WorldVision 65
Rouen, Normandy and Picardy
OOC Thread | Host Bid (For Staging Details etc.)
As the title card ended, the audience at home were greeted by the image of an artist at work in his studio. A paintbrush, thick at the end and matted with deep vivid blue paint, was lodged precariously between his teeth, teetering between falling and perfect balance. His hair was slightly greying, perhaps balding a little at the top, not that it could be seen below the little blue beret that he wore. He ran around his room, a little artisan's shop, where a series of little objects were picked up by the cameras. A brooch with the colours of the Todlichebujoki flag, for instance, glinted in the morning light. From outside the dew-laden windows the audience entered his world, with little hints of each competing nation being shown here and there. At last, he reached for his paintbrush, realising it had been perched in his mouth all along, and with a dash of gusto returned to work on a painting now revealed to show the gardens at Giverny, near Rouen. This is where our show would begin, and hours of audiovisual exploration awaited the audience at home.
With a flick of a brush the audience were then transported to a series of foreign lands, a brief window into different worlds. One of these was Togonistan. They were greeted by a large native carving, whilst in the background the sea stood still beneath serene blue skies. All seemed calm and perfect in this brief glimpse into another world, another culture entirely. A lone musician came into the camera shot, looking out towards the sea, and he begun to strum on some sort of guitar-like instrument, playing a little bit of the official theme of the contest. We also turned to Izmedu, where Suzana Kolenc, a celebrated Izmeduan pianist, could be seen in a concert hall in the centre of Vodiznad. Suzana looked up to the camera as it came towards her, or rather beyond the camera. The silence of the hall was deafening. She turned to her piano, a very expensive one at that, and she too played a section of the theme song.
We were then whisked away back to Giverny, where our painter was continuing to paint the water lilies outside, every little movement being deliberate and careful; not a single brushstroke could be wasted. He turned around to see his wife, an old gentle lady; just from the way her eyes sat in her head you could see that she was kind beyond measure. She held a mandolin in her hands, a traditional instrument and still quite popular in Normandy and Picardy. She gestured that he should carry on painting, as she began to strum on her mandolin, much like the beginning of the theme (and indeed, it was "The Voyage of the Song" by The Rouenards). The camera looked up to show the gardens, where the modern world seemed to now be meeting it, the bright traingles and lines of the logo now in view as the logo for this contest (minus the background colour) came into view.
With a sudden zoom we were now in the Stade du Parc, Rouen, for the 65th WorldVision Song Contest! The crowd gave a large cheer as they realised they were now on the screens of millions of people across the multiverse. One camera gave a wide shot over the crowd and up towards the stage, as a large voice told the crowd, "Welcome to the 65th WorldVision Song Contest, live from Rouen!" to what was naturally a large cheer, especially from the Normand section of the crowd. "Please welcome the stars of tonight's show!" it continued, and then the flag ceremony began. The camera made sure to show the orchestra now set to playing the theme song; NNN were quite proud of the 'live' aspect of this years show, and were eager to show off the orchestra at least once. As each act came on, the five large LED panels showed the flag, the lights in the stadium were lit in the colours of the country's flag, and the name of the country was superimposed over the camera feed with the customary triangles with the colours of the flags like those on the logo. Just what we needed; a way to increase the length of an already far too long show.
And then, the Normand act came on last, in the Olympic tradition of the host coming out last. There was a thunderous applause in the stadium and Jean danced onto the stage, clearly just enjoying being there. The smile on his face seemed to know no bounds, and if it could it would have stretched past his face entirely. He too walked along the stage, and then out through the crowd towards the greenroom at the back of the stadium. And with that every act was now ready and raring to go, and the show could begin. Oh, but not quite yet. The Stade du Parc fell into darkness, the theme peetered out, and then the Opening Act began...
A series of vivid orange and red strobes and lights moved rapidly across the stage and filled the entire stadium as the first note of the song was played, reverberating through the strucutre and indeed through the cameras. The stadium then returned to some sort of normal, a series of orange and golden spotlights fading on and off, whilst on the left side of the stage the cameras panned into to show out host for this evening, Anais Feriner, a very popular musician and presenter in Normandy and Picardy. She was sitting on a seat made to look like a pair of lips, the backrest being one of them and the actual seat part being another. She was laid down, surrounded by a group of rather attractive topless men, who I am sure you can imagine for yourself. The lights began to fade less and less until they were completely on, and the verse began. The camera began the verse above Anais as she sang up towards it, singing the first two lines lying down. She then pulled herself up and proceeded to sing the next two lines sitting, moving along to the beat of the music and doing some wonderful leg choreography, nearly as good as Cypriot haireography, which I am not going to try and describe. The men proceeded to walk and move around her, pulling poses and generally flaunting herself.
