It’s the night after the night before and we are still living the London Eurovision Party 2015. Organisers did a stellar job convincing some this year’s most sought-after Eurovision acts — including Guy Sebastian, Måns Zelmerlöw and Morland & Debrah Scarlett — to make the trip to Café de Paris. The team from wiwibloggs was there to film the acts (see our live performance playlist here) and to shove our mics in their faces (see our interview playlist here). A number of acts improved vocally, compounding our confusion about who will win Eurovision 2015. But we do know that we can’t stop re-watching last night’s performances. Here are some of our favourites. We said “some”, not “all”. We’ll cover the others acts in subsequent posts…
Live: Guy Sebastian – “Tonight Again” (Australia)
Guy Sebastian is not one of my personal favourites, but I can’t deny that his chances of winning seem to be growing with every performance. No matter what you think of his soul-funk ditty “Tonight Again”, it’s difficult to fault him vocally. He hits all his notes, but, even more importantly, brings some major swagger. The accent is kinda hot too. After the show he told the Sydney Morning Herald that it took him back to his days on Australian Idol and World Idol. “I didn’t know what to expect to be honest, this is a bit of an anomaly for me. At first I had a bit of anxiety [because there is] that spirit of competition and ambition in the air,” he said. “It took me back a bit, rewound the clock. I haven’t been in that sort of environment for a long time.”
Live: Måns Zelmerlöw – “Heroes” (Sweden)
Some Eurofans have whisphered that Måns’ performance would lose its hype without the high-tech background. But this wasn’t the case last night. Måns, wearing his signature leather pants and singing without his LED, had the crowd in the palm of his very strong hands. He opened with his Melfest hits “Cara Mia” and “Hope & Glory”, and acted surprised that people actually knew his songs. Given that most of the people in that room also know what he looks like shirtless, we were less surprised. His voice and his dance moves were on point as ever. A woman standing near me, who obvs doesn’t follow Eurovision that closely, kept saying, “Oh my god, this is so hot.” Good sign, no?
Live: Mørland & Debrah Scarlett – “A Monster Like Me” (Norway)
The bookies may have this duo down as sixth favourites, but I have the sneaky suspicion they are going to narrow, narrow, narrow in the weeks ahead. They consistently deliver and the crowd always responds. Angus, a wiwiblogger and diehard Måns fan, puts it this way: “Norway had the best reception. It was like Australia + Sweden.” He’s not lying!
Some folks have pointed out that she had a dodgy dying frog note at 1:32 in the video above, but no matter: They got a standing ovation anyway. We know Debs will squash that frog before Vienna. PS Their cover of Alexander Rybak’s “Fairytale” was amazing.
Live: Amber – “Warrior” (Malta)
This warrior SLAYS. To put to bed any doubts about her voice, Amber opened with a medley of contemporary hits from Jessie J, Whitney Houston and others. She has clearly bonded with the revamped version of “Warrior”. She made it sound so easy. Her finger wag at 1:20 suggests she is confident — and she should be!
Live: Knez – “Adio” (Montenegro)
He says “Adio” and we say hello. Knez continues to surprise us. In Amsterdam his fancy footwork had us smiling and his song had us clapping. In London he kept that good thing going. This man knows how to work the crowd (watch the hand at 2:18 and the spins at 2:33). The live version has that signature Zeljko power we’re always going on about. Starting to think this is a lock for the final.
Live: Elhaida Dani – “I’m Alive” (Albania)
Now y’all: We love Elhaida Dani and we love her song! So do a lot of our readers. As one of you guys wrote on YouTube: “She reminds me of Demi Lovato. The voice, look, appeal, everything so Demi Lovatoish. But she is much better vocally than Demi.” Amen. The energy that explodes at 2:14 gets us high. Unfortunately it seems to have winded Elhaida and, at 2:38, she missed her signature high note. She seems to have taken it hard and exited the stage rather quickly. Elhaida, we need you to know something: This is just a hiccup. You’re alive. You’re gonna find that high note. And you’re going to peak at just the right time — at Eurovision when it really counts!
What acts stood out to you? If you haven’t seen them, you can watch our playlist below.
Jag är såtrött på att det hela tiden skrivs att HERO skulle vara ett plagiat, det är det INTE. Isåfall skulle den ha blivit diskvalicerad nu. Detfinns många låtar i år som låter som andra, men är inte ett plagiat för det. Sen skulle inte Sverige vara värdig vinnare för att vi vann för 3 år sedan. Det är väll låten som tävlar, och inte vilket land som inte vunnit; SKIT SNACK. Måns är bäst. Sverige 2016
Sweden will only do well with the screen projections, I’m afraid. Without it the song falters.
Norway IS actually better than Estonia, I have a great suspicion that I will finish in the top 4.
One underrated entry is Latvia – it’s clearly one of the standouts this year. I hope she makes it far.
Hmmm
Mans didn’t seem to know what to do in both Amsterdam and London in the segments that in Stockholm required the projector
that doesn’t bode well for him
Montenegro are NOT a lock for the final, ru mad?
Lol at people saying Italy is going to win. You people do realise that Italy has never been in the televoters top 10 and most of the previous songs have resembled this song exactly.
Malta had the best live performance. This new version rocks!! Live performance is much better than the video itself.
