Today’s rehearsal from home grown talent and favourite Sabina Babayeva made quite an impact for a number of reasons. Her dress caused quite a sensation in the hall and she delivered an impeccable performance with three run throughs of consistently high quality.
Sabina was flanked by three female backing singers to her right, behind her to her left was a platform with a man sitting atop. His role would become clear later on in the number. The raven haired beauty wore subtle make up and her hair flowed freely, with gentle curls that really looked very well against her outfit. She wore today what must be the chosen outfit for the final, and what a dress! It was a floor length white gown in organza like material with feather trimmings and with sparkling crystal beadwork on the front.The backing singers wore more simplified versions of the dress, an eye catching contrast. All three also had trains in flimsy material which they waved around under the cool blue rays to great effect. Sabina’s dress acts like a kind of canvas onto which vibrant colours were projected; volcanic colours, reds oranges and yellows to stunning effect making the dress a perfect representative of the land of fire theme that is the host nation.
Both Sabina an her singers were lit by single spoltlights, the girls in a cool blue, Sabina with a piercing white ray which then turns blue. The background accompanying their entry was a riot of colour, starting off with a red comet like effect against a black background, progressing on to a paint splattering effect in black, white and red.
There is little choreography for this act but it actually isn’t neccessary. The 3 backing singers make some movement as mentioned earlier with their dresses, arms aloft in the air which sets off nicely agains the backdrop. In the build up to the climax of the song, the man sitting on the platform suddenly comes in contributing with high pitched but effective backing vocals.
Sabina poured herself into her delivery, giving an extremely emotional and practically pitch perfect performance which was extremely well received with both Azeris and foreigners present at the rehearsal. When her set drew to an end, the soulful and powerful ballad received a rapturous response in the hall and carried well sound wise. The elegant and graceful singer has great stage presence and looks so in her element in front of the camera, managing to really connect with the viewers which comes across so well on screen. She gave her all and if she manages to repeat this kind of performance on Saturday, host country Azerbaijan could well be in contention of the title this year too. Perhaps 13 is Azerbaijan’s lucky number after all.
