With a song called “Scream” you might think the staging would be sad.
But instead, at Russia’s first rehearsal at Eurovision 2019 Sergey Lazarev offered up a full spectrum of emotion.
That’s because the staging utilises reversible mirror-LEDs to reflect each different aspect and emotion of his personality.
In an exclusive quote, stage director Fokas Evangelinos says:
“Each mirror represents a different point of view of ourselves. When we are in the process of making a difficult decision — frightening ones that can make us ‘scream’. In the beginning we only see one option. But as we move forward we see different alternatives. In order to reach our goal and leave the past behind we have to ‘break through’.”
Echoing past Russian performances, Sergey wears white, reflecting his neutrality and allowing viewers at home to project emotion onto him.
This has rain, this has darkness, this has radiating energy waves of light.
In short, after a year absence from the Grand Final, Russia are back on course for it and they are in it to win it.
I am actually shocked that Russia is even in the top 10 bookies odds.
Soulless robot.
On one hand, it looks really cool. Like, I have to admit that. I can’t lie.
On the other, …it also feels like he’s relying on staging gimmicks to save/elevate a kind of so-so song for the 2nd time in a row…
This looks really interesting and gives me winner vibes. Russia are set to really contest for the prize.
Moscow 2020 is closer and closer. It’s getting exciting 🙂
That is one shady lady.
I am not crazy about the song but I do not get the hating either. He is a good vocalist, he seems pretty down to earth, the song is ok, the staging looks polished. I doubt it will win but some people are acting as if it is the worst song they have ever heard of.
In many ways, the staging mirrors (sorry, I had to do it!) the song. It shares the same ambition and polishment, but also reinforces my impression that there’s a lot of drama going on, but not a good explanation for that (I still blame the lyrics). The ending of the song is very explosive, so if the staging happens to mirror also it… I think many people will like it, but in the end something with more soul and raw emotions on its core will be the winner.
I don’t think “polishment” is a word… 🙂 I only say this because you have posted in the past that your comments here help you with your English, so please don’t misunderstand me! Polish or polishing would be better…I think.
P.S. I agree with your assessment.
Thank you Jonas, I really appreciate the tip! 🙂 Thinking back, it makes sense. After all, people buy nail polish, not nail polishment. I’ll keep that in mind from now on.
It looks not bad at all, and i love Sergey, charming and polite artist, but the song is not strong enough to win,
but top 10 is a good result anyway, so good luck!
Typical: let’s bring a killer staging to wrap up our rather bland and average song. Top 3 because viewers won’t differentiate a good song from a bad song whit all that stuff and dramatism around. Everything Sergey makes sound so pretentious and dated… “I’m the only one” sounded prety cheesy and dated too.
This is 3 min of svream.
When I hear someone still saying Russia can be a winner… “delusional, convince yourself”
“Thunder and lightning, it’s getting exciting” describe the current situation best. We’ll see.
I didn’t definitely not expect this. I don’t like it at all. I am still waiting for an epic staging. Apparently Azerbaijan is doing well.
Kirkorov brought back a piece of his Ani Lorak’s wardrobe from 2008 😉
And Sergey took Bilan’s white 😀
See?
Good that they stick with their own-russian ideas and don’t steal other countries patents this time.
It’s funny how he’s dressed like Sakis Rouvas in 2009. Hope he does better!
Too much and too many Sergeys in my opinion based on this short clip.
I don’t know… not that I would stage it better, this will have its own effective charm. Yet, with a lot of Sergeys in the stage, there are less focus of interaction, not as strong as what they did on 2016 — that focus of interaction is what lifts up YATOO to its best potential, Sergey interacts indirectly with the audience and they paid attention to his actions. And it seems like they’re taking what usually works for Russia or other performance in the Eurovision: Dima’s white clothing and Ani Lorak’s/Koldun’s sort of wall. As a whole package, it can… Read more »
That’s a good point. It may be complicated to connect with the performer when there are a bunch of other versions of him fighting for your attention.
Russia can decorate the stage whatever they want that song isn’t gonna win, it’s soulless song for sergey hey this is me sergey I scream. Boring borring borring
Wow, I really love this! Staging seems very amazing and dramatic, just like this song needs!
Russia is falling in the odds. Looks like the rehearsal did not impress much. Malta, on the contrary, is rising
Russia is still third in the odds, just like it was yesterday. Malta is still sixth in the odds, just like it was yesterday.
EDIT: Is someone really downvoting the FACT I gave? Grow up and visit the official betting odds page!
I honestly don’t know what to think about this. In this case 40 seconds aren’t enough to develop an opinion about it.
Start the hate haters but this performances looks promising. Good luck Russia from France. Albania and Malta also look promising but I feel they are hiding something for the semi 2 show.
The song is boring, the show is not interesting.
Looks amazing based on the rehearsal clip. Sergey’s not going away here. It’s going to take a good entry to beat him!
yeah, and there are loads more better entries than this…
Yes,and there are better entries than this competing. With better staging too! This is more top 10 than top 5 staging.
