On my first blog post this year I said that Sweden know how to do Eurovision, and boy did they do Eurovision last night!
Staging – amazing.
Presenters – amazing.
Some performances – amazing. Some of which I know we weren’t expecting!
As tends to be done every year, the history book really was off the shelf as there was a nice nostalgic montage of clips from the vaults to remind us of the history and longevity of the ESC.
Watching the performances for the first time – as I know a few of you are doing similar to me this year – made for an unexpected evening and a highly enjoyable semi-final. I had a bit of a jealous twinge seeing the spectacle and the audience having such a fab time. That said, being in front of the telly was where I wanted to be, drinks and nibbles on hand.
Watching from home with my dear friend and Eurofan, Brian Singleton, is a joy as always. And a bit more exciting for him as Ireland have got it going on this year.
I mentioned to you yesterday that Eleni, Eric and Chanel were the three interval acts for the first semi-final. Rather bizarrely they opened the show, so they were the opening acts rather than the interval acts. A bit confusing! Mind you, it certainly got the Euro party started, raising the energy in the arena and it translated to us watching from home/elsewhere. Johnny Logan popped-up during the voting window to cover Loreen’s Euphoria. A nice orchestral version from Eurovision royalty.
A good Eurovision week becomes a great Eurovision week when the presenters are on top form. From the first words they said, Petra Mede and Malin Åkerman had the audience on their side, particularly on Petra’s side. Hosting for the third time she is a clear fan and crowd favourite – because she’s brilliant. She’s natural, funny, on message and a safe pair of hands. If she were an entrant, Petra would win by a country mile! 😀
Joined by a suitably assured Malin this year, there wasn’t one moment of cringe. The script was * genius *. All the gags landed, and we were all laughing along. Love how the set pieces of supposed spontaneous interaction were clearly scripted, but done very naturally.
So, what things did we learn from the first semi-final?
A lot of performances had an obelisk of some kind on stage for the singers to interact with/fall off. For some it was an obstacle too far…
Backing dancers were out in full effect for most entries…
Speaking of which, is there an EBU male nipple allowance these days? …
A lot of backing dancers were channelling covid-time vibes with hoodies and face masks – all a bit random…
It looked a bit odd when the solo singers were on stage alone…
We did have a couple of sightings of the lesser spotted backing singers – yay!
The Billy brigade were out in force, as Serbia made it through to the grand final…
The backing track was clearly doing a lot of the heavy lifting for some singers, including Cyprus (watch it back!)…
Poland was a hot mess – channelling Gaga, Taylor, and Beyoncé wasn’t a great look…
Hera’s song is called Scared of Heights and ironically she had to descend a steep set of stairs from quite a height…
We were not bowled-over by Moldova.
Some observations on a few of the performances…
Lithuania really did add to the song with fantastic visuals and choreo – it amped up a song I already liked and was a no-brainer to get through…
Croatia was very well staged, and I hadn’t realised that there is a crowd-pleasing singalong hook for us to join in on…
Finland isn’t worth my time. I like marmite, but I didn’t like this performance; all kinds of odd – a joke that wasn’t funny for me …
And yes, Croatia is currently the favourite, but for me (with no bias) the two stand out performances of the night were Ireland and the UK…
I mean, Ireland, can we talk! I loved the Maleficent stylings and the cosplay from Bambi Thug and their backing dancer/devil. Brilliant staging and vocals. Love that Bambi has a screaming vocal coach with them in Malmö! It was an entertainingly W-T-Thug moment. I hope the kids had been put to bed! Mind you, you’d see similar ghoulish figures on Doctor Who.
Nobody (I’m generalising) had expected what Ireland delivered on stage last night. Just brilliant. Brian is giddy with tipsy today, as are other Irish friends of mine. It’s a game changer for concept and performance at ESC – I just hope it doesn’t get copied too much in future years. It will be, as it’s iconic after one ESC performance. Makes Lordi look like pantomime!
And then there was the UK’s Olly Alexander, standing in his popstar light and del-i-ver-ing. The whole package was as impactful as Ireland, but in a totally different way. Stunning choreo, staging and camera effects (with some of it clearly pre-recorded – I mean how did Olly get from his box to the stage with one camera shot?).
The performance from all on stage stood out because it was clearly inhabiting a queer space, and the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) are cool with that. Not kitsch, not camp, but a masculine queerness that didn’t feel like a trope of old. Go queer Eurovision! Scott and Rylan in commentary on BBC1 got a bit carried away, saying it was the best Eurovision staging * ever *. Well, answers on a postcard on that one. It’s definitely the UKs best ever staging. Well done to all the creatives involved.
If you’re interested in Olly Alexanders Road To Eurovision 2024, you can watch it now on BBC iPlayer. It was an illuminating (and poignant in places) 30 minutes. It reveals the pressure he has faced because he did not boycott the ESC due to what is playing out beyond the ESC bubble. Great to see the extensive rehearsals involved in what came together so brilliantly on stage last night.
So, the first semi-final was all about songs, staging and spectacle. This is what we’re here for, and we’ll do it all again for the second semi-final on Thursday night…
Kom an!
(Bring it on)
xx