The Eurovision 2019 rehearsals have been beset by issues from day one. Portugal, Estonia and the Netherlands were just three of the countries affected. However, one participant has had enough.
The internationally acclaimed Ukrainian sand artist Kseniya Simonova is lending her services to Moldova this year. And with semi-final two just hours away, she is far from happy with how Anna Odobescu’s “Stay” is shaping up on stage.
Shortly before Wednesday’s jury show, she let vent on her Facebook page:
So. What I can say. The @eurovision semifinal 2 dress rehearsal is over and at 22-00 there is the rehearsal with judges vote. What I can say about the picture? Look at my face. Better to keep silence. It seems that fourth time nobody considers our notes and I can say that how it was shot today is horrible! Then the Eurovision tech team confessed they had made mistakes with us, but guys…. and what????
I haven’t finally seen not a single normal shooting of Moldova staging. They killed our performance today – cameras, lights and cuts. Nothing even close to what we wrote them for hundred times and received each spoiled rehearsal hundreds of promises : “Yes. We know. Sorry. Next time we’ll fix it For you!” But any “next time is worth”.
It’s not my first Eurovision as you know and comparing to Düsseldorf now they just destroyed our show! I am very sad. I am very angry. I don’t know what they will show you. Dare to Dream? Not in our case. Kill the Dream is what I call it. Sorry for being tough…. I was silent until today though all (even 3rd) rehearsals they made it incorrect. But tomorrow is the broadcast. Today are the judges. Urgggggggg🤯😤🤨
So. What I can say. The @eurovision semifinal 2 dress rehearsal is over and at 22-00 there is the rehearsal with judges…
Posted by Sand Artist Kseniya Simonova on Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Moldova’s sand art saga
A sandstorm has been brewing ever since Anna’s first rehearsal on 6 May.
While the song has long been considered a throwback, the stage show left fans screaming deja vu. It centred around some impressive sand art created by America’s Got Talent: The Champions bronze medalist Kseniya Simonova.
The performance bore a striking resemblance to Ukraine’s staging for Mika Newton in 2011. And it wasn’t long before the “Angel” songstress caught wind of it all.
The now LA-based influencer took to Instagram to express her surprise.
Mika Newton about the performance of Moldova ? pic.twitter.com/2l5BKb56OF
— eric ?????? (@ericlewan) May 6, 2019
Mika keeps on spilling the ?? pic.twitter.com/5T7tzjEb18
— eric ?????? (@ericlewan) May 6, 2019
She concluded with a text update.
Dear Eurovision fans! Let’s make it clear cuz I’m tired of waking up to so many messages about Moldova’s entry this year. The only reason why I made a story about it was because so many people were asking what my thoughts were.
I didn’t even know Eurovision was on!
I’m living my happy life in America and I don’t watch it. So I wasn’t the one who started to compare myself to her, because I didn’t even know Anna exists.
Newton continued by touching on her previous — and perfectly logical — confirmation that she didn’t invent sand art. She does, however, assert that she was the first to combine both sand art and song.
She finished by wishing not just luck for Anna, but also the win.
Guess what? People and journalist will compare it’s a natural thing to do when you see or hear something familiar and if someone’s gonna do it again they will say they copied Ukraine and Moldova! So please let’s be respectful to each other and wish Moldova luck and to win Eurovision 2019! Sending you all love! Let’s be kind to each other.
What do you think? Is Kseniya right to be annoyed? Or should she have been more diplomatic? Let us know in the comments below.
Follow all of our Moldova Eurovision 2019 news.
Photo:Andres Putting (EBU) / Kseniya Simonova
Lets be honest here. The producers saved that song for Moldova from being totally boring. It was no more than a mediocre song with outdated sand show that we have seen before (Ukraine for example). This non special in any way song did not deserve to be qualified. Even among fans it got a rating of 2.4 out of 5.
No sand tricks can cover for a bad song dear Kseniya. This post was a preparation for your expected disqualification. You can bring sand, wind or water – a bad song stays bad anyway.
Couldn’t agree more!
I wonder how much of all of these “technical issues” are a strategy of the participants? Everything looked amazing on stage. I think the singers like to create a fuss and a vibe around it.
