Tim: Remember Germany last year, when the person who’d been chosen to represent pulled out immediately after being crowned? (If not, here’s the car crash moment, and you don’t need to speak German to feel the cringe.)
Tom: Has it happened again? Oh, tell me it’s happened again.
Tim: Not quite, but something similar happened in Latvia, though it wasn’t quite so last minute – just after performing, Samanta rushed over to say that actually, she didn’t think her song was good enough, and wanted to withdraw. That was with a different song, though – here’s her second song, which somehow didn’t make it past the first heat.
Tom: Heck of a dress.
Tim: Isn’t it just? I mean, in any sane world, that dress alone should be enough to get her a pass straight to the final – we may have had projection mapping a few weeks back with Wiktoria, but I’m fairly sure this is the first time clothing has ever been used for set design.
Tom: Also, full marks for eyelashes. Not sure about the interpretive dance in the background though.
Tim: Well, they could just hide behind the dress. (Again, not something you could say about many clothes.) Sadly, though, that seemingly wasn’t enough to overcome things like that weird slightly nasal tone her voice takes on in the chorus, or – well, I don’t know, really, because that’s the only thing I don’t like about this.
Tom: There are a couple of duff notes in there, and while that’s a harsh thing to grade on when the rest of her performance is great — Europe’s voters won’t give any leniency there.
Tim: I’d have thought the rest would be good enough to proceed through at least the semi-final, but alas, no – guess she’ll have to try another year. After all, after your fifth attempt you might as well keep on going, right?