The Fire & The Flames

It's day 4, and today we watched the artists from the second half of Semi 2 take the stage for the first time.

For many, this meant looking forward to seeing Gjon's Tears from Switzerland, one of the big favourites.  For me, though, it was all about the superbly clever 80's flashback brought by Denmark's Fyr Og Flamme.  And, my word, did they deliver!  Easily the standout performance of the day for me, and even more fun than in DMGP.  Jesper was in his element cavorting around the huge stage like a thing possessed.  This really is an ironic pastiche of 80's pop and it's executed perfectly.  This HAS to get to the Final, and I'm convinced it'll be there!  By the way, they mentioned in their press conference that one of their biggest 80's influences is Modern Talking - fab!

So, if I told you this morning that one of the hot favourite, dark etherial and moody ballads was going to be performed by the singer as a modern interpretative dance track, you'd have laughed... and yet, this is how the Swiss have chosen to showcase their song!  The vocal is completely on point, but the dancing...

Remember Eric Sadde's performance in MF two short months ago?

The other big hitter of the day was Victoria from Bulgaria.  Now she was on much more familiar ground, and presented her song sitting on a big boulder which features a fountain of sand,  presumably depicting the sands of time.  Understated, demure and beautifully sung, I think Victoria will land squarely somewhere in the Top 10 in the final.

The other performance that garnered huge appreciation from the online press community was the laid back, jazzy sounding Portuguese song.  I'm not convinced it'll make the final, but there was a great deal of charm about the performance.

I really enjoyed this morning's first run through from Tornike from Georgia.  During his last performance he chopped and changed his vocals from an ultra deep Bass, to a high-pitched soprano.  He was having fun, and it showed!  Came over as a nice bloke during his press conference too.

Finally, my two least favourite songs of the entire competition were also performed today.  Finland followed by Latvia.  I'm sure they each found their target audience, but I was doing my nails at the time.

So, we're back with the majority of the songs from Semi 1 rehearsing again tomorrow.  Let's see who's improved on their first run, and who should start rinsing their smalls in preparation for the flight home next Wednesday.

Ciao!

Photo Credits: EBU / Thomas Hanses