Welcome ladies and gents
Tonight we'll have a party
Everyone's invited
It's gonna be a ball
So bring a friend or two, perhaps a little tipple
The more the merrier, so they say
One of the men laid across the sofa as the next verse began, and Anais run her fingers along his pulsating muscles as he looked up towards her. Another handed her a Britonish flag during the second line, which she waved about as a second male dancers pulled her to one side. The camera then looked up to show a man dressed in Izmeduan colours crying to himself at the very edge of the stage, before one of the dancers seemed to pul the camera around to focus on Queen Anais once more as she began to walk towards the centre of the stage, strutting along as she went whilst the instrumental played. Naturally, the men followed her as the cameras gave a wide shot of the stage.
The Todlichebujokis doing some kind of dark magic
The Britoniseans eyeing up the hottest men
The Izmeduans in the corner crying at everything
Well, it wouldn't be WorldVision otherwise
One of the men passes Anais a model of the WorldVision trophy, which thanks to some nifty lighting work is illuminated with the colours of the Mister Xian flag. Anais appears to sing to it, ignoring the movements of the men around her who continue to pose, although at a somewhat greater distance. As she sings the next line, the trophy begins to light up with the colours of the Besen flag, but she shakes it a bit in an attempt to seemingly stop that from happening. The camera moves around her as she generally moves about to the rhythm, and as she sings the final line she seems to lose control of the trophy and drop it, or deliberately drop it, or something inbetween. Luckily, one of the dancers jumps and manages to catch it and looks up to the camera now focused on him, before the feed quickly switches to show Anais with her hand over her mouth.
The Mister Xians complaining that they won't win again
The Besens complaining that they haven't yet won
The Polkopians forgetting how they won in the first place
What is it you're actually complaining for?
As Anais sings the brief prechorus, the men line up in formation behind Anais. As the chorus began, there was a flurry of pyro, going from left to right. Anais and the man began to perform a dance routine rather like this (up to about 1:50). The cameras gave several large panning shots of the stage, before a shot at head level across the stage. In the background the LED screens were filled with the flags of the countries competing at the contest, and the lights switched between a large range of colours taken from the flags of the competing countries. Towards the end of the chorus the men lined up in front of her, and she proceeded to push or kick them down.
So come and party
Come and feel it
Feel WorldVision flow through you
Feel the rhythm
See the colours blossom and bloom (oooh, oooh)
Maybe an LED or two
For the biggest party nothing's too expensive, oh
Ooooh, ooooh
Feel WorldVision flow through you
Feel the rhythm
See the colours blossom and bloom (oooh oooh)
A million flags flying high
Everyone singing and dancing all night long (oooh, oooh)
Oh it's WorldVision, WorldVision, WorldVision, WorldVision, WorldVish
As the brief instrumental plays, the man clamber up, but before the one of them can do so Anais pushes them back down and climbs onto his back, as if she were riding him. The lights returned to normal, 'normal' being the golden and orange shades that had filled the stadium during the first verses. The countries in the background screen were replaced with generic patterns of gold and black, with geometric shapes and patterns. Toward the end of the verse Anais leaned down as if to whsiper into the male dancer's ear, before jumping of and laughing to herself.
A million ladies diva-ing to upbeat pop songs
Maybe a ballad or two, there's room for crying too
A little rock, or even metal if you're edgy
Although... not everyone will like that, so...
