Tim: Tom, I mentioned last Saturday that I recently went to see Ace Wilder sing; I won’t repeat myself too much, save to say that her set was awful but the rest of the night was brilliant. For example, this got played, and I’m fairly sure this performance will give you the strongest feeling of “wait, what just happened?” in a long while.
Tom: I’ll be honest, I was on board from the introduction. That is a Big Melodifestivalen Number, isn’t it?
Tim: Oh, it very much is, signalled right from the moment moment that mic stand appeared. But that camera cut: I had to skip and rewatch the entrance of those dancers a few times, and even though I can now see how they did it, it still impresses me the amount of practice and rehearsals that must have gone into that to be entirely confident that none of them would get picked up by any camera, and nor would whoever it was that sprinted on to remove the mic stand, across half the stage and back again, in the six seconds given before the next cut.
Tom: Let’s not forget the choreographer and stage manager who thought that surprising and confusing the audience would actually be worth it. I think it was, but that’s a risky move to make.
Tim: Isn’t it just? I’d almost, in fact, say that that was the most impressive part of this whole shebang. Almost, that is, because I’m not such a silly billy that I can’t recognise a flipping brilliant track when I hear it, with the tune and the beat and the key change, and you know what actually I still find that stage work bloody good. What a performance.