Phil: Well the curse of the Eurovision cold seems to have struck Verka – eeerm I mean Ani Lorak and vocally this is weaker than it was last time round – principally because of the cold I suspect.
Nothing much has changed visually and she still gets thrown on top of the mirrors 2/3 of the way through the song which is always a comedy moment waiting to happen. Being the consummate professional that she is, I don’t think that a cold will stop her from making a good fist of the next 20 minutes of her rehearsal period but unless she gets that voice sorted (which she probably will) – then she is in trouble. Assuming the Lemsip works, then she is definitely walking out of this bit and she is into the Top 5 with Sweden so far.
Nick: Right. Only one run through so far, and a couple of mini problemettes for the team. In minor news, one of the light boxes flashed about five seconds too late, completely ruining Karolina Backwards’ dramatic pose in front of it. They can fix that.
In less minor news, KB’s actually not in especially good voice here. I don’t *think* it’s enough to kill her chances, and I have to concede now that she really does have Winner Potential – but it would be nice to see a winner that has absolutely nothing at all wrong with it, and that would certainly involve a lead vocal that was spot on the mark. I need another run through of it, really.
I think I can start reviewing Sweden, too, now I’ve cheered up a bit. It’s gone back to the very, very first opinion I had of it – yeah, it’s a great song, but where’s the warmth in the performance? Where’s the little twinkle in the eye? The whole thing is so clean, so perfect, so sterile that you can actually smell the bucket of disinfectant that it’s been soaking in. It’s a performance to admire, but a difficult one to love. It’s not a potential winner, and I think it’s missing the top 5.
And back to Ukraine… that’s *much* better. MUCH better. Keep an eye on that one.