Some of the artists have been working hard to adapt their staging to the Eurovision stage while others have maintained what already succeeded in their own country. Let’s take a look at what the 16 acts competing in the first semi-final tonight have changed.
The Finnish punk band Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät is the perfect example of keeping it much the same as what we have seen at the national final. They will even be wearing the same clothes and their positions on stage will be exactly the same. On stage we will see some amps pretty similar from the ones they had in Finland and lots of spotlights will be used to light the stage. No surprises here and there will be no surprises either by the Danish band Anti Social Media. They have not changed much from their performance at the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix which was already well-polished. The four members of the band will be joined by two female backing vocalists dressed in red and the backdrop will be exactly the same from the Danish final.
Maria-Elena Kyriakou from Greece is also one of the artists who has not made too many changes in her performance compared to the national final. The stage will be lit in blue with her in the spot light joined by a piano player. The most obvious thing is that she has replaced her red dress by a silver one that, despite it won’t stand out on the blue background as the red would do, the truth is that it is much more elegant.
Eduard Romanyuta from Moldova will be opening the show this evening. He will be joined by some dancers with a high-energy dance routine that fit the song. In essence, that is not too different from what we saw at the national final and one could say that his staging at Eurovision with the police theme has been mostly inspired from his promo video. The main difference is the props. He will be using a metal stage with different levels, something unaffordable for smaller national finals but can better be installed on such a big stage.
As some will remember, Boogie’s performance in A Dal stood out for the simplicity and so it will be this evening in Vienna. As in the Hungarian final, she will be accompanied by four singers, two men and two women who will join her on the center stage as the song progresses. The main change, besides the clothing, will be the backdrop. The stars and the universe are still present in the background visuals but in a more sophisticated way and Boogie has replaced the words and phrases that generated controversy when she was selected in Hungary by some guns that will turn into a beautiful tree and the backdrop will become a green meadow at the end of the song.
The Estonian duo Elina Born and Stig Rästa will leave behind the black and white from the national final and we will enjoy their performance in colour. The staging will be pretty much the same from Eesti Laul with Stig in the foreground and Elina in the background at the beginning. One will notice that the main difference is that they have been working on their chemistry. Their song is about a couple argument and now they have the perfect attitude that lacked at the national final. Of course they have changed the backdrop which was practically nonexistent in the national final but that will remain intimate featuring silhouettes and skyscrapers lit black and white.
Daniel Kajmakoski from F.Y.R. Macedonia is one of those who have done most changes to his performance. The first thing one notice is the change of language of the song which has been translated into English. On the other hand, Daniel was alone when he performed in the national final and in Vienna he will be accompanied by three backing vocalists with a simple but effective choreography that will give a completely different feel to the song. Another thing to note is the backdrop. In the national final one could see brown tree leaves falling from the sky, something that has nothing to do with the gorgeous ancient columns that we will see at Eurovision.
Bojana Stamenov from Serbia has also translated her song into the English language and she has improved her staging a lot. First of all, she has luckily forgotten the idea of the lights projecting on her white dress. Instead of that, she will be wearing an elegant silver dress. The male half naked dancers that joined her at the national final stayed in Serbia and will be replaced by four backing vocalists (two men and two women) wearing long white coats and waving flags at the beginning of the song and colourful outfits as soon as the first chorus starts.
Voltaj won the Romanian national final with a song entirely in Romanian language but they decided to participate at the Eurovision Song Contest with a English-Romanian version of their entry. As some will remember, their performance began with a woman putting a child to bed. Sadly, they have not travelled to Vienna and we will only have the five members of the band on stage. Nevertheless, the essence of the staging is pretty much the same with black and white lights, lots of suitcases on the floor and some images from their official video playing on the screens.
Uzari & Maimuna have revamped their performance. At the national final one could notice that Uzari barely interacted with Maimuna and there were no chemistry between them whereas now, it is quite the opposite. The graphics and visual effects we saw at the national final were great and had a high standard of quality but they have decided to replace the blue clocks and gears by a minimalist red backdrop with white thunders.
The only resemblance between Nina Sublatti’s performance in Georgia and what we will see tonight in Vienna is that she remains static at center stage throughout the whole song. Everything else has nothing to do. The Eurovision version of the song is much more powerful than the one from the national final and the backdrop is amazing with some lightning flashes, clouds and wings. Her clothing is much more appropriate for the type of song and she has replaced her leather dress by short black pants, thigh high boots and black feathers attached to her shoulders.
The first semi-final of the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest take place this evening at 21.00 CET.
