S10 sings from beautifully hypothermic to almost touching to final

The Netherlands is through to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. From beautifully hypothermic to an almost moving release, singer S10 (Stien den Hollander) sang her way to the last round in the first semifinal with ‘De Diepte’ on Tuesday evening. In recent days, S10 has been gaining more and more power and confidence – the hesitation evaporated with each performance. In the sober Dutch act, in which the tension and drama was built up with light work, she brought her ‘love letter to old grief’ exactly as she had in mind: straight to the viewer.

In the first semi-final from the PalaOlimpico of Turin with seventeen candidates, it was no wonder that Ukraine advanced to the final. The folk rap song ‘Stefania’ has been on the list of bookmakers for weeks now. A louder cheer could not have been heard at the performance of Kalush Orchestra with rapper Oleh Psiuk. And as expected, it rained sympathy votes at home in Europe at the televoters.

Also read: S10 about her Eurovision song: ‘I lovingly sing my tears from then’

Furthermore, many high-quality, quiet acts with beautiful songs made it to the final on Saturday: the sensitive song by the Swiss Marius Bear, the Icelandic sisters with their polyphonic ode to transgender children, the serene saudade of Portugal, the Lithuanian chanteuse with her retro act, the cuddly Armenian singer-songwriter with her guitar and the tragic love ballad of Greece. Norway’s masked wolf madness and Moldovan folklore revelers were also popular. It was at the expense of, among other things, the pumped-up Balkan sounds of the fierce and voluptuous Albanian diva Ronela Hajati or the Scorpions-like rockers from Bulgaria.

The Sound of Beauty?

What exactly host country Italy means by the chosen Eurovision theme ‘The Sound of Beauty’ was a guess. But presenter Mika emphasized the diversity of the Eurovision event again on Tuesday evening: everyone here is unique, strange and beautiful. So is the radiant half-sun decor, plagued by refusing technology this week. And while the Trevi Fountain may be in Rome, Eurovision city of Turin has turned its large stage into a fountain – the water flows from it on both sides throughout the show.

Rotterdam impressed as host country last year with many beautiful, technically advanced intermediate acts, Turin chose this semi-final for a fairly simple mosaic of Italian dance acts. It was very nice how singer Diodato, the Italian entry of 2020, but unfortunately when the Eurovision song contest was cancelled, could still perform the song ‘Fai rumore’.

With her Dutch song, singer S10 bridges the gap that has existed since Sieneke’s participation in 2010, to sing in mother tongue. This year after the victory of the Italian Maneskin, that is much more visible in the field of participants. In this first semifinal, seven sang in their own language.