Semi 1 - Dress rehearsal 3 + Predictions

One big big hello from Basel!

The third and final dress rehearsal of semi 1 starts at 15:00 CET. I will be following it from the media centre where it is shown on big screens. Don't expect another exhaustive liveblog like yesterday. Instead I will mostly focus on camerawork and how artists connect and perform vocally.

I might add a bit more background info about other show contents but I will separate that again for people who still want to avoid spoilers.

Finally, I will make a prediction of what I believe the top 15 ranking will be tonight. Yes, I know, this can and will be used against me. What do I have to lose except for my credibility, right?

I was just walking from the nearby Aldi to the media centre past the arena where people were entering to watch the final rehearsal and they were actually blasting Quand je te rêve. This is not a drill.

The show has started! It's really weird that they didn't start with The Code's Welcome to the show, let everybody know, but hey, you can't have it all.

01. Iceland

Camerawork: Bit messy but I guess that's the point, it fits the song very well.

Artists: Shouty. Endearing but forgettable.

02. Poland

Camerawork: Perfectly matches the energy of the song and performer.

Artist: Obviously holding back a bit, still outstanding.

03. Slovenia

Camerawork: Good balance of close-ups and wider shots that show the gorgeous backdrop.

Artist: He has sounded better before, but is likely just also saving the best for when it matters.

04. Estonia

Camerawork: When the 'fan' enters the stage they really make it look very convincing with purposefully wobbly camera shots. Many people will believe it's real.

Artist: It's impressive how consistently he's off-key throughout.

XX. Spain

Camerawork: Still very messy, an awful lot of totally random shots that take the energy out of the song and performance.

Artist: Too much is happening and even the diva can't cope with it all.

05. Ukraine

Camerawork: Really quite wonderful.

Artist: Better than yesterday although the lead singer still seems rather nervous.

06. Sweden

Camerawork: You know what's coming.

Artist: Also an improvement on yesterday - more convincing and engaging.

07. Portugal

Camerawork: A lot more dynamic than you'd expect and really solid but it's all just... there.

Artist: The lead singer sounds tired. Just one more time after this, buddy.

08. Norway

Camerawork: Jacqline knows.

Artist: He had to push to go for that final vocal but he made it. Barely.

09. Belgium

Camerawork: Some unique angles and movements that elevate the song and performance excellently.

Artist: His voice cracked a bit in that final crucial note which is unfortunate but very good otherwise.

XX. Italy

Camerawork: For the first time I wonder if this is supposed to be a duet or not.

Artist: I genuinely feel sorry for him and hope he is or will be well. And I mean that in the nicest of ways.

10. Azerbaijan

Camerawork: All over the place, which again is appropriate for the song and performance.

Artist: Perfunctory.

11. San Marino

Camerawork: Apparently the LED background visual of the statue chewing gum is an ad for a Seletti design lamp.

Artist: A lot is going on but nothing is happening.

12. Albania

Camerawork: How many wide shots do you want? - Po.

Artist: Kolë doesn't blink once during his speech. Scary but impressive. Beatriçe is a treasure.

For what it's worth, Albania got the loudest cheer here in the media centre so far.

13. Netherlands

Camerawork: This looks like a one-take and it's visually stunning. So many little details - look behind Claude when he does a Cathérine Ferry and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Artist: Very vulnerable, but he succeeds at using it to his advantage.

14. Croatia

Camerawork: Lots of visual effects. They went all out but I guess I'm just too old for this by now because die Zeit ist einsam und ich bin müde.

Artist: Bless his soul.

XX. Switzerland

Camerawork: Mesmerisingly beautiful in some parts but in others it just looks as if they ran out of money and/or ideas. Gorgeous with the audience phone lights at the end.

Artist: Not always vocally nailing it but better than yesterday.

15. Cyprus

Camerawork: The ending is the best part (and not just because it's over).

Artist: He goes off key at the end of almost each line :(

Other points (spoilers!)

