[2025] Rehearsals #1

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Op maandag 5 mei 2025 09:23 schreef Meridiaan het volgende:
Dat ziet er statisch uit op de foto, die zittende violisten. Hopelijk maar een momentopname en geen beeld van de rest van het optreden.

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10:30 CEST: Rehearsal 1: 🇦🇺 Australia - Go-Jo – Milkshake Man

Vegans look away, because we’re kicking off Day 3 with Go-Jo, the creation of Australian artist Marty Zambotto. He’s amassed over 1.4 million followers across TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, and in 2023 was the 9th most streamed Australian artist in the world. He’s toured across Australia, Europe, United States and Southeast Asia, and shared the stage with some of the biggest artists in the world.

We came into today with no idea what to expect from this performance, as Australia didn’t have a national final this year. But we were hoping for a little of the retro party energy of the official video, and since Australia are celebrating their 10th year Eurovision, maybe a sprinkle of…extra sprinkles?

However, we’re delighted to report we’ve received our second set of staging notes! Go Australia, you got yesterday's friendly memo. Here’s what they have to say:

“The performance opens with a retro infomercial, featuring Go-Jo as an enthusiastic salesman. Go-Jo’s boundless energy and knack for the element of surprise also come through in the staging - it takes inspiration from the Milkshake Man video clip with bold neon tones, playful wardrobe choices, and nostalgic charm.

The era leans heavily into the 70s and 80s, which also serves as a fun nod to fellow WA artist Voyager and their 80’s staging from two years ago. And yes, there’s even a keytar solo too. Midway through the performance, there’s an explosion of colour that captures the same wild, cheeky energy as the music video.”

So essentially, this is a LOT of fun and a feast for the eyeballs, with some very cute graphics that support the retro whole infomercial vibe. Clearly these are only visible to the TV audience, but there’s still plenty for the arena audience to enjoy – Go-Jo in a very 70s-style white suit with a red-striped collar and a red cravat, two dancers in red and white striped dresses, and a big finish after the sweet sweet/yum yums where the graphics flood every corner of the stage and the whole thing goes pink neon laser disco party.

There’s also a central prop that…isn’t the ice cream truck, but it’s big and it’s fun. That’s all we’re can say for now, but we’re told all will be revealed soon!

Did we join in with the call-and-response ‘sweet sweet/yum yum’ section? Yes we did. It definitely lacks impact when you’re the only one in the arena, but we’re fully expecting next week’s audience to make up for our feeble yum yums. Also just realised that Croatia have yum yums too. What are the chances of two lots of yum yums in one year?

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11:10 CEST: Rehearsal 2: 🇲🇪 Montenegro - Nina ´i¸ić – Dobrodo¨li

Time for Montenegro to rehearse now – we’re delighted to see them back at Eurovision in 2025. Nina ´i¸ić is a singer and songwriter with a career spanning two decades, and this is her second appearance on the Eurovision stage – she provided those incredible vocals for Montenegrin dubstep spacemen Who See in Malmö in 2013. We’re still listening to Igranka 12 years on, it’s a Eurovision classic.

Dobrodo¨li has a VERY different vibe – it’s a Bond theme-esque Balkan power ballad with a soaring orchestral arrangement. At Montesong Nina sang this in a very structured white dress with an eye mask, but in the official video she wore a black dress with no mask. We can confirm that her costume for this first rehearsal is…similar to Montesong, but also something else entirely.

The mask remains until the first bridge into the chorus, but the white dress now has a huge white train and a built-in panel of structured fabric that creates a circular frame from above her head to below her knees. So imagine the circle that Vladana wore in 2022, but make it bigger and an integral part of a pure white dress, with Nina’s red lipstick being the only colour. There are some camera shots taken from the side where she almost looks like a swan - it’s VERY dramatic.

The LED wall features white light particles that come together to form swirling shapes on the LED wall, and there’s some very clever use of blue and white lighting that builds through the song. This performance is also less static than we saw at Montesong, helped by a much bigger stage – Nina starts in the centre, then walks to the frame stage for the big vocal finish.

