Nalaia Kelly – Austria Eurovision 2013 – First Dress Rehearsal (Photograph courtesy of 4lyrics.ue)

The stage is dark blue and there are giant lit crystals – that look like they came from Superman’s home of Krypton that stand tall on the stage among Natalia and her backing singers. Half way through the song they defy gravity and rise to the roof of the stage where they stay.

Natalia does her best “Austria’s Next Top Model” walk from one side of the stage to the next. She really needs to use the catwalk that goes into the audience as this song needs to jump off the screen. Natalia’s vocals are good and she uses her stunning eyes when the camera is in close up on her. It needs more of that. What I will say is that Natalia maintains her “Happy Girl in the Mall” smile and expressions throughout the song, which is in parts dark with its lyrics – she needs to change the range of her emotions as it all looks the same and “that’s super awesome” look

As for her backing singers they sound fine and don’t overtake Natalia however their movement is very robotic and feels like the “Borg Collective” from Star Trek. The days of these stilted Eurovision moves have long gone and the Eurovision audience will find it strange. It was very much 1..2..3.. turn, 4…5…6… pose. It needs to feel organic as this is a song that has a bluesy/gospel undertone to it but at the moment it is less Funky Sunday School Street and more Nativity School Recital.

Austria sing of “Shine” but from the lighting to the costumes to performance are all rather dull. This has moved from strong chance of qualifying to borderline

Author/Website co-founder and Editor in Chief Garrett Mulhall

Source – Eurovision Ireland