It’s the oldest trick in the book-when you have a mediocre song blame your disqualification on the producers!
.
Nothing more to say?
Well, it actually looked great.
Wow, people, hold your horses. She said what alot of people were thinking. If you watched Wiwibloggs reviews of several rehearsals the most recurring thing was production issues, bad angels etc. The first semi went smoothly for as far as I saw and it looked very sleek and all. But when you, as an artist, have problems during your rehearsals, they aren’t fixed and it’s almost showtime, you can get very frustrated. In a contest like this you can only expect the best of the best, and some years this is not the case which doesn’t complement the show.
Just a few minutes ago Tamta gave a live interview to a big greek tv channel. She confirmed that she and many other participants have suffered from sound and lighting problems and that she hopes and wishes that everything will be solved until the Grand Final
How can any of you dismiss Kseniya’s complaints when none of you were at Moldova’s rehearsals and none of you know about anything that is happening backstage? Sorry she dissed your favourite competition, sometimes it deserves criticism.
Kseniya is so fake!!!Just yesterday night she was almost f*cking with Luca hanni at club sitting on his lap…and today she says she was disappointed..fake…
that is so true she did it with literally everyone from czech republic delegation too.
What does that have to do with ANYTHING. And who cares who she gives her attention to? Serious slut shaming right here.
Wow, Luca is taken – he has a girlfriend. She should have checked his IG, that’s how I know about that.
Burn, lmao!
Don’t lie, she didn’t come to any club, don’t make fakes
I just want to know how guitar of Estonian guy disappeared and reappeared during performance? that was awesome 😛 and he’s so cute
yeah..but he gave one of the worst performance of the evening …bad vocals
Song is good tho, I like storm effects in the end
I actually saw it live at Expo Tel Aviv and it was just a man (production member) crouching and taking it away.
He is Swedish and I do think Swedish men often are very handsome.
We have a conclusion: Israel 2019 sucked. Next… Thank God it will be over soon, because this horrible Eurovision year is too much to bear. The only good thing are the songs, or the ones that are left (not San Marino and Belarus).
San Marino advancing was the choice of viewers most probably as in not too many jury votes. and that’s what Eurovision is (also) about.. Serhat was very humble and grateful for his qualification, he’s a gentleman. Belarus – that girl put on a very good show and she is very confident. I did criticise Zena in the past (choice of outfit vs her age) but she puts in the effort, believes in herself, commits herself to the performance and I respect that.
So many words trying to justify mediocrity.
It’s my analysis. Btw, I agree with your opinion on the colours of Portugal and that particular connotation, but it’s not published; But I DO AGREE WITH YOU.
When I first read that ‘theory’ I thought that can’t be true, but since then little things in Conan’s interviews made me 100% sure, such as “green colour is part of an evolution, after black and white and wont be changed” and “we are dressed as praying-mantis praying for revolution and change” (this last quotation is from a wiwibloggs interview). So it is obvious… Though ppl who see it first time probably assume it is just PT colours… Honestly, once I became sure what the message was about I didn’t care more about Conan going through or not. Ethics for… Read more »
Israel 2019 is one of the best productions I have seen for years! Everything about it was good-amazing production, Tel Aviv was a great place to be at and the overall vibe is incredible. I came to Tel Aviv from Amsterdam and can tell you it was well-spent money. Tel Aviv 2019 rocks!
This is only your conclusion. I actually think this is a great year. Production is great and the songs, for the most part are good. I dont care about the endless discussions here. I care about what I saw on tv and it was a wow show for me.
KARMA.
Several issues, too much issues this year…. We must recognize
Kseniya please stay until they find a way!!
To be together forever and ever
Stay no matter what they say!
I just think EBU should take a position on this … KAN should be held accountable for all these mistakes and should face consequences
Zala and Gasper from Slovenia also complained in a SLO magazine that the technical team didn’t listen to them. They sent the space video in the background but then at rehearsals the production team made another background for them without even asking. They say that they complained a lot to finally get a compromise, but they also hated the camera angles etc.
I still don’t get why I should bother myself with whatever happens backstage. I care about the actual performance
What they are discussing DOES impact the actual performance
If a certain performance visibly sufferes because of production issues then yeah, it bothers me but if those issues stay backstage than I’m not gonna be bothered.
