After being at Eurovision twice before as a backing vocalist for Belgium in 2015 and 2017, it is now SuRie’s time to shine for her homeland – the United Kingdom with her song Storm.

As part of the big five, United Kingdom is automatically qualified for the final. They are represented by SuRie with her song Storm.

Gallery

Second rehearsal

Opinions expressed during our second rehearsal coverage are personal from the mentioned writers.

Michael, United Kingdom (in the arena) A song destined to become a Eurovision anthem, but sadly not a hit in the United Kingdom. Surie has a clear voice and in the arena it sounds great, in a club probably even better. The prism of light that surie sings in front of is quite impressive. The only thing stopping it doing well is the country it’s from. Excellent performance.

Jens Erik, Denmark (in the press centre) I don’t know about this one. Sometimes I like Storm, sometimes I think it’s to much cliché. When I watch SuRie it doesn’t win me over – not yet. But it might do next Saturday. I like the performance and the big prism of light, but this year we’ve got a million props on stage and with the ones from Sweden and Australia in mind, the prism doesn’t look as impressive, as it might have done any other year. I don’t see a top ten for United Kingdom this year.

First Rehearsal

SuRie is wearing a white dress which lets different colours of light reflect on it. Mainly these are purple and pink. The song has very mellow verses and tries to burst out in the choruses. While this is sort of an anthem, SuRie just doesn’t quite manage to belt the song out, as say some of these soul divas. The laser lights in the background of the stage are mainly pale blue. There are six of them and they often change colour to lavender, while SuRie stands in front of these. It’s clear the staging has been polished up as best it can, but it needs to have more power.  There is a moon like glow in the background which shines out into SuRie, but so far no signs of any Storm. The back wall is mainly dark purple.

After a slightly low key first two rehearsals, SuRie  seemed to find her way a bit on the third occasion. There was a bit more power with the vocal, and with added lights shining behind her, the performance had improved. Let’s hope second rehearsals are better.

How SuRie was selected

The Eurovision: You Decide format was used as  the national final  this year. As per the last two years, BBC chose six acts that competed in the one evening TV show. The result was chosen  by the votes of the public televote as well as the expert jury in the venue. This year, the national final took place in Brighton Dome, the same venue where the Eurovision Song Contest 1974 was won by ABBA, at the beginning of February. The hosts were Mel Giedroyc and Mans Zelmerlöw. SuRie was one of the first few songs chosen for Eurovision 2018.

The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest

The United Kingdom has won Eurovision in total five times, The last time was 21 years ago in 1997, with Katrina and The Waves and Love Shine A Light. Since then, they have managed to break into the TOP 10 only three times – 1998 (2nd), with Imaani and Where Are You, 2002 (3rd), with Jessica Garlick and Come Back  and 2009 (5th) with Jade Ewen and It’s My Time.  You can check SuRie’s performance of Storm from the Eurovision in Concert from Amsterdam.