We’re up to Day 3 here in the press centre for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, and over the last two days we’ve seen all 19 competing acts in the first semi-final take to the stage for their first rehearsals. Today, we’ve got the first half of the second semi-final, starting with Norway and ending in Australia! Follow the action here with us at Eurovision Union!
Australia
With such strong results behind Australia, the pressure seems to always be on them to follow up with something better. This year, we’ve faced both a lot of critical opinion, but contrastingly a lot of praise for our entry We Got Love.
Visuals:
The Australian team alongside the legendary Sasha Jean Baptiste have created something impressive once again, but in such a simple way. We see the neon bars on stage which illuminate with the colours that the stage lights are bursting in, which are often in shades of blue and purple (which seems to be the hot favourite combination of 2018).
Criticism was given about Jess featuring on stage alone, but despite being alone, she creates a very dynamic and enthusiastic performance. As we’ve seen before, we’re getting some of Jess’ signature dance moves, which at first glance can come across as quite clumsy, but instead they can be considered as organic and human. You could argue that a song like this needs dancers, but I truly believe that Jess can command the stage without any use of dancers.
Costuming:
Jess is wearing a short, colourful dress, which yes, perhaps isn’t the most flattering, but what we’ve seen from Jessica over time is that she’s not afraid to show her body shape, and that confidence is inspiring.
It’s a sequin style dress with a gradient of pink, green and purple, which matches in with the choices in the stage lighting.
Vocals:
Unfortunately I was only able to catch the final run through, and I’d returned to a whole lot of negativity towards the Australian performance specifically in terms of vocal performance, but having only seen the third and final run through, I have complete faith in our girl Jess, and that’s based on previous performances. We’ve seen shaky vocals from a fair few of the acts in rehearsals, but perhaps it’s looked at with a more critical eye due to it being Australia. All I can say is that Jess will deliver.
