-->

Liveblog: UK Eurovision, Your Country Needs You

My thoughts on the second episode of the BBC’s series of National Finals for the Eurovision Song Contest, Your Country Needs You. This will be the first show where we really see the contestants – after last week’s almost documentary like view of the initial auditions and selections, tonight we’ll be seeing them all sing love. For one act, the end of tonight will see them going home with BFH – their Bus Fare Home.

1950: And there we go. The BBC tend not to release full votes, but they’ll now know how close the voting is between all six (well, now five) candidates.

1946: Damian sent home. Interesting choice.

1946:Twins are saved. Charlotte and Damian to be decided by Webber. See how public vote has nothing to do with the final elimination.

1945: And Damian is in the bottom two.

1944: Emperors of Soul are safe as well.

1944: Mark is safe as well. Still no surprises.

1943 Jade is safe – that’s a surprise (ahem).

1942: Voting closed, now for the slow tension.

1935: Why can’t we send Lemar instead?

1926: Right then, time for a new song to the singers. From Starlight Express (naturally).

1922: Hmmm, just considering the running order. Jade up last? Charlotte up horribly early. I wonder how that was decided?

1919: Voting has opened.

1916: It seems the jury have made their mind up!

1915: Jade is very much the complete package – while I think she’d be up against a number of similar solo diva’s, she would bring home a respectable result.

1911: Here comes the late addition to the line-up. This is our first real look at her as we never saw here last week until right at the end.

1910: The twins are finished. Better than I was hoping (which wasn’t that difficult), but I can’t see them winning the audience in Moscow. They rarely managed to capture the camera, and that;s where voters are found – not in the studio.

1905: Lovely, that’s what we need. Damien does well with the singing, but he’s getting negative notes from the panel thanks to a “lack of charisma?”

1901: Damian’s up next. let’s hope my faith in him isn’t misplaced.

1900: Charlotte is a good singer. Not great, she might have damaged her voice, but it’s very much in the mould of another Charlotte… Charlotte Perelli, who represented Sweden twice.

1856: Charlotte’s family on show. Can we not send her 12 year old brother, Oscar, to Junior Eurovision next year?

1855: Mark gets backing singers. Leggy backing singers. Now this is a bit more like it, nice strong individual performance.

1853; Emperors of Soul good band, but not a Eurovision winner.

1852: Yes I did hear right. Public vote for the bottom two, Lloyd Webber chooses the one eliminated. So it’s his choice all the way till at least the final episode.

1851: WHY is Arlene there???

1849: Emperors of Soul singing first. Ah we’re using songs people know, which could have people focus on the performance, or their favourite song. Which is of course nothing like Eurovision on the night. Maybe that will change later on.

1847: The BBC has red button karaoke if you want to join in and sing along with the UK Eurovision hopefuls. Lovely touch.

1845: Ah, there we go. After the public vote, the bottom two acts will be handed to Lloyd Webber. He saves one, and the other act is eliminated. Now if I heard that right, then at least the final two pairings on the last night will be completely his choice.

1842: Interesting we have a full orchestra, harking back to early Eurovision. And we’re straight in with the Schlagen-pop and an attempt at Waterloo. This doesn;t suit the male voices at all.

1839: Here we go, as Norton walks out to an Orchestral version of Puppet on a String.

1835: Watching the end of Total Wipeout, the BBC’s effort at a Takeshi’s Castle clone. Second week, and still not impressed.

January 10, 2009; Eurovision;

Possibly Related posts:

If this is your first time here, why not consider subscribing to my RSS feed?

Comments

2 Responses to “Liveblog: UK Eurovision, Your Country Needs You”

  1. Scott Matthewman on January 10th, 2009 18:55

    Re. the ALW save — this is exactly the same mechanism used for the previous three musical theatre shows.

    In those, the final show was down to three people, at which point the entire process went to public vote. Connie Fisher, Lee Mead and Jodie Prenger all won their respective series without ever requiring an intervention from ALW, so were effectively 100% the public choice rather than ALW’s (especially so in Jodie’s case, where both Andrew and Cameron Mackintosh implied strongly that they preferred other competitors).

  2. Ewan Spence on January 10th, 2009 20:04

    Thanks for the info, Scott. I think that jsut shows my record in watching the BBC promote the West End musicals in previous years. Let’s hope we can stay with public vote winners as much as possible.

Leave a Reply