On Saturday evening Germany crowned Lithuania’s The Roop its Eurovision 2020 winners as part of Eurovision Song Contest 2020: The German Final. As part of the evening of entertainment, Germany’s home contestant Ben Dolic had the chance to perform a realistic impression of how his entry would have looked on stage in Rotterdam.

It’s obviously impossible to mirror perfectly the conditions and scale of the Eurovision stage Ben would have mounted in Rotterdam. However, the team tried to give us the best possible impression of the intended Eurovision performance.

With projections on a LED wall behind Ben and a cocktail bar on stage, the performance definitely looked contemporary and young. Even though Ben’s vocals sounded a bit shaky at first, he soon found his way back to top form. Singing the new Eurovision version, he hit that impressive high note at the end of the song for the first time. Ben was joined by four backing dancers who helped create the club feel, aided by video footage of arms and bodies waving and swaying at the club.

In terms of styling, Ben kept it simple, wearing an on-trend bomber jacket in army green with a pop of orange lining. He teamed the jacket with a pair of flattering trousers and black shoes — always good for the club!

 

Ben was clearly very excited to perform the song live with staging. Ahead of the show, he teased his performance with a lovely photo on Instagram and the following caption.

He wrote: “Here it is! The day of our big show. I am forever thankful for the whole team who put their sweat and tears into this project. Everyone had done an amazing job! Thank you all for your support! Catch the performance today at 20:15 on ARD1! There will also be a glimpse of it a bit later on Europe Shine a Light!”

What do you think of Ben’s live performance? Did the staging recreate the feel of his music video? Do you think it would have elevated on stage in Rotterdam? Shout it out below!

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Jake
Jake
3 years ago

This completely exemplifies the problem with so many internal selections that put out radio-friendly songs in well produced music videos that fans just automatically shoot to the top of the betting odds…I think there would’ve been a few of these entries this year that were judged too high by slick videos but would’ve disappointed live. It’s a bit unfair that songs from national finals are often hurt in the buildup to Eurovision and these music videos get all positive vibes. This is in no way top 10 or top 20 material as a live performance.

Polliu
Polliu
3 years ago

Ugh…This ain’t winning…Just like my prediction, it will look awkward on stage.

LeBlue
LeBlue
3 years ago

Of course they didn’t spend one single cent in the staging, dresses and choreo after the cancellation of ESC. So far, so understandable. But how could they make us believe and hope to see the real ESC-Performance. No wonder that this is a huge disappointment now. It’s not a performance-desaster, it’s a marketing-desaster.

Jofty
Jofty
3 years ago

Agree with you Giannis, Walk On Water by Ira Losco possibly another example of this but for different reasons. Based on “studio version” I had dismissed In The Disco but changed my mind when I saw Deen strutting his stuff. What a shame he did not qualify on his 2016 return.

UK Clee ESC nutter
UK Clee ESC nutter
3 years ago

One of my favourites of 2020 and bitterly disappointed, though totally understand why it was necessary, not to see it on the ESC stage.

Max
Max
3 years ago

It blows my mind two juries selected that striking mismatch of singer and song. I feel so sorry for him being dressed up like this and having to fight with his soft and delicate voice against this wall of production. It’s like the team behind this drowned him.

Jofty
Jofty
3 years ago
Reply to  Max

It might have been better for him to swap songs with Destiny?

Ugnius
Ugnius
3 years ago

He would have better accepted that Jan Bors staging offer…

Héctor
Héctor
3 years ago

For some reason he sounds a bit nervous to me. Don’t wanna imagine if it was on the Eurovision stage. Besides, his moves during the first part don’t feel fluid at all, like a bit robotic. That’s probably because he didn’t have time to rehearse it properly during this crisis. But overall, I don’t think he has the stage presence required for a huge stage. I don’t mean he’s a bad singer or artist, I just think he’s fitted for smaller stages or non-bradcasted events. Anyway, kudos for hitting the note and learning all the moves. It isn’t easy. About… Read more »

Jofty
Jofty
3 years ago

Agree with all the comments . A little screechy and camp for my taste. I initially had this a possible winner but not sure now. I still think it’s a great song and Ben is both cute and talented (besides his hair). Applause though for thinking outside the box.

