Eurovision 2018: Semifinal 2 artists asking votes via Eurovision’s Instastory (1/2)

Highlights:

Armenia: Ooh I love them stacked-up sticks of lighting, it’s like some sort of an unbuilt fence. Sevak sells this song well enough. Nothing else to say, really. Oh yeah and for once I liked the camera shots in a preview clip. Good job Sacha?

Switzerland: Camerawork was decent too but there was this one looooong panning-zoomout shot that I didn’t like. I also didn’t mind Corinne’s clothing this time as opposed to last time. And they gave a camera shot to her brother, too.

Ireland: I still hope they don’t focus the camera WAY too much on the dancers where the main point is supposed to be the performer, not funny background events. There’s at least one shot on him and one spinning shot including him and the lady (I think it’s a lady) on the piano, and that’s good. And yes, whatever was focusing on the dancer boys in the music-video setting worked out well as well but I just don’t want this to be the music video’s replica (well at least it doesn’t seem like it as we have some... even more ‘extra’ dance moves out of this).

Cyprus: We haven’t had a proper slutpop winner since 2005... and a proper rock winner since 2006... so which is better? Also yeah Cyprus is waiting for a victory for longer too, but what else is? Iceland. And they don’t fucking stand a chance. Look, I’m all in for all first time winner countries to happen before I die (which is DEFINITELY not going to happen because we have San Marino and they still haven’t fixed their shit :’) ) but I don’t really want Eurovision to award countries that have waited for that long to do so sorted out by the number of the years of waiting the longest. I mean, with this pattern you get Lisbon 2018, Nicosia 2019, Reykjavik 2020, Valletta 2021, Ljubljana 2022 and so on. With some countries not getting their shit together (looking at you Malta, please stop selecting mediocre/harmless MESC songs as winners), I’d rather if they wait for longer for them than have this pattern followed. (also Budapest 20xx deserves to happen, whether AWS make it happen or not) So I’m sorry about being this bitter, I just... am not a huge fan of this entry as much as I am of the past Cypriot entries. Why the big praise for the ones I’m not that fond of? :( And oh yeah I forgot to talk about performance. Fire, red, choreography, hair. Well at least Romania isn’t in their semi (though if you guys wanted it to fail so badly then you think it should be, that’s sad, I hope that actually no one thinks like this), so we could witness one hair flip a day. Dunno if both will qualify though so there WOULD be 2 in 1 day... :’) (Oh yeah, and Laura Rizzotto’s hair flicks. Flicks, not flips. She might do a flip though)

Norway: And suddenly everyone is not a fan of this. I’m not exactly sure why. Rybak works the stage. I assume it’s because people are already fed up of him even if it’s been so long since he made into Eurovision as a performer. And that he won in the past, too. Well I don’t really want it to win either but since Poland, the guiding torch for all the other competitors for victory, is in their semi, then it might. But Norway 2009 won and Poland didn’t qualify that year. All 3 times Poland didn’t qualify, the winner was either Rybak, a big 5 country or a mediocre dark horse. I hope they qualify so the winner could be a GOOD dark horse. ;) (”You ride a black horse in the rain” - Hovi Star)

Romania: Eh it’s okay for what it is. They got one camera shot wrong though as a guy was escaping his mannequin-challenge pose at the end of it when he was supposed to act like a mannequin. I am not sure how will they get the staging of that moment right enough though but I hope it works decently out, yeah

Serbia: The thumbnail of their rehearsal’s (eurovision.tv courtesy) looks like it’s a typical Balkan song surrounding. Backing vocalist ladies come up to the main singer and stare into the distance like they’ve seen some sh*t. And then they start singing together with the singer in front. Anyway the sound mixing here is terrible but I hope the crowd elevates the feel. (Also they were doing an instagram takeover with The Humans, and unfortunately their journey has ended as soon as Big 5 + host country started rehearsing.)

San Marino: Now with that “Justice for Valentina” sign I can finally compile my “post-nf-pre-ESC-week-season” moments moodboard! Anyway, even with the cameras it’s a big hot mess, the dancers/backings are pointless, they better only keep the robots. Actually, I do want to see some backings. Bring on Basti! Also also, Jenny B’s costume is ugly and I’d rather if she kind of does something like Valentina last year but more youthful and less like ‘your mom tries to be cool again’.

Denmark: Yep, pretty much like the NF staging, except that there’s some pointless pink that shines on Rasmussen’s face. What for..? Trust me, I don’t know either!

Portugal: Oh so they got rid of the chair. As per the banned items request or as per Benjamin’s request? Also I love that Nirvana’s shirt of Isaura’s, reminds me of the lead singer of Musiqq turning in the first rehearsal of Latvia’s with a Spongebob shirt. xD I guess it’s simple enough of a thing there performance-wise? They don’t need to do much, just enough to keep it intimate?

