There’s been so much talk about this. When I posted my Countdown on my Facebook page I was surprised by the level of dislike there was for Ira’s song. Opinions were very strong. I’m not sure what it is about her and the track that is making people feel this way but something certainly isn’t right about the whole Maltese approach.
We first see Ira on two large screens, and then a projected image of her face before seeing her in the flesh, starting way back on this enormous stage. As she parades towards the front she’s in a hugely unflattering brown cape. There are some projections hitting this, similar to the effect SVT created with Wiktoria in this year’s Melodifestivalen, but something’s not working here.
The projections are a bit too subtle to really see what ought to be happening so it just looks really odd. There’s a floor projection of a swirl of water that Ira ‘walks’ on (that’s original) with a dancer mincing around beside her. Eventually the cape comes off to reveal another unflattering frock beneath it. Ira strolls to the front of the stage, stands slightly off centre, and finishes without a flourish.
If the build-up felt a bit wrong this feels completely awkward. It’s not the WOW they’re going for in the tagline of their song title. Right now, if I was Ira, I’d be wishing I had kept my original colours and stuck to singing about, rather than being, a chameleon.
Monty x