Friday 22 February 2013

AUSTRIA

The Austrian Final was held on February 15th at the ORF TV Studios in Vienna, hosted by Mirjam Weichselbraun & Andi Knoll. The winner, chosen by televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%), was "Shine" sung by Natália Kelly.

The Austrian stage was very simple although the background features were simple but effective. The set up for this song is very simple. Natália is joined by 5 backing singers whose first job is to supply the 'oh-oh' part to the very heavy beat and baseline. Most of the time they are dimly lit while the spotlight is  The performance is relatively static although Natália does some walking up and down the catwalk and some moving about at the end. Natália's outfit also isn't very flattering, although probably practical.

Unfortunately the song is weak - in fact what lets this down in the chorus. the song starts off ands ends so strongly that the middle 2 minutes is really a bore. It sounds like they have tried a little too hard to make a version of "Rolling in the deep" that Adele would not sue them for. What makes this even more disappointing is that Natália is very good singer and the song doesn't really do her justice. One would hope that the Austrian team are making changes to the performance and the production of the song to make it much better.

Shine is not exactly typical Eurovision fayre and I am not quite sure that the song, as it stands, will get enough votes in the semi. The song either needs to soul out or rock up and her wardrobe needs to reflect this. It would be nice if it became a bit rockier and you could have the backing singers a little more involved, without taking over. Natália is one of the best singers (and prettiest) I've heard up to now but I don't think she and the song will be staying on Saturday...

On another note, I am also fed up of Eurovision songs called "Shine" - can this be the last now? I am sure you can use other words, you know !


Artist - Natália Kelly
Song - Shine
Music - Andreas Grass, Nikola Paryla, Alexander Kahr
Lyrics - Andreas Grass, Nikola Paryla, Alexander Kahr

 

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