Overzicht van reacties op Duncan's eerste repetitie:
quote:
Eurovisionworld:
“All alone on stage, Duncan does seem vulnerable while he plays the piano in the center of the stage. There’s no one else but him and a blue sky behind him. His facial expressions seem to show pain and emotion. He kept it minimalistic, intimate and surely a moment. “Arcade” has what it takes to replay what happened back in 2017 with “Amar Pelos Dois”. “
quote:
Oikotimes: THE NETHERLANDS
The singer is alone in the center of the stage sitting on a piano and singing throughout the song. He is dressed in simple casual clothes, without knowing if they will be the clothes of his appearance in the semifinals. The color that prevails on the scene is only blue, sometimes dark, sometimes lighter. In the back background, which is also bright blue, we see smoke and nebula. The blue element prevails. Duncan is seated from the beginning of the song and does not get up to the end. The whole game is played by the singer’s communication with the camera, the way he looks at it and his expressions. There is nothing more, it is very simple and simple the whole look. Voices were flawless. It sounds great and takes a huge applause here at the Press Center.
quote:
ESCtips:
Duncan is sat alone on stage playing a piano. The performance is designed to represent authenticity and that’s most definitely on display. There is a nice quality to the performance with long swooping camera shots, yet I remain emotionally unmoved. I need to see more emotional resonance and a clincher moment to get the goosebumps going. The juries will 100% like this but the Netherlands needs the televoters on side to seal the win. Much like Russia, I feel this is a work in progress. I would have liked to have seen Duncan perform below an array of incandescent filament bulbs with a circling camera. The ingredients are there. It’s now up to Pannecoucke to make it work.
quote:
Entertainmentodds:
Duncan is sat alone at a piano on a very lonely stage. As a concept, the piano is a nice visual trigger, reinforcing the artistry and distinguishing him from the pack. As ever, he is vocally sound but there is work needed on camera angles and connection. The market has long been convinced by ‘Arcade’ and, despite a half-point drift, there is nothing in this to change that point of view.
quote:
escxtra:
The opening camera shot shows the stage mostly dark, with some blue lighting around the stage rather than from the LED backdrop. The shot begins from above, and slowly descends towards Duncan sitting at his piano. The Dutchman is wearing a blue ensemble, consisting of a casual jacket, shirt and trousers.
There is a lot of wide shots throughout this performance, showing the vast stage in its full glory. These are interspersed with a range of close-up shots on both Duncan and his hands playing the piano. Into the second chorus, the LED backdrop also produces a smoky blue theme in line with the rest of the arena lighting.
In the middle 8, we see a white sphere hanging in front of Duncan before he takes his hands off the piano and starts gesturing during his powerful notes.
quote:
songfestival.be:
De topfavoriet Duncan heeft er net zijn eerste repetitie opzitten. Vocaal lost de zanger alle verwachtingen in, hij zingt zuiver en vol emotie. Hij start het nummer zittend achter een piano en komt daar de rest van het nummer niet achter uit. De eerste beelden worden genomen vanuit de zaal wat eigenlijk hoofdzakelijk een leeg podium oplevert. Dat podium is gehuld in blauwtinten. De camera gaat dichter naar de zanger en neemt enkele mooie, emotioneel geladen, close-ups van Duncan. Halverwege het nummer is een witte lichtgevende bol te zien die boven, aan de achterzijde van de piano hangt, maar verder geen betekenis lijkt te hebben. Op dat ogenblik worden ook Duncan en zijn piano vanaf de zijkant verlicht wat enkele sfeervolle beelden oplevert. Tijdens de verschillende doorlopen van het nummer stopt Duncan af en toe met het bespelen van de piano, maar blijft wel zingen terwijl hij met zijn armen, emotioneel geladen, meedanst op de maat van de muziek. Op het einde van het nummer komen ook de verwachte lasers te voorschijn, maar buiten het vormen van driehoekige lichtstralen achter de zanger doen die niets. De hele setting blijft vrij sober en is continu gehuld in blauw licht, ook het gebruik van het LED-scherm op de achtergrond is minimaal. Vocaal een heel sterke eerste repetitie voor Duncan, met een minimalistische act, maar eigenlijk heeft dit nummer niet meer nodig dan de emotie die Duncan in zijn expressie en stem legt, en die is er.
quote:
EurovisionIreland:
RICHARD: Probably only the second or third time that the Press Centre has gone silent throughout the run through. Duncan is on his own on stage, sat at the piano. The favourite could carry it off, with the camera long shots potentially showing the audience and their mobile torches on. It could provide a moment, but then again it might not.
JAMES – A hush falls over the crowd as Duncan starts his rehearsal. The rest of the Press Centre seem to be utterly drawn in by his piano, his moody sideways glances into the camera (and no real connection!) and camera work that suggests we may be getting a sea of mobile phone lights in the live shows. So why is it as they applaud and fawn, I am unconvinced? I’m fairly confident this has the potential to win the jury vote f it makes it to the final. But I also suspect this may receive the same fate as Sweden in last year’s televote – I don’t think this is our winner.
quote:
esckaz:
It's now the turn of the favorite to win according to the bookmakers, Duncan Laurence. He's sitting beside a small keyboard and plays, wearing a purple suit. The stage is dark, with lights of blue and purple. The video art is showing us a storm, also in blue and purple. At the c part, two projectors lighting on him from two sides. The camera focuses on the audience at the last chorus. In the last few notes of the song, the camera comes back to focus on him and zoom out slowly, which once again makes the stage look huge and makes Duncan look like a small town boy in a big arcade.
quote:
escgo:
Netherlands
In a day when both Malta and North Macedonia (which I am watching while typing this) got their staging right, there are only so many miracles that can happen. Therefore, trust the Dutch to make life as difficult for themselves as possible.
