Ukraine has form in Eurovision full stop and after a landslide victory in Turin at the adult’s contest this May, many of us here on the ground in Yerevan suspect that they could easily claim victory here at Junior too.
The performance starts out with Zlata in the dark dressed in white and immediately draws you in. She connects well with the camera, which shows us here in the Press Centre how emotional she looks at certain moments.
Her costume contrasts well with the vivid background looking not unlike a fire storm that words appear on like they’ve been traced into condensation on a window… a question mark, the word ‘Wound’ in English, Volya or Freedom in Ukrainian… I want to make one thing clear – even taking what is happening in Ukraine out of the equation, this is a strong staging concept.
Considering what has been going on in Ukraine this year, the result on stage is all the more emotive and powerful. Trying to separate out life and art is never straight forward and while this deserves to do well on its own merit, I strongly suspect the televoting audience are going to repeat what we saw in May, especially given its favourable draw closing the show.
Some people here are saying we already know who has won and we’re now just waiting to see who comes second… I feel like that discounts Zlata’s obvious talent and minimalises a lot of hurt. Not going to lie, these run throughs have left me very emotional.