And regardless, in every production there are issues and mistakes. In this instance I just choose to enjoy the show
Basically the same story over and over again. Interestingly enough, only Sweden doesnt’t have any complains and got everything exactly as they wanted…
It was worse than the nacional final. all of them were worst.
Israel is I think the worst Eurovision host ever – https://www.americaloveseurovision.com/2019/05/is-israel-to-worst-eurovision-host-ever.html
Outrageous. It is far from the worst ever host, and to suggest that is an insult to the efforts KAN have made to put on a great show and entertain both TV viewers and visitors to Tel Aviv. Also outrageous that my more detailed response to this was deleted. Why?
After Lisbon 2018 many said, especially Israeli fans, that KAN would organise a much better show. Well, here is the result… oh wait… I forgot, we have the LEDs… That makes it all go away…
Omg, this is hilarious
Can’t stop laughing . But I have to say, the stage including the LED‘s is great this year!
yes it is, but with bad camera angles, it doesn’t look as good as it should.
The truth is that I was quite happy with the first semi considering all the criticism I read about . So far, so good. I wouldn’t criticise the broadcaster, everything is done under the EBU leadership.
If this Ksenja person took unilateral action and dissed the organizers to THIS extent, the Moldovan delegation should APOLOGIZE PROFUSELY to EBU and KAN and make it clear that they are not involved. They should even remove her from the performance, if possible. Her statements can hurt Anna and the delegation. EBU doesn’t have short memory.
Blah…EBU…Blah…Blah…EBU…Blah…What about Madonna?…Do we know anything?….EBU is great…..Azerbaijan for win – “Shut up about it”.
“APOLOGIZE PROFUSELY to EBU and KAN”
What the hell that means? Should they kiss Jon Ola Sand’s feet and wash them with their tears, and dry with their hair like Mary Magdalene to Jesus?
Well no to be fair, if they feel their needs are not being heard or met then have a right to be angry. I do think the rant was a little unnecessary but say Moldova doesn’t qualify tonight (and being honest they probs won’t), and then they blame KAN for not meeting their standards and requirements…it would look very bad on their part, so they should do what they can do to be heard now. No one should have to apologise to the other, but these things should have been sorted out by now for Moldova.
My issue is with this Ksenija complaining so rudely and publicly. It’s Anna’s performance, This girl doesn’t even do “her” sand/snow spiel live, it’s recorded. Anna is there on the stage. The Moldovans are quite invested in their Eurovision participation. This Ksenija can hurt them and I don’t agree with that. #stayNOT.
The telephone lines for the portuguese voting didn’t work in many countries, and that’s the reason why Conan Osiris is out the final.
Ok, maybe the song was not good enought to be in the final, but Portugal deserves a honest counting of the votes.
Shame on you Eurovision organisation.
This contest is a big joke.
Jeez, build a bridge and get over it. All disqualified countries can come up with this excuse.
well usually Portugal is out of the final and never comes up with “excuses”…
Maybe they didn’t work because no one was voting for them? Look I liked Portugal too, but they’re out, get over it. Stop trying to grasp at straws to justify your favourite’s elimination
Dear portuguese fans,
GET OVER IT. Hungarians, Belgians, Polish, Georgians, etc… none of them are complaining. You’re the only ones and you’re giving a very bad image of your country. I liked Conan, a real artist with his universe. But the song was to strange and it couldn’t have done a good result. It was clear at the moment you decided to send him to Tel Aviv.
We are complaining because there’s many evidences of numerous phone calls printscreens with error during the votation.
Nobody cares
Some of us care.
Plus he was being political by showing PS colours: red, green, black and white…
It was of course Conans intention to be political. He said in a concert (it is recorded) that Roger Waters talked ahead of time. Their performance was a political statement and that was alsp one of the reasons they didn’t go to the final
This puts the whole situation in a different light for me. Such statements do not belong on the Eurovision stage. I wanted to believe they used their own colours, #colourmenaive.
