Imagine yourself in her shoes. You’re Canadian, standing on a stage in Norway, singing a song in French, representing Luxembourg. A floor manager gives you and your backing singers a shove on to the stage. You’ve got to stride into position, stand upstage on your own, looking confident. For god’s sake smile.
In front of you, somewhere in the dark void, are thousands of people, smartly dressed, waiting for the show to begin. Between them and you is a massive gap occupied by television cameras and one or two people standing around with headphones on.
Who do you sing to? The audience or the cameras? Where are the audience? Where are the sodding cameras?
Oh, and don’t forget, you’ll need to hit the right notes, sing in tune, present a convincing performance bearing in mind the sedate tempo of the song you’re singing and the rather drab set you’re standing on.
Oh .. and your dress looks fine and for god’s sake don’t forget to smile.
Oh and in case you didn’t already know, you’re the first performance of the night, you’ve only got three minutes, this is a live performance and yes, I know we’ve got a recording of the dress rehearsal we did yesterday in case of dire emergencies but you’re never going to know whether we use that or not so you might as well treat this as the performance of your life. No pressure.
Sherisse Laurence opened the 1986 Eurovision Song Contest from Bergen with this song. After twenty years it’s still the reassuringly simple and ultimately beautiful song it was when I heard it back then. She carries off a confident performance on a stage which could have easily made the relatively static presentation appear bland and uninspiring.
It’s tough to sing too. It might sound simple but the melodic range is considerable – listen out for the octave leap right at the end – something which is bound to fill even the most confident of live performers with a certain amount of fear.
And how did it do? Well, if it the juries hadn’t been distracted by the thirteen year old girl from Belgium masquerading as a fifteen year old presenting her bubblegum pop to the rest of Europe, the gorgeous Sherisse may well have had a stab at the top slot. Instead she came in at a respectable third.
Thursday 17 January 2008
# 2 L'Amour de ma vie
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2 comments:
Hmm. Can't exactly agree with you on this song, Jon.
Yes, Sherisse gives a poised performance of quite an elegant song - but it's a very unmemorable one and I'm still surprised it managed third place.
In many ways, 1986 was the final kick of Francophone entries enjoying parity at Eurovision, occupying all three spots on the podium. And...I like that "polar coastline" set!
I agree with Talkon. I find this song so unmemorable, that I had, in fact, forgotten it.
And if I try to sing it back to myself again now, no, sorry, I've forgotten it again.
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