Today rehearsals continue within the Malmö arena, with all fifteen acts from the first semi-final getting another twenty minutes to rehearse on stage. These rehearsals are important to help the artist be more comfortable on stage ahead of the full dress rehearsals next week, but also allow any delegation to make minor edits to their performances (outfit changes, camera angles, etc.) from first rehearsal.
Throughout the day we will continue to get new photos from the official Eurovision website and later today exclusive rehearsal 20-30 second rehearsal snippets that include broadcast camerawork.
🇨🇾 Cyprus – Silia gets the morning started with a BANG
Once again kicking off the morning is Silia Kapsis from Cyprus, who will be opening the entire contest and the first semi-final with her song “Liar”. As previously discussed, Silia’s performance is full of a variety of whites, reds, and blues but we now get to see them in action more.
From the media we can see, the LED wall has projections of water exploding behind her on beat, as well as columns of LED smoke (think Albania 2021) as well that take her into the dance break. These images are also projected onto the LED floor at times.
The rehearsal clip we received from CyBC specifically showcases the dance break moment, and shows a mixture of close-up and fast cut away shots mixed with camera angles off stage for a wider look at the choreography. We do also notice some effective use of strategic front and back lighting that when paired with the smoke columns on the LED creates a visually pleasing cinematic sequence ahead of the dance break. Lots of camera cuts, quick pans and hair spinning.
Her dance break gets cut off in the middle, so we don’t see much more of what happens ahead of the final chorus, but we assume that this is when the dancer’s shirts come off, and the staging moves from it’s blue hue to the red hues found in the photos.
🇷🇸 Serbia – Teya Dora continues to sell the drama of Ramonda
Unfortunately the photo gallery for Teya’s second rehearsal doesn’t give us much additional information to play with, however we did notice that the LED ocean does not show up in these photos. This leads us to believe that the LED screen is predominately only used during the choruses of her entry, with the verses relying heavily on lighting and fog instead.
What we can piece together is that Teya will begin on her rock structure performing the opening verse of Ramonda, and then will walk up stage for the bridge with LEDs. The chorus and second verses will see a “pulled back and forth” like quality as she paces back and forth on stage, and then finally she climbs back on top of the rock for the final chorus.
It is noticed that for this day of rehearsals the Serbian delegation have controlled the fog effects, creating a much more intimate feel to the performance and adding to the mysticism of her performance. During the first rehearsals some photos showed Teya being nearly engulfed in fog. The rehearsal snipped showcases a new detail – an explosion of white at the chorus that pushes into the LED to show the impact of her words.
🇱🇹 Lithuania – Silvester injects energy into the Malmö arena
Very few details have been revealed beyond what we already knew about Silvester’s performance – but what we did notice is that the LED background design of rectangular strips extend all the way up to the LED squares on the ceiling, which will likely give the performance even more awe factor.
We also see that Silvester’s face will still make an appearance during the closing chorus, and is an exact match to what was used in the Lithuanian national selection but in higher definition. Again we can’t stress this enough, think Eurovizija.LT but bigger! That’s essentially all we have to share.
🇮🇪 Ireland – Bambie Thug’s performance continues to enchant
Unlike Lithuania’s photos we are able to find some new details from Ireland’s rehearsal that were not present on Saturday. The first few are aesthetic changes, likely skipped for the first rehearsal due to time limitations and focus on camerawork – but fans will notice that Bambie’s hair has been slicked down with product to make their hair horns and bang points stick out more. Bambie is also now wearing long curled fingernails, and has two additional face markings alongside the triskelion. Today their lipstick has a much more noticeable hue of red in it than Saturday.
But that’s not all, the dancer alongside Bambie has also seen some changes, going from “is he just dirty” to fully coated in black ash-like paint, horns down his right arm, and fake demon ears. It’s likely that this is still not their full transformation, but is much closer to what we’ll see in semi one than it’s previous iteration.
We also see a moment of Bambie casting their “spell”, where a giant cloud of LED smoke appears behind them. This means there are likely three “versions” of the stage for the entry, a section with no LEDs and white light, the “happy” section witht he moon and purple hues for the chorus, and then the blue smoke section which is likely used during the bridge. We’ll know for sure when the preview gets released.
