Laura’s Show Opener
Whilst the show technically opens with a video showing a 1,000-strong rock choir performing John Lennon’s ‘Give Peace a Chance’, much like the running order, the Italians have doubled up on their opening act options. As soon as the video is done, Laura Pausini takes to the stage to perform a medley of her career hits; it is absolutely breathtaking. Her vocals are superb, the performances are big and the songs are fantastic. She is the ultimate Italian pop star and the perfect choice to welcome the European audience to the Grand Final of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
Seeing a Lot of the Green Room?
This year, a lot of the participating acts’ stage shows include big, complicated props which need to be wheeled on and off stage in the window between songs. Despite the best efforts of a fantastic stage crew however, there is often not quite enough time to do the job over the length of a typical postcard, especially between acts that have similarly big shows like the transition between Australia and the United Kingdom (more on that later) or a particularly complicated set-up like Germany. So how does the show mask what’s happening with the set-up? A lot of throwing to Mika, Laura and Alessandro in the green room after the postcards have been shown and a lot of shots of fans in the arena having a great time. If you see that happen, you know what’s going on. The best example of previous precedent on this was at Eurovision 2014 when the transition between the Danish act (Basim’s ‘Cliche Love Song’) and the Dutch act (The Common Linnets ‘Calm After the Storm’) required a bit of extra time and host Lise Rønne had to think on her feet from the Green Room (0:00-0:30 on the video below).
Whatever ‘Fuego’ is in Breton
Alvan & Ahez have always brought passion and energy to their performance of ‘Fulenn’ but the other thing they’ve brought plenty of this year is fire. Their performance is flanked by four literal bin-fires and the camera angles accentuate quite how hot on-stage it is as heat-waves stream off the fire right over the views of several members of Ahez. Whilst it’s unclear whether this effect was an intentional choice by the French delegation, it adds to what is already a fast-paced performance so nicely.
The ‘Brividi’ Backing Choir
Since winning Sanremo and immediately soaring to the top of the bookies’ odds, it’s clear that Mahmood and Blanco have since fallen back in their quest to win the contest on home soil for the first time since Ireland in 1994. Once rehearsals began though, the ultimate question became ‘Can Mahmood and Blanco make that final chorus seem magical and demonstrate their chemistry and connection to each other down the camera?’ All through rehearsals, it had looked like the answer to that was no as touring commitments meant Blanco couldn’t be present for the first rehearsal and the performance feeling generally a bit devoid of the emotion that saw it win Sanremo. Then last night during the Jury Final, a switch was flicked and suddenly you felt the visual storytelling and the connection of this special duet all over again. And what happened during the final chorus? The audience in the arena sang it so loudly that they sounded like a backing choir supporting their local heroes. It was a spine-tingling moment and whilst it’s unclear whether that will happen again tonight, it’s a greater possibility than 0.
The Latina Beyoncé
Credit where credit is due to the Spanish delegation this year. They know what Chanel can do, they know what this song is and they are wringing everything they possibly can out of both of them. The spanish trumpet beginning and soaring note towards the end are welcome additions to the song’s original version whilst Chanel as a performer is utterly transformed even from her performance at Benidorm Fest. Her dance moves, costume adjustments mid-song and strong vocals whilst being tossed from one side of the stage to the other is like nothing we’ve seen before at Eurovision and speaks to a performance pedigree not just akin to legendary performances of the female-fronted pop banger at Eurovision but even to the great Beyoncé herself.
Malik the Music Man
When Malik Harris won ‘Germany 12 Points’, the immediate consensus seemed to be that he’d be competing for last place on Saturday night. The German delegation however, know better than to settle for that and have responded by creating a stage show that is very on-brand with Malik and the way he makes music. Instruments have been set up all around the stage and Malik uses loop pedals and his fantastic musical nouse to construct the song from scratch live on stage. He even brought some carpets to make himself feel properly at home on the Turin stage. This may still come last tonight but it certainly wouldn’t deserve that if it did.
Acapella Volare
I mentioned earlier in this article that there’s a long transition between clearing Australia’s props and setting up the United Kingdom’s very big prop (again, more on that in a sec). Whilst that process is going on, the hosts lead an acapella rendition of ‘Volare’ across the whole arena. Laura Pausini obviously does most of the heavy lifting on it and is amazing but Alessandro and the crowd do their bit to be part of the process too and as filler moments in between competing songs go, it is a pretty special one.
Sam’s Spaceship
It will come as no surprise that Sam is performing in a massive spaceship but what’s most impressive about it is the way it’s tailored to the camera angles. The camera is at times both in and outside the spaceship but its open climbing frame-like structure allows the connection between Sam and the audience to remain strong. Look out for the part of the song when the spaceship “crashes down to earth” and opens up in a brilliant moment of visual storytelling.
The Returning Heroes
Måneskin return to the Eurovision stage tonight for the first time since they won in Rotterdam and proclaimed that “Rock ‘n’ roll never dies”. They are performing their new single ‘Supermodel’, a song released yesterday that is already picking up attention across Europe. The strange thing to look out for here is that they will play ‘Supermodel’ and their offering for the soundtrack of the new Elvis film but not their winning song ‘Zitti e Buoni’ marking (by our calculations) the first time that the previous year’s winning song has not been performed at its home contest since Stockholm 2000 when Charlotte Nilsson (who had won in Jerusalem the previous year with ‘Take Me to Your Heaven’) did not make an appearance at all.
An Old Friend
It’s hard to overstate Gigliola Cinquetti’s importance to Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest. Not only did she become the first Southern European to win the competition when she took victory in Copenhagen at the 1964 contest but she then pushed Sweden close ten years later in Brighton when she placed second to a little known Swedish band named ABBA. She then co-hosted the 1991 contest with Toto Cutugno in Rome and was a sensible head in the midst of much of the chaos of that year’s show. When she takes to the stage tonight to sing her winning song ‘Non ho l’eta’ (I’m not old enough), she will do it with the exact same staging with which she won in Copenhagen at the tender age of 17. I encourage readers to watch this performance before tonight’s Grand Final because when you see how similar the performances are and how 58 years later, she still sings “I am not old enough to love you”, it is a spine-tingling moment and one that makes us wish somebody could find the full version of the 1964 contest so we can enjoy her victory moment in its full glory.
Remember Mika?
Are you a fan of noughties pop music? Great, you will love this! Mika performs with colour, energy and verve as he dashes through a medley of his music whilst putting various clothes on and off and running from prop to prop like a kid in a candy shop. There’s an element of nostalgia in this and it’s way too big a performance for its own good but it is extremely entertaining and perhaps showcasing stars just below the top tier linked to the host country is the best compromise solution for not ending up with Justin Timberlake and Madonna using this slot instead.
A Scoreboard Family Reunion
And finally, the presentation of the Jury votes always offers a chance for us to look out for people we recognise from the Eurovision community and go “ah, it’s good to see you” much like a family reunion. At this year’s party, keep your eye out for Jeangu Macrooy reading the Dutch votes, Go_A lead singer Kateryna Pavlenko reading the Ukrainian votes, Tanel Padar reading the Estonian votes, Barbara Schoneberger reading the German votes (from Hamburg although it’s unclear if it will be from the usual Reeperbahn party), Tix reading the Norwegian votes, Stefania reading the Greek votes, Árný Fjóla Ásmundsdóttir (member of Daði & Gagnamagnið and Daði Freyr’s wife) reading the Icelandic votes, Samanta Tina reading the Latvian votes, Linda Martin reading the Irish votes, Aksel reading the Finnish votes and Dotter reading the Swedish votes.