Enlarge image
Will the demons tear him apart?
Norway's singer Tix
Photo: EBU / Andres Putting
Norway: Tix - "Fallen Angel"
Tix consists in equal parts of Richie Tenenbaum, Wes Anderson's tragic tennis player and a shivering Victoria's Secret angel, who is tired of the constant jittering of jersey days and has therefore wrapped himself in a golden rescue blanket. His little song is harmless baggy, but his performance is still incredibly exciting because it remains unclear until the end whether the six dark demons to whom he is chained will soon tear him to pieces like a pizza. Purzelengel Tix is in the first semifinals, funny enough, right after Elena Tsagrinou, who sings about her pact of love with the devil for Cyprus in a cheerful mood in "El Diablo". With Slovenia and Austria, two countries will also compete with songs called »Amen«.Should the end of the world, including the final fight between good and bad, be held at the ESC of all places? Schnauf - we were just missing that this year.
First semi-final on TV at ONE, Tuesday, May 18, 9 p.m.
Lithuania: The Roop - »Discoteque«
With a completely rotten Fümpf-ist-Trümpf cosplay, The Roop appear all in yellow and enrich this monochromatic rapsody with well-dosed nonsense dance movements.
The second most beautiful part: the racing choreo after the chorus, in which singer Vaidotas waved his hands as if he had dipped it in caustic dunk by mistake like Palmolive-Tilly once did.
Most beautiful point: His complex finger spreading towards the end, which oscillates between a Vulcan greeting and a Westside rapper hand sign.
Could perhaps be a nice alternative solution if we can all shake hands again at some point, but strangle with touch.
First semi-final on TV at ONE, Tuesday, May 18, 9 p.m.
Germany: Jendrik - "I don't Feel Hate"
Jendrik's stage tour looks like a trumpet blown together by the errors of life: The three people who are disguised as Mondrian paintings can simply accidentally turn wrong a few times on the way to the toilet at the first-themed party of the art history department. A gesture that is supposed to represent a victory sign for the sake of decency, but in some dance moves looks more like a finger (which is actually forbidden at the ESC), may be from his day job in the Leide Park, an amusement park for people in a very bad mood (please urgently open somewhere!) escaped. The German contribution raises one or the other stylistic question, now a dear tradition. Among other things, how a song against hate managesto trigger robust aggression in one or the other listener.
ESC finals on TV at ARD, Saturday, May 22nd, 9 p.m. and in the live blog at SPIEGEL.de
Ukraine: Go_A - »Shum«
Through the official video, singer Kateryna dystopized herself improperly bridled with a silver noseband in an empty landscape, Go_A perform live their Folktronic scrubber on a stylized ice floe, on which they pass the time with not yet fully developed halo juggling.
One can only guess how long the jittery, fidgeting musicians - if they were floating around aimlessly on a real ice floe - would probably keep the only minimally annoying flute player alive who, with foresight, squeaked himself to safety on a small pedestal.
"Not high enough, you fool!" One would like to call out to him, "by far not high enough".
First semi-final on TV at ONE, Tuesday, May 18, 9 p.m.
Albania: Anxhela Peristeri - »Karma«
Enlarge picturePhoto: Norik Uka
The Albanian contribution is classic, brocade-covered divas: everything is firmly lashed in terms of vocals and looks. It is to be hoped, however, that Anxhela Peristeri will stay in Rotterdam with her staging from the national final. Her pathos poppy only becomes really ESC-ripe with four hastily crawling, festively bronzed bald heads, which she push around, flicflake, and finally lift up to the carousel so that you can really believe that something really important is at stake here. "I am guilty, yes, I am guilty, God does not forgive me," Anxhela paves the way in her mother tongue. But if you have four men around you who wear golden latex bathing caps with all seriousness, you can't have done everything wrong in life.
Second semi-final on TV at ONE, Thursday, May 20, 9 p.m.