This year Eurovision You Decide (EYD) took place at the Brighton Dome the very place where in 1974 a Swedish Band called ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest.
Mel Giedroyc was back presenting the show and was joined by none other than the Swedish hunk himself and the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2015 Måns Zelmerlöw.
What a perfect way to start the show with a wonderful tribute to ABBA. Måns started with a beautiful piano version of Waterloo. He was then joined by last years Eurovision You Decide winner Lucy Jones who of course went on to represent the United Kingdom with the song “Never Give Up On You” where together they performed a mashup of some of ABBA’s classic hits.
The professional panel were selected by the BBC they were Tom Fletcher from band McFly, Rochelle Humes from pop band The Saturdays and finishing the panel was Eurovision Fan Rylan Clark Neal a television presenter. They were there to give the artists advice and judge on all of tonight's performances.The winner is going to be decided by the public and a professional jury consisting of nine professionals so the vote will be split 50/50.
First up was RAYA with the song Crazy - The feel good uptempo pop song was an awesome opening to the show, I did feel that she was a little nervous as she was the first up but she had lots of energy and did deliver a good performance. It had great choreography and having hot male dancers helped. I think RAYA may have lost out on a few votes as she did sound a little nervous in her voice at times.
Next we had Liam Tamne with the song “Astronaut” - Liam has a good vocal range as he is a musical theatre performer, he did give us a bit of drama tonight but overall his performance was just too simple just him on a platform with a few moving lights. I would be very surprised to see this as the winning song tonight.
Asanda with the song “Legends” was the third to perform. Legends is the fan favourite to win tonight. It’s very now so if it was to be released as a single it would do very well so I’m sure it could do a pretty good job on the Eurovision stage in Lisbon.
Asanda gave us an outstanding performance tonight with excellent choreography but if I’m honest there was a few times where she sounded out of breath which may cost her a few votes. I also feel that with Asanda being sixteen she was there to bring in a younger audience to the show and at the moment EYD is not being viewed by young views which could be another valid reason for Legends not getting many votes tonight.
Jaz Ellington with the song “You” was next to perform. This soulful singer gave us a bit of dull performance tonight. His vocals were amazing but the staging was horrific, he was wearing all black which made it feel very depressing. The song for me was my least favourite out of the six and his performance did not change my opinion. I think the British public will agree with me on this.
Singing next we have SuRie with the song “Storm”. This was the performance of the night for me. The crowd went mental for this. Storm has a powerful message in it which everyone can relate to so I am expecting the public to get behind this song. SuRie’s vocals were on point tonight and she gave us a very entertaining performance.
This is a typical eurovision song with all the right ingredients, I feel that this will do very well in Lisbon.
Closing the show we have girlband Goldstone singing I Feel The Love which has a little mix feel to it. Three girls with all different vocal abilities coming together to give us a catchy pop song with a loveable message. They gave a strong performance on the night with good choreography but will it be enough to win the show.
The winner of Eurovision You Decide 2018 was of course SuRie with the song Storm.
I am happy with the result as I do think it was the best performance of the night. SuRie has the experience (Eurovision Belgium 2015 and 2017) and knowledge of the contest, I know she will do a good job at representing the United Kingdom this year.
Lets hope Storm goes down well in Lisbon.
Thanks to Belgium in advanced for the 12 points!!!!
Good Luck SuRie.