Phil: Having just hard-wired Roy (long hair being one of the few things that the EBU’s Svante Stockselius has not yet banned at Eurovision) AND nearly killed myself getting back to my seat in the air-conditioned press centre of lovelyness in time to see a performance that Nick informs me ‘has all the impact of a bag of feathers’. And that’s from someone who likes the song! And having seen a run-through on the screens, I am tending to agree with him. It totally passes me by – the wallpaper has been removed from the background and now, it just becomes, well, very very average really. It has lost everything that has made it the stand out song of the first six songs – it now has become a deflated shell of its former self and it somewhat, well, toilet-break music. Someone at VRT must say to them “get the wallpaper back” – because this song is sinking fast.
Nick: They’ve changed the wallpaper, to a sort of swirly white stuff on a black ground with orangey yellow surroundings. I don’t like it. As much as I enjoy this gentle little song that’ll get on your nerves, it loses 90% of what it had in the Belgian Eurosong heats by not having animated photos of 1910’s musicians on flock wallpaper behind the gang. For those Rons who like that kind of thing however, I smell a faint whiff of Live Music here. Pretty sure that at least the flute is being played into a Real Live Microphone. I’m disappointed with this – it’s got all the impact of a bag of feathers when it’s supposed to stick out a mile.
Franko: Hmm. Yet another one that is an acquired taste. Belgium having finished second in 2003 by singing in an imaginary language have tried the same tactic this year. Only this time instead of choosing subtle mature performers like Urban Trad were, they have gone for a girl who has clearly been smoking something unpleasant and sounds like a demented cuckoo. Vocally it’s not that unpleasant, but what it’s trying to achieve is far too pretentious for the kind of people who vote in this contest and it’s going to find itself come a cropper at the first hurdle ie voted out in the first semi-final. I’ve just seen what she’s going to wear and it’s another mistake in red and white which will only add to the deranged effect on stage.
You’re probably sensing that there hasn’t been a great deal to cheer about so far today and you’d be right. If Europe bothers watching the second half of this contest, they may well flock towards the songs contained in it….