Malta is the first one I clicked on :)))
Love others also, but gotta say that Knez surprised me!!!! His live performance was SO SO SO GOOD!!!! Though the audience don’t understand a single word, they just cheered and gave him big claps!!! 🙂
I think Sweden and Australia basically target he same audience, so I hope they will split the vote and let Italy emerge victorious. Italy has sent quality entries year after year and they deserve to finally take it home this year. Sweden doesn’t deserve to win again so soon with sth so obviously plagiarised and Australia should not win over a european country when they are only meant to compete once as guests. It will obviously create all sorts of problems and frustrations and frankly their song is not that original or distinctive to deserve such a huge commotion. Norway… Read more »
Knez was a stand out. He worked the crowd like the professional he is. His performance was a surprise.
My Swedish fatigue is not with the country but with Mans. I realise now it is the rear projection I like best. Without it, Heroes is just OK.
Norway
Malta really stood out for me. I prreviously loved the studioversion, but the live version was very screechy and annoying. This version really made her sing better.
yeah LOL , Melanie can rock Chandelier but her own song isn’t i think good enough
Amber rocked the stage in London and in Moscow.
@ DAR
Well you count me too 4 sure on this Mans’ licking part buddy <3 😉
hehehe 🙂
Don’t get me wrong, I love Mans’ song (it’s my fourth favourite), but as someone has stated before, Sweden will not win because of the so called ‘Swede fatigue’. Sanna was the favourite to win (and in my opinion should have won), but Sweden won THREE years ago and has constantly delivered excellent songs since then (bar 2013). They simply won’t win because of this. Italy’s song requires a distinct taste of music so it won’t win, Australia could possibly win but I think people will not vote for it out of pure anger towards their participation in the contest,… Read more »
Thankfully I could read on the German Prinz-Blog about every live performance in Cafe de Paris and also that Mirjam Weichselbraum was there as well as Conchita who got the biggest cheers. I could also read that Czech Republic had the best performance of the night. But this blog here is all about the Swedish hypetrains the second tier bookies favourites. First the big article about Mons alone at Cafe de Paris, and now the other article yet with a Mons feature leaving out 80% of the line-up. Mons is only a Eurofan favourite in the Eurovision bubble, because “people”… Read more »
i said it before and will say it again,
I WANT TO LICK MANS CROTCH IN HIS LEATHER PANTS !!!
@Adam
Norway is stellar this year, in fact far better than Estonia. I believe I’m in the minority but I would love to see them finish above Estonia (*fingers crossed*).
Finland is rubbish yet quite fun. But agreed, it’s rather baffling to see Finland ahead the likes of Slovenia/Belgium/Albania. Political correctness taken into consideration?
Although it’s not far-fetched to see Russia finishing in a good position this time round.
@Fatima Interesting point, however I do wonder about the extent / significance of the “Swede Fatigue” factor. I suspect such fatigue would likely be limited amongst small segments of hardcore eurovision fans who religiously follow the contest every year. On the other hand, the casual / average viewers may not be too swayed by such fatigue. Personally, I believe that the “WOW” factor is the one that would really sway the mass audience and such factor is hands down in Sweden’s favour. A strong entry is still a strong entry at the end of the day and I think Sweden’s… Read more »
Well Norway is now up to 5th which isnt a surprise. Still makes me mad the Finland and Russia are so high at the expense of Slovenia/Albania/Belgium. Russia and Finland haven’t done any type of promotion and so many people hate Finlands song, why should they be so high when fan favorites are so low compared to them? Its ridiculous
NORWAY. huge reaction from the crowd. Silence as they sang and cheers as they entered and finished with a bit of comedy as they got the keyboard working. Defiantly a high point of an otherwise subdued evening.
I agree that Melanie Rene’s cover of Chandelier was a highlight of the night for me.
Without Mans’s screens he rocks back and forth too much and he repeats the same few moves like that hand across the face etc so I got kind of bored. His vocals are great though.
I’ve said it before, Elhaida has consistently avoided/had trouble hitting that high note live. People can assure me that she’s a proffesional(as if I didn’t know) and that she’ll be perfect in Vienna, but her lack of consistency worries me.
opel, all your points are valid but I don’t think Måns will win because of “Swede fatigue.” The average Eurovision voter is getting rather bored with strong Swedish entries year after year. We saw it already last year. Sanna was the favourite, but in the end she did well to get on the podium.
ELHAIDA DANI – “TONIGHT AGAIN” .It would be inetesting. Great performance by the way.
Mention to Hungary and not to Czech Republic who – according to many – were a huge standout?
Why Sweden WILL WIN: 1. “Eurovision Song Contest” isn’t just a Song contest! Modern Eurovision is about combining all the elements (Song quality, staging/production value, performances etc.). Sweden, by far and large, is excelling impressively; Great voice and backup vocals, creative use of projection technology and Mans’s lively stage presence. It’s no doubt the electropop “epic” of this year’s contest. 2. Bookies’ Darling Not saying that bookies are always right (after all it’s about probabilities), but you’ve gotta admit that Heroes had consistently remained the bookies’ top favorite to win since the Melodifestivalen. 3. Haters galore! “Boring”, “Overrated”, “Sounds like… Read more »
I really disagree about the crowd going more nuts for Norway than Sweden, the whole thing after Mans’ performance was crazy, with the dancing and singing etc. I love Norway, but preferred Mans last night 🙂