If much of the discourse yesterday was about how the sedentary sun impacted our lovely lot, today’s theme was focused more on what countries were bringing on to the stage themselves. In no particular order, we had oversized balloons, a flying saucer, a loo roll adorned bedroom and an entire Sammarinese costume shop worth of fun. We often talk of “kitchen sink staging”, but this year we finally get as close to a literal interpretation of that.
The early morning brought us the rehearsals for the final few nations we didn’t see yesterday from semi-final one. Norway have placed DJ Astronaut in a flying saucer atop a raised platform. Not much else has changed from the MGP performance. The most interesting thing was hearing one of the wolves speaking voice all the end of a run-through. Some of the moon accents are somewhat akin to Southern England it may seem…
Armenia will bring the most ambitious staging next Tuesday night, and I think they have just about pulled it off. Bringing an isolated bedroom adorned with flapping paper (post its? loo roll?) that when removed reveals key lines from the song. It feels like a special performance but it will need to be played to perfection on the night. Also, it’s not just the song that’s Americana infused, their “football” may have had a hand in the staging.
Moving on to semi-final two the show will be opened by The Rasmus this time next week. Watching these rehearsals it was nice to see some impressions coming to the Eurovision stage. As well as bringing his Pennywise to begin with, the lead singer also gives us his best emo-Iggy Pop writhing about shirtless. You also get the vibe they’re trying to do an impression of 2004 era The Rasmus, and that’s the one that doesn’t quite land.
Of the remaining semi-two rehearsals the most disappointing had to be from Georgia. Like yesterday with Moldova, I expected so much from these delightful weirdos and yet, it just wasn’t quite there. There’s still plenty of colour and the camera angles do add a little dynamism but just not enough. One positive is they have the best usage of the LED floor thus far. And all I will say is that the contents of the mystery box…IS A DELIGHT!
At the other end of the scale, the best was most definitely saved till last. Achille Lauro will thrust San Marino into the final, you have my word. The man oozes so much sex appeal, it’s unreal! He strides the stage, his band and the velour bucking bronco with all the effortless cool we’ve come to expect. The final run-through added as much pyro as we’ve seen from all the other rehearsals jammed together. This will be a moment that goes down in Eurovision history.
Elsewhere Konstrakta & Systur stuck largely to their NF winning formats with the former adding subtitles to help get the message across. Israel is as camp as you’d expect and Malta is as “inspirational message carved onto a piece of driftwood” as you’d expect.
Now the Big 5 will take to the stage for their first run-throughs and we Brits will hold our collective breath. Fingers crossed everyone!
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