However, like I said if he managed to get 3rd then this should do just as well. If he wins it will be due to fanbase and the fact fact that he didn’t win last time. Nothing else
Everytime Philpp Kirkorov is involved with the staging there’s a giant wall (Belarus 2007, Ukraine 2008, Russia 2016, Moldova 2018 and again Russia).
Boring
Signature
But doesn’t red mean it’s going up? Green is going down. That is what it says on the site.
Im just asking because I have no clue how polls work. Does going up mean it’s good or bad?
If the song was good I would be excited for the staging. Now that song is bad it just makes me kind of mad that this might win just for the staging instead of a good song
Just because you don’t like it, it is not bad. Let the audience and jury decide who wins without taking into account your opinion about music quality.
The audience says it’s bad. It’s a popular opinion. It will be unfair if the juries vote for it just for the staging
But we all are a part of audience. And our votes are taking into account
Odds are based on what people put their bets most often
I have feeling that we didn’t see the whole thing yet to make predictions, but this looks promising. In any case, Sergey’s charisma, experience and strong stage presence are big advantage here. Vocally sounds good too. Much better than 2016 entry.
WINNER :)))))))))))))))
I am not a great fan and probably expected more staging wise purely cause the song is made to be staged. Having said that, I don’t know what else they could have done differently as maybe less is more. What I can’t comprehend is how this is 2nd in the bets but that’s another story.
This is 2nd in the bets because 2nd’s tend to win (look at 2017 and 2018)
Disney meets Sovjet Kitsch overload. No. Njet. Non. Nein. Nee.
Have you seen the performance?
Obviousely not. And even if he has seen it, he would’ve write the same comment whatever the staging is 🙂
I love the explanation of Fokas Evangelinos you quoted. I am really curious if I will feel what he says when I see it.
Sorry, but not impressed, I excepted more.
Sorry but this performance is loosely based on a 1998 videoclip of Anna vissi’s song “Mou anikis” which Fokas had directed…The similarities between these two are profound…the rehearsal seemed good but maybe Fokas has ran out of ideas…
Yeah because in that clip there are many mirrors which…. wait a minute!
There are no mirrors in that clip…. No similarities at al…
If you watch the video there are mirrors there are reflections of Anna….I don’t say it’s exactly the same but he was clearly inspired by his previous work
Who cares about similarities. You either like it or don’t like it. We are not going to find out what Duncan’s standing on the stage is similar to. We either like it or don’t like it 🙂
Uff this is too much for me, too much screaming, too many Sergeys, too much drama. Thank you, next
I like Sergey, he seems to be a nice guy. The song though… I thought that it was written having a great staging in mind. Which is not a good thing, you should always rely on a good song and then focus on the staging. In this case the staging is not great either. It will definitely be top 5 as he’s got a lot of support bur I don’t think they’re in it to win it
If he ended up 3rd in 2016 with that overproduced song and staging, then this should do just as well, if not better. It’s better than 2016 but not that good!
I bet they weren’t happy when the saw Malta’s performance, with similar staging .. ouch!
Top 10 .but not winner
They’ve tried to fix a mediocre song with expensive staging but they failed, there is NO emotion
Personal opinion. I like the song but it’s not a potential winner. All the hype revolves around Sergey. If the singer was someone else, this would be very low in the odds.
Who cares about betting odds 🙂 Netta-2, Salvador-2, Jamala-4
White colored clothing somehow has always worked for Russia.
Keeping us guessing until the last possible moment, as usual. 😉
That doesn’t mean I don’t believe in the description – I do, but until we actually see it, it’s just background notes.
Okay so there is more going on here than at first meets the eye, so it appears. I have to admit that I was perhaps too stupid to see it on first viewing, which might not be a good sign. But Sergey is such a good live singer that it might not matter.
You are not stupid. You kick ass.
People expected sonething out of this world, because the song itself is not a winning song. So yeah, those LEDs covered in morror glass (UK 2017) are not enough to make this a winner
I really want Duncan or Mahmood winning. But Sergey is great and I’d prefer him winning rather than have pop generic song as a winner tbh
Both Arcade and Soldi are great songs, you sure that the generic mediocre drama queen song is not Scream?
I want Kate to win, Australia is the best.
Looks like the bookies don’t think he is in it to win it…
Completely in red.
On https://eurovisionworld.com/odds/eurovision the red dots means a country is going up and green going down ?
Green is positive, odds shortening. Red is negative, odds drifting.
I think red means a country is going up. Green means it’s down.
That’s what it says on the bottom of the page but it’s quite confusing
odds up mean that it’s going down (odds are drifting, the numbers are going up).
odds down mean that it’s going up (odds are shortening, the numbers are going down).
the “up” and “down” doesn’t reflect the position or percentage.
Great staging but h did the same thing in 2016 (having a great staging than song). I think this will either come first or second. If Duncan fails to impress, it’s gonna be Russia.
Italy will be one of the top 5.
So they literally went for smoke and mirrors…
Lol