🔥 PYRO UPDATE: Low white fog, just for added drama.

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11:50 CEST: Rehearsal 3: 🇮🇪 Ireland - EMMY – Laika Party

Next up it’s Ireland – this year they’re represented by Norwegian singer Emmy, who is bringing a slice of 00s-style Europop about Russian dog Laika, the first dog to orbit the earth back in 1957. It’s an upbeat journey through time and space, bringing a message of hope and positivity to the Eurofandom.

This performance has definitely had a glow-up since Emmy’s winning performance on the Late Late Show Eurosong Special. Emmy’s silver playsuit has been replaced by a silver metallic dress with a pleated skirt, silver boots and a helmet-like hood.

She starts the performance spotlit on a shiny metal platform in the centre of the stage that looks like a lunar module, with her brother Erlend on keyboards at stage level in front, wearing a metallic silver shirt and his trademark star-shaped shades. There are four female dancers, all in silver trousers and black/silver vests, who dance in front of Erlend during each chorus.

So it has the same vibe and energy we saw at the Irish national final, but the routine is much more precise and polished, and the staging is on a Basel scale. The biggest difference is the impact of the neon lighting and LED walls – the floating bones are gone, instead replaced by neon planets and animated marching space cats for each set of bam bams. During the chorus the main LED wall features a constellation that forms the shape of Laika the dog out of stars. We’re not crying, you are.

🔥 PYRO UPDATE: big firework jets in the final chorus, like a party in the sky.

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12:30 CEST: Rehearsal 4: 🇱🇻 Latvia - Tautumeitas – Bur Man Laimi

Our final rehearsal before lunch is Latvia’s Tautumeitas, a 6-piece ethno-pop group who combine Latvian folk melodies with contemporary beats. This is the first time we’ve seen a song fully in Latvian for some years, and from the first note the harmonies sound glorious in the empty space of this arena. Bur Man Laimi translates as 'a chant for happiness' - the whole thing has a feel of mystical spell-casting.

We’ve been wondering if Tautumeitas would retain the ethereal curtain we saw at Supernova, or whether they would lean more into the fairy forest vibe from the official video with a different staging concept. We’re not surprised to see that they’ve retained the curtain – it’s such a simple way to create atmosphere and intimacy, and the way this performance uses light on sections of the curtain to create pools of shadow is really immersive and hypnotic.

In fact, the whole routine is more or less exactly the same as Supernova – during the second run-through we simultaneously played the Supernova version on our laptop to see if we could spot any differences, and the changes are VERY subtle. The lighting is definitely more dramatic and powerful, and at one point the LED wall gives them tails to make them look like animals, which requires them to be in exactly the right place on the stage. They are, and it looks really effective.

Their costumes are also different – instead of the floaty dresses we saw at Supernova, Tautumeitas are all wearing matching gold catsuits with detailing that looks like branches and fins, and stunning gold headdresses that light up and change colour through the song. Hopefully you’ll be able to see some of the detailing on the TikTok video later, but you’ll definitely get a better look on the photos tomorrow.

🔥 PYRO update - low fog for added magic and mysticism.

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14:10 CEST: Rehearsal 5: 🇦🇲 Armenia - PARG – Survivor

PARG from Armenia is up next – aka Pargev Vardanian, who is an Armenian indie-folk, R ’n’ B, pop and rock artist, known for blending traditional Armenian culture with modern elements. He’s considered a trailblazer in Armenian music, and he’s now blazed that trail all the way to Basel.

He’s also brought an entirely different staging concept for Survivor from the one we saw at Depi Evratesil – as dramatic a change as we saw from Croatia yesterday. The first thing to note is the use of the lego lights - half of them have been lowered to barely above head height, with the other half maybe eight feet above. They strobe and flash in sync with the bassline, and also create a structural effect on the stage that feels very dark and industrial - completely different from the rock/pillar structure we saw at Depi Evratesil.

PARG starts his performance in the gap between the two halves of the lighting rig, lit with spotlights like he’s in a tunnel. Most of the performance then takes place on a treadmill in the middle of the frame stage, where he sprints during the chanting sections of the chorus, then slows down for the low tempo middle eight. The treadmill choreography is complex, but PARG has clearly been very busy in the rehearsal studio and the whole concept aligns really well with the pace and energy of the song.

