I’ve been thrown by an early lunch break. I was waiting for Croatia to post it with Austria only to find they were having an hour’s break. So I headed for a late lunch and I’ve missed them. Oh well. I’m not that keen on it anyway.
Austria has been on, singing a perfectly perfunctory run through of her song that is vocally sound, but just doesn’t really excite me. It’s a good choice of opener by SVT, though I’m still not pleased by the fact they have got to select its place but that’s another question. I don’t see it doing any business come the results though.
I went into the arena for the first time for Denmark. It’s much more intimate than we’ve had in recent years, but it works nicely. As well as the hanging pendant lanterns that rise and fall over the stage there are some geometrically shaped lights nears the ceiling that change colours and are picked up nicely in the sweep of the cameras on the long shots.
Denmark needs little work, a few technical things like camera angles but performance wise she’s there. I thought it was a little flat though, but of course it’s a rehearsal in an empty-ish hall. Vocally she’s very good. I still don’t see it as the winner though it could be the one that scores steadily and sneaks ahead.
Russia has just started though the audio is very quiet in the press centre. Dina looks old before her time in a frumpy frock but sounds terrific. The are two male backing singers who toss their balls into the audience; it’s not clear why or to what end. It’s the kind of thing you either like or you don’t. I don’t particularly, but objectively I still rate its chances.
Monty x