I was actually in the press centre before rehearsals started, but a technical issue with my internets took a few minutes to resolve (turn it off and on again, as it turned out. Who knew?). So I’m a smidge behind the times.
Israel worries me. Nadav looks rather beefy, like a rugby player in an ill-fitting three-piece black suit, possibly awaiting the count to find out whether he’s been successful in standing for the local council as the UKIP candidate. It’s a wrench of the imagination to think that he’s the kind of chap to be wailing unhappily at his mama for the first 35 seconds.
To be honest, I haven’t been 16 for several years now, but he also doesn’t look like he ought to be going out on the town with his chums looking like that either. It’s a fun song, not a job interview – not that golden boots are optimal job interview attire either.
I find it all very confusing. It’s well sung, sad in the sad bits, decently danced in the joyful bits, the stage looks good, Nadav’s chums absolutely look the part, and yet… and yet. It’s right down in my gut reaction that it doesn’t hang together as it should.
Latvia, much to my shock, looks and sounds great. It’s very arty, it’s very… still. There’s enough visual interest in the staging and backdrops that it doesn’t get boring, but you can’t take your eyes off the little lady in the enormous frock just standing centre stage singing and interpreting. It has its niche. It definitely has its niche.
I just sat there and watched that. Above shots, close up shots, wide shots, front shots, side shots, pan shots, fast cuts, lingering cuts. But for the whole 3 minutes, you draw a vertical line down the dead centre of your screen and Aminata is on it. It’s *really* clever camerawork and shot selection and worth looking out for. This bit of OnEurope is VERY impressed.