We’re into Day 6 by now, but only into Day 2 when it comes to rehearsal access for the Press. As a reminder, the first 4 days were used as closed rehearsals for all the semi-finalist performances, meaning that the first visible rehearsals for the press, are the second rehearsals for the artists.
Today, the second rehearsals continued for the semi-finalists from the second semi-final, these included: Serbia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Malta & San Marino.
Serbia
Serbia is being represented by Konstrakta after she won the national final in Serbia, with the song “In Corpore Sano“. At the national final, she was singing while washing her hands on stage, and that’s the concept she in the end decided to bring with her to Turin. Konstrakta is backed up by 5 other vocalists surrounding her with towels around them, while she is washing her hands.
Something new included, would be some subtle text messages that will appear at the bottom of the screen, in order to get the message more abroad. The song is not fully translated, but will have some translations pop-up at different points during the song.
The main focus remains on the artist and the performance, the backdrop in the background will also have some subtle hand gestures that are done throughout the performance as well, but nothing that takes the focus to far apart from the viewer. A few hiccups throughout the rehearsals with the sound, but nonetheless a great ending.
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan was the last country to reveal their song this year, Nadir Rustamli was internally selected to represent the country, with the song “Fade To Black“. Since Nadir was internally selected and it is Azerbaijan, it’s been hard to tell what the country would opt for.
Once again, Azerbaijan shows what they are capable of doing, when it comes to strengthening their own songs. It’s a simple, yet very effective staging we see, as Nadir seems to appear all alone on a set of large stairs. When getting close to the chorus, we see a shadowy figure then appear a few steps below Nadir, who then copies his movements for a little. Nothing as intense as their 2013 entry, but for those who remember how they staged their song in 2013, then that should ring a bell.
Since it’s an emotional ballad, movements are rather still and slow throughout the performance, but still effective. Towards the end of the song, the stairs will split over, having Nadir and the shadowy figure face each other. Nadir is in full control of his voice, delivers the emotion of the song perfectly and once again Azerbaijan is back in the game.
Georgia
Georgia was one of the first countries to announce their act for this year, yet one of the last to present their song. Nonetheless, Circus Mircus was selected to represented the country with the song “Lock Me In“.
Circus has indeed come to town, cause so much is going on with this one! There is so much to look at, to the point where you’ll need to watch this over a few times to catch everything. The questions is, is that a good thing? Will viewers have enough time to understand what they’ve just seen? The best way to describe it all, would probably be by saying that Circus Mircus live up to their name.
The backdrop and the stage LED’s are largely at focus, with eyes and mouths everywhere, it might sound awkward… well yea, cause it is, but again, so much is going on! There is also a very cute moment, where we see a playbox open up in the bridge towards the final part of the song, with miniature version of the band.
Malta
Emma Muscat was selected as Malta’s entry for the contest, in a rather unusual way. She won the national final with one song, but ditched it and came out with “I Am What I Am” instead for Turin 2022.
The staging for Malta, is nothing like what is seen in the music video. We start with seeing Emma being at the piano, but only for a small bit, before she ends up walking and singing on top of the piano. Spectacular voice performance from Emma and she looks gorgeous as well, but it does feel slightly out of touch with what the song is all about.
Towards the ending of the song, she does move towards the front part of the stage, with backing dancers that weren’t visible for most of the song, and they perform the song til it’s end out there. There seems to be a lack of creating an impact or impression visually, so it’s hard to tell what Malta wanted to go with for this performance.
San Marino
We’ve finally gotten to the last semi-finalist performance of the day, Achille Lauro earned the right to represent San Marino, after a very long and complicated national final, in the end “Stripper” became the song for the country.
There is so much going on once again here, loads of glitter, pyros, glitter cages and a bull! The very flamboyant singer is pulling on the visual tricks out of the Eurovision performance book, and maybe it becomes too much? The cameras are all over the place and so is this performance, Achille Lauro wears a lot of black glitter on him, which he takes off here and there, before progressing all around the stage.
Once again, just like with Georgia from earlier, we have some moving eyes and mouths on stage as well, but they are not as heavily in focus from a viewing perspective. Towards the end of the song, we do see Achille riding a mechanical bull, which seems so random, but could be an effective way of capturing the attention of the viewers.
With that said, this concludes the second batch of today’s rehearsals from the semi-finalists. The remaining performers for today include the BIG 5, but since it will be their first performance, it will be closed for the press.
We’ve finally seen some of the first semi-finalists from the second semi-final, what impression do #YOU have of their performances, and has anyone unexpected surprised #YOU? Turin 2022 is in full swing, so let’s hear from #YOU on our forum HERE or on our social media platforms.