The other big change is PARG’s costume – the one-shouldered armour has gone, replaced by a black vest and studded black leather trousers (loose cargo fit rather than tight, for those of you trying to picture this). After the big note at the end, the lego lights rise up to open up the stage for PARG’s dramatic final chorus, when it feels like every light in the arena is in flash mode.

Incidentally, the stage crew call the lego lights ‘the automation’. Less fun, so we’re sticking with our version.

🔥 PYRO UPDATE: big flame jets in the chorus before the middle eight, then the treadmill starts smoking like it's on fire. ALL the flames for the big finish.

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14:50 CEST: Rehearsal 6: 🇦🇹 Austria - JJ – Wasted Love

Next up it’s Austria’s JJ, aka Johannes Pietsch from Vienna. He’s taken time off as a countertenor at the Vienna State Opera to bring Wasted Love to the Eurovision Song Contest – it’s another song that was chosen without a national final, so all we have to go on is the atmospheric spooky forest vibe we saw in the official video. This is another staging concept from artistic direction Sergio Jaen, who was responsible for Bambie Thug’s staging last year, and Theo Evan’s staging yesterday.

So what are we getting from Austria? WELL. First thing to note is that the staging is designed to be broadcast entirely in black and white, which we can only imagine was a huge technical challenge. It means the lighting is all about creating pockets of light and shadow, ramping up the light levels in sync with the tempo and drama of the song.

And goodness, what drama – both from JJ’s operatic vocals and the staging concept. The central prop is a simple boat that looks like it’s been made from packing crates, with a wooden mast and a white sail - JJ performs in the boat for the whole of the performance, clinging onto the mast as a storm begins in the second chorus. It appears to toss him around the stage, through a combination of some very clever camerawork and a wind machine cranked up to the max. JJ performs some wind-battered choreography that feels almost like contemporary dance, and as the tempo builds through the drum ‘n’ bass section at the end, so does the storm, with waves and stormclouds building on the LED screen, spinning camerawork, flashing strobe lights and JJ barely hanging on to the boat, but not losing the note for a second.

Right at the end, as an overhead camera shot makes it look like the boat is being sucked into a vortex on the LED floor, a huge lighthouse appears on the main LED wall like a beacon of hope in the darkness, and everything is still.

There is probably loads of detail we missed, mostly through not having nearly enough eyes for that performance. But hopefully that gives you the flavour. Oh, JJ's costume - a long black leather coat with metal accents.

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15:30 CEST: Rehearsal 7: 🇬🇷 Greece - Klavdia – Asteromáta

In Thursday’s running order it will be the UK next, but as one of the Big 5 they don’t rehearse until Thursday. So instead it’s time for Greece’s Klavdia, a 22-year-old singer and songwriter who is a well-known performer and TikTok star in Greece.

Asteromáta is a traditional Greek expression that describes women with bright, starry eyes – the closest English translation would be ‘little starry-eyed one’. This staging for this soaring ballad is entirely different from the performance we saw at Ethnikós Telikós, so we’re very grateful to the Greek delegation for giving us some staging notes! They describe the performance as follows:

“Klavdia begins her appearance on the Eurovision stage standing on a pier. Her movement toward a rock symbolizes the fiery journey each person undertakes to the Light.

The presence of a second person on stage, along with the movement of the set, reflects the theme of separation - the central message of the song "Asteromata".

So we have our first rock of the season as a central prop, and once Klavdia has walked along the pier in the quiet opening verse, she performs the rest of the song on top of it. She’s joined by one female dancer for the second verse, but they drift away on the pier, leaving Klavdia alone on her rock, wearing a long, fitted gown that sparkles with tiny jewels. In different lights it looks either black or a very dark navy blue – it's hard to tell but hopefully that will be clearer on the photos tomorrow.

