Eurovision Trivia: Interval Acts throughout the decades (Part Three)
We continue with the third and last part of our trivia, where we will see what interval acts were presented from 2011 to last year and which were the ones we stood out. The main characteristic of the past few years is that the breaks between the end of the song presentation and the announcement of the scores seem like a concert with performances of well-known artists and winners of the institution. In addition, technology has managed to give a good result to the acts and participations of the countries, while the first ones increase in number and within ten minutes successively follow each other. Remember our previous article for the years 2000-2010.
2011-2017: The two semifinals continue, modernizing the institution with technological means and gathering many interval acts
2011 – 1st Semi: The “Cold Steel Drummers” drums show. 2nd Semi: The 9-member “Flying Steps” group performs “Flying Beach”, an act that combines electronic music, ballet and breakdance. The show has become world-renowned and had won several awards. Final: The German singer, composer and producer Jan Delay presents us the songs “Oh Johny and Klar”. The musical style of the artist is mainly hip-hop, reggae, dub and funk.
2012– 1st Semi: The Natig Rhythm Group,the well-known Azerbaijani folk music group is on the stage. With various musical instruments and mainly drums they create an act inspired by Azeri musical tradition. The group has given several performances in several parts of the world -2nd Semi: It is a surprise to see several previous winners together. The last five winners were Dima Bilan, Marija Serifovic, Alexander Rybak, Lena and of course Azerbaijan winners Ell & Nikki. All accompanied by traditional Azerbaijan musical instruments.
2013 – 1st Semi: The Northern Lights Choreography, edited by choreographers Jennie Widegren and Fredrik Rydman. Composer of the music is the Swedish Kleerup. 2nd Semi: Swedish artists Darin and Agnes Carlsson ascend on the stage, performing their many successes with wonderful dancing. (Swedes are of course the best for such a show).
The Final included several interval acts. Hostess Petra Mendes presents the humorous Swedish Smorgasbord in Jan Lundkvist’s music and verses by Matheson Bayley, Edward af Sillén and Daniel Rehn. The singer and actress Sarah Dawn Finer sang the success of ABBA
“The Winner Takes It All”, of course, last year’s winner Loreen performs a medley of successes We Got The Power, My Heart Is Refusing Me and of course the Euphoria.
2014 – 1st Semi: Danish tale “The Ugly Ducking” is presented to us in theatrical form. 2nd Semi: The appearance of Jessica Mauboy (this year’s Australian representative), which basically promises the country’s participation in the institution from next year. Jessica sang “Sea of Flags”. Another pleasant surprise was the appearance of a group of talented artists from 8 to 86 years old.
The final was again multidisciplinary. Momoland sang the “Ode To Joy” of the German poet Schiller, the presenters Nikolaj Koppel, Pilou Asbaek and Lise Rone sang through a video clip the song “12 Point Song” while last year’s winner Emmelie De Forest sanged “Only Teardrops”and “Rainmaker” along with the 26 finalists. For the story, the Danes had prepared yet another act called “Trip To The Future”, which was never shown. Probably the lack of time did not allow them to broadcast it,
2015: On the other hand, in Vienna, things were simpler. 1st Semi: Video of various pets was shown in several parts of the city. 2nd Semi: Funny moments of voting in the history of Eurovision. For the final, we had an Austrian drummer, Martin Grubinger and the Percussive Planet percussion band on a set of different musical genres. Of course last year’s winner Conchita Wurst appeared with thr songs “You’re Unstoppable” and “Firestorm”.
2016: We return to Sweden but this time in Stockholm. 1st Semi: The very professional choreography “The Gray People”, directed by the well-known Fredrik Rydman. 2nd Semi: The Man vs. Machine choreography with choreographer again the same. Impressive motion of the machines in the rhythm of music.
The final contained a variety of interval acts. The well-known Justin Timberlake appeared performing “Rock The Body” and the new “Can not Stop This Feeling”. The presenters made a humorous sketch with Eurovision entries from the past. Sarah Dawn Finer also returns with a sketch performing Lynda Woodruff, EBU spokesman for Melodifestivalen and Eurovision. Finally last year’s winner and this year’s presenter Mans Zelmerlow appeared, where he sang “Fire In The Rain” and the winning “Heroes”.
2017: We arrived hopefully at last year, a year of unexpected, delays and nagging. However, the final result was judged to be dignified. 1st Semi: A video was made with the awesome figure of Verka Serduchka and his mom. Next was Jamala, last year;s winner, where she performed “1944”, but also “Zamanyly”. 2nd half: The Apache CREW dance group presents “The Children’s Courtyard” with a contemporary choreography, while the second part of the video with Verka is being shown.
The final continued with several acts together. The country’s winner in 2004, Ruslana, presents “The It’s Magical”, and the Ukrainian female electro-folk band Onuka, together with the national academic orchestra of traditional instruments of the country, appears in a very interesting combo of music. For the end, Jamala appears again by interpreting “I Believe In You”.
This little review with such great material has come to an end. Although it took several hours to gather and report all the acts, of course the reference to them was worth the effort and it was very interesting.
You can read the previous two parts HERE and HERE.
