Aimee was sweetness and light when we interviewed her today after her second rehearsal. The warmth she exudes during interviews translates beautifully to the stage. As Ireland’s first ever Junior Eurovision contestant, the stakes are high — but she delivers. She’s kept the waves and the boat on her LED screen, but has ditched the sickly green colour for purple, black and blue. It makes the song more dramatic and somehow more inviting, and will surely help her dress — which is inspired by the ocean — standout and POP! Despite the stormy visuals, Aimee’s lovely soprano definitely calmed the sea.
JUNIOR EUROVISION 2015: IRELAND’S SECOND REHEARSAL
What we thought of her first rehearsal
Ireland’s Aimee Banks turned the Junior Eurovisino 2015 stage into a maelstrom of emotion today with her song “Réalta Na Mara” (Star of the Sea). In the number her pain runs as deep as the ocean, so it’s only natural that she’d kick things off with a dark sky and crashing waves, and a ship bobbing out of control. Lost love will do that to you, people. But she’s keen to get back to her beloved: “Somewhere someday, across the wide open blue, through a strong gail, we set sail, warry me away back to you…” And she takes us there. The waves become less ominous as the song goes on, and the white sail becomes a symbol of hope that she just might make it home (wherever that is).
At times we were experiencing a lot of reverb in the press centre — we blame the equipment, not Aimee. But even so at times it seemed that Aimee was still figuring out how to best fill this big arena with her big voice. But hey that’s what rehearsal is for.
Read all of our rehearsal reviews here
Read our JESC 2015 song reviews here
Follow all of our Junior Eurovision coverage here
Photo: EBU (Credit: Elena Volotova/Vladimir Dudakliev)
Is brea liom é! Finally a song we can actually be proud of – now all RTÉ need to do is take note from TG4…maybe a cheeky song as gaeilge in Stockholm? #AmhráinAsGaeilge
It still makes me feel a bit sea-sick. 🙁