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Israel

Review of the second semi-final by Keith Mills

I decided not to hang around for the qualifier press conference tonight as I have a pretty hectic day tomorrow, but I have now caught up with the halves of the draw that the ten countries will perform in. It really has ended up as a show of two halves with most of the uptempo songs in the first half and the ballads and slower moody songs in the second.

Overall I think tonight's show was far better than Tuesday's. The songs were better, the pacing was sharper and there was less of last year's winner, though still far too much. The camerawork was also improved, but the issue with flags blocking the screen is still a major problem and has to be sorted on Saturday.

As for the seven songs that went out, only Switzerland and Ireland can feel hard done by and Poland qualifying was a bit of a shock. Some are suggesting it was a sympathy vote, but it was also helped by the draw so perhaps not totally unpredictable.

My thoughts on the seven that went home;
IRELAND: I think Molly performed well and for once I liked the Irish staging. However I thought we were probably doomed on the day we were given the awful #2 draw and so it came to be. I may sound like a broken record here but once again can I suggest RTÉ looks at its selection process. The current formula is giving is the worst set of results we've ever had in the contest.

SAN MARINO: Dreadful patchwork of a song and no amount of youthful enthusiasm can replace a lack of stage craft. It was always a no-hoper. It deserved to finish last and being honest, if this is the best that they can come up with, San Marino has no place in the contest.

MALTA: A much better performance by Amber tonight but there was far too much going on to distract you in the presentation.It was as if no lessons were learnt from Olivia Lewis in 2007. The song was always too weak for this semi, but might have had a chance in the first semi. No surprise this lost out.

PORTUGAL: The Portuguese chose the wrong song in the Eurovision selection, it's as simple as that. No matter how good Leonor was tonight (and she was very good), the song was just poor. Like Ireland, Portugal needs to re-think its selection process. There's enough talent there to do very well in the contest but RTP are not tapping into it.

CZECH REPUBLIC: Whoever decided to add the ridiculous shoe throwing to the act should never be allowed near the contest again. Until that point the performance was solid, even if the song was always a little dull. I fear that we may never see the Czechs back in the contest.

ICELAND: Not only the worst vocal performance of the night, one of the worst of this century. It was always a big heap of nothing of a song, with basically a repeated chorus and no verses but everything about this was absolutely dreadful from he staging to the costume, but especially the off-key performance.

SWITZERLAND: I really feel sorry for Melanie, because this was a terrific performance and hugely improved on the national final. Switzerland just doesn't have friendly neighbours or a diaspora, but if Austria can win, so can they. Really disappointed not to see this in the final.

The following countries are in the first half;
 Armenia
 Australia
 Belgium
 Cyprus
 Estonia
 France
 Israel
 Lithuania
 Norway
 Serbia
 Slovenia
 Sweden
 United Kingdom

That's a lot of up-tempo and mid-tempo songs. Personally I'd probably open with United Kingdom, then go with Armenia and Sweden, for contrast. I would have Israel at #13

At #14 it's Austria

In the second half you have the following countries;
 Albania
 Azerbaijan
 Georgia
 Germany
 Greece
 Hungary
 Italy
 Latvia
 Montenegro
 Poland
 Romania
 Russia
 Spain

There's no up-tempo song in there at all, but Georgia, Germany and Montenegro are at least mid-tempo. Hungary, Greece, Russia and Spain need to be kept apart. The director will certainly earn his money tonight.

Tomorrow I will review the running order, as I fly back to Dublin.

Israeli Partry

Israel through up a magnificent party at Euroclub tonight. I heard about it a lot and was expecting a lot as well. Many rumours say that it's one of the most interesting parties held in Euroclub, so I decided to join it with Samira. It all started at about 10 pm. So, we arrived and we were offered fresh orange juice at the entrance. That was a good start! The disappointing thing was that a lot of non-accredited people were let in as well, so there was not enough air to breeze. Because of that I literary wanted to die.

Participants from Israel (of cause), Malta, Azerbaijan, Montenegro, Switzerland and Iceland were entertaining public which was very happy to see the contestants. Many nice foods were served - couscous, veggies, fruits, pastry and sweets up to everyone's taste. And again - there were loads of people queuing up for food so it was impossible to try anything. And that was the only and the biggest minus of the party.

