There are people in this press room who are now convinced that Rybak is going to win this contest after seeing the run-through. It is, I have to say, very professional, and when you look at his song and performance in isolation in the second semi final – first on – you can imagine Rybak picking up his violin and walking into the Grand Final.
It’s better than anything else that I will see in the next two days but, and this is going to be the kicker here? Especially with all of the hype over Israel, and all of the hype over this … and when (not if) it gets to the final, how will it stack up?
Alexander has the graphic overlays on the camera, hits all his marks, gets the violin at the right moment. There *will* be pyro at the correct moments, it gets under your skin in the same way a tapeworm does … and it’s also an earworm – by that I mean the hook will get the televoters going “blimey” and they will pick up the phone.
The juries, however, will see that it’s not a well-crafted song, it’s very repetitive, it’s not got hit potential and mark it down. Will the exponential curve kill its chances in the final?