Good morning from, well, not Rotterdam (Notterdam?). While I'm sure you're all waiting for the Big 5 (will there be an LED middle finger? A giant inflatable baguette?) which Jordy will bring from the real press centre later on, here's a bunch of mostly microstates first.
🇬🇷 | Greece
After all those overly coloured entries, the minimalist purple-white-grey theme works wonders and the stage (and Stefania) look stunning. The transparent dancers trick will be the talk of the day and they've impressed me where other trickeries failed. Not quite sure that Stefania is a strong/experienced enough singer to carry this, but maybe she's holding back.
Sedond and third runthrough and she's singing better (not great, but adequately). This is the best rehearsal I've seen of all - one criticism is that the 'rotating screen' effect while she's on the stairs is already done before (by Sergey, at least). Other than that, transparent is the new black. Or is it 'invisible'?
🇨🇿 | Czech Republic
The first thing I notice is that Benny's glasses are very reflective, both lenses and frame. Or did they get steamed up in the mask-mandatory dressing room? There's nothing exciting about this act, it's just Benny & co having fun on stage. He's very likable (both in the attractive meaning and the charismatic meaning) and seems to be quite the professional, visually and vocally. I don't know if this will be remembered by song 17, but I'm liking what I see.
Actually there is something exciting - a really clever way to reveal the female dancers who join the male dancers in the second verse. One of them just appears out of thin air. Magic! There's also a sideways jumping routine when they sing the title, that's going to become a gif as soon as it's allowed. Something like this.
Last runthgough was without glasses. Probably better this way (said the blogger with glasses)
🇪🇪 | Estonia
Trying to find something nice to say here, ok: Everything about this reminds me of Lithuania 2019, and that very nearly qualified (the Irish televoters loved it!). And it's wise of Uku to use loud backing vocalists, because during the first line of the first verse you can hear him alone and he's really not great. The moon backdrop is kinda nice too, as is the ripply floor effect... running out of nice things to say here, help me!
The online press centre are chatting about coffee, that's nice too.
🇸🇲 | San Marino
The main question I've been concerning myself was - would it be possible for the real Flo to perform without having rehearsed? And the answer is - yes, Faux Rida just walks in and sings his bit, never finding a camera and is just there - something that should be easy enough to replicate without any previous training. Hell, I could do it.
Besides him, there is a lot going on - Senhits everywhere, including the LED floor, and everyone crowding on a rotating stand, like a giant Lazy Susan.
The're really doing the most to cover Senhit's lack of singing abilities and the rather average song, and it's working, but on Saturday it's still going to be mostly a novelty. The last runthrough brings the pyro, including on the catwalk box which works really nicely.
Oh, and the fully-masked-bar-star-shaped-eye-hole dancers are terrifying. Like some kind of clown ninjas. At one point they're surrounding Senhit and staring at her like they're about to murder her, but so far thankfully she survived.
🇲🇹 | Malta
Well, they tried. They really tried. They brought in their best gun. But the whole thing still feels very... Maltese. As in, amateur - although perhaps less so than 2019. Destiny is cute and her new burrito-wrap dress will make sure she's noticed, but you can still tell that she's a bit too young for this song.
The best moment here is perhaps the vertical split screen during the first chorus with lots of hands doing the familiar routine. Othere than that, there's not much else to say - it's very much focused on Destiny with lots of different solid colour backgrounds. One of those is very yellowy yellow, and to my eyes it's really not the best background for pink and silver dresses. It's not bad (and the pyro curtain helps a bit), but if I had lots of money on this to win I'd be worried. Maybe live audience will help and she'll own it when it really matters, so not all is lost for them.
Refusing to help on Estonia, you already said too much.
ReplyDeleteHarsh but fair
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