This year we can not only observe that many contestants are musically inspired by Sweden’s winning song Heroes in Vienna but further that the live performance of Måns Zelmerlöw on the big Eurovision stage seems to have an impact on many 2016 acts.
Every year, Eurovision fans all around Europe are wondering how the winner of the contest influences the following competition.
At first the musical inspiration should not be left aside. Many countries are competing with male contestants who are bringing an up-tempo Europop song on the Eurovision stage. Latvia and its participant Justs could be named as well as France’s Amir or Donny Montell who is representing Lithuania in Stockholm. All of these songs have an expensive production behind them and implied many good and renowned songwriters in their creation process, such as Latvia’s 2015 participant Aminata Savadogo who wrote the Latvian song Heartbeat or the Swedish songwriters Jonas Thander and Beatrice Robertsson, working on Donny’s entry I’ve Been Waiting For This Night. Additionally the Russian hopeful Sergey Lazarev and his song You Are The Only One must necessarily be mentioned as an act that reproduces the up-tempo character of the winning song Heroes. None of these songs are copying the winner Måns Zelmerlöw or his 2015 entry, the mentioned songs are only inspired by the musical style respectively the genre and are further replacing the large number of ballads that could be observed in previous years.
Much more important than this musical influence is the visual impact of Måns’ live performance in Vienna. As you might remember the Swede worked with a LED screen behind him that seemed to respond to the moves of the artist. The separation between the singer and the background was removed and therefore these two elements became one. Down below you can find Måns Zelmerlöw’s 2015 winning performance as a reminder:
This year some contestants of different national selections were obviously inspired by this use of technology that brought Måns’ performance and even the whole competition on a higher level. One of those is the Estonian national finalist Mick Pedaja and his mysterious song Seis. Within his performance the artist became part of the screen behind him. The projections made it possible to bring his slow and different entry live on a big stage while creating and keeping a certain tension. The use of technology further supported the mysterious atmosphere of his song and made it accessable. Check out the live presentation of Mick’s national final track and let us know your opinion:
Måns Zelmerlöw and his LED screen also had an impact inside his own country Sweden and its famous Melodifestivalen. The 19-year old singer Wiktoria worked with the use of technology within her live performance for the song Save Me. As Mick Pedaja in Estonia, the Swedish artist either became a part of the screen behind her, a fact that made the stage presentation memorable. Especially the quick changes of colours and different visual elements improved the performance a lot and made her fourth place possible. Don’t miss to check it out as well:
A third example that clearly shows how Sweden’s 2015 stage presentation influenced this year’s acts is Greta Salóme and the performance of her entry Hear Them Calling which is going to represent Iceland in Stockholm. The 29-year old artist transfers her own moves to the screen and thereby manages to recount a story. The shadows and the dark light is further creating an atmosphere of tension and attracts the audience’s attention during the full three minutes.This stage presentation comes closest to the staging of Heroes and is maybe even an improvement in terms of the interaction between the singer and the belonging background. Down below you can find a video of Greta’s live performance in Söngvakeppnin 2016, Iceland’s national selection for this year’s Eurovision.
As you can see Måns Zelmerlöw and his 2015 entry Heroes influenced the contest musically but even visually. Let us know in the comments below or in social media whether you consider this impact as an improvement on the competition or not.
