Following a posh reception hosted by Germany in the afternoon, last night saw the second “big” delegation party of the season as Israel invited the accredited press, fans, members of the local Israeli community and tons of this year’s artists to the Glasklart venue in Malmö’s regenerated docklands for an evening of food, drink and music.
Alcohol was not free (unless you were a delegation member), but there was a huge amount of very good food and a terrific view of the night-time waterfront. And following a bit of warm-up from the compere, who (regrettably) seemed to think he was the star of the show, there began a series of performances from what felt like the whole of the second semi-final and more.
Moran Mazor led the crowd in a singalong of “Hallelujah” before making way for Natalie and her backing girls from Cascada, who brought the house down with “Glorious” (despite members of the German delegation frantically hand-signalling to the sound desk throughout – it was a bit loud, but loud is good!).
Albania then took to the stage, and this is where the Israelis deserve huge props for last night’s event – there was the opportunity to play live for those who wanted to, and so Adrian, Bledar and the band plugged in their instruments and rocked out on a fully live version of “Identitet” (followed somewhat implausibly by two Bon Jovi covers, although Bledar did spice things up by playing the guitar with his teeth. Rock ‘n’ roll!).
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Gianluca from Malta then trundled on to mime his way through “Tomorrow”, which was a bit of a disappointment by comparison, albeit substantially less baffling than the extended beatbox-and-guitar-solo breakdown indulged in by PeR from Latvia before they delivered a truncated version of “Here We Go”.
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Vlatko and Esma from Macedonia have been a fixture on this year’s party scene. Not only did they deliver a rousing version of their ESC entry, but Esma then entertained the crowd with a cappella renditions of “Hava nagila” and “Hevenu shalom aleichem” that were very in keeping with the Israeli theme, but that seemed to go on forever. The woman is a star, but boy she knows it – never has a compere’s “Thank you Macedonia!” sounded more like “Please could you leave the stage now?”.
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The Greek boys were up next, taunting us with “Alcohol Is Free” (maybe for you guys it was!) before playing two of their album tracks. After a DJ interlude featuring some of the more up-tempo Israeli entries, the organisers then inexplicably decided to detonate the mood by unleashing the Dorians torpedo. With another fully live performance, lead singer Gor channeling the spirit of Michael Jackson and songs with titles like “Psychic Rain”, obviously I was in my element, but I’m sure the crowd thinned noticeably throughout – as it did when Stoyan and Elitsa took to the stage and asked the crowd “Do you want to feel Bulgarian spirit?”. Drink it, maybe…
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The evening ended with a showcase from Moran Mazor’s new album, followed by more dancing to the usual mixture of ESC classics old and new. Several of the Romanian dancers were notable by their presence on the dancefloor, as was the female Hungarian backing singer, who seems to be absolutely loving every minute of her time in Malmö.
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Curiously, the entrants from Italy, Sweden and San Marino were also in attendance – or to put it another way, we spotted Marco, Robin Stjernberg’s hair, and Ralph and Kriemhild Siegel – but either they were never scheduled to perform in the first place or they simply decided to head back to their hotels once the crowds started dwindling.
We then moved to the Euro Fan Cafe to finish the evening, arriving just as the huge quiz event was coming to an end – we’d have considered taking part, but apparently you needed a smartphone, and we’re still living in the 1990s in that respect. Anyway, rather than battle the crowds (and live performances from Bettan and – who else? – Glen Vella), we chose to sit on the terrace at Moriskan for a few hours with blankets and beers before rolling home for a 4am finish – our latest of the ESC fortnight so far. Burnout, what burnout?
You can see more photos from both of yesterday’s events in our Party Gallery!
Martin, Felix & Danny (17:15)
It wouldn’t be a Eurovision Song Contest without some predictions – so here are the ten songs that our three Malmö contributors think will qualify from tonight’s first semi-final. Tune in tomorrow for the aftermath as we find out who was nearest to the actual result!
MARTIN | FELIX | DANNY |
Estonia | Estonia | Estonia |
Croatia | Croatia | Croatia |
Denmark | Denmark | Denmark |
Russia | Russia | Russia |
Ukraine | Ukraine | Ukraine |
Netherlands | Netherlands | Netherlands |
Lithuania | Montenegro | Moldova |
Moldova | Belarus | Ireland |
Ireland | Moldova | Cyprus |
Serbia | Belgium | Serbia |
Felix (17:55)
Just came back from a city trip with the shuttle bus, which quite served as a good occasion to relax before tonight.
To the above predictions I want to add that I would not be surprised if Netherlands will not qualify, but I have to put some random country into my 10th slot, so I chose the Netherlands.
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