By Mark Pittelkau
This show makes you want to see the grand finale on Saturday!
The first semi-final of the 67th World Cup kicked off Tuesday night at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool. Euro Vision Song Contest (ESC).
15 countries competed against each other, ten advanced: Croatia, Moldova, Switzerland, Finland, Czech Republic, Israel, Portugal, Sweden, Serbia and Norway.
The top favorite for victory is already pop star Loreen (39) from Sweden, who won the ESC in 2012 with her hit “Euphoria”.
Her new song “Tattoo” is also strong and full of energy, but falls behind the high-flyer song from back then.
On the other hand, Loreen’s idiosyncratic performance alone on stage is so breathtaking that she steals the show from almost all the other participants.
In a skin-tight costume, with exotic finger jewelery and knee-length, black hair, she slowly pushes herself up between two LED blocks, accompanied by mystical singing and her well-known, unique dance style. An impressive performance, as if he were not from this world.
With a 45 percent probability of winning, it is already at the forefront of the bookmakers in the betting shops.
The rest of the songs and performances?
A motley potpourri of different music styles, wild dance performances and weird crazy performances. Typical ESC!
The show started with half-Italian Alessandra (20), who represented Norway with her song “Queen Of Kings”. Appropriately with a kind of modern Viking sound and outfit.
In the pumping pop pounder, Alessandra reveals that she likes boys and girls. A circumstance that she has so far concealed from her Italian father.
The three guys from The Busker from Malta presented their party song “Dance (Our Own Party)” in sweaters with a lot of saxophone use. At the end of the song, the three ripped off their tops and continued dancing in glittery silver shirts.
The cool electro song “Samo mi se spava” by Serbia’s Luke Black (30) means “I just want to sleep” in German and was created during the Corona period. The singer looks a bit like the young Hugh Grant.
The song “Aijā” by the Latvian alternative rock band Sudden Lights seemed a bit unwieldy. It got lost in hectic beats and guitar sounds. The performance was also unspectacular.
The Portuguese Mimicat (38) presented her song “Ai coração” in the style of a cabaret chanson, which is about an unfulfilled love. For the Can Can she wore a red plumage that harmonized with the outfits of her dancers.
It continued melodically with the Irish band Wild Youth and their catchy pop anthem “We Are One”. The pleasing sound was reminiscent of bands like The Killers and Coldplay. Eye-catcher: The singer appeared in a glittering gold catsuit. But it wasn’t enough for the final.
The weirdest band of this year’s ESC is “Let 3” and comes from Croatia. Their costumes: a crazy mix of colorful military coats, shrill fantasy uniforms and skirts. In addition, a blatant sound of sound collages and repeated exclamations. In the end, the band stood on stage in their underwear.
The men from “Let 3” ended up standing on the ESC stage in ill-fitting underwear
Photo: Reuters
Switzerland sent Remo Forrer (21) into the race with the piano ballad “Watergun”. His beautiful voice was convincing, but the song was a bit pale behind it. Nevertheless, he was re-elected.
A real superstar in her native Israel is singer Noa Kirel (22), who competed with the driving dance-pop title “Unicorn”, which she wrote herself. Certainly one of the best dance performances of the competition.
Incidentally, “Unicorn” is a favorite song of our German ESC star Chris Harms (43).
Pasha Parfeni’s folkloric dance track “Soarele și luna” from Moldova seems to have taken up the flute motif of last year’s Ukrainian winner Kalush Orchestra. Sounds like it anyway.
After Loreen’s amazing performance, the twins Tural and Turan (22) from Azerbaijan could only fall away as “TuralTuranX” with their rather simple, self-written song “Tell Me More”.
The six-piece women’s band Vesna from the Czech Republic, with their long pigtails and pink costumes, was far less impressive than Loreen. Nevertheless, she made it to the final with her folk pop song “My Sister’s Crown”, sung in three languages.
From the Netherlands came the pop duo Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper “Burning Daylight”. The actually beautiful number was completely lost in the context of the more spectacular performances.
At the end there was another real hit and Loreen’s toughest competition: Finland’s ESC singer Käärijä (29) with his metal-rap-techno monster “Cha Cha Cha”. His appearance is probably the bravest and craziest of this year’s competition.
Käärijä has everything under control during his performance Photo: picture alliance/dpa/PA Wire | Peter Byrne
To his song, Käärijä wears a bright green patent leather top with black spikes over his exposed upper body, pulls his shrillly made-up dancers in pink costumes on a leash. The song then turns into a marquee music into a wild hit ballet with mini polonaise.
Just crazy!