Today, the PalaOlimpico in Turin (Italy) saw the fourth day of the first round of rehearsals, with the nine performers of the second half of the 2nd semi-final taking the stage to rehearse the Eurovision on-stage versions of their entries. The countries whose rehearsals we could see today included: Ireland, North Macedonia, Estonia, Romania, Poland, Montenegro, Belgium, Sweden and the Czech Republic.
Below you can watch the rehearsal clips, which were uploaded to the official Eurovision TikTok account, as well as a picture gallery of each performance, as presented by the EBU. Next to this, you can find a little bit of a review from us at ESCplus.
IRELAND
BROOKE – “THAT’S RICH”
Brooke has brought a spiced-up version of her Eurovision entry “That’s Rich” to her first on-stage rehearsal. The colour palette used, consists out of blues and pinks, and the whole performance has a lighting scheme in the same tones. Brooke’s vocals seem to be up to par during the run-through of her rehearsal. What we can see from the snippet that is uploaded to the official Eurovision TikTok is that there seems to be more choreography, and there are even fireworks. Curious to see how the ultimate break-up song looks fully staged.
NORTH MACEDONIA
ANDREA – “CIRCLES”
The performance of Andrea’s song “Circles” seems very slick and clean, with not a whole lot of things going on on-stage, which really benefits the message of her song. It seems like Andrea will remain behind her microphone stand, and that the on-stage colours consist out of blues with a hint of orange. Apparently North Macedonia had a performance planned which involved the kinetic sun on-stage which cannot be used anymore. We do not know what the rest of Andrea’s performance looks like, very curious to know though.
EBU / NATHAN REINDS
ESTONIA
STEFAN – “HOPE”
Stefan has changed his performance when it comes down to his delivery during his national final performance. The song gets a more pop vibe because of it, where it first had more of a country feel. Estonian Stefan chose to take the B stage, which is closer to the audience, to sing his song, which makes him stand out from the other entrants. Just like North Macedonia’s Andrea, Stefan’s performance was based on the unusable kinetic sun on-stage, and the visuals that he had prepared cannot be shown anymore, since they are blocked by the sun stage element. Maybe the change to pop is a good thing, in this regard.
EBU / NATHAN REINDS
ROMANIA
WRS – “LLÁMAME”
Romania’s WRS seems to be doing a lot more dancing on-stage, because he is using a small microphone meant for dancing and interacting. WRS voice seems stable while dancing, which is always great. The outfits of WRS and his dancers look great and it seems like he fully embraced the Latin-vibe of his bop “Llamamé”. We have to say this song is a true banger, if there ever was one!
EBU / NATHAN REINDS
POLAND
OCHMAN – “RIVER”
Polish Ochman has changed the visual outlook of his performance, and it seems like it is going to be much darker, with colours that are predominantly black and blue. The performance includes two dancers now, that somehow seem to be based on the Dementor creatures of the Harry Potter movies. That angelic voice of Ochman though…
EBU / NATHAN REINDS
MONTENEGRO
VLADANA – “BREATHE”
Montenegro’s Vladana has brought her great vocals to Turin, so there is no doubt about her singing great. Apparently she also brough a prop of sorts onto the stage, but the Eurovision audience only gets to see this during the live show(s), if we understood correctly. Vladana wears an all-blue dress on-stage, and she uses the B stage to perform her song “Breathe”. We are curious to see what kind of charades Vladana has up her sleeve.
EBU / NATHAN REINDS
BELGIUM
JÉRÉMIE MAKIESE – “MISS YOU”
The staging of the Belgian song of Jérémie Makiese is brighter and more colourful than we thought, a lot of sunny yellows and orange going on. Pretty cool! The Belgian singer himself is dressed in silver, as to stand out from the colours that are already on-stage. Next to this, Jérémie has various dancers with him on-stage. We cannot wait to see the final version of his performance.
EBU / NATHAN REINDS
SWEDEN
CORNELIA JAKOBS – “HOLD ME CLOSER”
The performance of Cornelia’s song “Hold Me Closer” did not change a whole lot from the Swedish National Final version, although her grand prop might be somewhat bigger now. The circle that can be turned is now surrounded by the lights of the kinetic sun, making it more of dramatic set piece. The outfit of Cornelia did not change either, but on the other hand, why change a winning team?
EBU / NATHAN REINDS
CZECH REPUBLIC
WE ARE DOMI – “LIGHTS OFF”
We saw a snippet of We Are Domi’s performance on TikTok, and we were just amazed by how impressive this performance has become. The use of the enormous amount o lights on-stage is just dazzling and mesmerizing; the organization of this year’s contest even said that Czech We Are Domi are the first to use almost all the lights on-stage, even at some point all in one time. Pretty cool! They are definitely not turning the “Lights Off” during their performance.
EBU / NATHAN REINDS
Conclusion
What a day! What a day! The first part of the second Semi-final’s rehearsal left us wanting more, and not just a little. We were surprised the most by the performance of We Are Domi from the Czech Republic, because of the staging and the great singing, which has been a (technical0 problem for the longest of time for this Czech trio. We cannot wait to see the prop (or something) Montenegro’s Vladana has come up with, and we cannot help to root for the ever so lovely Brooke of Ireland. Anyway, a lot to discover in the upcoming days.
Your opinion?
What is your opinion? Let us know in the comments below!
Eurovision Song Contest 2022
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest will take place on the 10th, 12th, and 14th of May 2022 in Turin, Italy.