Azerbaijan’s participants Ell & Nikki have a tough job on their hands, trying to follow in the footsteps of their fellow country-people qualifying in all their previous attempts.
Ell & Nikki come here with high hopes of making it through to the final on 14 May. An international team has written this song. Unfortunately, the rehearsal today was a little disappointing – to those in the arena at least. More on that later.
We suspect the four female backing singers will be in long salmon pink dresses. Ell’s and Nikki’s outfits remained more of a mystery. We have lots of arm-waving choerography, but for a ballad it’s all a little busy. Ell & Nikki move around the stage a little like Chanée & N’evergreen last year, but something is lacking. Vocally, thsi also wasn’t the best rehearsal we’ve seen today, although they have a week to turn this around.
The setting is very stark. For the verses it’s black with a few vertical orange lights thrown in. For the chorus it becomes a very pale salmon pink. Towards the end, we get pyrotechnics in the form of sparks falling from the rigging. From the visual perspective, they make great use of the spider-cam attached to the roof of the arena.
As mentioned above, we were expecting good things from Azerbaijan. So with the high bar to reach, this song did disappoint. The chemistry between them is missing, and there are too many occasions when they’re apart – after all, this is a love song.
Nevertheless, Azerbaijan’s pedigree speaks for itself, so we can never discount their chances of a good finish next Tuesday.
