A Note To Fear For Amir?

May 6, 2016 by Rob

Round 2 of rehearsals for semi 1 contenders today, plus a first chance to see France and Spain.

Very brief notes for 2nd rehearsals: Finland – Sandhja struggles vocally when she makes her walk to the satellite stage. Still wearing awful blue romper suit.

Greece – A very professional and very Greek presentation. Start is so good, but you sense the song tails off somewhat after that.

Moldova – Lidia has added a French verse in a transparent bid to appeal to French voters.

Hungary – ‘In a world where the poems sound fake. And the love is replaced by the fame.’ Freddie is still garbling the verses. Difficult to understand much of what he sings to be honest.

Croatia – Nina looking uncomfortable in that monstrosity of an outfit. Silvery dress revealed underneath, with large tattoo exposed on her back. Backing singers in monks’ tunics. and all the attempts to do hand gestures look awkward and unnatural.

Netherlands – This has tightened up. Nice moment towards the end when he presumably will get the audience to singalong and he reaches down and holds out a hand to one or two of his adoring fans by the stage.

Armenia – This track offers up a powerful sonic landscape set to dramatic lighting, dry ice and pyros, and Iveta owns it performance-wise. Vocal good given the difficult nature of this song.

San Marino – Disco ball images added and his dance troupe more engaging with them huddled together at the outset, then snaking around as Serhat croons away.

Russia – This really is a serious assault course for Sergey but he copes admirably. He has to get everything perfectly timed with his movements and makes Mans routine last year look easy by comparison.

Czech Republic – Still a few too many long shots for Czech Rep. Gabriela is a beautiful looking woman and she should have more chance to be seen in close up giving ‘good camera’.

Cyprus – They have ditched most of the previously interspersed wolf video segments. A good idea as this makes you focus totally on the band on stage rocking out.

Austria – Zoe smiles coquettishly during this. She is likeable and the song has its charm. They have decided to pitch this as fairy godmother on the Yellow Brick Road and this at least gives it some identity for televoters.

Estonia –Juri has a look in his eyes that would scare small children. Vocally he is solid but charisma-wise he is not doing so well.

Azerbaijan – They have drowned Samra out in the mix, to try and conceal her vocal weakness. That weakness still comes through at times. This will be one to watch closely during the big jury rehearsal next week. Catsuit for Samra definitely one for the dads. She clearly doesn’t want to be upstaged by Armenia’s Iveta. The hint of a cold in her vocal.

Montenegro – Black shorts and knee-length boots for Montenegro’s sexy rock chick/dancer/vocal accompaniment. Grown to enjoy this song. Lead singer joins dancer towards end on satellite stage. Like all of this year’s ‘rock’ songs it is well presented.

Iceland – Greta sounding one of the more vocally competent today and the staging very much as was in the Icelandic NF and looking tighter today.

Bosnia & H – Ana Rucner is a big bonus for Bosnia. Very animated, captivating cello playing; she helps bring this to life. Gold basque for Ana and stockings with suspenders… all done in the best possible taste by Bosnia here. This is batsh*t crazy for non-Balkans but sung well.

Malta – This has improved with watery blue visuals utilised throughout. Ira’s face appears writ large on the stage floor at the start. She is wearing a flowing black dress which is much more suitable. Her vocal remains a bit iffy in a few places when she doesn’t have support.

Right, the big one in terms of today, France. Drum roll…

It’s a really beautifully lit stage for this throughout. Amir bends down on one knee in a surfer’s sort of stance as a starry galaxy flies by him on the stage floor.

Without an audience to connect with and feed off, it is hard to fully assess how well he will sell this but there is no invitation to clapalong during this first rehearsal. He has a charming smile though and nice roving close-ups are used.

He leans back for an overhead shot of planetary visuals, then stands on a lunar moon. He struggles with the same note on two run throughs which is clearly at the tipping point of his vocal range. On third run through he negotiates it slightly better but the last minute remains problematic for him. It remains the only song this year that makes me want to tap my foot.

Barei takes a fall but apparently this is intended and will be part of the routine. Her vocal is iffy throughout despite the presence of 4 female backing vocalists. They are actually contributing to some off-key moments here.

She does her hot shoe shuffle, the song stops after she falls, before she takes up the slack again. There is a split screen effect so we see 2 Bareis at one point. If France had produced staging like this, it would now be trading at 50-1. This isn’t quite Samra car crash territory but a pile-up nonetheless.

So, Ukraine has now gone 2nd fav behind Russia and it looks like a Rus vs Ukr battle is emerging as one of this year’s big narratives.