The national media aren’t exactly overconfident of Stella’s chances of reaching the final, and judging by the second rehearsal, I can’t for the life of me think why.
Stella is wearing on stage what presumably will be her outfit on the night of the first semi final – hotpants and bustier in gold lamé with pronounced ruffles at the back. Her dancers and backing singers are dressed in red, her two main backing singers and two of the female dancers in floating red chiffon dresses, her 2 male dancers in complementing red suits.
As soon as the first beats boom out across the venue and the Soca rhythms kick in, Stella enters the stage from the right, her dancers bounding and jumping across the stage making great use of the floor space. The carefully choreographed moves which have now become her trademark dance are in place and repeated enough times to ensure that the moves will be familiar across the continent. From the moment she enters the stage, Stella exuberates joy, charm and fun and anyone watching can’t help but be infected by her happiness.
Vocally, there is a noticeable improvement from the national final, and her singing certainly benefitted from the song being raised an octave. However, Stella still seems vocally weak in places, being carried by her two main supporting singers. The focus should therefore be more on her stage presence and ability to get everyone to dance along, which she manages with ease. Stella flirts with the camera like a born natural and interacts brilliantly with her dancers, something which comes across well on stage.
The backdrop could benefit from some changes, with the first black and blue colours not really tying in with the African theme. These cocentric patterns and shapes soon give way to more ethnic images in greens, reds and oranges. The lighting also ties in nicely, with beams of orange and red shining down on this sunny number. The confetti wasn’t used today, as it had been in the last run through of her first rehearsal.
In my view
With charm by the bucketload, Haba Haba should be bottled and made available on prescription as it can lift even the heaviest of souls. Going on this performance it should be a piece of cake for Stella to make it to the final.
The opinion expressed in "In my view" are those of the author and are not necessarily the one of EuroVisionary.com.
