Portugal and Croatia release their live on tape Eurovision performances

Photo Credit: EBU / NATHAN REINDS

Another day, another release of the tapes! Today we received two more tapes from the EBU from both Portugal and Croatia – however they were not next in line from the running order. As we covered yesterday, AVROTROS announced that S10’s live on tape would not be released to the public, and it would appear that TRM has also opted to not release the tape of Zdob și Zdub and the Advahov Brothers either.

MARO – Saudade, Saudade (Portugal)

Portugal’s MARO stormed the grand final and placed in 9th overall with her stunning emotional performance. Because Festival da Canção occurred so late, it is not surprising that the live on tape performance is an exact replica of the national final performance. RTP also had another deadline on their hands, as shortly after winning she was releasing new music and touring.

This performance also features the original backing vocalists from the national final, meaning that the two Festival da Canção participants MARO brought to Turin would have been absent in the event that they couldn’t perform live. And as we covered during the rehearsals, that almost became reality for the Portuguese delegation. Instead the Turin version would be used, featuring numerous colors, purple outfits, and the vocalists on the outcrop stage in a circle.

Mia Dimšić – Guilty Pleasure (Croatia)

The Croatian delegation also chose to use the Dora national final staging for their live-on-tape performance if Mia could not perform in Turin. HRT also did as many delegations did and re-used the stage made for the Croatian national final in Opatija, Croatia rather than using a studio. This will likely be highly common for entries selected through a non-internal format.

The delegation did however make one small change which would see a different audio balance between the tape’s backing vocals and the national final track, and it sounds like one backing vocalist may have been recorded live on or off stage. The final product for Turin would of course be drastically different, losing the platform and dark staging for dancers and a fairytale like atmosphere.

Do #YOU think that final results would have changed if these countries had to use their backup performances? Let us know on social media @ESCUnited, on our discord, or on our forum page!