Dear WannaEatMySpaghetti, When people want to vote, they should be able to vote. I have a group of spanish friends that gather every year for Eurovision and they always vote for Portugal because of our friendship. This year, and after several attempts, only 2 of my friends were lucky with their voting, the other 6 didn´t get their vote delivered. So, if we are complaining it is because many of us know people who live abroad (portuguese diaspora or just foreign friends) who tried to vote and weren´t successful. And this is very frustrating….We know Conan is not eveyone´s cup… Read more »
Last year people claimed it happened to Romania
Just deal with it, Portugal didn’t get enough votes to qualify because people didn’t connect to it
It looks and sounds weird if you’re watching for the first time without understanding it
Even when you know the story of the song, some don’t seem to like it that much
Great lyrics, good vocals, I guess it wasn’t enough with that weird-ish melody and performance without understanding Portuguese
They did take it up a couple of notches, I hope it’s for the better.
Something went really wrong with Portugal this year…
The entry was so much better at their National final.
At Eurovision the song was very weird..really bad cam angles , boring LEDs….it didnt work it
So many sympathizers of the contest tech team here. There are mistakes, why are you people dismissing Kseniya’s comments? She has the right to complain for the crappy treatment she and the Moldova team is receiving.
of course she has the right to express her feelings but i also think that we don’t know exectly what happened so making any judgements is wrong imo, there are two sides to every story after all.
she could be right, she could be wrong or even over reacting. maybe she’s the difficult one, maybe not. we simply don’t know and honestly, i think we’re not supposed to care what happened backstage because mistakes happen but i think we’re supposed to care about the actual performance and how it turns out. it’s just my opinion
“She” is not Moldova. It is her who offered her “services” to the Moldovan broadcaster. She is promoting herself big time, she’s everywhere. If anyone has the right to complain, it’s Anna and the Moldovan delegation.
Emperor Serhat is happy. This is all that matters right now.
Serhat winning ESC. I wanna see that just because of those bitter people, his happiness hurts them, poor them.
You are totally right. ESC is happiness, unity (after world war 2, in 1956), it was never meant to be something pretentious for snobs. Back off snobs. Serhat is the spirit of ESC (also Miki from Spain).
LOL, please dont put Miki from Spain in the same sentence as Serhat. Miki has a great voice and a great happy, party song, Serhat cant sing a note and the song is really bad. Miki is proof you can send still a good party song to Eurovision if its done the right way, Serhat is not. But i guess my opinion is in the minority because Serhat did qualify after all and im sure he is very happy!!!
What about the late Leonard Cohen? Could he sing a note? Petra Mede compared Serhat with Cohen and Baccara.
Ah ah ah… That explains a lot about her taste and personality…. This is so ridiculous…
Miki and Serhat.
ah aha ah… You are a killer, aren’t you? How can you put in same post “unity” and then “back off snobs”… Now I start to understand the Serhat phenomenon… Is the music of the intelectually challenged and unfortunately the number of those are growing.
Dream on
Girl your make up is too on point for someone being so sad and angry
Spot on.
She just wants attention. I mean, did you see her outfit on orange carpet, who represents Moldova, she or Anna ? 😛
Her whole spiel reeks of self-promotion.
Let’s not forget that Kseniya is famous internationally while Anna is a no-name. If a worldwide celebrity was there as a guest of a no-name contestant I’m pretty sure all the attention would be on the former.
Kseniya, is that you? 😛 Worldwide celebrity lol! Never heard
Anna HAS a name. I watched the 2011 Eurovision and I have no memory whatsoever about who his woman is. I don’t watch reality shows. This Ksenija is a no-name for me. I knew about Anna, a very professional artist, before this Ksenija.
Esc 2019 has just been completely off putting all across the board.
A snowflake storm.
You are just a brainwashed politically correct robot,….and you are talking about snowflakes?
Please, Purple Mask has an exquisite musical expertise, something you can #daretodream about. Plus, good mastery of sarcasm and sense of humour.
LOL
Ah come on stop whining! Tuesday it was a very good show with Netta’s opening and the contestants were looking very nice. Stop complaining and enjoy the moment! You are watching the shows like where can i find a mistake,hmm, that pyro machine produces less pyro in comparison with the others,hmm here is a mistake! Just enjoy it… About Kseniya she loves drama and knows they will not go through, so she tries it other way…It seems that cross she is wearing as necklace is not helping much tho.
