Net Gains

Apr 16, 2018 by Rob

Eurovision in Concert (EiC) moved to a new venue this year, Amsterdam’s AFAS Live concert hall, which essentially meant a bigger stage and better sound quality (compared to the Melkweg) for the 32 acts who performed there on Saturday night.

Standing among the crowd at this live ESC gig could not be much further removed from scrutinising live performances as we will see and hear them coming through the tv monitor during rehearsals in Lisbon, but promotional events like this still provide useful pointers in terms of live vocal, performance skills, charisma and all-round stagecraft.

Moldova got the party started. Harmonies were fine; my main issue is the dated nature of the song, and its lyrical landfill, ‘number 1, keep rollin’… number 2, keep turnin’…’, ‘la-da-da-da-dee-dum-dum-dum-da-da-da, dum-da-da-dah, dum-da-da-dah’.

Austria’s Cesar provided a startling contrast with his strong solo vocal showcasing this modern, radio-friendly song. Not sure his freestyling towards the end is a good idea though and he does sometimes betray the look of a former backing singer thrust into the limelight.

San Marino begins as a promising pop song, but then the rap drags the whole thing down, though Sara de Blue’s sad demise there this year perhaps makes me extra harsh on this.

FYR Macedonia has elements of an excellent pop song too but feels a somewhat jarring listen when it suddenly breaks into reggae. Czech Republic’s Mikolas is something of a quandary. Will this be perceived as modern and cool, or will it miss the target completely? It does have clear USP. ‘The dripping on wood’ line always makes this listener shudder for its misogynistic overtone but this will likely pass most jurors by.

Malta felt a bit laboured following Mikolas. Christabelle needs to work on becoming more engaging when she sings this. Eugent for Albania has a very good live vocal and his impassioned screams towards the end could earn some jury kudos but the song is a bit too one-paced, and doesn’t really go anywhere.

Latvia’s Laura comes across as a consummate performer with a fine vocal. She worked the stage and mic stand well with the modern and credible ‘Funny Girl’ which seems to have bypassed the ESC fan community this year and maybe deserves to go in the ‘under-rated’ pile.

Rasmussen was enjoyed by the crowd but is this a track that, converse to Latvia, appeals more to ESC fans than the wider music public? In any other sphere there is so little substance to this Viking war cry. SuRie is another fan favourite judged on her reception but ‘Storm’ is the definition of pop fodder and for all her effort there is so little to excite here.

Ireland’s Ryan is a competent live vocalist but again, ’Together’ feels a bit insipid. To be fair, ballads do generally receive a muted response in this sort of setting. After this sleeping pill of a song, AWS woke everyone up with what can only be described as a lot of enthusiastic shouting and head-banging. Metal has its fans but this is a hard sell for being so tuneless and ear-drum bashing.

Ieva had the audience in the palm of her hand or rather, their hands, as they held their lit mobiles aloft creating an enchanting moment for her haunting, tender ballad. The audience hummed along towards the end. Lithuania should encourage all this to be replicated in Lisbon.

What is going on with Mélovin’s eye? was the most pertinent question during ‘Under The Ladder’. He still sounded rather mumbled here but there is no denying this will have impact from the semi 2 pimp slot.

Emilie was poorly and stayed at home with SuRie standing in as the Madame portion of the French duet. Fair play to her for learning the lyrics in a day or so. She made a good stab of this but it told me, the French version has more magic about it, and Emilie sprinkles further fairy dust on this track.

Benjamin Ingrosso has a reedy vocal that does nothing to improve ‘Dance You Off’. Nor do his synchronised dance moves. It is a genuine mystery to me what people consider meritorious about this entry.

Alekseev started the 2nd half of the concert and while his vocal sounded better than previous outings he still accentuates words uncomfortably. ‘Drivin me kray-ZEEE’, ‘Four-ev-ERRRR’. It’s partly the cadence of the song when sung in English which is plain awkward.

