First thing I have to say here – is DON’T jump on the bandwagon – you have probably all by now seen the ESCDaily video or other videos showing the first run through where, I am reliably informed, things went badly wrong with the mic failing on Lee and the screen not working, heard that and gone – yup, thats not a winner.
Which is what you would do, until you see what else is available or see through things.
What I saw was the first run through of the first rehearsal session a week before the contest. Things aren’t perfect (CF Kati Wolf and or several others this week) . The screens didn’t work and the microphone failed on Lee. What we didn’t see is how it looked on Camera ( something I have not seen either on any blog) or how the audio sounded (again, something I haven’t heard) – I think that was an average rehearsal of a good song – indeed a decent FIRST rehearsal of a good song – bear in mind that Sweden was all but written off with his dodgy hip and not smashing glass and yet people are still fawning over that – same with Kati and the 3.30 at Kempton.
They are professional enough to go into the viewing room and see it for what it was. A rehearsal for a live show in a weeks time. You lot won’t – but you damn well should!
Nick
So I’ve now seen a first run-through of the UK staging. I’m going to ignore the vocals, because arena sound tells us NUTHIN’ on this one, it’ll be one performance on Saturday night with the NDR sound technicians hopefully mixing it according to the serving suggestion on the back of the packet.
I’m going to ignore Blue’s suits, because frankly I’m no expert on haute couture myself and they may not be the stage costumes *anyway*.
All I’m going to say is that for my tastes, the staging concept is either a stroke of quiet genius or a stroke of quiet idiocy. It’s right on the borderline between confidence and arrogance, shouting to the peoples of Europe that for three minutes they’re NOT watching a television contest between broadcasters from 43 nations, oh dear me no, they’re at a three minute Blue concert. We’re Blue, vote Blue, you love us already otherwise you wouldn’t even be here.
It’s not a staging that would make me pick my phone up. But I’ve been wrong about Europe before, and I will be again. It’s made me doubt that there are even winning chances, in exactly the same way that France gave me no doubts whatsoever about two hours ago.