ESC United - Rehearsal and Live Show discussion megathread

[Sean]

It's time for the rehearsals to finally get underway for Eurovision 2024 at Malmö Arena! 37 countries will begin their preparations for this year's contest today, with over two weeks of coverage to come from the ESC United team on the ground!

The schedule for rehearsals is below (thank you Eurovisionworld! All times in CEST);

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You can check out Matt's pre-rehearsal live stream below in case you missed it;

DAY ONE

Eurovision 2024 Rehearsals - Day 1 Round-Up Live Stream

Join Matt and his team as they discuss the rehearsals of the day and answer your questions. The first dress rehearsal is closed to the press so we'll be here...

www.youtube.com

The team will be on hand to cover everything going on in Malmö over the coming weeks, so make sure to follow ESC United on Facebook, Twitter (X), Instagram, and YouTube and Twitch to not miss a minute!

Please also use this thread for any rehearsal coverage and discussion, including for jury shows, dress rehearsals and the live shows!​

 

[Teaisloveable]

Interesting? This is as fishy as it can gets. This is not a song contest long time ago, but this mediocre ballad with a singer with okay voice getting maybe the biggest % win ever in a SF, is not interesting. It just shows something is messed up behind the closed door.

To be honest with you I'm so shocked at the moment that the only word I could muster up was "interesting"

I'm a bit lost for words

Fishy or fucking insane

 

[Ajeje Brazorf]

I love how y'all seem so chill right now ... I am literally fucking pissed. Are you trying to tell me that RAI just basically ruined the entire suspense?!
Would be great if one of our Italian members could say something about all of this? Is it legitimately the televoting result? Or is it something else? Has this happened before?!

It certainly is. The only topic they were talking, that precise moment, was who was qualified and who wasn't. I saw it live. Usually I watch Eurovision on YouTube, so I don't know if they did something similar even in the past. And I can confirm this Is the Italian televote because I watched Tuesdsy night aswell and they showed no percentages at the end because Italy was not voting Tuesday.

 

[Zeus]

40% in Italy with the second one at 7%.. That's never just something from Italy only. Houston, we have a problem. Israel might win now.

 

[LoveHate]

Well hopefully she'll get second position

I don’t think running order would have much impact, if any, when it comes to Israel this year. The ones voting for Israel do it because it’s Israel.

 

[SpiritofKeiino]

Being conspiratorial, maybe someone working in RAI was being mischievous by leaking...maybe they wanted to warn voters for Saturday?

 

[Kev4000]

If Israel wins, Im done with this show. Its annoying every country with ongoing war gas to win. Its boring and annoying.

 

[Loindici]

I'm quite worried now for an Israel win.

You don't have to. The organizers/EBU were clearly trying to please their main sponsor, and created the havoc by their own decision. Ever an Israeli win is happening, they have always been the root cause and all the disrepute are their responsibility to cover up.

Besides, having Israel in the final would actually made the issue about this easier to surge, as more casual viewers than ever will tune in on Saturday.

 

[Realest]

 

[NeoTen]

I'm gonna end with this here, normally would put this in the odds topic but, betting guy in the stadium said juries he stalked loved Israel and he ended the convo with "Jamala had 20% worse odds than her, with an above average spot per running order studies (4th out of 26). IF she gets a similar spot, it's done".

 

[AlekS]

I'm wondering if RAI did this on purpose

to warn all the juries.
There are at least 10 broadcasters who didn't want Israel to participate What the rest of them will do, knowing this info?

 

[Loindici]

Right now I don't know if the 'producer's choice' thing is smart or plain lazy. I mean this gives more freedom to the producers but 7/10 finalists getting that blank paper is kinda too much.

 

[SirPeterGriffin]

My jaw was on the floor with Latvia Sudden Lights should've been the one to end this streak (yes, i'm still mourning ) but he was sincere and commanding on stage, i'm fine with this outcome. Congrats to all Baltics!

Other than that phony and contrived shitshow from a participant who had no business being here (just put them at #2 in the final and be done with this), those are decent qualifiers. Ending with Norway and Netherlands was an unforgettable slayage. My top 2 from the semi. Armenia brought me back to 2009 and i couldn't love them more for that. Oh, and Angelina IS the moment. Such a well-blended and intoxicating show. Might be the closest we have of a song capable of reaching with televotes and juries with equal success.

 

[GermanBango]

Sooo you are telling me that we are just witnessing the death of Eurovision with our own eyes? Cool ... cool ...

 

[Teaisloveable]

Surely if there was something fishy (ie vote rigging) it would have been caught by the EBU before Martin announced that the results were valid

Which makes the whole situation even more wild

 

[njdevils94]

Israel up to 4th in the odds passing Ireland. They could win the tele-votes on Saturday.

 

[Ajeje Brazorf]

By the way, I'm very sad to have dropped this news to you all, but it is what it is. I was not totally uncorrect when I said, talking about Kalush win in 2022, that would have been possibly a fork in the road of Eurovision. Every year, every f***ing year is more and more a political competition and we are all responsible for this.

 

[Loindici]

I'm wondering if RAI did this on purpose

to warn all the juries.

I'd like to ask: as I'm an outsider, is Italy really that pro-Israeli to begin with?

 

[soulm8]

Surely if there was something fishy (ie vote rigging) it would have been caught by the EBU before Martin announced that the results were valid

Which makes the whole situation even more wild

Excuse me, you trust EBU, the biggest hypocrites in Europe for quite a long time? Okay, good luck with that.

 

[Skrzeczk]

By the way, I'm very sad to have dropped this news to you all, but it is what it is. I was not totally uncorrect when I said, talking about Kalush win in 2022, that would have been possibly a fork in the road of Eurovision. Every year, every f***ing year is more and more a political competition and we are all responsible of this.

I guess there's still a possibility that RAI was hacked and maybe those results are not correct.

 

[NemesisNick]

Eurovision Song Contest 2024 Second Semi-Final

My preferences
Here are my preferences, based solely on all of tonight's performances before the qualifiers were announced:
Definitely want to qualify: Malta, Albania, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Latvia, Georgia, Belgium, Israel, Norway.
Wouldn't mind qualifying: Czechia, Armenia.
Prefer not to qualify: Greece, Estonia, Netherlands.
Definitely don't want to qualify: San Marino.
`
So, these are the ones I want to see Saturday night: Malta, Albania, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Latvia, Georgia, Belgium, Israel, Norway.

My Qualification Predictions before the qualifiers were announced
Here are my predictions of which countries will and won’t qualify, based solely on all of tonight's performances:
Almost certain qualifiers: Switzerland, Netherlands.
Likely qualifiers: Greece, Armenia, Georgia, Norway.
May qualify: Malta, Czechia, Austria, Denmark, San Marino, Belgium, Estonia, Israel.
Highly unlikely to qualify: Albania Latvia.

After tonight's qualifiers were announced:
Actual qualifiers (in order of announcement): Latvia, Austria, Netherlands, Norway, Israel, Greece, Estonia, Switzerland, Georgia, Armenia.

OUT: Malta, Albania, Czechia, Denmark, San Marino, Belgium.

Congratulations to the artists of the ten countries which qualified, and commiserations to the artists of the six countries which were eliminated