Ever wonder what happens in the arena when the postcards are playing? Well, this video reveals all. Filmed by our friends at ESC Insight, it shows the super fast changeover that happened between Sweden and Iceland’s performance in the first semi-final.
While viewers at home watched Pollapönk project their national flag onto an icy waterfall, the stage crew back in the B&W Hallerne had less than one minute to undo Sanna’s spotlight platform, remove her disco ball and bring in the Icelandic band’s gear, before they disappeared through the secret doors in the grid, like magical showbiz elves.
The timing is so tight that the final Polli reaches his microphone just moments before the music starts. It’s a real credit to the stage crew that they managed to flawlessly set up all the hamster wheels, circular pianos, trampolines, and not to mention the dozens of microphones of 2014 in less than one minute, without a hint to home viewers of what was happening.
Here’s the Icelandic postcard one more time:
Those lads setting up the staging ought to smartly dressed. And I’m sure I saw one of them putting a polo into his mouth. That’s not good form during the Grand Final.
I’m surprised that the Icelandic performers barely make it on the stage, and then they are off within seconds……I would have thought they would have at least 10 seconds to twiddle their thumbs
Robyn, you must be a new blogger. Good for you. Your comments always made sense so I look forward to further blogs.
Haha yeah I guess there are a lot more errors and mistakes like this we didn’t notice at first, the contest is run by humans after all, and in a show as huge as this mistakes are bound to happen. Good thing they’re not that obvious most of the times, so we didn’t see them at first, though in the case like Sanna’s “open door” once you see it it’s like “IT WAS THERE THE WHOLE TIME! Now I can’t stop staring at it!” 😀 I guess people is more focused on the performances, which is of course, the whole… Read more »
@David, yeah, only one side of Basim’s flag fell at the end, the other side got stuck, so it took the crew a little bit extra time to take the whole thing down.
@Thiefo it’s looks so obvious when you watch it back, doesn’t it? The door is wobbling about and everything.
@Robyn at 2:52-ish in the video you posted, you can see a crew member running off of the stage on the left-hand side. It makes you wonder how many other mistakes you could find if you watched the whole show back again.
@David Yes, Basim’s flag was supposed to fall at the end of his performance, but it got stuck at one end. While the crew rushed to solve the problem (with Ilse and Waylon already on stage), Lise was very quick to jump in and save the day.
I also didn’t notice the open door during Sanna’s performance until I watched the semi-final at home.
Sanna’s performance was flawless regardless of course 🙂
Talking precisely about Sanna’s performance, did anybody notice that apparently someone left a cube “open” during her semi final performance? 😛 Maybe they left the stage in such a hurry somebody forgot to close it. I thought Oh good Lord, first it was a disaligned light, now its a door somebody left open, the swedish entry’s fate is to never be perfect 😛
Did you notice in the final for one change they were not ready in time and they threw it to the host in the green room for a short piece while they finished the change?