• The canned applause is strong throughout the show, also during performances.
• The lower thirds first show the slogan United by music for about two seconds before shifting to the running order number and country name. Nice touch.
• Sandra is very professional, Hazel tries her best to be funny but is tied to a mediocre script.
• After the first recap, the hosts look at the first two Eurovision editions in Switzerland, showing a snippet of Lys Assia's 1956 performance. This culminates in a song performed by Hazel and Sandra. It's a combination of Wicked and a Swiss version of the 2013 Swedish Smorgasbord interval act. And if that all doesn't sound Swedish enough, Sandra and Hazel are eventually joined by... Petra Mede who is performing as William Tell. I am NOT making this up. I am absolutely loving this but it will have its haters too.
• Afterwards we get a video montage of the opening ceremony where Hasel can finally be her own genuine self. She is amazing.
• The delegations in the greenroom are not seated in performance order nor alphabetically and I cannot deal with this right now.
• After the second recap, the lines are closed. We see an overview of records in Eurovision: highest notes, oldest performers, highest hats, most la's in a song (it's not La La La!), and so on. Very entertaining. We get a top 10 of most streamed Eurovision songs with random audience shots of people not engaging at all.
• After this we get a video message by Céline Dion. It really is very emotional and heartfelt. This is followed by a rendition of Ne partez pas sans moi by past Eurovision artists (you know, some of the many past participants that were announced the past weeks). There's a huge live orchestra on stage too. It's beautiful <3
• We are then treated to some very forced greenroom interviews, especially entertaining now as none of the artists are actually there. Hasel adlibs her way through it and I am making a mental note that I should look her up as she is funny in a very lowkey way.
• Next we get a recap of all countries in semi 2, showing us rehearsal footage so it looks as if we're already seeing a retrospective rather than what is to come.
• One final interesting minor change before I round up this blog: we don't see Martin Österdahl before the hosts start announcing the qualifiers. I wonder why.

Predictions

Below what I predict to be the top 15 of semi 1. Let's see how bad I do after Saturday!

1. Sweden
2. Albania
3. Ukraine
4. Poland
5. Belgium
6. Netherlands
7. Norway
8. Cyprus
9. Estonia
10. Slovenia
11. San Marino
12. Iceland
13. Croatia
14. Azerbaijan
15. Portugal

Semi 1 - Dress rehearsal 1

Welcome from the Media Centre!

Below is a picture I took yesterday - today it's of course more crowded. Shrinkflation is also hitting Eurovision as both the arena and the media centre are the smallest I have ever seen (the arena from the outside at least). Still, around 1,000 journalists and bloggers should be able to do their thing here.

And to answer euro's question on the MB: this is where I'll be watching all liveshows!

(Pictures are mine.)

I have joined the Belgian contingent and against our own will we are surrounded by the huge Dutch delegation here. Yes, they are already loud and obnoxious and yes, we are already quietly annoyed, as good Belgians are.

Meanwhile, water and coffee are free here in the media centre but other foods cost an arm and a leg. Yesterday night I paid 32 CHF for a very mediocre burger and fries outside the city centre. Pretty sure Jacques and Lolita wouldn't approve.

More importantly, the first dress rehearsal starts around 15:30 CEST during which I will be blogging away here and at Songfestival.be. All accredited press can follow it from within the arena. Let's see how juggling two liveblogs in two different languages will go. What could possibly go wrong, right?

Live from the media briefing taking place in the media centre: it has been confirmed that the announcement of the finalists will change as was rumoured in the past few days. For the first nine qualifier announcements, three artists will be shown in a split screen of which one will be announced as finalist by the hosts off-screen. The tenth and final announcement will be as in the previous years, focusing on the hosts. There will no split screen with all remaining contestants.

Welcome from St. Jakobshalle! Tiny but shiny!

(Photos are mine.)

I will structure the liveblog in two main parts. Part one are the performances, part two are everything else that happens in the show. This is to make sure that people who don't want all contents of the show spoiled can still have that experience. Please note that this is only the first dress rehearsal. It is unclear how much of the show we will get to see except for the performances. It is likely that several other acts and performances will not be here during this first run through. Stay tuned!

PART 1: The performances

01. Iceland

The brothers' vocals are unfortunately way off in what is otherwise an extremely energetic performance. This does work as an opener but it's a shame that it's not, you know, actually good. Great camerawork and onscreen visuals but they also make it a bit more JESC - not a bad thing per se but it limits their success changes.

02. Poland

Whether you like Gaja or not, this is brilliant. Justyna's vocals are impeccable and the energy of her and the dancers is truly insane. It's a big step up from the rather messy NF performance. This went very big in the arena and is likely to get many a televote tomorrow night too. It's very kitsch of course and not for everyone, but this will work.

After the Slovenian postcard we see that there is a minor malfunction as Justyna's chords are still on stage. This gets resolved soon though.

03. Slovenia

Again a revamped NF performance. Klemen is still hanging upside down in the second chorus but in the beginning you see short home videos of him and his wife, which works really well without getting too corny. At the end he's joined on stage by his wife and it really is very touching. After all the previous energy this works so well in the running order. This is a dark horse for sure.

04. Estonia

You think this is identical to the NF performance up to a point (bar the onscreen graphics at the LED wall, Winner Cafe and Tommywood, very low expectations) BUT THEN they pretend a Tommy Cash super fan runs on stage and is first stopped by the dancers/security agents. She gets to dance a little with him before being removed. It's cute and endearing but overall this really lacks energy for some reason. This didn't work in the arena as well as it should have.

