For the third year in a row, Australia participates in the Eurovision Grand Final. Australian Eurovision fans have been living a dream for the past few years now after a long long wait. Isaiah himself, too, is living a dream.
His first rehearsal took place on Sunday April 30th, the first day of the contest. Despite technical issues with the prop on stage, Isaiah looked calm at the press conference. “It was awesome,” he said, after which he spoke briefly about the unhealthy food he’s eating while here at Eurovision.
Team ESC Daily arrived in Kiev shortly after Isaiah and in our first episode of the ESC Daily talkshow, we had Michael Polh from Down Under’s radio station Joy as a guest. He and professional gambler Daniel Gould together agreed that Isaiah has “a mature head on his young shoulders.”
“Don’t come easy”; a song about disappointment
In the days before and after his second rehearsal, Isaiah really became a focus point in the press center. His performance was not unanimously appreciated by all the press. “We are still searching,” Isaiah admitted at the press conference, “but some of the camera angles have now improved.”
One of the main questions is whether or not a 17-year-old kid like Isaiah Firebrace can credibly bring forward the message of this song. “Don’t come easy” is a song about someone who has been disappointed in love many times. ESC Daily asked the Australian lead singer about this discrepancy at the press conference, where he gave a mature answer:
Focus on vocals
The solution came in the end from no-one else than Sach Jean-Baptiste, the much applauded stage director of the Australian act this year. She decided, together with Isaiah, that he would feel much more comfortable on stage if he had to move less. It would help him to focus on his vocal performance. Isaiah himself explained the comfortable feeling he got after this, in an interview with us:
Australian Melodifestivalen
Besides Isaiah’s performance, and his qualification for the Grand Final on May 9th, there was another topic that caught attention. During the first week of rehearsals, ESC Daily was able to report exclusively that SBS has plans for a national final should they get invited again for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.
Paul Clarke explains in the interview below that Christer Björkman has been of much help to SBS in trying to prepare a solid show which can still lead to a great Eurovision act.