It’s Day 4 here at the Eurovision arena, and the second half of the second semi-final is getting their chance to perform on the Eurovision stage for the first time. There are some bookies favourites in today’s schedule, so it will be interesting to see how this pans out!
Malta
Malta are extremely hit and miss when it comes to Eurovision, as certain years they seem to be on par with what’s required to be a qualifying song, but in some years it falls awfully flat. What will it be this year? Having seen the rehearsal, the answer is still unclear.
Visuals:
This is definitely a visually heavy performance, as we’ve got one big prop on stage, which features four big LED screens which project pictures both on the outside and inside, giving an interesting dimension to the prop. We see different patterns play on these screens from plain geometric patterns, to images of people in the same type of vibe as in the music video.
We’ve also got in camera after effects, such as an anatomical heart projected onto Christabelle to correspond with the heart beat in the song, and further along we see a world globe projected as it creates the illusion that she holds the power over the world.
The stage is lit in blue and red, and it’s a powerful combination, especially as we see Christabelle’s face often illuminated in red, but directly behind her is blue. We’ve got laser lights through the performance as well, which add extra interest into the visuals.
On top of all that, we’ve got a backing dancer who predominately stays within the prop, and truly plays a backing role in this performance. Christabelle does engage with choreography, but at the cost of engaging with the camera.
AND, if that wasn’t enough. There are bursts of fire both in the first and second verses. Malta are really throwing everything at this.
Costuming:
Christabelle is wearing a black turtleneck top with minimal detailing. The skirt portion of the outfit is a leather like material, but realistically the lighting is quite dark and so it’s quite hard to distinguish exactly what she’s wearing. Her hair is slicked back into a high ponytail.
The backing dancer is wearing more of a neutral outfit, but once again with her placement and lighting, it’s hard to distinguish what the costume really is, so for the viewer it almost becomes unimportant.
Vocals:
Vocally I don’t think this was bad at all. At times she misses certain notes, or tries to do a bit of improvisation but just misses the mark. Overall though, I think this is a fairly confident vocal performance, of course with room to improvement like most of the acts that have come through these rehearsals.
