Belarus is the right song at the right time for so many reasons. The shadow that Jacques Houdek cast over proceedings will have long since passed, Norway will still be forgotten and then these two stump up.
The song itself has been toned down slightly since the preview video – and by that I mean that it is somehow less grating towards the end by seemingly not repeating the same phrase over and over to cover a lack of words.
Naviband are on stage with a hovercraft hull that they stand on and perform. The backing singers are out of view, which seems to be a thing this year. The overall effect is that they are travelling though space or history – I’m not sure which – and it looks excellent.
They gel well together on stage, and their final performance on the telly was mesmerising for me because they gave off that key emotion … believability.
They are clearly having fun and loving what they are doing and that comes across. They could have been doing some running around the stage to make it more energetic, but they transmit enough life by interacting with each other on the Sealink Hoverspeed (again, go and search it, kids).
This is qualifying easily in my book.