The big day has arrived for Dami Im and her Australian Eurovision team. Throughout the last two weeks in Stockholm, Team ESC Daily have followed her from rehearsals to parties and back, and now she seems ready for a very interesting Grand Final.
In the lists of the bookmakers, Australia has climbed up to a second place currently behind top favorite Russia. Some voices even say Dami might have won the jury vote last night, due to her excellent vocal performance.
It all started on Day 3 of the contest, Wednesday May 4th. Dami Im had her first rehearsal in the Globe Arena and received mixed reactions from the people in the press center afterwards:
Dami herself seemed very relaxed at the press conference afterwards. She answered questions about the technical aspects of her performance, as well as about her dress. “I feel like Beyoncé when I wear it!” she said with an endeering smile.
The second episode of the ESC Daily Show on Thursday May 5th featured Australia’s Head of Delegation Paul Clarke. He made some interesting comments about the Asia Pacific Contest, and of course was full of love about how “Sound of Silence” had gone down during the first rehearsal.
After having done some sightseeing, Dami came back to Globen at Day 6 of the contest: Saturday May 7th. Her second rehearsal brought us the last improvements we wanted to see. She was lifted from her box in the right way so that it would not be seen by the audience at home. Vocally, Dami Im remains impressive, and at the press conference she stated that she felt like she did even better than the first runthrough.
After the first week full of rehearsals, a second week full of parties had arrived. The first party was the opening ceremony on Sunday May 8th, where Dami Im appeared together with her entire crew, and where ESC Daily asked the other participants how they felt about the Australian Eurovision entry.
Here are the highs and lows from the #SBSEurovision red carpet in Stockholm!https://t.co/Pe2P6MwA8o pic.twitter.com/tsIGTBtnWT
— SBS Eurovision (@SBSEurovision) 9 mei 2016
But that was far from the end of it. Monday May 9th featured the official Australian Embassy Party, with ESC Daily present at the scenes. And of course there was also the fan event on Tuesday May 10th, where Julia Zemiro introduced Dami Im on stage for a quick Q&A plus a live performance of her song “Superlove”. ESC Daily also had the chance to talk to Julia Zemiro after the event.
After all these parties, Dami was set to prepare for Australia’s first ever performance in a Eurovision semi final. On Thursday May 12th, the big day had arrived. Dami had been impressive the night before during jury rehearsals and after she nailed her performance on Thursday night as well, not many dared to question the fact that Australia would qualify for the Grand Final. And so it happened.
We are currently on Saturday May 14th, almost 3PM CET. Six hours to go until Australia’s second participation in a Eurovision Grand Final. Guy Sebastian was one of the top favorites last year, and came an impressive fifth. Our editor Brandon McCann believes that this year, Dami Im could go all the way, while Dennis van Eersel & Steef van Gorkum also rated her performance during the jury show of last night very high. Let us hope for the best. Enjoy the final tonight.