The LED Screen Controversy – Eurovision 2018 Stage Design (ESC 2018)

What does the lack of LED Screens in Lisbon's stage design mean?

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Eurovision 2018:
Albania - Eugent Bushpepa – Mall
Armenia - Sevak Khanagyan – Qami
Australia - Jessica Mauboy – #We Got Love
Austria - Cesár Sampson – Nobody But You
Azerbaijan - Aisel – X My Heart
Belarus - Alekseev - Forever
Belgium - Sennek – A Matter of Time
Bulgaria - EQUINOX – Bones
Croatia - Franka – Crazy
Cyprus - Eleni Foureira – Fuego
Czech Republic - Mikolas Josef – Lie To Me
Denmark - Rasmussen – Higher Ground
Estonia - Elina Nechayeva – La Forza
F.Y.R. Macedonia - Eye Cue – Lost and Found
Finland - Saara Aalto - Monsters
France - Madame Monsieur – Mercy
Georgia - Iriao – Sheni Gulistvis
Germany - Michael Schulte – You let me walk alone
Greece - Gianna Terzi – oneiro mou
Hungary - AWS – viszlát nyár
Iceland - Ari Ólafsson – Our Choice
Italy - Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro – Non mi avete fatto niente
Ireland - Ryan O’Shaughnessy – Together
Israel - Netta Barzilai – Toy
Latvia - Laura Rizotto – Funny Girl
Lithuania - Ieva Zasimauskaitė – When we're old
Malta - Christabelle – Taboo
Moldova - DoReDos – My Lucky Day
Montenegro - Vanja Radovanović – Inje
Norway - Alexander Rybak – That's How You Write A Song
Poland - Gromee feat. Lukas Meijer – Light Me Up
Portugal - Claudia Pascoal – O Jardim
Romania - The Humans - Goodbye
Russia - Julia Samoylova – I won't break
San Marino - Jessika feat. Jenifer Brening – Who We Are
Serbia - Sanja Ilić i Balkanika – Nova deca
Slovenia - Lea Sirk — Ne, hvala!
Spain - Alfred & Amaia – Tu Canción
Sweden - Benjamin Ingrosso – Dance You Off
Switzerland - Zibbz – Stones
The Netherlands - Waylon – Outlaw In 'Em
Ukraine - Melovin – Under the Ladder
United Kingdom - SuRie – Storm

Tags:

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[adas]

Personally I'll be glad to be rid of all those selfies that we had last year. Honestly, I am very pro Tech but I admire Portugal organization and the fact that they have a budget and they follow it. I'm there for the music not the LED screens.

[anasha]

The lack of LED screens are a refreshing concept . Back to the roots with creativity and ideology .

[dv]

I wouldn't mind a song contest going totally vintage, analog telephone lines to Australia included.... And I really miss the conductor and orchestra sometimes.

[eurovisionestonia]

I actually think this is one of the most beautiful stages I have seen in Eurovision. It is so nicely designed, and the wave designed things in the back looks very interesting and I'd like to see how artists will use it.

[arisolight]

For me, I'm glad that there are no LED's. For the last few years, the LED's made most of the songs look the same. Now without them, they might all look diverse because each country has to bring their own something to the contest.

[michelsennett]

A fantastic argument! Hey after 53 years of perserverance, Portugal finally won its first ever ESC. So they can do whatever suits them, it is finally their turn. I believe Portugal is not only taking Salvador's message seriously, Portugal is saying, remember that the song is the key ingredient. Gadgets, acrobats, and fireworks usually mask a mediocre song and/or vocals .
Many fear ( and I have heard WiWi blogs mention this) that Lisbon might look like Oslo 2010. I sincerely doubt that. We were at all the shows and it did not feel cheap! But folks compare Moscow 2009 ( more LED sceens than one can shake a stick at) to Oslo 2010 and see a big difference in the atmosphere and the quality of the songs.
I say let the creative juices flow and the performances stand out... not big lyrics on an LED screen.

[brmenPT]

Portugal never used a single fireworks or any special effects in their performances...so its obvious as a host Portugal will force all the contestants to prove their value on stage just performing...its a song contest! However the stage is very modern so i guess everything will be quite good :)

[ConsignToOblivion]

I guess you could say that we were misLED. *laughs at myself*

[LiliLovesStuff]

People who won’t shit up about how awful the contest will be because of no LEDs are just showing off how ignorant they are about stage design and/or how little faith they have in quality of their fave act this year. You can give a dynamic and interesting performance anywhere, Black Box theater is a thing after all. Also it’s amazing what you can do with just good lighting and camera angles.

[Antoon]

I'm expecting to see a lot of cartwheels, burning piano's and water boxes etc. Well stuff like that haha 😅

I think it's a good move. Not everyone has the ability nor the budget to make great use of the LED screens before. The ones who CAN think outside the box now and create a wonderful act without screens may have a slight advantage though. As for my own country the Netherlands, we never tried or wanted to create a spectacle before, cause we think it should be about the song, not the show. It falls in line with our work ethics so yay. I just hope countries don't make a fool out of themselves with circus stuff 🙁🙏

[cassandramcbride]

LED Screens kinda distracts what is happen in the stage. Specially if the countries rely too much on them. Sure sometimes it may add something like happen with Salvador or even with Jamala. Because they use wisely, but for example Sweeden rely too much to distract us from the poor vocals or bland music (that looks like the same) and forcing us to just enjoy the explosive floor or back wall. Again, some songs are choose according to LED function, and now without it, im really interesting to see how they gonna fix that.

[zimskasalamabg]

hosting esc is become very expensive. portugal do not wont to pay absurd price for stage like we in serbia did 2008. it is correct decision and we will finally realize who knows to sing. i hope that stage with led screens will go to history.

[DiogoF.]

I am so happy artificial and pop trash entries will finally be compromised 😅

[JBJeppsson]

ESC 2013 had no LED screens, only HD projection on screens. 2015 Sweden (Måns) used projections on screen and 2016 Russia (Sergey) used the same technique. This year Estonia (Elina) use projection on her dress.

[Marios_Gr]

1. We have already seen countries having difficulties to afford their staging for Lisbon, like Estonia, and some others easily preparing their concepts (Sweden, Russia or Finland who apparently bring a huge structure on the stage). So there is an inequality from the start indeed.
2. I'm afraid we will see 43 variations of the same lighting effects after all.
3. Australia in 2016 didn't use on screen animations, but holograms projected on a screen in front of the singer, visible in the arena too.

[bow]

I just hope that the acts can create spectacle; I love Eurovision and wait all year for it, I don’t want it to fall flat. So if the acts can turn it out on the night, then great. Personally I like the LED screens. Last year, I loved the golden stars of our Lucie, and the replicated Sunstroke Project doing their dance. No LED screens might be limiting. I guess we’ll see, I know it’s not the be all and end all.

[geminix]

I prefer focusing on the artists and camera work, instead of watching a tv inside a tv

[jlhabitan]

Last year's acts went overboard with their LED wallpapers and it ended up looking like a bunch of floating giants from Attack on Titan just waiting for the right time to eat the performer on stage alive, Malta 2017 being a prime example. Haha

[alexbeats]

I am sad, cuz the Salvador's performance last year was really beautiful with LED.

[StillCloser]

The problem is not the LEDs but the overuse of lasers...