The rehearsal clip showcases how it all comes together, with a camera spin, the impact of the lighting during the screams, the smoke, and more. It’s very impactful and tells their story well!
🇺🇦 Ukraine – A new power duo for Malmo in the making
The rehearsal today for Jerry Heil and alyona alyona do not reveal much more detail, but they do showcase just how grand their concept is for the Malmo stage. The gallery showcases a shot of them both engulfed in orange light and singing back to back (likely during one of the choruses), and a new wide shot of alyona alyona’s rap section that indicates that smoke will be used throughout the performance.
We also see a new shot of Jerry atop the rock formation leaning forward as if she’s issuing a battle cry, and based on how her dress and hair are moving there will be a fan going on her during this moment. We will have to wait for the dress rehearsals to gather more information about what is going on and how these all tie together. We do see the flares falling from the LED in the rehearsal clip, creating a beautiful and dramatic moment for Jerry.
🇵🇱 Poland – LUNA continues to build her towers
A few details we missed have been highlighted in the new photo gallery for LUNA’s rehearsal today, namely that the entire LED floor has a chess board motif projected across it. This confirms that LUNA’s staging is taking inspiration from her music video, specifically the game of chess she plays towards the end.
We also see that there is additional pyro featured throughout the performance, through it is unclear at what point in the song they are set to go off during. The dancers have also been given new headpieces in the shape of crowns that further tell the story of LUNA’s chess game – rooks, queens, knights, you get the point. The rehearsal clip also show’s LUNA “atop” a red horse (knight) displayed on the LED floor. Knight to E5 anyone?
There is also a shot that reveals a bit of the overarching plot. The black and white dancers appear to be battling for control of LUNA during the performance, which is why we saw her being carried Saturday by one. In the final shot of the gallery we see them defeated because they couldn’t beat her or the red dancer, leaving them to be the queens of the tower.
LUNA’s make-up has also changed for this rehearsal, as on Saturday she had a leaning “L” shape of eyeliner with light eyeshadow (don’t believe me? look at the photo) which has now been replaced with a more cat-eye shape in red, with a secondary red line that follows her natural crease line.
🇭🇷 Croatia – Baby Lasagna electrifies that stage with neon
There is very little new information to gather from Baby Lasagna’s performance, though we do get some new viewpoints of what is happening behind him during the performance. We know that the wide shot with white bars on the LED comes from the chorus, likely before it switches into the neon theme for the breakdown. We also see a new shot of the “horse” section in the bridge – and at the top on the LED squares you can see traditional knit designs being projected.
We also see a photo of the final pose for the performance, sparklers going off around Marko and the rest of the performers. This means that this performance has it all, smoke cannons, pyro, sparklers, AND a dance break. We also see a shot of the guitar players and drummer likely during the dance break bathed in green and pink neon light. This performance will be explosive!
One of the most noticeable changes from Saturday to today is that Marko’s hair is no longer slicked back, instead returning to his slightly messy look with a lift in the front. The official clip showcases a few arena shots, as the delegation is likely hopeful that the arena will be ALIVE during his performance.
🇮🇸 Iceland – Hera brings us home by soaring to new heights
Our final stop on this leg of rehearsals is Iceland’s very own Hera Björk, bathed in gold a top a set of stairs. The photos from today don’t give much extra detail to her performance plan in Malmo, but we do see some there are a number of orange and white lasers that are being used at all different angles to really sell the party vibe of her song. There is also a beautiful shot of Hera bathed in light atop the staircase.
Additionally we notice that the LED wall is actually projecting the triangular shape behind her, it’s not a prop as it might have been mistaken for on Sunday. The platform of stairs however are very real. As happened yesterday there might be some truth to Hera’s song, as she continues to look down while descending the staircase. Either way we know she can sing those notes! The rehearsal clip doesn’t show us much, as it’s the segment of Hera on the stairs and doing what we in the industry call a “park and bark”. We do get to see the triangles in action though!
That’s all for this part of the rehearsal round up – stay tuned as we continue with the last seven performances during the coming hours!
What do #YOU think of these new rehearsal details? Let us know on social media @ESCUnited or on our forum page!
All photos credit to EBU, Alma Bengtsson, Corinne Cumming, and Sarah Louise Bennett
