More hamstering

As you all probably remember, Irish singer Ryan Dolan suggested the infamous hamster was hovering when we had a little chat with him at the Irish party the other day. It was a good suggestion, but we felt the issue needed further investigation, and who else to turn to than to the boss himself, Ruler of All Things Eurovision (or something), Christer Björkman?

Just like young mister Dolan, Björkman seemed a bit befuddled by the question, but eager and intrigued to find out. After thorough consideration, he reached the conclusion it had to have a swallowed a copy of the record of his very own Eurovision entry in Malmö back in 1992, I morgon är en annan dag. This could actually be the case. Or could it have attacked one of the paintings the 'she' in the lyrics of his entry painted, that he never got to see? No wonder he never got to see them, really, if the hamster had the munchies all the time...

As we were about to thank Christer for his kind cooperation in solving this important mystery, he said he had to show it to his colleague, viewing room producer Stuart Barlow, and called him over. He suggested the hamster had been "hit by an iron" - which sounds harsh, but might well be the truth.

While doing our research about this Stuart, as proper faux press always should, we also realised he's a great Nina Žižić impersonator, as shown in this video. We approve. Just a pity we didn't have our dubstep sign at the ready.

More on the Irish party

That was a good party. Nice food, as you can see in Jonas' post, lots of cider and some Irish Coffee (we'll never sleep now. Ah well).

An Irish Trad band did some Trad music (what a real Irish person would call "tourist music" because they don't actually listen to it), with the help of Ryan's drummers, who were scattered all over the pub looking for attendants who weren't clapping properly.

Our own Sam was the one they named and shamed.







Then Ryan performed his song - vocally solid, that's what I could pick up from where I was. The Moldovans were having a great time, while Nina Žižić was watching it with a rather unimpressed expression throughout the performance - or is this the Montenegrin way of having a good time? Ok, this isn't really interesting, I just like writing Nina Žižić.

Finally, we asked Ryan what he thinks the hamster (as shown in Sild's earlier rehearsal post) was doing. He thinks the hamster is "hovering" - great answer, really. Obviously Ryan is more than just a good singer/songwriter.

Wednesday afternoon rehearsals (rolling blog)

Right, banana socks at the ready! Tried out the hot lunch at Euroclub, and it was yums! I had tyttebær. And on to Finland...

FINLAND

Fittingly, the backdrop is a Las Vegas-y sign telling us how fabulous Krista is. She's joined by people that are not Velvet (but might be Jane Bogaert) covered in velvet coats (I bet Yami LOVES them), but the coats disappear towards the end. It's very lively and wedding-y, as you would expect. And yes, there IS a kiss at the end! A sloppy one, judging by how the kissee wipes her mouth afterwards... I wish the Macedonians had used the same trick.

There's a bit in the middle where the velveters turn into a massive chair and Krista tries to pick rose petals out of a rose, but it's apparently a bit hard to do...

I don't think any of this will change your view on this entry, really. If you liked it before, you'll like it, if you didn't, you won't. It's silly, colourful, fast and fun, and I'm glad it exists, but I can take it or leave it myself. She is a charmer, though, at least for three minutes, and may well hit a few hearts at home. I'm just glad I'm not sharing a hotel room with her, I bet it would be tiresome!

While waiting for the next run-through, we're googling duckface + spaghetti. Do try it.

I've only just realised Krista has a bandage on her knee. Was that there all the time, or did she just have an AO on stage? Some pyro is also added to this performance, of the shoot-fire-diagonally-left-right-type. Looks neat, but doesn't add a lot, really.

MALTA
We get lyrics in the back, which is probably handy, as Gianluca seems to be struggling with finding the right words and putting them in the right place... Is it going faster, is that what it is? Something has definitely happened!

The performance starts off with a rather traditional "band" set-up, with the people spread about on stage and Gianluca himself wandering about being very happy. He pops by the catwalk, and when he's back, the rest of the group have gathered on a park benchy thing like in the video.

Apart from the issues with the speed, and obviously some weird camera angles, as it is a first rehearsal, I thought this sold itself nicely, and he comes across as a sweet, charming guy-next-door.

And indeed, the second run-through doesn't seem quite as fast! Maybe they were testing out a smurf version for the next Smurfehits compilation.



OH NO, we bumped into cracker-hamster! Gigglefits galore! And obviously Yami had to try to re-renact it with his accreditation badge. Photographic evidence to come.

Meanwhile, Malta is definitely getting the little tweaks and sort-outs it needed, and they have all reason to be pleased with today. Even I am starting to squiddle my toes about it it!





BULGARIA
Well, I've been looking forward to this, haven't I... :-[

Stage is mostly red and white-ish blue (clearly a plot to secure a Dutch victory), and they start off drumming with wet drums to that nice splashy effect they had in 2007. The bagpiper looks like a mugger with hernia while crouching about on stage like a madman. And just when you think it's starting to look a bit more together, with some wall of drums action and general howling, the herniated mugger shows up with a MASSIVE feathered mask (or is it a hat?) of some sort. I think the term erm covers it nicely.

It really looks like the bagpipe mugger is carrying a pig's head in some shots... I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. Backing singers in traditional costumes have now been allowed to step into the limelight, they were nicely tucked away in the dark in the first run-through. And they've added barking chihuahuas!

To conclude, I think this is horrendous, but then I was always going to, so... Not sure what could've been done differently (apart from THROWING THE SONG AWAY), so all in all, it was a pretty good rehearsal, I'd say. And NI!

ICELAND
A very fitting background to this, with a dark view out to the sea, some houses on the sides and a big lighthouse in the centre. Sets a very nice atmosphere to the whole thing, similar to the video. Not much happening on stage, as you might expect, apart from four backing singers showing up out of nowhere for the keychange, and well sung, as you might also expect.

Not much more to say, really - this is looking pretty much like a finished product already. Apart from him not yet having been anywhere near scissors, obvi.

After wearing a white jacket for the first two run-throughs (and hence looking like Rui Bandeira here), Eyþor has now changed into a black one, so obviously trying out to see what works best. I'm really not sure what I'd advice them (just as well they're extremely unlikely to ever ask me then) - the black one looks much nicer, but it also makes him disappear slightly in the predominantly dark stage. Could orange be an idea?