Tajikistan
Tajikistan
3 years ago

I love the fact that I said it would probably end up being like this but nobody believed me…

It’s a shame, I hoped I’d be wrong and he’d impress me. I hope he gets a better song that’s more suited to him next year if Germany selects him again.

Mr X
Mr X
3 years ago
Reply to  Tajikistan

I always believed you

Kounis
Kounis
3 years ago

That’s why we should never judge a song based on the studio and/or video version. Basic and uninspired presentation of an otherwise promising entry…

Kim
Kim
3 years ago

On the back of this performance alone, this promised so much but didn’t deliver, the vocals were shaky to start but did improve but the whole performance was awkward. I think having no audience to feed off was a major factor. It made me think of other songs that promised that didn’t live up to expectations eg France 2011, Italy 2017, and also other times when songs came alive on stage most notably Austria 2014 and Cyprus 2018.

WannaEatMySpaghetti
WannaEatMySpaghetti
3 years ago

Has Germany escaped from a terrible disappointment? We’ll never know but I don’t see this doing a good result…
Hope he’ll come back next year, with a song at least as good as this one but with way stronger vocals.

HelAnAarde
HelAnAarde
3 years ago

I must be the only one who never got the hype with Germany this year. He has a “Brendan Murray” style voice, his live vocals are poor and the staging also doesn’t live up to expectations

FLOP
FLOP
3 years ago

This whole performance was a total Violent Thing tbh..

stommie
stommie
3 years ago

It is obvious that he connects with cameras that would have been there in Rotterdam, but aren’t in Hamburg.
Unfortunately his vocals are very thin and he doesn’t have the attitude to carry this song. Yes, this screams Belgium 19 as someone already noted, he even looks like Eliot. This song deserved a much better performer.

Guest
Guest
3 years ago

Would have flopped 🙁

Tom
Tom
3 years ago
Reply to  Guest

This is not Elaiza from 2014 and Octoberfestsong

Mr X
Mr X
3 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Absolutely – I have so much Levina vibes….

xohxoh
xohxoh
3 years ago

Yikes! Belgium 2019 vibes, with slightly better staging and vocals. This would have flopped.

Spacemonitor
Spacemonitor
3 years ago

The video confirms what i expected from the start:
This was going to be the biggest disappointment at ESC 2020..

Africavision
Africavision
3 years ago

It’s a great song, but this stage concept isn’t good for the huge Eurovision stage. You cannot create a club/bar scene when there’s a limit of six people on stage, because that looks like a very sad social gathering. As with the music video, the idea is of him finding his girl among a sea of people, but seriously who can’t find their partner in a group of five people? I also found the background LED very strange for the environment they tried to create, as was the quick arrival and exit of dancers. The staging at Eurovision could have… Read more »

Patrick
Patrick
3 years ago

This was hard to watch!!!!

Noah
Noah
3 years ago

This is more like a „it would kinda have looked like this“ in Rotterdam. Of course it wouldn’t be like that

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
3 years ago

I don’t believe this is close to what would’ve been presented on the ESC stage. Good on Germany for putting something out there but this wasn’t polished.

Mr X
Mr X
3 years ago
Reply to  Briekimchi

Germany could be so lucky for avoiding another flop….

Dillon
Dillon
3 years ago

This is really bad.

John
John
3 years ago

This doesn’t look like the finished product. I’ll ignore the lighting aspect which I assume would be darker and with more strobes if they wanted to recreate the club feeling of the video. But Germany needs to do better with staging when they have a good song like “Violent Thing”! You can do a lot more of a club feel with just a few people on stage to show constant movement. Ben is struggling with the singing in part because he has to remember all of the AR elements he’s activating. Let him sing and others on the stage do… Read more »