United Kingdom: Oh lights. Something like Levina’s music video last year. I am not sure if this will get UK anywhere that great but I sure hope it’s not too dead of a last if it’s unfortunately last.

Spain: Togetherness. Are they just staring at each other while singing for this whole performance or is there more action to this love? We might not know just yet... but I hope they do something else at some point. Like, dramatically introducing out of nowhere when they begin singing their lines or something.

Germany: All these countries biting their nails about what they’re gonna do without any LEDs in Lisbon and Germany’s just like ‘fuck it, I’mma bring my own one anyway”. Sadly, they come across as ridiculously over-the-top, especially with the silhouettes and the black-white color spinning you see on these hypnosis toys or so. Not to mention, the chorus graphics are just THAT incredibly cartooney that I couldn’t really stand them. I’m thinking this could drop in my overall ranking of 2018 because the song just doesn’t feel too “wow” anymore and it’s just...

Italy: I waited for this so friggin long because I wanted to know about what they decided on about the on-screen shenanigans to make sure this is more than “two men being aggresive for 3 minutes”. And... I think they’re doing something about it, with lines of their song in different languages on different places and accompanying graphics and all. Really playing the sentimental card here. But I’ve yet to see a winner which relied on lots of on-screen effects (for Sweden 2015 it was on-stage effects more than on-screen). We had France 2014 being on-screen effects-heavy, we had Italy 2016 and Bulgaria 2017 relying on simple on-screen white stuff, Israel 2015 had an on-screen snapshot effect at the end of their performance. This... is just ‘extra’ as heck.

Norway: Seriously? All this big blowup for THAT act?! Oh geezus Christ. I’d so NOT love it to win, that’d make me SO disappointed because that way Rybak will rob out many good entries that deserved a better result. Nothing too special, just energy, charisma and all that jazz. But do people really see that as a winner just because Rybak? Puhlease folks, focus on something else. I’d probably even have Estonia over that.

Romania: If Eurovision 2018 was a shopwindow. Also, like I said, The Humans were some lovely fellas to interact with on the ESCXtra livestream ^^ Also also, there was a runthrough where the first verse produced some echo out of the mic, something like on Selecția Națională too I think. The epic hair shaking is present, too. Although Eleni ended Cristina in that category unfortunately :(

Serbia: I miss Sanja tbh. The third female backing adds a bit too much depth in the verses. But at least the song is capable to fulfill itself even with the first minute of it being spent with Danica vocal exercising with her blonde pal, something like in Beovizija. Guess the staging is alright for now, nothing more nothing less

San Marino: God bless that staging xD One of the robots was holding a sign “I am not a robot”, Marina Diamandis much? Also the “Will you marry me?” sign. 1) is this a Sammarinese way of proposing if you have no money for the ring? 2) why can’t Jessika bring the love of her life on stage à la Ieva Z. and do just that for Jess just so that we could witness FYR Macedonia from last year but even in a more epic WTF kind of way? THAT way you can ask for points. Jana’s boyfriend (now husband and the father of her baby) did not do enough for to turn the proposal into points sadly :( Also I hope their outfits for the semifinal are honestly better than that.

Denmark: Didn’t really hear much of him but at least I tried to hear one full rehearsal with his audio. I so wanted him to sing well because he was hated in pre-parties for singing by the backvocalridden backtrack?? Dudes, don’t you know you have a FULLY INSTRUMENTAL version of the song published on Spotify?! Anyway I hope the performance is not too boring...

Russia: Wow, they’re really trying their best to mask her slight inabilities to go up with her voice. So much so they had to lower the pitch of the song. It sounds as decent to me, even if they got rid of one of my favourite keys :’( Anyway the stage show will probably secure them a final for sure, unfortunately enough... (Also I saw some news report of her Eurovision journey on C1R but my dad decided to skip it for the news forecast and eventually some TV series :S)

Moldova: I saw their stage show is playful af, also the doppelgangers! xD It’d be interesting if the band members did have twin siblings. Kind of a qualifier now, also has risen in the odds to the number #17. (Also I have missed their ESCXtra livestream already, I bet they’d be as good as all those that I saw today. Also I missed Jess and Jenny B but not a big loss, maybe they’ll come back as they were there twice x) )

The Netherlands: Couldn’t care less about the hip hop dancing problem, if all that matters is that Waylon has an on-stage band then it’s all fine ^^ But I guess it’d then render The Netherlands as non-qualifiers? Because you don’t only need to be strong, male and confidently Dutch to pass through to the final. I remember 3JS were special types of things that I believed in at first, but their staging was so flop and the general feel was just too much uncle-time that I don’t see why they’d qualify, sadly enough :S