There’s some lovely camerawork in this performance, with overhead shots making it look like the pier is in water, which then morph into dramatic burning trees and volcanic landscapes that spread up the LED wall as the song builds. The lighting and graphic effects are stunning – at one point Klavdia lifts her arm, and blue lights sweep across the set. Her vocals lift the roof off the arena, with the lego lights descending at the end to create the same tiered effect we saw for Albania yesterday. We (sadly) don't speak Greek, but we can still feel the love and loss and pain in every line.

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16:10 CEST: Rehearsal 8: 🇱🇹 Lithuania - Katarsis – Tavo Akys

We’re wrapping up the day with some alt-rock from Lithuania’s Katarsis – they’re a 4-piece Lithuanian band known for their unique blend of dark alternative and post-punk music.

Those of you who loved their winning performance from Eurovizija will be very happy to hear that the staging remains largely unchanged – the blue outfits, the bleak landscape, the exploding house and the flying rocks in the final TAVOS are all much the same, albeit the graphics are delivered on a much bigger scale, including the LED floor, and feel more immersive and impactful.

The performers are a little more spread out than they were at the national final, and in the second verse Lukas moves down to the frame stage with guitarists Alanas and Emilija. As with Latvia, we mapped the second run-through against the video from Eurovizija, and whilst there are many different camera angles and wide shots, the flow of the performance has remained generally the same.

What‘s changed is the atmosphere added by the lighting and extra effects – on the Basel stage they‘re able to add more light and shade, so there’s a really nice close-up shot where Lukas’s face is half in shadow. When he comes to the front, he battles against a wind machine in sequence of different camera shots – the whole thing feels lighter in parts and darker and more atmospheric in others. At the end the lego lights descend to create an effect that looks like a pair of wings as the strobes kick in for the TAVOs and the song ends in a flash of white light. It was already a great performance at Eurovizija, but this definitely feels like it's been elevated.

Before we wrap up for the day, can we just take a moment to celebrate how diverse this year’s lineup is? Just today, we’ve had Europop, folk, pop/opera, rock/hip-hop, a couple of huge ballads and some performance art from Australia. Whatever you’re into, you’ll find it at Eurovision.

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Op dinsdag 6 mei 2025 09:16 schreef Fred_B het volgende:

[..]
Nog een DJ who pretends to scratch?

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🇲🇹 Malta - Miriana Conte – SERVING

Are we ready for Malta’s Miriana Conte to serve sass, attitude, and maybe a red Swiss ball or six?

So, first things first. Miriana Conte is a 24-year-old Maltese singer known for her electrifying performances and a fearless approach to music. She first attempted to represent Malta at Eurovision in 2017, aged just 16. Eight years later, she’s here in Basel, having served her unique brand of queen energy at all the pre-parties along the way.

So, let’s talk staging. Whilst The Sound of Music remains an inspiration (we’re still do-re-mi-fa-s-s-serving, after all), the visual storytelling we saw at MESC has mostly gone. Firstly there’s a big prop – a set of huge sparkly red lips holding a spinning disco ball – the whole structure is probably three metres high, and sits in the centre of the stage.

It turns at the start, and Miriana is inside, wearing a bright yellow dress with a huge skirt made from tiered netting with black sleeves. She’s lifted out of the disco ball and the dress, to reveal a catsuit that’s the same style as the one we saw at MESC, but now black and red and VERY sparkly. Her hair is now also bright red, by the way – the whole thing feels like a transition from poisonous flower to queen of hearts.

The dance routine is very similar to MESC, but her four dancers have swapped the Von Trapp outfits for red fishnets, strappy black underwear and red fur jackets. The final chorus plays out on the frame stage, where the red Swiss balls appear for a bouncy finish. The graphics wall transitions between graphic art exploding flowers and bouncing leopard visuals, dancing legs and words from the song, finishing with DIVA NOT DOWN in huge letters . The whole thing is very Miriana – bold, unapologetic, and a lot of fun. What a way to start the day!

Also 🔥PYRO UPDATE: lots of smoke jets in the chorus, and a big finish.

