How will Hersi from Albania persuade the Eurovision audience from voting for her after that colourful Icelandic performance. Here's an overview of her three run throughs:
I'm not entirely sure about the Albanian staging for Hersi and her track 'One Night's Anger'.
Hersi's performing on some kind of extra shiney platform on the main stage on bare feet, with her backing vocalists behind her and a drummer.
Hersi's not doing much on her platform, apart from singing her song and I can't really fault her for that. The type of song she's bringing is a tough one to find an appropriate performance for.
Luckily her drummer appears as well from the catwalk but once he joins her drummer and the backings that's pretty much all the excitement we get from Albania. Luckily Hersi is throwing in some hand shapes now at the beginning of the song, and I encourage her to to even more of those.
I'm really worried for Albania as the staging, if you can call it one, does in all honesty, nothing good for them. The only plus point would be the gorgeous background featuring, a cloudy sky and a spooky landscape with dead trees, and long grass, but I don't see how that would earn Albania a huge amount on votes to get them through to the final.
After four run through's I'm starting to see a bit of a change. There's no backdrop for the first part of the show, with just a part of the framework for the LED screen lighting up occasionally in a silvery white colour. From the second verse on the backdrop kicks in then, which makes Hersi's staging at least a bit more exciting. I'd still think it would lift the performance if Hersi were to come off that platform or had her guitarist join her on the platform.
There's progress, which is good, but at this stage I don't see Albania qualifying just yet.