In general, I have very positive emotions and impressions but I wouldn't have liked to repeat it again. Soon after 2 am Samira and I left home to relax at long last as tomorrow we have some spare time and no need to get up early.

Fashion show in EuroVillage

We had a chance today to see the opening ceremony of the Eurovision Village at the City Hall Square with a unique show idea FASHION FOR EUROPE. The idea is about designers and brands from many different participating countries building bridges through fashion.

In total it took 1.5 hours to present 14 brand: Agnesa Vuyhaj (Albania), Sinoian (Armenia), Lena Hoschek (Austria), Fakhriya Khalafova (Azerbaijan), Bernard Depoorrter (Belgium), Ivana Helsinki (Finland), Atelier Michalsky (Germany), Galia Lahav (Israel), Calzedonia (Italy), Daili (Lithuania), Sanja Matijevic (Montenegro), Blessus by Michael Hekmat (Poland), Adelina Ivan (Romania), Julian Zigerli (Switzerland).

Israel- Second Rehearsal

CostasP on Sat, 05/16/2015 - 13:59

Hm...i expected better from this after watching the short clip of the first rehearsal. I am fond of the backdrop and the lightening; it starts dark and atmospheric, turns into colourful lights with a golden floor in the process . The vocals are also good enough. However, the choreography looks a bit disjoined and amateur, very contemporary at parts and full ethno on others. I think the whole performance isn't that well-thought but it does profit from being up-tempo and fun in an otherwise ballad-y semi.

Israel Second Rehearsal: Nadav Guedj - Golden Boy

Nadav from Israel is bringing one of the sole uptempo oriental flavoured pop tracks in this contest.

Visually I still think it's not as attractive as it could have been. As I explained before, I don't necessarily think that a oriental sounding track should be given an oriental backdrop.

Also the choreography needs to be a lot sharper from the dancers to make this work. I also still have an issue with two of the backing singers standing behind a micro stat, although I have to admit that they are moving a lot more than they originally did.

Vocally Nadav sounds okay. I don't think he's as experienced as Eduard from Moldova e.g. to do both at the same time.

Will it qualify? Based on the type of song, I hope it does, we need some uptempo stuff in the final.

Israel First Rehearsal: Nadav Guadj - Golden Boy

Nadav from Israel is the first candidate to kickstart our day. Nadav starts his performance in a black suit with golden boots and is surrounded by a dark and blue oriental backdrop. The backdrop seems to be the same from last year's performance so I am really reluctant about this.

When the second verse kicks in Nadav's joined by his dancers, but again the staging still seems too dark for my liking. It's only when the chorus kicks in that we get the golden colour, which then features the oriental backdrop again.

During the second run, Nadav's not fully going for his singing and he's out of breath.

Slightly underwhelmed so far by Israel. Their song is bringing the fun to the contest, so they should really have a word with ORF regarding the backdrop, which is not vibrant enough to me. I also fail to see why, a song which is full of oriental flavours should therefore automatically have oriental elements in the backdrop.

Also, the backing vocalists are quite static through most of the Israeli performance, get those guys involved from the start.

Still some work to be done for Israel in my opinion but there's a glimmer of hope. The addition of pyros during the first chorus, and final chorus and the oh oh oh's in the bridge really do work.

Israel, Se't' Points!

Israel - First Rehearsal

And again, a very bright start of the day. The background is mostly in golden and red colors which corresponds with the name of the song. The stage is always occupied, full of action and energy, mostly due to the tree dancers and two backing vocals that dance as well. Nadav's singing is very good taking into account that dancing along with everyone.

Their presentation of the performance is well done, even small details were thought over. There is a small interesting surprise for us at the very end of his performance - everybody stays motionless on the stage and it seems like a picture has been taken (with the help of music and lights). You will see - it's a nice idea.

Israel rehearsal

Andy on Thu, 05/14/2015 - 11:21

It's black suit for Nadav, even though we hoped it would be a golden one. There is mismatching look of him and his party dancers, which looks a bit strange. May be there was use to do some clothes changing in the first part of the song?

Also Nadav is doing pretty much weird dancing bending to the front.

Backing vocalists join in the dancing for the last party of the song, ending with the polaroid shot from above.

It has a bit of amateurish feel in whole the performance and even if the song is catchy and upbeat, it's difficult to predict it's qualifying chances.