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11:10 CEST: Rehearsal 2: 🇬🇪 Georgia - Mariam Shengelia – Freedom

Next up to rehearse is Georgia’s Mariam Shengalia, singing her orchestral power ballad Freedom. It’s sung in both Georgian and English, and there are definitely some 1960s influences in the production of this track. So we’re really interesting to see how it comes to life on the big stage.

Mariam comes from a small town in Georgia, and took part in both The X Factor Georgia and The Voice Georgia. She’s also a member of Mixtura, a band known for its fusion of diverse musical influences.

We have another big prop – it’s a geometric rock that stands in the centre of the stage - Mariam performs on top of it, wearing a stunning silver gown that looks like it’s made from satin with organza layers that give it structure, so she becomes part of the rock. Four male dancers perform on the stage around her, all wearing traditional Georgian chokha coats in black, with close fitting headdresses and black boots – during the second verse they perform a complex flag dance routine with blue and white flags

The graphics on the back wall are simple but beautiful, with a moon rising behind Mariam between the two stage mountains that transitions into a red sun with storm clouds and neon rings. The graphics become faster and more dynamic as the song progresses – lots of performances have used lighting and graphics as a way to drive the performance this year, and this is a really effective example.

There’s also a dress reveal! During the middle eight, Mariam comes down from her rock, steps seamlessly out of her dress (it doesn’t move an inch, which suggests it’s VERY heavy), to reveal a red sequinned jumpsuit for the final chorus, which she performs on the frame stage against a backdrop of mountains. The strings and drums in this song are HUGE – it feels like the music is rising up through the arena floor

🔥 PYRO update! Heavy fog around the rock at the start, which dissipates to make it look like Mariam and her dancers are rising out of it. Today is going to be ALL about the drama.

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11:50 CEST: Rehearsal 3: 🇩🇰 Denmark - Sissal – Hallucination

France will compete at the point in next week’s Second Semi-Final, but they don’t rehearse until Thursday, with the rest of the Big 5. Which means it’s time for Denmark’s Sissal to rehearse her Eurodance banger Hallucination.

Sissal lives in Copenhagen but is originally from Thorshavn in the Faroe Islands, which was also home to 2023’s Reiley.

If you cast your mind back to March, Sissal won Dansk Melodi Grand Prix in a green sparkly leotard, accompanied by two contemporary dancers and a very powerful wind machine. Shortly after that she promised us a revamp for Basel, and that’s exactly what we’ve got.

The main prop is a central transparent curtain that hangs in the middle of the stage and stretches from floor to ceiling. It’s in four parts, so it floats in the wind machine and creates a really simple but effective sense of movement around Sissal, who sings on a black plinth in the middle, in a tunnel of pulsing neon lights and strobes. She performs the first verse and chorus in an entirely fabulous blue and white coat with hundreds of organza layers - honestly, it’s like the Met Gala in here today.

The coat is removed in the second verse to reveal a long-sleeved leotard and thigh boots in sparkly electric blue – she has four dancers who press their faces into the curtain around Sissal like ghosts, before dancing around her with blue fabric handkerchiefs. In the final section the dancers are entirely wrapped in blue fabric, as Sissal descends from her plinth and moves to the frame stage for the final chorus. The dancers’ feet are anchored to the floor, so they can lean into their dance moves like they’re swaying in the wind as Sissal builds up for the big finish. No pyro, but that final note takes the roof off St Jakobshalle all on its own.

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12:30 CEST: Rehearsal 4: 🇨🇿 Czechia - ADONXS – Kiss Kiss Goodbye

And finally before we take a break for lunch, it’s time for Czechia’s ADONXS to perform his dramatic ballad Kiss Kiss Goodbye. ADONXS not only has a successful career in music, he’s also worked as a professional dancer and model. There was no national final in Czechia this year, so our only clue to today’s staging is the time travel storytelling from the official video.

Actually that’s not true, because for the second year running Czechia have given us staging notes! Love that for us. Here’s what they have to say:

“The main focus of this performance is Adonxs’ stage presence, vocals and charm. It’s a clean, elegant concept that fully embraces the possibilities offered by the Eurovision stage, using the latest lighting technology to create effects that create waves and evoke the movie Inception.

