The first day of rehearsals in Turin is over, and we had a look on several platforms, i.e. the official hub of the contest this year, TikTok, just to see how this first day of rehearsals has turned out. We always have to be careful with forming an opinion about a performance based on the first rehearsal or the rehearsals as a whole, because most people watch the contest at home, and the performance on-stage can look totally different from the presentation to home audiences. Camera angles, augmented reality (AI), and the use of props can make a great difference when it comes down to how you experience a performance.
Albania
Ronela Hajati – Sekret
As stated before, it is hard to create a solid opinion from a first rehearsal, but Ronela seems to have great confidence in her song and the delivery of it, which is a cool thing to have and to convey. During her first rehearsal Ronela wore an outfit, which apparently is one of many, because she is still trying things out while getting used to the magnitude of the stage, the light show, and other technical options. The lighting on-stage is predominantly pink, blue, and black. There also seems to be some synchronic dancing going on.
Latvia
Citi Zēni – Eat Your Salad
The first rehearsal of Latvia’s band Citi Zēni looks really colorful, bubbly, and the imagery on the LED screen looks really vegan-proof. The band performs almost the same as they did during their national final performance and during their promo tour in Europe. The enthusiasm of this band is contagious, and their message of being nice to the environment is one we heard before during the Eurovision Song Contest, but never in the unique way Citi Zēni dares to perform it. Looks great!
Lithuania
Monika Liu – Sentimentai
The Lithuanian Monika Liu, we love her. The enthusiasm, the jokes, the unbreakable smile, and that sexy sparkling dress, they all return to the stage for Lithuania’s loungey disco tune “Sentimentai”. There is imagery of Monika’s music video on the huge LED screens in the back, and we are here for it! The wide shot of Monika on stage with the waterfall that is connected to the stage and the lights in the background, it already gave us the feels. It is a good thing, in this regard, that the Lithuania’s kind of stuck with what they did in their national final.
Switzerland
Marius Bear – Boys Do Cry
The setting of the song, or what we could see from it, gives us the Barbara Pravi chills. This song might be very calm and laid-back, but comes with a message that evokes a feeling. A simple approach of this song when it comes down to its performance will benefit Marius Bear a great deal. This might be one of those songs that do not get to you when you just hear them or when you see the music video, but might give you the chills once you see the full performance on-stage or on Tv. Excited!
Slovenia
LPS (Last Pizza Slice) – Disko
The high school band kind of vibe coming from Slovenia’s LPS is well-represented on-stage. There is a huge disco ball on the scene in which the lighting and imagery of the LED screen gets reflected. The whole thing looks really mellow and very disco. The staging, as we can see it from this early footage, looks like it augments the song, which is absolutely great. The band looks enthusiastic to be there as ever, and conveying enthusiasm and passion is also an important part of a Eurovision performance.
Ukraine
Kalush Orchestra – Stefania
The staging of the song “Stefania” from Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra does not seem to be much different from their national performance, as far as we can see now, there seems to be a little more choreography from the dancers though. The imagery of the LED screens show traditional Ukrainian tapestry-like shapes and forms. The lamentation type of singing, the odd men on-stage that are covered in ropes in different colors, and the dancer that seems to be totally covered in printed fabric, it all looks pretty effective.
Bulgaria
Intelligent Music Project – Intention
The vibes coming from this first rehearsal are like “wow!” We did not expect that Bulgaria’s Intelligent Music Project would come up with a full-on light show, pyrotechnics, and a ball (?) that has revolving lights. This one took us by surprise, and in the best way possible. It already looks impressive.
The Netherlands
S10 – De Diepte
There seems to be a wind machine and the lighting seems to change dramatically as the song evolves. The outfit of S10 is designed by international Dutch design duo Viktor & Rolf. The footage that we can see from this first rehearsal seems to be vocally alright, but since the Netherlands somehow always manages to come up with performances that work better for TV audiences. We are very curious what S10 has in store for us when we can see more footage.
Moldova
Zdob şi Zdub & Advahov Brothers – Treneletul
The Moldovan band Zdob şi Zdub was bound to bring the folk-rock party to the Eurovision stage, and as we can already see on this early rehearsal footage, they most certain will, this time around joined by the Advahov Brothers. Lively, bubbly, rock, folklore music and imagery, colors, lights, and we can already see the things that this Moldovan band is known for. Yes, please, more!
Conclusion
Sure, we can see things in these TikTok videos that will be in the final performance, for some of them there will be no changes, but just tweaks. It is still too early to really judge, we can somehow only observe for now. We do have to say that we are positively surprised by what we were able to see on TikTok from Switzerland, Bulgaria, and Moldova.
There is one thing that we miss though, and we miss it in all the TikTok videos. We need the sun on-stage to turn or do at least something. The imagery on the LED screen looks like an afterthought now the black sun with lights on it is just standing there blocking the LED screen. It is just weird, and imagine being the designer of the stage and the main item on the stage is not doing what it needs to do, and because of that kind of spoils your set-up. Let’s pray to the Eurovision gods that the organization can fix the sun, disregards it or that they can find another way to use it. On today’s footage it just looks weird, but maybe on TV it looks phenomenal.
Let’s see what happens in the upcoming days when more rehearsals will take place! Naturally, we keep you posted!
What do you think?
What do you think of today’s first rehearsals? Let us know in the comments below!
Eurovision Song Contest 2022
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest will take place on May 10th (Semi-final 1), 12th (Semi-final 2), and on the 14th (Grand Final) in Turin, Italy.