It was a night of numbers at ESC2018. We had the 1500thsong performed by Alexander Rybak, and another ten songs through to the Grand Final. We had four presenters who are fun to watch, but a bit giddy at times and having to deal with a dodgy script in places. Still, they are entertaining to watch. The show was fast-moving and once again I enjoyed watching the live stream without commentary. But numbers aside, what else did we learn?
We saw the first toilet roll holder dress of the contest this year – frock horror!
There was a reference to ‘Allo ‘Allo! by one of the presenters
Then there was a reference to Oprah!
The masculine roar from the audience was back
There wasn’t any booing for Russia this year
The singers were once again abandoned by their backing singers
I still think the hashtag reads as ALLA BOARD…
…last night I might have changed it to I AM BORED!
That said – OMG – that semi-final was hard work! In all my years of watching the ESC, I don’t think I’ve ever been so underwhelmed by the thing I love! Boy oh boy were there some stinkers –and some shocks. Romania and Russia’s perfect record of getting to the final came to an end. I was shocked that Romania didn’t make it through with the song, but not so as a consequence of the rather bonkers staging! Then there was Russia with a terrible vocal, and similarly weird staging.
Sweden stole the show for me (my Swedish bias aside!). It was just classy, and looked great on the telly, didn’t it!? My napkin was 7/10, but I’ll take that – it was better than I was expecting – and I really didn’t think that Australia would make it, but they did. So here are the next ten songs which now complete the Grand Final line-up on Saturday…
I guess the next thing to do is to top-up the twenty qualifiers with the ‘Big 5’ and host country Portugal.
Portugal
It’s a laid back affair from the hosts this year. I like it. A bit like Lithuania this year, the vocal has that slightly irritating croaky/breathless vocal. But you’ve got love a bit of pink hair…
France
I’d be chuffed if this song won the whole thing. I downloaded the song when it won the French national final – so I’ve got the full version. What’s being performed, effortlessly, is the ESC edit…
Classy and cool. Merci!
Germany
This package packs a punch. Strong song and fab staging. Could be a top ten finish for Germany. Best entry from them in years…
Italy
This song will close the Grand Final. A song with a socially conscious message – a pity that it’ll be lost on us when we don’t speak Italian! A good effort from Italy, with effective staging…
Spain
This song is a bit of a Frozenduet. This real-life couple do a cute performance of a decent ballad. That said, the producers have placed it second in the draw, and so any chance it might have had has been killed-off. Same for the entente cordiale between Portugal and Spain!
And finally…
United Kingdom
Judging from the rehearsal footage, the UK’s SuRie gives it some welly with a confident performance, that is visually fairly interesting. A pity that the song is a bit bland. I fear the UK will not make it out of the bottom five once again, and it will be nothing to do with Brexit or anything else. It will be because we have sent a rather uninteresting song, once again…
I would be more than happy to be proved wrong, btw!
All in all these songs are a great addition to the Grand Final – particularly France and Germany.
Next update from me will be my final thoughts on the, erm, Grand Final!
Adeus por agora! 🙂