And so, the end is near…
The qualifiers have been chosen, the running order is in place and today we get our first glimpse of the grand final of Eurovision 2015. In fact, we get it twice – as with the semi finals there’s a family show/first run through in the early afternoon followed by the jury final in the evening. With professional jurors likely to be more discerning than televoters – not to mention controversially empowered to mark songs down as well as up – everyone has to bring their A-game tonight or they could lose the title before the main show even airs.
The family show gets off to a slow start with a number of technical errors. Identifying these issues is the function of rehearsals and nothing to really worry about, but even so the opening parade is nothing short of shambolic, with dancers wandering around with seemingly no idea where they’re supposed to be, and one unfortunate flag-bearer face-planting the stage while trying to get up the stairs.
The flag parade gets off to a chaotic start during the first dress rehearsal for the grand final.
Photo: Eurovision.tv
There have been rumblings of criticism about the hosts this year, and while they’re all perfectly competent – and mercifully showing no inclination towards singing, rhyming couplets or pretending to fall in love – they do feel a little stilted and lacking in distinctive personalities. The script contains a few decent jokes, but it all feels quite robotic and lacking in spontaneity. By contrast, Conchita remains an effervescent delight in her green room interviews. Hopefully the buzz of the live show will inject some much-needed life into her colleagues.
With most of the artists holding back for tonight’s jury final, the performances are generally middling. The most interesting thing is how much the running order affects the tone of the show. The second half consists almost entirely of ballads and midtempo numbers, with the big party pieces disposed of early on. Israel and Slovenia are likely to suffer from an early draw – although if the public are as enthused about ‘Golden Boy’ as the fans in the press centre, it’s possible Israel could do well from anywhere – and it’s disappointing to see France’s powerful performance tossed into the slot of doom. Belgium’s high-powered performance surprisingly overshadows the preceding Australia, and for my money having Italy on last makes their operatic performance feel more like an interval act than a real contender.
Rather than sit through the first round of fake voting, I opt to duck out after the performances for the first press conference of the day, which is on the subject of Junior Eurovision. Junior has now been running for thirteen years, and after a rocky start seems to be gradually coming into its own. Executive Supervisor Vladislav Yakovlev and Head of Press Kath Lockett are joined by delegates from Bulgaria, who will be hosting the 2015 contest after last year’s winners Italy declined the opportunity.
A musical interlude during the press conference for this year’s forthcoming Junior Eurovision Song Contest
Photo: Eurovision.tv
Like last year’s hosts Malta, Bulgaria have never won the adult Eurovision (I still say their astonishing stilt-dancing opera Goths were robbed in 2009), so they’re happy to have an opportunity to showcase their broadcaster and capital city in this capacity. We’re shown a short promotional video of Sofia and learn that they’re planning for an audience of around 8,000 people at the Arena Armeec.
Last year’s Italian winner Vincenzo Cantiello is making a cameo appearance in tomorrow’s grand final, and due to technical issues holding up the rehearsals he enters this press conference late – just in time to perform an impressive a capella rendition of his song Tu Primo Grande Amore. For reasons unclear, at this point the press conference is hijacked by his former JESC colleagues Michele and Anita from San Marino, who grab the stage to perform their song ‘Chain of Lights’, possibly for the last time ever after it was knocked out in last night’s semi final. It’s a slightly shambolic way to end the press conference, and I leave feeling I haven’t learned as much about the future of Junior as I could have.
The rest of the day’s press conferences are dedicated to a third round of interviews with the auto-qualifiers. At this point there isn’t much left to ask them, and it feels more like an opportunity for the late-arriving national press to get a few quotes. Austria repeat their stock banter about onstage hats, walking in Conchita’s footsteps and the logistics of setting fire to a piano, Italy are only notable for a bizarrely off-colour impersonation of how Asian fans pronounce their names – complete with cringe-inducing narrow eyelid expressions – and Spain ensures the journalists that despite the ambitious costume change in her performance, she’s not concerned about ‘doing a Madonna’.
As much as I like Alex and Bianca from Electro Velvet as personalities, I’m still baffled that their ersatz swing number is the best offering the UK team was able to come up with this year. Head of Delegation Guy Freeman explains that the key takeaway from last year was that the visual presentation needed to be just as memorable as the song, and reveals that many of the aspects of Electro Velvet’s performance – including the Trackshittaz-esque LED light show – were part of the thought process from a very early stage. It’s a fair answer, but I can’t shake the feeling that if the BBC thinks that what they’ve come up with is in any way comparable to the perfect marriage of song, act and stage show that Conchita or the Common Linnets demonstrated last year, they’ve seriously missed the point.
Guy Sebastian is looking forward to a few days of downtime in Salzburg with his family after the contest.
Photo: Eurovision.tv
Guy Sebastian from Australia is continuing to build momentum, but he refuses to acknowledge the possibility of a victory. In fact, he outright tips Sweden for the title, also acknowledging Russia, Latvia and Belgium as his personal favourites among the competition, quipping that his main concern for tomorrow night is facing the Australian public if he ends up coming last. Based on the strength of his rehearsal today, he should have little to worry about.
By the time the jury rehearsal kicks off, the press centre is packed to the rafters with journalists, delegates and even a few famous Eurovision faces from the past. A rumour that mercurial Icelandic icon Silvia Night is in the building sends ripples of excitement among the hardcore fans, and Swedish songwriting legend Thomas G:Son – who has had a hand in the Spanish and Georgian entries this year – is holding court near the refreshments table. It’s at this point I’d like to address the one major failing of Viennese forward planning – with over 1,500 journalists in the room, somebody really should have considered the need for more than two cubicles in the men’s restroom. The wait can be anything up to 45 minutes, and there are hard glares reserved for dawdlers who sheepishly race out of the toilets after a particularly lengthy (and in some cases, noisy) call of nature.
Journalists from all over Europe assemble to analyse the performances during the crucial jury final.
Photo: Eurovision.tv
Most of the technical issues have been smoothed over by the jury show, which bodes well for tomorrow night – as do the performances, which see practically all of the artists delivering on top form. The voting sees plenty of familiar Eurovision faces, some of whom are more comfortable in front of the camera than others. I won’t spoil any surprises, but there may or may not be former competitors crowbarring in a line or two of their long-forgotten entries. The presenters are keen to stress that it’s just a dry run and the votes are random, but with a second consecutive Austrian victory and a healthy spread of points for the UK, they probably needn’t have bothered…
“[Guy Sebastian] outright tips Sweden for the title, also acknowledging Russia, Latvia and Belgium as his personal favourites”
The guy knows his Eurovision, that is four of the top six