The reigning Eurovision winner Duncan Laurence from the Netherlands came to Helsinki's Nosturi in his European tour on November 28, 2019. The chosen venue was Nosturi amongst the ship building docks by the sea, a venue that will be sadly closed by the end of the year and torn down. The day was also one of the darkest and rainiest possible so outside the atmosphere was all but joyous. Also, going there knowing only the two singles he had released so far the expectations weren't very high to be honest. Paul Elias of UMK's Satin Circus fame (runner up to PKN) was the warm up artist and his gig didn't really go well from broken guitars to missing vocals..... Also, the venue was barely half full, among them many local Dutch obviously.... I had also read some reviews in search for information on set list etc and one reviewers note stuck in mind "he hardly took any eye contact and it seemed like there was a invisible wall between him and the public" I wasn't so excited.
It all changed once Duncan appeared. The crowd went wild. And an interesting crowd it was from teenage girls to elderly ladies, lots of men of any age, a really mixed crowd. The opening tracks were atmospheric anthems with lighting that you really couldn't see his face but looked absolutely stunning but later on all that changed. His songs were unheard but absolutely great, he spoke between songs things important to him, like love is love and how we should help each other and when Love don't hate it came the audience went wild. The atmospehere in the venue was fantastic, people were listening and living the music, dancing as little and getting into the moods of the songs in a way you don't see every day in a concert in Finland.
The climax came when apparently (?) the electrity went off on stage and they created an imprompty acoustic set with Duncan and the guitarist among us in the floor singing The woods. So much for not taking contact with the public and invisible walls between us. Duncan was there, among us, singing to us like one of us.
His songs are great, did I say that already? I am so waiting for the album that will be most likely released during or just before Rotterdam 2020 as in February he is going to the US again to record and produce. And his voice? Amasingly good, fantastic falsettos and spot on. Lighthouse sounded like a hit already for example. Arcade came last of course, Sadly I didn't catch it on video as it was rather spectacular when the audience pretty much sung the choruses instead of him.
Duncan proved one can have a great experience with music you don't know (yet) and with a simple small stage you can create with a talented lighting designer aset that looks wonderful and keeps changing for each song. The opening for example was spectacular and it was fab work all through.
Check out photos after the jump
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