The dance break and choreography have evolved for the Eurovision TV audience, creating an emotional, engaging and visually mesmerizing experience for both the viewers at home and the audience in the arena.”

So, a few more details, starting with Adonxs’ outfit – silver wide-legged trousers, with a white top that’s like a vest, but with sleeves and white gloves. Yes, we know a vest with sleeves makes no sense, but go with us on this.

The staging is dramatically white, with strobing black shapes on the LED wall that make it feel like some kind of dystopian heaven. During the second verse, four dancers in matching outfits join Adonx for a routine on a pure white floor. Then the lego lights descend for an uptempo dance break bathed in red strobe lighting – a dramatic moment of colour that momentarily takes your breath away.

The references provided by the Czechia delegation makes SO much sense when you see it on stage and on screen – the white is a dramatic metaphor for a clean break, and Adonx delivering the dismissal in the lyrics through lots of close-up camerawork is definitely a mood. No pyro or props, presumably because that would mess with the clean. This morning has been quite the ride already, no?

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Op dinsdag 6 mei 2025 12:58 schreef TheVulture het volgende:

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Ik ben heel benieuwd wat de jury's hier mee gaan doen, want zingen kan ze natuurlijk ook wel prima

Ik sluit dit niet uit voor een verrassing in de finale

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14:10 CEST: Rehearsal 5: 🇱🇺 Luxembourg - Laura Thorn – La Poupée Monte Le Son

Welcome back! Hope you had a nice lunch. It’s time for 25-year-old Laura Thorn from Luxembourg to rehearse - she’s a singer and multi-instrumentalist, as well as a teacher at the Conservatoire de Musique in the south of Luxembourg.

Sung in French, La Poupée Monte Le Son translates as ‘the doll turns up the sound’, and it’s a fun, up-tempo bop that is both a throwback and a sequel to Poupée de cire, poupée de son, the legendary song that won Eurovision for Luxembourg’s France Gall exactly sixty years ago.

It’s also exactly the kind of uptempo bop we need after lunch, and we’re interested to see how the staging has evolved since Laura win The Luxembourg Song Contest earlier this year. The answer is…a lot - the Doll-Laura concept, with male dancers who combine 60s-style moves with puppet references, has remained, but the ability to project huge LEDs on both the stage and the screen has elevated to something else entirely.

Now Laura is inside her own pink and red 1960’s style doll’s house, with animated hands that reach in to reposition her through the opening sequence. She has five male dancers, wearing similar red velvet suits to the ones we saw at The Luxembourg Song Contest, but the way they interact with Laura is now a precision dance routine, where her doll-like stiffness at the start relaxes through the performance into something more natural and human. She leads them down the walkway in the second verse, figuratively and literally leaving the doll’s house behind, so the final section can play out on the frame stage.

This story is told in her costume too – the pink doll dress she wore in the national final has been replaced with a much more sophisticated version, in pale pink with corset-style lacing, paired with silver thigh boots. In the middle eight the pink dress comes off to reveal a sparkly silver dress underneath – there are no female dancers in this version, it’s just Laura and her dancers creating what feels more like a dance break than the original version. It was always a fun song, but this staging elevates it a much more cohesive and powerful bit of visual storytelling.

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14:50 CEST: Rehearsal 6: 🇮🇱 Israel - Yuval Raphael – New Day Will Rise

Next up to rehearse is Israel’s Yuval Raphael, with her soaring ballad New Day Will Rise, which is sung in a combination of English, French and Hebrew. Yuval is 24 and comes from Ra’anana near Tel Aviv, but she also lived in Geneva for a few years as a child, so she’s no stranger to Switzerland.

Winning Israel’s TV talent show HaKokhav HaBa was Yuval’s ticket to Eurovision, but the song came later, so we don’t have any staging references to work with right now. But that’s fine, because we’re right here watching the performance live.

First thing to point out – there’s a GIANT prop in the centre of the stage - the biggest we've seen so far this year. It’s a two tier circular structure maybe five metres high, with a curved staircase on one side. The top tier is slightly smaller than the bottom, and each circle is draped with a glittering curtain of silver strands that encase it all the way round. Imagine a modern take on a vintage birdcage, or a chandelier you can climb. It’s not entirely representative of either, but hopefully that helps you imagine it until you can see actual photos.

