Saturday, 5 May 2007
Eurovision Countdown
Σήμερα το απόγευμα το ΡΙΚ στις 6:40 θα μετεδόσει την πρώτη εκπομπή του Eurovision Countdown
Friday, 4 May 2007
May I Have Your Blogs Please? - Part 3
source: doteurovision.com
A few more summaries after reading the rather excellent blogs on offer out there. But don't take our word for it, read the blogs yourself, they're crammed full of gorgeous pics and videos. Plus scroll down to find the 12 Points video links.
Serbia
Yet another country using the red and gold lighting on their stage, this leads to concerns about the show starting to appear visually repetitive.
The Serbian song just sounds like another one off the Balkan conveyor belt. Elegant staging of a simple and slightly dated song. Thankfully there is a lack of flute players or anyone blowing into a pig's belly, just five female dancers who wave their arms around in time to the song, presented by suited a booted Marija.
AKOE mentioned that the flat caps on the dancers gave them a look of Yorkshire miners in need of whippets. There is an instrumental break which looks messy as Marija mingles with the backing dancers who start tapping her on the shoulder and reaching out. It doesn't work, there is time to change.
OnEurope see this as one that will make it through, more on neighbourly support than actual merit. AKOE talked about having goose bumps at the vocals, which they described as faultless. OnEurope did point out that the singer might not be loved by the camera but agreed that this really does seem to be living up to the hype.
Czech
Red and gold AGAIN, though less static than the Serbians.
Kabat look as much like fish out of water as to be in need of Skipjack Tuna to be stamped on their shells. Nice enough performance, but this looks like an interval cat shoe-horned into the contest and nothing like a song that will do much with voters, who on the whole, do tend to know what they like. AKOE were happy to write this off now, pointing out that the lead singer isn't working with the camera and is walking around too much.
Portugal
Red and gold like those before it, but more gold this time. A few dancers waving big fans around and a good deal of general jigging around.
AKOE liked the song and thought Sabrina looked like she was having fun, but worried that like previous Portuguese acts this looked to be under-prepared. There is much work to be done to pull this together thanks to the rather ambitious choreography. The language switch did not work at all well. OnEurope thought that this was the first really enjoyable performance of the day, laid back and carefree, it was like a breath of fresh air after the two previous performances.
Macedonia
A pale blue and purple stage (at last). Like Portugal, there is a couple employed to strut their stuff on stage.
Like in previous years, the Macedonians are displaying a love for chairs, it lead to some really quite awful camera work that needs to be tightened up. Karolina turned in a great vocal, singing the final two choruses in English.
ESCKaz, however were distinctly unimpressed and called the whole thing a bit of a mess, something that Keith from AKOE also stated. It seems that whoever has choreographed this number needs to be taken outside and given a good talking to.
Norway
The stage changes colour from green to blue to red to gold and all the way back again. There is plenty of dancing and everyone is having fun.
Guri Schanke is a seasoned pro and knows what she's doing, to be frank this shows after a few less than assured performers have done their stuff. The big issue here is that the dancers from the national final have been replaced by two much younger ones and it now looks a bit like your nan having a jig and showing off her pins at a family knees-up. Not a good look.
The dress changes put ESCKaz in mind of Marie N, though a somewhat more mature version. It seems that everyone agrees this isn't going through.
Malta
The stage is mostly indigo, which rhymes nicely with vertigo (see what I did there?). There are pulses of white light, but that doesn't rhyme with such nice words.
There are a few half naked men poncing about the stage and an oriental gong. Although it is all incredibly repetitive, it did come across very well. ESCKaz liked it.
Olivia is in great voice though, if she had suffered any problems there, this would have been doomed, because as AKOE and others point out way too much is being crammed onto the stage. This has every sign of going down the tube big style unless someone does something about the way it comes across.
Andorra
A black and white backdrop with the numbers from the chorus flashing.
With the look of the stage and a great performance from the boys, this looks like actually offering Andorra a chance of making the final. It looks like whoever completely arsed up their previous attempts with ill-considered staging has got the push. For more or less everyone watching, this song and the one that followed stood out as being rather different, fresh and less desperate than what had gone before.
Hungary
A dark stage with a moving road projected onto the arc above the stage and pin pricks of light marking the night time sky.
She's on the stage with a suitcase and a bus stop, clearly a bit narked by her two-timing slug of a boyfriend and she blew people away with a heartfelt performance that even converted a few of the nay-sayers of recent weeks. Her performance is very personal and small, which may not carry in the hall, but those watching on monitors liked it. It could make it through just by being so very different from the circus acts that surround it.
