On after an underwhelming Spain is the turn of French fancy Amandine Bourgeois with her sultry song of vengeance, L’Enfer et Moi. Any members of press who were taking a disco nap at their desk were soon woken by this charged performance.
And what a surprise! No sign of a saucepot in sight, rather a bedraggled Amandine wearing a black leather jacket and a scarf with green pants. No hint of glamour or vixen, so we can safely presume this won’t be her outfit for the big night. She is accompanied on stage by three backing singers standing slightly behind her dressed in black. The staging is pretty much as expected, with a backdrop featuring shades of yellow, red and orange. In addition, flame imagery reflects the title of the song with Amandine’s threats of making things a living hell for the one who jilted her.
Her vocals are spot on, and she gave a faultless performance, attacking the song with the guts it deserves. Amandine really lets herself go on stage, giving a smouldering, threatening vocal that shows of her raspy voice a treat in the lower notes of the song. The higher notes are equally as powerful and she delivers a slight variation towards the end than the recorded version, with a much longer final note. Her act doesn’t feature any choreography as such, but she does some pretty powerful gesticulations with her hands and the microphone which come across fantastically on screen.
There are plenty of panning shots, but what was lacking were some really intense camera shots of her when she’s promising to create carnage. The camerawork needs to be improved consideraby, it would appear that the camera focuses on her at all the wrong moments of the song, missing out on the chance to bring drama to the screen. A most impressive set of first rehearsals for Ms. Bourgeois – vive la France! Quel enfer!This is the first performance of the day deserving douze points.
