Hurrah! After two hours in the accreditation tent this morning, I now have a laminated piece of plastic. It’s in a classy shade of pale buff, as opposed to the rather ostentatious gaudiness of the bright yellow P1s and P2s, it bears an F (for Fantastic, clearly), and a photograph that would scare Lordi. Roy tells me that when I was asked to smile, I actually visibly slumped. I am settling for an F, mostly because I never want to go within a million miles of that accreditation tent ever again in my entire life.
Dima Bilan and Sibel Tuzun sounded very muffled and bassy to me, but then I was in the accreditation tent and they were in the arena, so you’ll just have to trust the other mob on those two. As will I.
Tina Karol from Ukraine is fairly wonderful. She throws the kitchen sink at it, she has whirling dervishes and people with tambourines and red t-shirts with “Tina Karol” printed on them and she told me not to hide my bum away and show feeling every daayyyeeeeyyyyaaaaayyyyyyeeeyyyaaayyy with great success. I like her a lot and she’s the first thing I’ve seen this week that was worth a toss.
Lordi, in their turn, impressed me for about 49 minutes and 40 seconds of their allotted 50 minutes. They look damned scary, and although on stage they look a smidge static, I watched one run through on the screens and the camerawork is making it look fantastic.
And then they did the last run through, with pyrotechnics. And it looked, if I may say so, bloody ace! Well, except for the last 40 seconds when the Asda Value whizzbangs and camp Catherine wheels kicked in. I’ve just about stopped giggling like a little girl now. YLE there, destroying top class Finnish stagings since 1994.
I don’t care. I’m happy. I am F for Fantastic and I’m going on a boat trip next week. So there!