I’m not liking this early start. Up before 8.30 this morning to get to the arena early for the first rehearsals of the Big 5 and hosts Denmark. We weren’t exactly early to bed either, but what a great night.
After seeing all the runs through yesterday we needed to get into town. The transportation – whilst free on either the shuttle buses or with a city pass – isn’t exactly working that well. We’ve tried as we might to get the shuttle bus into the venue but it just never comes, or when it does is in the wrong direction. So what did we do to get back last night? We thumbed a lift on the Macedonian tour bus, of course! These things are very much par for the course at Eurovision. Once we got to their place we popped into the lobby and I had one of my most serendipitous meets of the season. Thee we’re TwinTwin from France, freshly arrived and larking about. We had a quick chat and photo with Patrick, my husband to be, before heading off for dinner.
We popped into the Euro Fan Cafe after that just in time to catch last year’s winner Emmelie de Forest playing an open air gig in the Courtyard which they’ve named Emmelie’s Forest. Having strayed into her bushes we were highly entertained by her tunes, which are actually pretty good. I would buy her album, you know, but maybe if she’s reading this she might send me one for giving it a plug. Whilst I’m at it I’m a big fan of Taittinger Champagne and most flavours of Pringles. Thanks. Send a message and I’ll forward my address.
We hot-taxied it over the EuroClub after that which had opened up it’s larger wing, the Store Vega. We’ve been limited to the Lille Vega so far. The new room is very lovely, much better as a venue, and it felt as if it was beginning to all take shape last night. We had some great performances; Sanna from Sweden gave a mini concert of most of her previous Melodifestivalen entries, looking stunning and sounding very good indeed. Carl from Norway sang, Tijana from Macedonia (I love you darlings, she purred; she’s going to end up as the new Zza Zza Gabor); Cristina Sacrlat from Moldova, Kasey from Ireland (having cheered up a bit since the press conference, ooh she seemed right mardy there, so she did), and a few numbers from the lovely Maltese. Once the artists were done we had a fabulous, if lengthy, stage show from Eurofalsh, the troupe of dancing boys and girls who entertain weekly in TelAviv Eurovision night Evita. They had out so much work into costumes and routines they brought the house down. I suspect there’s more to come from them this week. I suspect there’s more to come from me too…
Monty x