XX. Spain

Muy messy, unfortunately. Five dancers that appear at random times, an outfit change that's rather odd and hidden behind a cheap purple/red curtain and many spots in the performance that lack energy and oomph. Not sure how this will fare. Also not sure the black and white throughout the performance works. Not convinced!

05. Ukraine

I also wasn't convinced by the snippet and pictures but have to admit that the performance works really well with the song. It's some sort of psychedelic fever dream visualised with filters that make the artists initially look like holograms of sorts. It does work very well although I also fear it might be a bit too off-putting for parts of the 'general audience'. Vocals are a bit shaky and screechy sometimes, but the backings are brilliant.

06. Sweden

Does what it says on the tin. There are beautiful background projections of woods and mountains but you hardly see them on screen. More fire than in Melodifestivalen and an impressive laser show during the final chorus. It's just really well-made and yes, it will be showered with points. Sorry.

07. Portugal

The only thing I will ever remember from this is that there is a bunch of Portuguese journalists sitting in front of me who are singing along very loudly and obnoxiously (almost Dutch-like).

08. Norway

This is also mostly a carbon copy of the NF performance. Kyle starts of shakily but improves throughout . It doesn't do anything more or less than you expect it to basically. There will be an audience for this for sure.

09. Belgium

Not to sound too chauvinistic, but this was actually really good. It's a big change from the NF though. Red Sebastian starts at the front stage for the first half where he is joined by three identically clad dancers eventually. The lighting and projections are impressive, ending with a massive red crowd during a rave party. Vocally he was very much on point. I remain cautious, but am optimistic about our changes or qualification!

XX. Italy

Lucio pretends to play the piano (the longest one ever on a Eurovision stage at that too), the guitar and the harmonica. There are giant sound boxes on stage as well. Except for this, not an awful lot is happening during the performance and it's all a bit... dull? Well-positioned in the running order, but it all seems a bit half-arsed.

10. Azerbaijan

They really did try to do something nice here. Three dancers, a drummer, a guitarist and the lead singer and a very nice background with (again) red as dominant colour. Unfortunately the singer is a bit shaky in the beginning, although he does recover as the performance progresses. Again, they tried. But overall this is very dull and not convincing. The rather abrupt song ending also comes out of nowhere in the performance. Even the journalist crowd here was unsure whether the song was actually over or not.

11. San Marino

Starting to lose my patience a bit here. This also feels very empty in spite of so much happening on stage. It's actually a very static performance. No one moves around and everyone tries to create energy. But they all fail because they have so little work with in the first place. If there's one shock qualifier, it could be this although it won't be with flying colours.

12. Albania

This is what is nowadays known among the young kids as "a showstopper". I'm not the biggest fan of this, but by god, this works *so* well. A breath of fresh air after the previous songs and Beatriçe is just wonderful as a performer. We could hardly hear Kolë which felt a bit odd but hopefully that's just an arena thing. Speaking of the arena, this went VERY big here. No, this won't be for everyone but it will have its audience for sure.

13. Netherlands

This is different from what I had imagined but still very decent. Claude starts alone in close-up until after the first chorus when he is joined by two dancers and three musicians. They all disappear during the bridge during which another LED wall is driven on stage. The performance ends with Claude dancing 'together with his younger self' like in the music video. It's more artistic than energetic but is very classy and works very well. Claudes vocals are also on point this time. Goed gedaan!

14. Croatia

What Alexander-NL said about this before, but with more lights and pyro. God, this is exhausting. They really went all out on the graphics and the staging but you simply can't polish a turd. That's not to say that Marko himself is bad. In fact he's lovely and very skilled - but he also doesn't come across as likeable, unfortunately.

XX. Switzerland

It's refreshing to see how the home team kept things so minimalistic. Zoë is all alone on stage (except that she's not, she's surrounded by like 10 technicians) and there is no LED projection whatsoever - except for a request to audience members to turn on their phone light at the end, which is very effective. They try to recreate the atmosphere of the video clip with very innovative light and wind effects and it all looks truly stunning on screen. This can go very far on Saturday.

15. Cyprus

The stage show with the construction is really impressive. It is changed up all the time by the three dancers and a few stage hands that run on and off stage at exact the right time, which is so cool to see in the arena. The camerawork is very effective in what they try to convey although it is just unclear to me what this is all about and how the song and performance are aligned. This will likely qualify though.

After the last song we were all immediately told to leave. I only caught the start of the recap and that was it. The first dress rehearsal isn't shown in the media centre, so I guess this was it for the first blog!