Wtf???
Tuesday was a crappy show, especially the parts without the songs. Netta, Dana and the presenters were either creepy, cringing or stiff, at best. Also the stage design is nothing extraordinary and the camara work a disgrace.
The contestants looked nice until press conference xD
Tamta is a pure diva with all the bad sides. The slovenian duet (which I love) were unpleasant. Icelandic guy… well like always hum.
The slovenians are rude and arrogant as hell. They all fake.
The Slovenian couple are a fraud. Please stop voting for them
They’re so boring. Their staging is boring. She said that she would like to work in book store. That explains everything. Their song is boring too.
Netta was awful and we have to see her yet again
All of a sudden every person here becomes a production expert/tech savvy/cameraman professional….
It’s ok, you have 3 more days to fill your empty lives with bitching and moaning here in the comment section and then back to oblivion.
Oh brother…
Oh, about Portugal and Poland not advancing? It happened because they sucked, and received a lesson from San Marino on “how to advance to the grand final”! Keep sending such songs in the coming years and your contestants will sure be watching the finals from their homes!
You are right. Happy songs will never be out of fashion, but folk…buuhuuuuah!
The telephone lines for the portuguese voting didn’t works in many countries, and that’s the reason why is out the contest. Maybe the song is not good enought to be in the final, but Portugal deserve a honest voting.
Shame on you Eurovision organisation. All the contest is a big joke.
It happened because they were too good for Eurovision and people perfer to dive in meaningless and boring songs just to forget about their boring existence like yours.
You pretentious pricks with your ”too good for eurovision” mantra are getting on my nerves. Why are you participate in this contest in the first place if you think it’s crap? you’re just bad losers with excuse ”too good for eurovision”
Oh yeah? Then I suggest you take a pill or whatever you do to calm youself down (possibly listen to some horrible disco or techno music) because I am not quiting talking about that. PS: It is so funny to see that all those that just want fun, are the first ones to resort to insults. That says a lot about your personalities and intelect
Kseniya has all the right to say what she wants. At the end of the day I don’t care about those dramas behind the scenes, technical problems, disorganisation and things like that, It’s not my business. What I care is to be entertained and to be safe If I am in the audience
Well, I wonder how much of what she says actually true and what actually happened backstage. I would love to hear the production side of things because I know a lot of issues were fixed so I don’t get why whould they just ignore Moldova. It could be just a misunderstanding. Also, I see a lot of negative comments about the production this year but my impression was that Kan put a lot of effort to produce the best Eurovision they can. They struggled a lot because they had to finance everything themselves without help from the government but I… Read more »
I agree with you, KAN was not very lucky if we are talking about money but they are doing a great great job. I enjoyed the first semi and I cannot wait to see the second semi tonight. For my personal preferences I think this year stage is way more beautiful than the last year one, Australia was so magical to watch, it looked like it was a Movie. I loved the beginning, the interval act, the old hits remix, the postcard are a piece of art. I’ve got nothing to complain, even the hosts are nice. My personal opinion,… Read more »
At the end people will always complain, there’s such a bad energy on this blog unfortunately…
#bringbackConan #justiceforPortugal
Poland 🙁
Get over it
NO.
Who are you to tell others what to do?
Pre-recorded videos from the rehearsals should not be allowed. Everything should be 100% live.audio+video. How fake it looks with Estonia when the singer magically reappears with a guitar.
The same way he got rid of it in the beginning — a stagehand was crouching next to him, out of camera view, holding the guitar: https://imgur.com/7awCgS8
All these complaints make me think that the show in Kyiv was absolutely not bad at all! Ok, the bidding process was terrible, but the stage was good, the camera angles were amazing, technical issues were resolved, commentary didn’t fall out (in The Netherlands there were so many issues with commentary that the commenters had to use a mobile phone to call with the studio in The Netherlands to provide us with commentary) and there were almost no conflicts with delegations! And the hosts were very good too. Somehow Eurovision this year feels different, less joyful and I think the… Read more »
Yes I totally agree. This year is being a disgrace and very middle of the road what the stage design is concerned. So much expectations for this?…
Miles away from last year’s production. Israel’s 2019 will be remember for all kind of problems, from the religious one to the technical that the all perfomances have; just look for instance at the Cyprus’s one, where one of the led screen hadn’t show the right sequence of lights.