A few ideas for the Dutchies:
It’s ok to do something other than just having dark blue backdrop throughout. Also, when you use effects, can you use them at points that make sense? More importantly: seeing your singer is crucial, especially for such an emotional song. 41 seconds of dark stage before you see Duncan’s face for the first time? That’s not good. Having only a few close-ups of him throughout and a ton of long shots? Also not great, because it’s pretty much impossible to get into the song or form any emotional connection with it or Duncan.
One more thing: you have a great peak moment in the song. USE IT. It needs to be an explosion and it’s more like the sound of a coin drop.
I don’t necessarily have a problem with the concept, but it needs to be massively deconstructed for it to get anywhere near what it could and should be. In this current form it’s not a winner, not even by a long shot.
quote:
OnEurope:
For me, there was a lot wrong here. Firstly let me be clear, the song itself is a cracker and, as expected, Duncan delivered all the notes in the right order. Also as expected, the staging was minimalist, with just him at the old piano.
My problem with it was that as a performer, Duncan failed to connect.
The hook of the song is "loving YOU is a losing game", and yet not once did he actually connect with any sort of "you". His sheepish furtive sideways glances to the camera bordered on creepy, and there were way too many wide shots to keep my interest.
It's supposed to be an intimate song and yet it wasn’t made so by negative camerawork and an artist seemingly unwilling to interact with the people who will award half his score.
The delegation (or people involved) need to have a word with Duncan and say: "Stop with the art, start with the connections NOW, otherwise this will not win".
quote:
ESCbubble:
So we have the first run through. Duncan is alone on stage at a piano, and the backdrop is entirely blue apart from some white orb lighting. Presumably a night sky.His vocal is excellent. There are a number of crowd shots (empty at the moment of course) but we suspect this may be where they have some plans... either mobile phone waving, glowsticks or some form of crowd interaction.It sounds great and it gets a huge reception here in the press centre.
In a year of complicated and technical staging The Netherlands are going for a very stripped back approach. It's very much the case of letting the song and the vocal delivery doing the talking.Something is definitely being held back for the huge climax of the final chorus. I can't wait to see if they have a defining moment stored. I'm not getting winners vibes though, especially if it draws first half in the final.
Third run through and stripped back is what it is - I mean it worked for Salvador in 2017 right?At the end, for the last round of ‘woah oh oh oh’’s there is a huge be of light to accentuate the climax of the song. It’s good, it’s qualifying ... but for me it has second place at best written all over it.
Taking this back to fundamentals. If this is a song contest, Netherlands win this HANDS DOWN
quote:
esc-kompakt.de:
Okay, groe Verunsicherung an allen Tischen. Duncan verschanzt sich wirklich den gesamten Song lang hinter seinem Piano, das hatten hier die wenigsten erwartet. Auerdem gibt es eine Leuchtkugel, die am Ende des Songs sehr seltsam auf der Bhne hngt, das sind aber hoffentlich noch technische Anfangsprobleme.
Aber der Reihe nach: Die Bhne ist, wie schon geschrieben, in blau und lila gehalten. Der Backdrop ist zu Beginn noch dunkel, dann gibt es irgendwann die leichte Andeutung einer Wolke und spter ist ein gesamter Himmel zu sehen. Da gibt es auch ein paar tolle Einstellungen, Duncan am Klavier und der Himmel im Hintergrund.
Jetzt wo ich wei, was mich erwartet, brauche ich einen zweiten Durchlauf, um mich nochmal richtig darauf einlassen zu knnen. Meine Erwartungen waren sehr hoch, bislang wurde ich etwas enttuscht – es ist nicht die bewegende Out-of-this-world-Performance, die ich erwartet und erhofft hatte.
Die Performance von Duncan beginnt mit einer langen Kamerafahrt auf die Bhne. Das wird sehr beeindruckend wirken, wenn die Halle voller Menschen ist. Erst in der zweiten Hlfte der ersten Strophe sind wir dann wirklich auf der Bhne und sehen Duncan. Es gibt auch zwischendurch noch lngere Einstellungen, in denen das Publikum zu sehen sein wird.
Am Hhepunkt des Songs steht Duncan zwar nicht auf, nimmt aber seine Hnde von der Tastatur und unterstreicht seinen Gesang mit energischen Gesten, das wirkt kraftvoll. etwas seltsam wirkt dagegen die Valentina-Monetta-Gedchtnis-Leuchtkugel, die fr eine kurze Einstellung vor Duncan schwebt, dann aber wieder ausgeschaltet wird und verschwindet.
Es gibt viele sehr schne Einstellungen, sehr intim, nah bei Duncan, zerbrechlich und berhrend. Es gibt aber auch (zu) viele Totalen, so dass man aus diesem Gefhl immer wieder herausgerissen wird.
Eine Einschtzung darber abzugeben, wie diese Performance auf jemanden wirkt, der den Song zum ersten Mal hrt, fllt mir wirklich schwer. Ich muss wohl nochmal die zweite Probe abwarten und schauen, welche Details bis dahin noch verndert werden.