As the second verse began, the dancers lined up once again with Anais at the end. The male dancers all leaned backwards as one, arms interlocked, whilst Anais danced and generally looked like the queen she is. One of the dancers passed her a TV listings guide, which at the front had the WorldVision Song Contest as its main feature, with a picture of Anais looking gorgeous as always. She flicked through it with a face that... well, if looks could kill. She clearly didn't look pleased at Gardener's World, let's just put it that way
Imagine how boring your night would be without us
Watching some talent show or something even worse
I'm pretty sure Gardeners' World is not as good as
The biggest song contest ever
As she sung the prechorus once more, she looked sassy and fierce and all those other words that people like to through around, with a flick of her arm and her whole body moving as one with the beat of the song. Then, the stadium exploded with colour once more, with the flags once again on the LED screens etc., whilst Anais and her boys were joined by a series of female dancers, once for each of the men. They began a mixture of a traditional Normand dance and the routine from the first chorus. Each of the females had a long skirt with a series of flags on it, but these were ripped off by the male dancers in a very Bucks Fizz fashion. Generally, much dancing and celebrating was had, as shown by the series of panoramic shots of the audience
So come and party
Come and feel it
Feel WorldVision flow through you
Feel the rhythm
See the colours blossom and bloom (oooh, oooh)
Maybe an LED or two
For the biggest party nothing's too expensive, oh
Ooooh, ooooh
Feel WorldVision flow through you
Feel the rhythm
See the colours blossom and bloom (oooh, oooh)
A million flags flying high
Everyone singing and dancing all night long (oooh, oooh)
As the chorus ended, and the bridge began, the lights faded on and off, creating an effect whereby the dancers seemed to jump around the stage. They took places, in their couples, around the stage, except two male dancers who had just come on (of course not seen by the audience at home) who stood behind Anais and clicked their fingers in time with the beat, holding a series of poses. They both grabbed Anais and twirled her around as the bridge proper began, and the rest of the dancers basically continued the routine they had been doing in the chorus. A series of spotlights appeared to search around the stage and the whole of the stadium as Anais and the two male dancers performed a series of acrobatics, including Anais at one point being held up on the right hand of one of the dancers; thankfully, he used that hand a lot.
Oh it's WorldVision, WorldVision, WorldVision
Vision, vision, vision, vision...
Wo-wo-orldVision
Vision, vi-ision
Blossom
Wo-orldvision
Vi-i-sion, Vi-ision
Wo-wo-orldVision
Vision, vi-ision
Blossom
Wo-orldvision
Vi-i-sion, Vi-i-i-ision
Wo-wo-orldVision
Vision, vi-ision
Blossom
Wo-orldvision
Vi-i-sion, Vi-ision
Wo-wo-orldVision
Vision, vi-ision
Blossom
Wo-orldvision
Vi-i-sion, Vi-
Anais looked up to the camera, somewhat visibly exhausted, with the two males dancers posing behind her. She flicked her hair to the side as the cameras suddenly zoomed out to show the storm of pyro which accompanied the beginning of the final chorus. Indeed, throughout the chorus there were intermittent bursts of pyrotechnics here, there and everywhere. The lighting went mad once more, as is to be expected, and it turned out Anais was on a platform that rose above the rest of the stage. Even the orchestra were dancing along, with the Normand conductor Marcel Champignon clearly have a ball, dancing this way and that.
So come and party
Come and feel it
Feel WorldVision flow through you
Feel the rhythm
See the colours blossom and bloom (oooh, oooh)
Maybe an LED or two
For the biggest party nothing's too expensive, oh
Ooooh, ooooh
Feel WorldVision flow through you
Feel the rhythm
See the colours blossom and bloom (oooh, oooh)
A million flags flying high
Everyone singing and dancing all night long (oooh, oooh)
The lights suddenly dimmed and seemed to shrink back towards the stage, until only Anais was lit. She again looked up towards the camera, standing with her legs fairly far apart and one of her hands on her hips, slaying the 'I have just done more exercise than you have in all your life' look. She gave a nice, broad, cheeky smile as the song finished and the lights fully went off. It was done.
Oh it's WorldVision, WorldVision, WorldVision
Let's party
As the song ended and the ambient lighting of the stadium turned on, the crowd cheered madly. They had had the party of an opener they were expecting, and besides that they knew that soon, the WorldVision Song Contest would begin. The camera gave a wide shot of the crowd as Anais composed herself, and moved to the right hand side of the stage. As the camera returned to her, she began speaking to the millions upon million across the multiverse watching the contest.
Well, that was the most exercise I've had in a long time; you really should try it some time. Oh, where was I? Oh yeah, welcome to the 65th WorldVision Song Contest been held in the glorious city of Rouen, the hometown of yours truly. I am Anais Feriner, and I will be your guide for tonight's wonderful show. Nations from across the multiverse will compete for the ultimate musical prize, in what remains the biggest musical contest in the world.
Then, once they have all performed, you lovelies at home will get the chance to spend your money voting for your favourite song. You can vote via telephone, mobile or via the official WorldVision app. In some countries, these will then be combined with national juries, but that is dependent on where you are. Then, each country will award point to their top 10 favourite countries, with 12 points going to the top, 10 points to second place, 8 points to third down to 1 for your 10th favourite. Whichever country has the most points in the end will win.
But of course, you already knew that. But you don't know who will win, and that is what will be decided tonight. And, well, they can't win unless they perform. And so, without further ado...
Let the 65th WorldVision Song Contest begin!!!
And with that, the show began...