Saturday 13 February 2016

Austria 2016 - Bella Wagner - Weapons Down


Alright, so when I made my first couple of run-throughs of the songs I didn't pay this one much mind. There's something in me that instantly recoils at the regulation Eurovision peace ballad, so I listened to a bit and then skipped on to the next one. But in this game, a strong performance can dredge a regulation performance out of the mire of anonymity - and boy did our Bella manage that in bucketloads!

From the start her cowelled garb, pallid anti-make up and alien expression set the viewer on edge, her strong but fractured voice emoting the song's lyric like she was actually standing there in a warzone like some kind of battle scarred bat. But then when she swooshed back her robe to reveal naught but gauze and bandage, it all started to get a bit intense.

You won't see many singers this season working the camera to a more powerful result, and in the three long minutes Bella swung me from not caring a fig about another worthy battle song to believing every damn minute of it and hoping she was going to win the ticket to Stockholm. She deserved a superfinal place at the very least, although we suspect the Elly V loving jury vote put paid to that. Bella versus Zoé? What an interesting battle that would have been.

3 comments:

  1. Here's the Youtube Link:
    https://youtu.be/7gEyNTqFmHU

    Oh, and as much as I respected her performance for being edgy, in your face and non-sugary, I still found it painful and am glad that Zoe won.

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  2. Cheers old boy!

    I'm with you on the Zoé win, but there was something in me that wishes Bella had nipped it. It had all the ingredients of a song that I really shouldn't have enjoyed, but there was something about her demeanour that hooked me in.

    I guess I just have a thing for terrifying women!

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  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQDgSggtbSY

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