Yuval starts the performance in a shadow of blue light on the frame stage, wearing a tailored black trouser suit with square shoulders and draped flamenco sleeves. She heads back down the walkway in the second verse, and there’s a lovely single camera shot where she walks around the cage as she sings the French section, then climbs the stairs to perform the Hebrew verse and the remainder of the song from a platform inside the top tier. Up close you can see that the cage is made of individual strands of crystals, so more like a chandelier.

Another moment – at one point Yuval lifts her arms and the draped sleeves of her jacket look like wings, which makes us think that maybe we were on the right track with the birdcage metaphor. The LED wall adds flowing water over black rocks, the power of the water building with the final chorus until the whole set fades to white for the soft piano notes into the final line.

🔥 PYRO update: a shower of fireworks from the back of the stage in the key change chorus.

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15:30 CEST: Rehearsal 7: 🇷🇸 Serbia - Princ – Mila

In the second Semi-Final Germany will be providing the bop meat in this power ballad sandwich, but they’re one of the Big 5 so will be rehearsing on Thursday. So we’re skipping straight to Serbia’s Princ, and his love song Mila.

As well as being a singer, Princ can also play guitar and drums. He's fronted a rock band, was a finalist on The Voice Bulgaria, and as also tried out for Eurovision before, coming second to Luke Black’s Samo Mi Se Spava in 2023. So the big stage is very much his happy place.

First thing to note re. Princ’s staging – the opening moon from Pesma za Evroviziju is no more, along with the spinning dancer and the leather trousers and waistcoat. Which means we’re adding Mila to the list of acts that have undergone a total staging overhaul.

Princ begins this performance in the centre of the main stage, singing the opening verse in shadow backed by a halo of light as three male dancers in black outfits draw him into a beautifully choreographed contemporary routine. He’s wearing a tailored red suit, and there’s a totally unexpected and dramatic moment where two of his dancers march him down the walkway, literally dragging him by his legs as the LED screen explodes with red lights and fiery graphics.

It's presumably a visual metaphor for the Serbian lyric that translates as ‘you have brought life back from the edge' - Princ doesn’t miss a note, which is extraordinary considering the precision movements and physicality of this routine. The whole thing feels a million miles away from Pesma – probably one of our biggest transformations so far this year.

🔥PYRO UPDATE: Low fog at the start, then an explosion of flames in the final verse.

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16:10 CEST: Rehearsal 8: 🇫🇮 Finland - Erika Vikman – ICH KOMME

And finally for today’s first rehearsals, it’s a big climax banger of an ending from Finland’s Erika Vikman. She’s a well-known star in Finland, having won the Tangomarkkinat festival in 2016, and brought the unforgettable Cicciolina to UMK in 2020. That wasn’t her Eurovision big moment, but Ich Komme definitely is.

It’s sung in Finnish with a light sprinkling of German – will it be the black latex outfit from UMK, or the metallic ensemble from the official UMK video?

So the best way to describe this is UMK, but…go harder. Erika sings the first verse and chorus on a circular gold plinth, before taking her gold microphone on a fast-paced journey down the walkway to the frame stage. She’s wearing a new version of the black latex outfit with thigh boots we saw at UMK, this one more leather than latex and structured in the waist with metallic studs and long black gloves. No dancers required, because Erika entirely owns every corner of this stage – every step and look to camera is precision choreographed to allow her to connect with the audience.

And then the big finale - as the tempo picks up, Erika heads back to the main stage and mounts her giant gold microphone for the final ascension. We wish it was possible to describe how the last 30 seconds of bass feels in this arena, but if you’ve got tickets for the second Semi-Final you are in for an extraordinary finish. Or Finnish, if you like.

We haven’t even talked about the LED wall, but it’s much the same as UMK with giant ICH KOMME graphics and a final ERIKA. And a final 🔥 PYRO UPDATE - blasts of smoke on the walkway in the middle section.

We very much need a lie down.