Natalia is wearing a mesh skirt and hop which gives her a floaty feel as she walks across the set. Her hair is rather bouffant and makes her look slightly victorian/ or older than her years. She also has a secret light planted in her hand which comes to effect during the chorus. The backdrop palette is red, black and white and shows geometric patterns, in particular on the diagonal, and light flashes. On stage there are four chairs which she walks around while she is singing. She is also joined part way by 4 backing singers, all wearing back and all quite badly lit throughout and they end up sitting on the seats and make a 'human prison' around Natalia that she then breaks out of.
Natalia starts at the back of the stage in wanters around the stage slowly round the back of the chairs, sometimes standing behind the backs and sometimes crouching down next to them. During the chorus she opens up her hand to reveal the beams of light shooting out from it. Annoyingly, the camera angles are rather odd for a TV watcher as there were long sections when all you could see was her shoulders and head and very little else. Natalia keeps full eye contact with the camera which is good work but negates any of the background or stage set up
The song on first listen sounded like a real mess. It was not particularly obvious what the flow of verses and choruses were because so much of it sounded so similar. We start off with verse one which like many of the ballads we are hearing from this year starts off quiet and subdued. There is then a pre-chorus which refreshes the tune and gets us ready for the powerful chorus. Now, the chorus and verse share the same tune and differ very slightly in the composition of lyrics. - hence the previous confusion. This is then followed by the refrain that includes the title of the song. This sequence is then repeated and during the chorus the backing singers come onto the stage from the front, which is a nice touch. After the chorus there is a brief interlude when the backing singers do some warbling and moving about before one last chorus this time with extra beats. Unfortunately the song finishes rather abruptly and unexpectedly and sort of chops of the end art of the phrase by shouting "prison" on top of it.
Although this is another ballad this one does have its plaus points. First of all Natalia's sounds really good and she shows off a lot of the different facets of her voice. Th song is also in a 6/8 time signature which give it good drive and means it can divide itself seamlessly between feeling fast and slow tempo. However I feel much could be done to make the visuals fresher and more modern. I don't quite know why the chairs are there or why the backing singers have to appear half way through or what the light out of her hand means. None of these stage ideas are new! through. Many others may wonder what the set up has to do with prison at all!
Considering the behemoth of a songwriting team behind this it feel quite lacklustre, almost like they have garnered ideas by listening back the first demo they made of "Scream" from last year. They have the time and expertise to make this look slick and rich rather than feeling lost like it does now. I suspect that with a new lick of paint and some nudges towards their neighbours in the former Soviet region this will get through - hopefully not in the place of something more original or authentic.
Artist - Natalia Gordienco
Song - Prison
Composers - Philipp Kirkorov, Dimitris Kontopoulos
Lyricists - Dimitris Kontopoulos, Sharon Vaughn
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