PART 2: The rest of the show

The show opens with a video containing nature footage that is supposed to tell us that the Eurovision branding was there since the Earth's creation. Very low stakes, clearly. This culminates in a dance recital with modern dancers that all look like mini Loreens and traditional Swiss alphorn music with people in traditional clothing of all ages. A combination of the old and the new, so you will. It really does look phenomenal on stage and on screen. More traditional instruments and singing - is that Sebalter? No whistling though (luckily). The Code is there somewhere too. This really is very nice.

Next we meet the hosts, Hazel Brugger and Sandra Studer (née Simo). They thank their Swedish predecessors for memories that will last forever. They got that right. For those of you wondering, YES, we do get a snippet of Simo's 1991 performance. Hazel was still in the womb at that time, of course, as is shown.

Queue voting information, fireworks, and then we're off!

The onscreen graphics are gorgeous. The country name and artist and composer info are neatly displayed within the giant arch on stage.

For you nerds, I can also confirm that the country lower third displays the running order number, the country name AND a small Eurovision logo heart, for some reason. No, it doesn't move around like in Melfest. Missed opportunity to display Lumo, if you ask me.

The postcards show all contestants opening a postbox and finding a postcard (yes!) from a specific location in Basel to which they are all 'transported'. Very cute, if not exactly memorable of exciting. They won't distract too much from commentators' comments, which is the point, right?

We get a first break after the Estonian performance. Hazel and Sandra highlight some songs that are originally Swiss, including Chihuahua and the Chicken Dance. Yes. I know.

After the Italian performance we get our second break focusing on how props were used in Eurovision history. Of course there's a recap video. Think Dustin the Turkey, Francesco Gabbani's monkey, Subwoolfer's wolf. Everything is very recent. Margot Hielscher isn't in which is a real travesty.

Hello, how's the flow?

Guten Abend, bonsoir, buona sera, buna saira!

Refrain from what you're doing and ignore Giorgio and other gentlemen callers: the ESCNation Basel Blog is officially up and running.

What to expect? Liveblogs from the St. Jakobshalle for the first dress rehearsals on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons and attempts to provide all tea and other hot beverages from within the media centre for your enjoy and entertainment.

Can KAJ hang on by the skin of their teeth or will Céline Dion catch up? Whenever the excitement gets a little bit too much for you during the coming days, just remember: It's all in your head.

Happy Off Season!

 When everything was so predictable, and there aren't any scandals to keep us busy (by that I mean real scandals like last year's jury collusion, not the usual fan-manufactured ones), we can still take pleasure in the little things, such as Harrow sharing his joy from Eurovision taking place in his home town. And that is something I wish all of you to experience once in your lifetime.

So a big thank you to our blogging team, and to you for reading and commenting. See you next year for the on-season, maybe we'll be lucky to get yet another epic Eist Lidd fir Malmö.

Happy Eurovision Party!

As Eurovision fans, we al have our origin story. That excuse or explanation as to why we fell head over heels with a ‘monument to drivel’ - whether it’s family, flags, geography or yodelling. The hook that brings us in is one thing. But what makes us stay? What makes us care enough to go to Google and carve out our space as part of the 365 days a year niche community?

For me, everything leads up to the party. The day when we as super fans get the chance to ask for the full attention of our long-suffering friends. Sure they have fun, but if we’re honest they don’t do it for themselves, they do it for us.

My first ever Eurovision party was 2003. An excellent year longwise, not an excellent year for Liverpool and UK.

A friend came over early and we made Pierogi - a Latvia delicacy that was actually delicious and successful -though I’ve never repeated the pre-event cooking session. I prepared scorecards for everyone and insisted that they were filled out studiously with notes and a final top 10 to give points to.

My Mum’s hairdresser was in town, so during the interval I got my hair cut in the kitchen. When this was finished my party guests told me that UK were ‘still’ on nil points - and like my Scouse buzzcut  - things didn’t look any better an hour later.

Fast forward 20 years, with only a handful of years where I’ve not hosted an event - and I’m back at it again. This time not in my parent’s house, but not too far away either - in a pub opposite the actual arena hosting actual Eurovision. 

A friend will be there who was at that very first party. Since then we’ve lived in 5 different countries between us, but fate has brought us back for this one. She asked if she can be spared the bureaucracy this time - so I’ve prepared a scoresheet just for her.

Over the years I’ve pulled together many questionable outfits - I’ve been Laka’s sister, a Polish milkmaid, Sofi Marinova, Yulia Samoylova, Lys Assia and Gina G on multiple occasions. Tonight Matthew, I’ll be Käärjä - thanks to an inflatable pool float and some creative thinking.

This is our night to be the centre of attention. Enjoy your night whether amongst family, Eurofamily, old or new friends or lovers - or even all of them like me! 364 days led up to today, and tomorrow we will wake up (late, sure) to reconvene for the post-mortem (who saw Poland winning?!) and be back amongst friends to do it all again.