Why are there so many technical issues this year ? I’ve just watched France’s performance and there is a shot where you can see a camera flying in the air from the previous shot. When you had 5 or 6 rehearsals before, it shouldn’t happen anymore. Same for the face mapping of the start. I don’t know what the eurovision teams are doing this year.
yes I really hope they will not ruin our performance in the final, at least the facemapping
They rushed to build the stage last minute, remember?
idk what excuse you can have for the awful camerawork tho. This year’s camerawork is just shameful.
I hope everything works perfect with Moldova (and all the countries) tonight, because everyone deserves to be able to show their best.
Something very wrong has happened with the portuguese voting process because in France, Spain and other countries many fans told the voting lines for Portugal was not working.
All this is absolutely true and eurovision is hidding the situation from the international press. In Portugal this information is already being reported on TV and everywhere.
Yes and I think all of San Marinos votes must have been counted twice. Thats the only way that awful song and vocals could have qualified.
Leave San Marino alone.
Yes please #shedsomelight, #nothingagainstSERHAT, #justcurious, #transparency
Right. Especially considering that there was only a two point difference between 10th and 11th place. Those fake San Marinese votes probably knocked Portugal out and put themselves through.
But if that is the case, why has San marino not been able to reach the finals more than twice? I’m not taking any sides. Just wondering….
I agree with you about Serhat and his performance! But people are talking about fake votes and that they managed to vote from phonenumbers from other countries….and so on…. if that was true in this particurlarly case, why now? If it so easy to fake votes they should have managed to reach the finals several times bofore
Am I the only one who like the way the wide shots look with the audience? I think it adds a lot.
I thought with the audience would look better. But the audience on Tuesday was very blunt (or that’s how it came across) and not many flags being waved around except for the circle. Also, because the back rows almost touch the ceiling, there were times where when a wide shot was made u could see the people there standing or walking out of their seats.
They are good if they serve a purpose in the staging, which has been rarely the case this year. The worst for me was Poland.
From the 54 seconds mark to 1min05, we couldn’t even see the girls in Polish performance. That was too much. One of the shots was completely pointless and showed people watching it from the stands from a distance that we couldn’t even feel their reaction. When you have only 3 minutes to make a connection to the audience, this can cost a lot for any entry.
Exactly!
I like the wide shots, but not so many of them.
I’m so happy someone has come out very publicly to say it. The producers this year have done a very poor job compared to other years. The sheer volume of tech issues and angry delegations is quite shocking. It’s bad when you make Kviv’s production look well organised.
Well… her sand will not save the song anyway.
True but they have the right to be able to show what they have prepared how they prepared it. Overall, I think none of the countries has huge expectations either, is not that they want people flying across the roof etc., just some godamn good camera angles.
I don’t think that’s the point! It’s about respect for the artists!
Conclusion: ESC 2019 is a mess! Dissappointments, backstage dramas, frustrations, shambolic press conferences, terrible camera work, arrogant tech team; four bland hosts! Sympathies and good luck to all the artists on Saturday (and tonight)!
Sorry, but the 1st Semi Final was a spectacular show! Probably the most beautiful stage in decades, IMHO. The Israelis proved that they know how to make a stunning show, and that’s all that matters here.
It was just average, with horrible camarawork and direction.
I want to say something about televoting. Errors happen every year, but usually, the ones that complain are diasporas, and people say : Shut up diaspora, what did you wanted? To give a political vote for your country?
My point is that it’s not unusual. Every year are errors, nobody sabotaged Portugal, Hungary, Poland….
I only saw portugese living abroad from their country complaining… not even another person to confirm their sayings. For me it’s kinda weird and I’m laughing even more that Conan is out. Get over it guys! People from Belgium, Finlande, Montengro, etc don’t complain.
Still there are a lot of technical issues this year, on stage or back stage. Time for the productions team to wake up (Eliot come please, they didn’t receive the message). Even the air conditionning system is a mess. Luca Hänni complained about it, italian delegation talked about it and now Zala from Slovenia…
I´m spanish and I tried to vote for Portugal from Spain and I couldn´t. I kept on receiving NOT DELIVERED messages back on my phone. The same happened to other friends too.
