange flag on the mike stand and lots of sharp camera swoops. I don't like it, I don't want it to win, but there's no question; this will qualify.
ROMANIA
Long pause before this started (this is the most difficult set change of the semi). Luminita is a green an white boustier over jeans. Loads of dry ice. Luminita is missing camera shots all over the place and she still looks silly drumming. There's the angle grinding noise. This could well go the way of Belgium 2004. No charisma on camera murdering a good song. In with a slim chance of qualifying only.
HUNGARY
Lots of enery with everyone in black (the singer is in a beautiful black blouse and half dress half shorts). The low register here is badly off key at times. It is eye catching, it will qualify, but not a winner based on this.
FINLAND
Geir in a lovely pale blue t-shirt under a white jacket and jeans. The backing singers in white. There's some lovely soft focus camera moments. The backing singers give some very effective and simple framing of Geir who is note perfect. If there's a God in Eurovision heaven this will qualify. Best vocal of the day (tied with Glennis).
The Green room break announces that you can now vote for your favoute Eurovision song on the official site...cue the build up to Copenhagen.
MACEDONIA
Martin in a pale pink jacket, a tshirt and jeans. The girls have scrubbed up well but look rather frosty and nervous on stage. Martin looks awful as he tries to dance, and he doesn't make eye contact with the camera. Not a qualifier.
ANDORRA
And the award for the most improved performance from the reheasals goes to Andorra. There's a gothic theme to the clothes. Marian in a gold ball gown and the now topless male dancers with blackened eyes, There's fan twirling a plenty, and the choreography is much better on screen. The screaming at the end is still bad. (Can someone please turn down Anabel Conde's microphone). If they get this right, it could cause a surprise.
SWITZERLAND
The girls in white. The stage looks great, and it sounds great. There's a real kick ass ending to this and it gets a great reaction. Another sure fire qualifier.
CROATIA
Boris is a beautiful black suite with a white shirt and tie. The girls in their porno-bridal look. Boris needs to stop squinting at the camera but the sound is magnificent. One Balkan song will qualify and this is it.
BULGARIA
Welcome to a town called Dullsville, actually no, you've passed Dullsvile and kept going for another 10 miles. The lead singer is still in his pyjamas. and there loads of unnecessary shots of the band. No effects, no drama, a boring staging. How to make 3 minutes seems like three hours.
IRELAND
I'll do a LONG post on this later...
SLOVENIA
Omar looks good and sounds better than he did all week. White tshirt and light pants with a black jacket that looks like a bird swallowed a lot of mercury and then shat on it. It's much better at the cresendo, another huge improvement. Don't write this off.
DENMARK
Pink shirt, dark suit and sneakers (a real fashion faux pas for me) on Jakob. He delivers the song very well. He smiles and is charming. The problem is that everyone likes this but no one loves it, and it would have done well with juries( who gave marks to every song) but with televoters where you only vote for your favourite, this will lose out.
POLAND
Ivan in a white jacket etched with maroon. The dancing girls in the same colours. This looks GREAT on stage. It's got more energy than a flea after 10 red bulls. GREAT reaction. Another qualifier I think.
Our hiosts have changed clothes and they signal the start of televoted by ringing tubular bells. The postcards were done from today's performances.
IRELAND
On the good side, it sounds great (even the backing girls are in key). The routine is the best it has been, but the changes I hoped for are not there. Joe's "cheeky chappie" grin would be better if it was a wink. The string stabs in the song which were supposed to be sharp camera changes are not working. There is is one big problem; the backing dancers look great in revealing back and gold out and Joe is fine in a black jacket black tshirt with a gold pattern in jeans. HOWEVER Donna looks awful in a black dress with gold edging which is totally unflatting and makes her look like a badly packed parcel. The black thigh length boots are ok but the dress HAS to be changed. Donna looks fat (which she isn't). Her hair is fine. We're in with shout though, I spoke to several people here and they liked it a lot.
Lots of people in red throwing shapes for the interval. I now need to eat (I've survived on party food and water for 24 hours), if I was in prison I'd be better fed!
I will name my 10 finalists after I see the show in the hall tonight and hear the crowd reaction. |
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