It’s been an action packed first day in the Eurovision arena for the first of the rehearsals, and we’ve been there to cover it all! Each day, we aim to bring an in-depth recap of the happenings of the day, including summaries and thoughts on the rehearsals of each act. Here’s the action from Day 1!
Belarus
We can always trust Belarus to surprise us at the contest, and visually, this is the most surprising of the day, and that says a lot since we’re comparing to the likes of Israel. Being between Israel and Estonia, they needed to pull something out of the bag for their performance, and they have, but we just can’t decipher whether it’s a positive or negative thing!
Visuals:
Where do we even begin? This is TRULY bonkers, and I honestly didn’t expect what we got from Belarus today. Alekseev is seen performing on a platform, and early on in the performance we see that he’s holding a prop rose that’s what we interpreted as ‘dead’. He gives the rose to the cameraman, who then moves it with the camera to the dancer. Fast forward and we see the same dancer using a bow and arrow to shoot the new and much more alive prop rose towards Alekseev, and with the magic of television, Alekseev ‘catches’ the rose.
You’d think that would be enough in the gimmick department, but oh no, it’s not over yet. We see the platform raise with Alekseev on it, and then in the final moments of the song he turns around to reveal a prosthetic on his back embedded with what seems to be bloodied roses. It’s really something you have to see to believe, it’s just totally unreal.
Other than the strange and the stranger, the dancing in this performance was arguably the best of the day. The backing dancer really commits to her choreography, and it is incredibly well suited to the style of the song. If the performance skipped on the gimmicks or at least just left it to the platform, this would continue to be a possible qualifying contender, but perhaps it’s time to rule this one out.
Costuming:
Other than the back prosthetic covered in bloodied roses, we must say that Alekseev is looking very Eurovision-y in his white costume. It’s got a bit of a deep V cut, which admittedly looks quite unnatural on a male, but then again, with a costume featuring bloodied roses, anything is possible.
Vocals
Vocally, we got what we expected from Alekseev. I think in the context of his performances, there was improvement in his vocals, but definitely not the strongest of the day. There needs to be serious improvement, but I doubt we can reach that level in less than two weeks.
