Time to hook #Eurovision directly into my veins. A thread! 🧵
(feel free to mute if you're waiting for the SBS prime-time replay later, Aussies not up at this hour are posting under #SBSEurovision.)
Non-spoiler observation: I do love the set/stage design. Very Discs of Tron.
🇳🇴 Drinks: 1 (pyro)
🇱🇺 Very cool staging by #LUX. I know it's all done live, but if you can't see the 'join' with the stage you'd think it was added in post.
🇪🇪 "Mi amore, mi amore, espresso macchiato". A sentiment we can all get behind. Especially at 5am. Brave staging a fake stage invasion though :P #Eurovision
🇮🇱 Nowhere near the negative reaction #ISR got last year. First power ballad of the night.
Key change! Drink! (2)
🇱🇹 #LTU Not sure this is upbeat enough for the ESC, but nailed the performance. And a smoke machine! Drink! (3)
🇪🇸 #ESP Any Spanish entry starting with a flamenco flourish should be its own entry in the drinking game.
Costume change! Pyro! Drinks! (Think I missed one in #LUX too.) (5)
🇺🇦 #UKR Big 'The Darkness' vibes. Wouldn't want that to come up on karaoke night...
Smoke machine! Pyro! Drinks! (7)
Speaking of vibes, as host, Helga is giving big Marg Downey as SBS continuity announcer vibes. Or is that showing my age?
🇬🇧 #GBR Brave decision to be invisible to half the stadium as you start. Song could have been lifted out of a musical like a Six or &Juliet.
Pyro! Costume change! Drinks! (9)
🇦🇹 #AUT Saw the postcard. Now I want cheese. NAILED the vocals, though- kid almost out-Nemo'ed Nemo.
🇮🇸 #ISL Techno sea shanties and big pixels. The biggest hit of 2021, ladies and gents! But might be just goofy enough to work.
Smoke machine! Key change! Drink! (11)
🇳🇱 #NED Classic ESC fodder going down well with the crowd. Could poll well too.
🇫🇮 #FIN Will poll well purely on the basis of her 80s Pat Benatar power stance.
Smoke machine! Pyro! Drinks! Er-I-Ca chants! (14)
🇮🇹 #ITA Good spot for the lighter-wave singalong song, right at the halfway point. You're everything, Lucio.
🇵🇱 #POL Very Eastern Europe power-pop.
Pyro! Drink! (15)
Should we add a drinking prompt for "performer suspended above the stage"? Because that's 2.
🇩🇪 #GER Choreography much more designed for TV than the live crowd. And that takes us to commercial break #2.
Wasn't sure about Tony and Courtney in the booth but Courtney is RIGHT at home at #Eurovision. And Tony's having a ball.
🇬🇷 #GRE Flowing dress? Trees on fire? Slo-mo birds? She nails it, but it's #Eurovision Power-Ballad-By-Numbers.
Costume change! Drink! (16)
🇦🇲 #ARM Like Imagine Dragons but with more "rock" and less "SUV-commercial" vibe.
Pyro! Smoke machine! Drink! (18)
🇨🇭 #SUI Deceptively simple lighter-waver. Really like this although not sure how it will do.
🇲🇹 #MLT If the British entry was &Juliet, this is "Moulin Rouge!" Nailed the vocals, could do well.
Costume change! Pyro! Drink! (20)
🇵🇹 #POR Perfectly acceptable 'breather'. Not sure it's super memorable though.
🇩🇰 #DEN Not sure if it's just for TV but crowd has seemed subdued... until now. Actually heard clapping in the mix. Song is VERY Loreen.
Costume change! Wind machine! Drink! (22)
#Eurovision
🇸🇪 #SWE Just in case you were worried the show wasn't goofy enough this year. here's "Sauna". Bookies' favourites, apparently.
Pyro! Key change! Smoke! Drink! (25)
🇫🇷 #FRA Only the third-best French-language song of the night. Crowd loved the big finish, though.
Smoke! Drink! (26)
🇸🇲 #SMR Good bounce-along song to (almost) end. Bonus points for the classical statue with the 'who farted' face in the background.
Pyro! Drink! (27)
🇦🇱 #ALB Not sure if it will change anyone's minds this late in the show, but the staging is striking.
Pyro! Drink! (28)
Final count:
Shots taken: 28
Power leotard/boots combos: 4
Bookies' picks in Australia: Sweden, Austria, France, Finland
For the wooden spoon: UK, Norway, Portugal, Iceland, Denmark
But whatever. Time to vote! #Eurovision
Derek Nielsen