A few more summaries after reading the rather excellent blogs on offer out there. But don't take our word for it, read the blogs yourself, they're crammed full of gorgeous pics and videos. Plus scroll down to find the 12 Points video links.
Serbia
Yet another country using the red and gold lighting on their stage, this leads to concerns about the show starting to appear visually repetitive.
The Serbian song just sounds like another one off the Balkan conveyor belt. Elegant staging of a simple and slightly dated song. Thankfully there is a lack of flute players or anyone blowing into a pig's belly, just five female dancers who wave their arms around in time to the song, presented by suited a booted Marija.
AKOE mentioned that the flat caps on the dancers gave them a look of Yorkshire miners in need of whippets. There is an instrumental break which looks messy as Marija mingles with the backing dancers who start tapping her on the shoulder and reaching out. It doesn't work, there is time to change.
OnEurope see this as one that will make it through, more on neighbourly support than actual merit. AKOE talked about having goose bumps at the vocals, which they described as faultless. OnEurope did point out that the singer might not be loved by the camera but agreed that this really does seem to be living up to the hype.
Czech
Red and gold AGAIN, though less static than the Serbians.
Kabat look as much like fish out of water as to be in need of Skipjack Tuna to be stamped on their shells. Nice enough performance, but this looks like an interval cat shoe-horned into the contest and nothing like a song that will do much with voters, who on the whole, do tend to know what they like. AKOE were happy to write this off now, pointing out that the lead singer isn't working with the camera and is walking around too much.
Portugal
Red and gold like those before it, but more gold this time. A few dancers waving big fans around and a good deal of general jigging around.
AKOE liked the song and thought Sabrina looked like she was having fun, but worried that like previous Portuguese acts this looked to be under-prepared. There is much work to be done to pull this together thanks to the rather ambitious choreography. The language switch did not work at all well. OnEurope thought that this was the first really enjoyable performance of the day, laid back and carefree, it was like a breath of fresh air after the two previous performances.
Macedonia
A pale blue and purple stage (at last). Like Portugal, there is a couple employed to strut their stuff on stage.
Like in previous years, the Macedonians are displaying a love for chairs, it lead to some really quite awful camera work that needs to be tightened up. Karolina turned in a great vocal, singing the final two choruses in English.
ESCKaz, however were distinctly unimpressed and called the whole thing a bit of a mess, something that Keith from AKOE also stated. It seems that whoever has choreographed this number needs to be taken outside and given a good talking to.
Norway
The stage changes colour from green to blue to red to gold and all the way back again. There is plenty of dancing and everyone is having fun.
Guri Schanke is a seasoned pro and knows what she's doing, to be frank this shows after a few less than assured performers have done their stuff. The big issue here is that the dancers from the national final have been replaced by two much younger ones and it now looks a bit like your nan having a jig and showing off her pins at a family knees-up. Not a good look.
The dress changes put ESCKaz in mind of Marie N, though a somewhat more mature version. It seems that everyone agrees this isn't going through.
Malta
The stage is mostly indigo, which rhymes nicely with vertigo (see what I did there?). There are pulses of white light, but that doesn't rhyme with such nice words.
There are a few half naked men poncing about the stage and an oriental gong. Although it is all incredibly repetitive, it did come across very well. ESCKaz liked it.
Olivia is in great voice though, if she had suffered any problems there, this would have been doomed, because as AKOE and others point out way too much is being crammed onto the stage. This has every sign of going down the tube big style unless someone does something about the way it comes across.
Andorra
A black and white backdrop with the numbers from the chorus flashing.
With the look of the stage and a great performance from the boys, this looks like actually offering Andorra a chance of making the final. It looks like whoever completely arsed up their previous attempts with ill-considered staging has got the push. For more or less everyone watching, this song and the one that followed stood out as being rather different, fresh and less desperate than what had gone before.
Hungary
A dark stage with a moving road projected onto the arc above the stage and pin pricks of light marking the night time sky.
She's on the stage with a suitcase and a bus stop, clearly a bit narked by her two-timing slug of a boyfriend and she blew people away with a heartfelt performance that even converted a few of the nay-sayers of recent weeks. Her performance is very personal and small, which may not carry in the hall, but those watching on monitors liked it. It could make it through just by being so very different from the circus acts that surround it.
