Phil: Well his first run through was a complete dogs breakfast. There was lots of choreography attempted in this one – they have some sort of contraption on stage which in the middle eight they lock their feet into and do lots of leaning…. they then, at this point, completely cock it up and run into each other … I think it is safe to say that it has either been under-performed or it just looks silly, Sakis Rouvas then proceeded to stumble … So they had another go and, it got no better. Sakis got to the middle eight, they locked their feet into the contraptions and you hear the clicking over the microphones. The backing singers then turn round the stage contraption, he leaps off and breaths heavily throughout the last 50-60 seconds of the song…
There is just too much going on here for it to look any good, he seems to be straining at the notes towards the end and it just looks under rehearsed and messy!!
It’s all you expected and even less!!
Franko: Now regular readers of this column will know that I’m not a great fan of Mr Rouvas and his brand of Saturday Night Swine Flu, but I harbour deep in the darkest recesses of my soul a sneaking regard for this. Since 2004 he’s learned to sing and dance (after a fashion) ably assisted by a troupe of four and a backing singer banished the back of the cavern.
He looks like the Fonz these days. He overuses the jumping off the plinth gimmick a bit doing it no less than three times. The whole gang of them get on the plinth near the end and strap their feet in to do another gimmicky dance routine to defy gravity. It’s pretty effective but moving the plinth around is a tad clumsy (a bit like the ridiculous book last year) and indeed at one stage he came a cropper and fell over.
Undeterred though he rose and redid the thing better. It’s bound to qualify for the final simply because it’s Greece and they have many “loyal supporters” around the confines of Europe and predictably it will be in the final shakeup when the votes come in. I didn’t get Greece last year but I DO get this which leaves me slightly worried that there’s a chance I’ll be feasting on kebabs every day for a fortnight next May.