A vision in a pair sequinned overalls. Francesca Michielin from Italy has just completed the first rehearsal of her song “No Degree of Separation” at Eurovision 2016. Francesca is giving us some Vogue Italia barnyard realness, complete with plastic vegetables and taxidermic poultry. All of that, and so far a favourite out of the first rehearsals from our automatic qualifiers.
The Italian presentation begins with a camera panning away from Francesca, slowly revealing a colourful and vibrant stage. Francesca is keeping it comfortable and simple, slaying overalls and a t-shirt whilst perched on a small circular step draped in flora. The background LED is completely filled with a luscious green tree and a blue sky – giving us flashbacks to building bridges in Vienna in 2015. Francesca is surrounded by obscure poles, each dressed with various balloons, fruits, butterflies, plants and jewels, also seen in her music video.
Francesca completely nailed her live vocal on every single run-through of her performance. For a girl who generally seems quite shy, she looked comfortable and confident on stage which is great to see.
One thing y’all won’t get to see until the actual final is televised is Francesca is consistently surrounded by white sketches and squiggles, sourcing inspiration from her official video. It adds a unique element to the Italian performance. We’ve definitely not seen this in Eurovision before.
All in all a fairly solid performance. Some of the staging decisions are a little obscure, and definitely got some mixed reviews amongst the press area. But we can unanimously agree that this is the best big five rehearsal we’ve seen so far.
Italy: First rehearsal at Eurovision 2016
Francesca Michielin’s “No Degree of Separation”: Reviews and Reactions
Italy: Interview with Francesca in Amsterdam
Read all of our Eurovision rehearsal reviews
Photo: Eurovision.tv (EBU)
I like it, to me the staging looks fantastic and I can actually imagine the “shapes” from her music video looking good on TV.
Top 5 is achievable.
Stage makes perfect match with the song.
We are like tree branches, like bloons fat or slim doesn’t matter, we are like diamonds etc we are better than evil so no discrimination we need connection & love
everything they used has meaning to song
no degree of separation between us
I don’t like the staging. It doesn’t correspond to the lyrics of the song.It’s ridiculous.
This is going to stand out.
I definitely think Italy know what they are doing with this. A top five is now possible!
Really? the best? with that drag queen’s overall and those plastic flowers stolen to an old lady’s kitchen… sorry but i can understand that vocally it was really good, but visually is sooooo tacky, so kitsch, that i need plenty of antidepressant pills
ok @Criticca thanks for the explanation, it makes more sense now
but still I would have presented it in a more sophisticated way, cute but stylish… like her perfomance in san remo with the white dress, it was really beautiful
@Kreuzbergfan more like Dorothy from Oz. I guess it fits well with the ‘spring’ theme and slogan for this year’s contest about coming together (with a pic of a dandelion)
the concept of the MV there was better. Its about a PC girl who isolated herself & is finally deciding to step outside to see the wonders of the world. I must admit that the staging idea behind this is quite bizzare though it does make the song stand out..
JESC girls – Zoe, Jaime Lee and Francesca
the farmer staging is confusing… why this? it seems random
@ nn – well, Francesca luckily is NOT Samra. This for your information.
And the preview video has the classic issue of many of them – bad placing. You can’t see every going thing from that one.
The staging suits francesca michielin more because she acts like sweet little girl but natural rather than pretenting to be someone else singing big song that is nothing special. Italian song is contemporary contender and it has great message it is for sure bigger than that stage and Francesca congratulations lovely francesca for managing big song you are real artist
For me, this is one of the most boring songs in this contest. I’m a bit surprised it’s a Top 8 favourite, on the other hand I can understand it, because it contains quality. I guess Francesca Michielin is a good singer, but she doesn’t really let her voice out in this song. There are emotions, but I can’t find a moment, where the song and the vocal peaks, it kinda lacks energy, and that’s always a NO for me.
if i look at the way the camera moves, I think this will look magical on TV! can’t wait to see it!
I think the juries fill fall in love with this, and I believe the televote will support as well. Such an unique staging, such good taste!
SLAY WIWI SLAY!
THIS is your Junior Eurovision, not Amir from yesterday. You do seem pathetic, really.
God! Why so childish!
This is definitely gonna win 100 points from me
Francesca really is the new Laura Pausini 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
nobody can top her performance
What? This is the best Big Five rehearsal?… Seriously?
Love this song!
We love it! There are flowers and butterflies! This year we can make a botanic garden out of this contest! Hahaha I miss Mengoni or Zilli.
The pictures of the staging at the official website show how visually stunning that background really is. The stuff on stage is questionable, but I’d have to see it with the actual performance lighting and camera work. This is one I can’t wait to see the full second rehearsal video.
Good song but Francesca don t have so good vocal live, same thing with Samra from Azerbaijan.
I love her song and she has an amazing voice. Forza Italia!
I’d be super-super-happy with an Italian win. But let’s stop dreaming..
I think a top 10 is very possible for Francesca!