Zibbz ’Stones’ is a pleasant enough listen but Corinne and Stefan’s styling and dynamic on the stage doesn’t help sell it as a pop song of substance.

A 3-piece Equinox began to sing ‘Bones’ before Kristian Kostov joined them and Zhana too, the lyrics appearing on the screen behind them. There was a big note reserved for Zhana towards the end which sounded pre-recorded. It’s yet more smoke and mirrors from Bulgaria as its market position on Betfair continues to baffle many observers.

Iceland’s Ari Olafsson followed and as happens to a lot of solo ballads performed at these live events, this felt like a snooze-fest. There was a woman on piano helping Slovenia’s Lea Sirk who brings plenty of swag performing ‘Hvala, ne!’. She is likeable and it’s a catchy little number that could surprise.

Amaia and Alfred stood opposite one another to sing ‘Tu cancion’. It works with them having this close up interaction and the Spanish delegation would do well to stick with this simple and effective staging. Serbia’s 2 female chanters are reminiscent of Bulgaria’s Elitsa (ESC 2007 and 2013) and for a brief moment you hope you are going to get something of similar quality to ‘Water’ at the start of ‘Nova deca’, but it all goes down the drain when the guy starts singing.

Sevak for Armenia sounded fine here but this is one that needs the contribution of backing vocalists and a dramatic backdrop to elevate it.

Phones were lit again for Poland’s ‘Light Me Up’ – see what they did there? The vocal wasn’t great and this duo look incongruous trying to sell what feels like a mediocre pop song. It relies on the crowd’s energy but even that felt like flogging a dead horse.

Belgium’s Sennek was more secure in the chorus here compared to her appearance at Israel Calling last week. Montenegro, while vocally sound, had a similar effect to Iceland and Ireland – it felt a sleepy 3 minutes.

My mantra every year is, ‘Eurovision is not the Grammys’. This rings particularly true in assessing Australia. ‘Why… do we always feel like we need to try. Why do we believe that we need to be somebody else to feel alive’. This is lyrical nonsense and it gets worse, ‘cause love is stronger than fire, so don’t, don’t give up ‘cause we got love, ‘cause we got love’.

On the trite, cliched lyrics scale, that’s not far behind Aisel’s ‘I’m stronger than cannonballs… Luna moon me up.’ But the crowd here loved it. While Jessica veers towards looking like a novice performer singing into her hairbrush, advocates would claim she has girl-next-door likability. The best that can be said by me following repeat listens of ‘We Got Love’ is that it has gnawed its way into my head like a brain parasite.

Michael for Germany was in good voice and the song had abstract black and white imagery behind him which was quite effective in drawing you in. A stag, butterflies, a tunnel, a chair moving in slow-motion through the air (see Radiohead’s ’Street Spirit’ video), an old tv set, a burning stag. If they can get across the song’s poignancy in Lisbon, it will have impact. On the downside, Michael looks like Mick Hucknall’s love child.

Netta informed what we were watching here was a teaser of her Lisbon performance which will have surprises. She is an excellent vocalist and an engaging performer, no doubt, but a crazy black outfit with what looked like stiletto heels embedded on her head was a fashion disaster, darling. Israel backers will be hoping they don’t get a nasty surprise with an even more outlandish outfit than this in Lisbon.

Finland’s Saara arrived on stage following a big video intro and fanfare. She is the queen of self-promotion. The ‘I ain’t scared no more’ refrain was turned up so loud it risked being shouty, as Saara did throughout this.

Local hero Waylon understandably got to close the concert, performing with his buddy. This would go down well with the locals in a Nashville nightspot but felt a long three minutes here.

You can check out the Amsterdam performances here and here.

Following Amsterdam and in terms of the Outright, Israel has steadied as market leader while Australia has been the most significant shortener.

Next stop will be Lisbon for what promises to be a highly informative day 1 of rehearsals there as we will see the first half of semi-final 1 which is looking fiercely competitive.