EuroSpectacle

For those who are not familiar with the concept of the Eurovision Song Contest, all the info is here and here. 

Last Saturday, (May 16th) the 54th Eurovision Song Contest (final) took place in Moscow, Russia after the two qualifying semifinals of Tuesday and Thursday. I was unexpectedly surprised stunned by the overall organization of the events (two semifinals and the final). (Apologies for the sloppily written post, lack of sleep you see)

Opening sequence and the opening act (click for larger view)

The event opened with a performance by the Cirque Du Soleil and what followed was all pop, embellished with awesome graphics, and some really cool backdrop videos. After all, this event is all about celebrating all forms, shapes and types of pop in the most shameless and blatant manner. 

Each participating country was introduced via a short collage-style video consisting of the country's landmarks, identifiable elements. Then, the Russians were clever enough to use the incompatibility of their language with other european languages, which are slightly more recognizable among europeans, by giving a russian word written with latin characters along with its translation, again, before each performance.

Each song had a backdrop video, if it can be called backdrop given that the whole stage was made of movable flat and curved LED screens. (Unconfirmed fact: the LED screens used to create the stage sum up to 30% of all the LED material worldwide) 

My personal favorites were: Estonia (frames 1-4) where little lights lit up to form constellations to complement the awesome song, Russia (frames 5-7) last year's winner participated with a seemingly demure song plainly titled "Mamo" (Mother) the stage was filled with the face of the singer aging as the song progressed arriving to a heartfelt climax, and finally (though I didn't like the song) Portugal (frame 8) had some interesting graphics happening in the background. 

The whole spectacle; the two semifinals and the final, can be viewed/sreamed (for I don't know how long) here.

Viva Europe!