Ολοκληρώνονται οι πρόβες στην Ελλάδα
source: ert.gr
Μια εβδομάδα έμεινε σχεδόν μέχρι τη Eurovision του Ελσίνκι και οι προετοιμασίες συνεχίζονται με εντατικούς ρυθμούς. Ο Σαρμπέλ βρίσκεται καθημερινά στο studio C της ελληνικής ραδιοφωνίας για τις τελευταίες πρόβες του "YASSOU MARIA". Παρ' όλο που το πρόγραμμά τους είναι πολύ φορτωμένο και αρκετά κουραστικό, καθώς οι πρόβες διαρκούν πολλές ώρες, τόσο ο ίδιος όσο και οι χορεύτριες που θα τον πλαισιώσουν στον τελικό δηλώνουν ενθουσιασμένοι για την ελληνική συμμετοχή. Όπως μας δήλωσε ο Σαρμπέλ, "Έχουμε άγχος για το αποτέλεσμα και για μια πολύ καλή εμφάνιση ωστόσο όλοι ανυπομονούμε για τη μεγάλη βραδιά". Οι πρόβες στην Ελλάδα ολοκληρώνονται στις 4 Μαϊου και στις 5 η ελληνική αποστολή αναχωρεί για το Ελσίνκι.
Romania: Todomondo Ready For Helsinki!
source:escforever.com
Romanian representatives in this year's Eurovision Song Contest, Todomondo, together with the rest of the Romanian delegation are ready to fly to Helsinki, where the heart of Eurovision beats this year. Todomondo and the Romanian delegation will be departuring for Helsinki tomorrow, Saturday May 5th. Since the Romanian National Final, Todomondo have been going through a long and tiring way, full of rehearsals (over 140 hours), costume tests, photo shootings, interviews, invitations to many TV and radio shows, as well as concerts, in order to promote their song for Helsinki "Liubi, Liubi I Love You". Besides participating to TV shows like Dănutz SRL and Surprize, Surprize, the artists have been the main guests of some special editions for Drumul spre Helsinki, Parteneri de week-end, COOLmea distracţiei, Tonomatul DP 2, România la Eurovision, totalizing over 585 minutes. The promo tour included Cyprus, Ukraine, Belarus, Turkey, Malta and Greece, setting a record regarding the extension of a promotion tour, from all Romania's participations to Eurovision. The Romanian delegation (which includes the choreographer Doina Botiş and the composer Eduard Cîrcotă, who rearranged the orchestration of the song) will start the preparation programme on Monday, May 7th, with a first rehearsal scheduled from 19.50 to 20.30. The rehearsal will be followed by a press conference. On the 8th of May, the second rehearsal will take place, from 18.50 to 19.20, also followed by a press conference. At the Final of May 12th, the members of Todomondo will wear costumes signed by a group of three young designers known as "Dork". These costumes will only be revealed on the stage, during the show. Thanks to Mihai Traistariu's 4th place in last year's ESC, Romania and Todomondo participate directly in the Final of this year's ESC, where they have been drawn to perform 20th. Visit the SPECIAL PAGE of Romania and find out everything about this year's Romanian entry, by clicking here! Read what Todomondo told us in an interview we had with them, by clicking here!
Romanian representatives in this year's Eurovision Song Contest, Todomondo, together with the rest of the Romanian delegation are ready to fly to Helsinki, where the heart of Eurovision beats this year. Todomondo and the Romanian delegation will be departuring for Helsinki tomorrow, Saturday May 5th. Since the Romanian National Final, Todomondo have been going through a long and tiring way, full of rehearsals (over 140 hours), costume tests, photo shootings, interviews, invitations to many TV and radio shows, as well as concerts, in order to promote their song for Helsinki "Liubi, Liubi I Love You". Besides participating to TV shows like Dănutz SRL and Surprize, Surprize, the artists have been the main guests of some special editions for Drumul spre Helsinki, Parteneri de week-end, COOLmea distracţiei, Tonomatul DP 2, România la Eurovision, totalizing over 585 minutes. The promo tour included Cyprus, Ukraine, Belarus, Turkey, Malta and Greece, setting a record regarding the extension of a promotion tour, from all Romania's participations to Eurovision. The Romanian delegation (which includes the choreographer Doina Botiş and the composer Eduard Cîrcotă, who rearranged the orchestration of the song) will start the preparation programme on Monday, May 7th, with a first rehearsal scheduled from 19.50 to 20.30. The rehearsal will be followed by a press conference. On the 8th of May, the second rehearsal will take place, from 18.50 to 19.20, also followed by a press conference. At the Final of May 12th, the members of Todomondo will wear costumes signed by a group of three young designers known as "Dork". These costumes will only be revealed on the stage, during the show. Thanks to Mihai Traistariu's 4th place in last year's ESC, Romania and Todomondo participate directly in the Final of this year's ESC, where they have been drawn to perform 20th. Visit the SPECIAL PAGE of Romania and find out everything about this year's Romanian entry, by clicking here! Read what Todomondo told us in an interview we had with them, by clicking here!
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