When Salvador came Together for the first time began to sing, his voice is, strictly speaking, hardly ever called a voice. He crossed his arms, cocked his head slightly back and stared at the ceiling of the concert hall. When he sang, it sounded more like a cautious breath in the direction of the audience — as if he was afraid that hundreds of lights from the lanterns, smartphones viewers will reach the delicate sounds and ruthlessly trample them.
In front of the TV at this moment many nervously grabbed the remote and turned up the sound. In this simple movement is the whole sensation of Salvador Sobral — the first winner of “Eurovision” from Portugal.
European music competition traditionally follows the rules sound drama of a Hollywood blockbuster. When the episode begins with action, the sound is exposed to the fullest; when the scene is calm, the sound is removed. If it’s going to be really noisy, then let it be really noisy. Musical numbers on “the Eurovision” is usually a whole series of these for the action. Constant overcoming. If we talk about TV, then it looks like this: when electronic dance music has on the brain, make the sound quieter, and when you start to say something leading, louder.
The head is too big for the body, and the body is too large for the jacket
Salvador Gathered it was different. 27-year-old Portuguese has become a big sensation in this musical evening in Kiev. But not a surprise. On the eve of the final, the bookies ranked him the main favorites along with participants from Italy and Bulgaria. However, in his victory few believed.
Already his behavior on stage was different from the behavior of other contestants from “beauty and the beast” in the battle between rap and yodeling, operatic tenor, whose head was something like a head of Janus, from a man with a “horse head” on a ladder, from the “shiny guns”, “treadmills” and artificially elevated women’s busts. And Collected? He stood on the stage with raised shoulders. With his shaggy beard and shaggy head. His head was too big for the body, and the body is too small for a jacket. And his movement? His hands as if stroking noises and spinning in the dance with the music. It breathed the spirit of Fado, passion and pain. But actually the scene were, in fact, a jazz musician who knows a lot about the dynamics and modulation, uses his voice as a tool of “the clockmaker” and not “Smith”.
Salvador Sobral was born in 1989 in Lisbon and belongs to an ancient noble family. At the age of 19 he auditioned for the show Idolos and took him to seventh place. Soon he interrupted training at the psychological Department of the University, intending to become a musician, and went to the famous “music Workshop” (Taller de Músics) in Barcelona to study jazz. His idol was deceased in 1988 jazz musician Chet Baker (Chet Baker).
His influence was felt in the debut album, Gathered under the title Excuse Me, released in 2016. The young Portuguese works closely with the Venezuelan composer Leonardo Aldrees (Leonardo Aldrey), and also with her older sister, Louise Collected. She wrote to brother song Amor pelos dois, and even represented him at the first trial in Kiev, when El Salvador was unable to participate because of illness.
After a belated start Salvador Gathered with each new rehearsal, from the semifinals to the finals more and more believable as a musical Eccentric, with which he acted on “the Eurovision”. He gained a victory with a very thin, even fragile jazz song, ahead of “heavyweight bulldozers”. He varied his song, each time doing it in new ways and in the end never happen again. “We live in a time “music junk” in a world where music has become a sort of fast food,” said Sobral at the end of the contest. “But the music — not the fireworks, the music, the feeling. Let’s try to change something and get back to some real music.”
When this evening was awarded the last points, and the young Bulgarian Christian Kostov for a couple of seconds ahead Gathered in the overall standings, the Portuguese shook his head, warning that he was not happy too early. And when he soon became a winner, Sobral went on stage gait of the Victor, to whom he actually was, but rather trudged in there. He received a total of 758 points ahead of Kostov almost 150 points. It was a clear victory for the jury and public vote. Europe voted for music, not for fast food.
