Julia Samoylova now atop her green and blue tinged mountain trying not to break. Three backing vocalists in white to the right hand side onstage but they are hardly picked out by the cameras. They are helping a LOT with the vocals and that, I suspect, is why they are featured visually albeit from a distance. Two dancers in white with the male one topless and, in contrast to the backing vocalists, are shown a lot. I normally dislike interpretive dancing but in this case I think it adds to the performance rather than distracts.
Julia’s vocal is fairly weak but just about convincing enough to not be a talking point and t’s worth noting she is hardy shown in close up. The handles of the wheelchair are in shot, just. It would be interesting to know the decision making process that went into the lack of wheelchair in the staging of this. Did Julia want the staging to not include much of it in the name of her art or did the delegation want to obscure it?
There are some trickling effect projections onto the dress in time to the beat during the verses. There are a lot of long shots depicting the dancing with Julia in the distance and only four or five closeups of her albeit some handled sensitively and she looks right into the camera. Perhaps more medium shots with the dancers and her would be more effective.
I’m reminded of Monika Kuszyńska from Poland who also proudly showed off her wheelchair a few years back and this does feel a little uncomfortable. The fact I’m writing his also uncomfortable, I need to the song, the performance and the singing. All three are distinctly average and I don’t think deserving of qualification.