The National Lottery’s big Eurovision welcome in Liverpool

If you did not already know, this year’s Eurovision Song Contest is being held in Liverpool and the music city is ready to host Europe and beyond.

To welcome the event to the city, the National Lottery and the city of Liverpool held an outdoor concert on the St George’s Hall esplanade, featuring musical acts from the city along with some Eurovision favourites.

A night to remember

Recognising the dance music heritage of legendary Liverpool night club Cream, Kelli-Leigh provided a stunning opening number of More Than Friends, the track she featured on by Wirral-born DJ James Hype.

Scouser Jamie Webster gave an emotionally charged version of This Place, backed by a choir all dressed in the Eurovision colours of blue, yellow and pink. Concluding with his version of The Beatles’ Come Together, Webster has done his home city proud.

A man in black singing, and people in many different colours clothes behind him singing and dancing along — Jamie Webster, photo by author

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK S1 winner The Vivienne provided a cheeky and over the top version of ABBA’s Waterloo, all done in the true spirit of Eurovision.

Group of people on stage, in multicoloured clothes. two of the men hold a woman into the air. — The Vivienne. Picture by the author

The Lightning Seeds brought a touch of pure pop to the stage with The Life of Riley and Lucky You, before a slimmed down version of Atomic Kitten reminded the audience of their number one hit, Whole Again before The Tide Is High was accompanied by cranes with acrobats hanging from them doing somersaults!

A man singing, holding his right arm in the air. He holds a microphone and has a black guitar with silver coloured dots. He wears black clothes, as does the drummer sitting next to him — Lightning Seed. picture by the author

Two women next to each other on stage, both have long blond hair. One wears a loght green suit and is singing, the other has a white suit and a blue glittery coat over it — Atomic Kitten. photo by author

Alexander Burke was an unexpected surprise, giving a rousing version of Chaka Khan’s I’m Every Woman – though a more poignant moment was when Ukrainian singer Jamala sung an emotional version of her 2016 Eurovision winner 1944. She returned to the stage later to perform The Beatles classic, All You Need Is Love.

Woman in white trousers and black sleeveless top, with long brown hair, singing into a microphone. A few women around her moving to the music — Jamala. Picture by the author

Still sounding good nearly 50 years on from the original release, You To Me Are Everything by The Real Thing was given a powerful and soulful rendition. Now down to a two piece, they still sounded in fine voice.

As 2014 Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst gave a stunning version of Rise Like A Phoenix, angels flew across the audience. It may have appeared an over the top moment, but somehow it all fitted in admirably.

A man with ling dard hair and a beardm wearing black clothes but with a white glittery front. He holds out his left arm to the side — Conchita Wurst, photo by author

The first appearance since 1987 of the original line up of Frankie Goes To Hollywood was highly anticipated, unfortunately they only performed one track, Welcome To The Pleasuredome. Excellent as it was, the omission of The Power of Love seemed like a missed opportunity and would have been a fitting finale.