Portuguese people never complain about that…not even in 2005!!!!!
Only this year because there were thousands of people saying the same… Get your facts right!
Maybe it is because this year more people wanted to vote for the song and couldn’t.
And why can you not say the name of country? Are you afraid?
I’m really dont understand what she want
Their performance look very good and all the countries know that it will be never 100% what they wish because not everything is possible
Beside the tech team work so hard about the performances and they trying to add every random new ideas the delegations wants
In this case yesterday someone told me they stop many things and came to speak to her again after she said she not happy.
And why should we care about a sand artist?
She is not the only one who is complaining about tech problems.
Considering how disorganized the press conference was, I’m not surprised the whole thing is a bit messy. I hate that the stages have become some spectacle to be shown off in recent years too. Sometimes an act needs intimacy instead of stage shots.
I think the only act that didn’t have wide-shots in sf1 was Australia
I think that is also one of the big reasons why they probably won the semi
So many far-away shots kill everyone’s chances they more that they have them
Australia didn’t win the semi.
Either Australia or Iceland won the semi. They are by far the most positively talked about of the night so that’s gotta be the case.
Iceland? I’m a Hatari fan, but they sounded horrible, specially Klemens. The show looks good but a good voice is part of winning ESC.
The semi was for Australia for sure.
Iceland ? impossible with the jury.
Yeah, just like Sweden 2018, right?
Oh, I thought you said Norway.
True! Our dear Eliot shouldn’t have had those far, wide angels. I’m not saying he would have gone through but this is something that also played a role. He didn’t move alot, he is young and easy on the eye but still they chose to make these shots from all the way in the back.
Bjorkman is not in charge of the production of the show. He’s just charged with the order of performances and flow of show. The technical production is KAN and KAN can NOT. This has been an embarrassment. Simply stunning ineptitude. This looks so unprofessional compared to years past. From camera work. To seating arrangements. To show scripts. Simply a horrible production start to finish.
No. Bjorkman is officially the Contest Producer. That’s his official title. You can see it in the credits. A flagrant conflict of interest seeing as he was also the main producer of Melfest but obviously EBU doesn’t give a da’mn. But that’s EBU for you. Same thing last year. Remember how much they were shoving Benjamin Ingrosso down our throats left and right?
He’s been quite clear that he doesn’t intervain that much as he did in 2016 and 2017 (in such a rush). His part in the show is much less. He’s not responsible for the interval acts or the content in the acts. For example he was behind putting Australia in a certain running order so they have time to put them on sticks. Things like that. You don’t want to place all the up-tempo songs after each other. Because you’d want to balance the songs. Also a lot of ballads after each other wouldn’t work. That’s what he’s producing. The… Read more »
it is always the local broadcaster that is responsible for the technical questions as well as the general design of the show such as script, design of the stage, interval acts and so on.. That is the whole purpose of Eurovision. Björkman has another role on another level.
Totally agree!
Yeah, did not like Mika’s song back in 2011. Honestly, I thought it was really awful.
The sand art was cool, but really? Should that entry have done as well as it did?
The sand art doesn’t fit with the song. I would agree the staging is killing the Moldovan dream because the song would do so much better with effects like Serbia…
Sorry, but this song was already dead the Moment it won O Melodie. It’s a prime example of a Semi-Final song.
“It’s not my first Eurovision as you know and comparing to Düsseldorf now they just destroyed our show!”… You can’t beat Germans at organizing. 😉
I hope Germany wins again soon. 2011 was superb
Let’s not forget that the Russians did an excellent job also. Moscow 2009 raised the bar really high.
Norway 2010, Denmark2014 Portugal 2018 all of them did great as host
I need to hear the other side of the story. It’s true there have been disagreements and difficulties, but at the end they were ironed out with all the other delegations. So what’s going on?
Has anyone reached the EBU and/or KAN for their comments on the matter?
EBU always defends publicaly the organisers and the whole event, as they should. That is not to say that there are a lot of issues. I can’t remember the last time that there was so many complains from artists and delegations.