Day 8 | Second Rehearsals | Auto-finalists | 🇫🇷 🇬🇧 🇪🇸

I may have had a little bit of wine last night, so I'm happy Yair covered Germany.

Onwards and upwards for the last three finalists from a fishy view - you know the drill with rolling and updating etc!

🇪🇸 | Spain

Hey BBC, watch and learn, this is how you stage a hopeless entry!

Apart from one pretty itchy big note towards the end, I have very little to criticise here. The acapella start works very well, pulls you in and makes it feel more intimate, and creates more development in the song too, which I've always felt it has been lacking. For the first verse and chorus everything is dark and blue and there's a solar eclipse on the backdrop, but then suddenly the moon is rising! Or falling...? I'd seen the photos from the first rehearsal, but I assumed the moon was just on the backdrop, not a massive ball being lowered right there behind him!

I don't think I've ever seen Blas's hair as flat as this, has he been on the wine too? Or is there a hairspray shortage?

The awful note was either improved or avoided (he does seem to improvise a bit each time for the howls towards the end), so for the last ever technical rehearsal of Eurovision 2021, I officially have nothing to criticise, what's that all about?! The song will obviously do next to nothing in a week, but Blas and Spain have every reason to be pleased with that.

🇬🇧 | United Kingdom

How looks his trumpet, you ask? Big, I say.

Not sure what more to say about this, to be honest... The massive trumpets pointing at him on his plinth feel a bit threatening, it stresses me out a little as I feel like something loud is about to happen any time. And then in the end I'm kinda disappointed it doesn't.

For the instrumental bits the cameras focus on the "musicians" "playing" on their instruments, and I think that part works decently well, certainly better than the usual UK Eurovision "here's some backing singers in a row doing slight knee-dancing along with the beat". James sings well enough and seems nice enough (and as we know he makes a kickass bacon sandwich), but I honestly can't see this getting a single televote point from anywhere else than a greenish isle with confusing seasons.

There's a third run, but instead of hearing James singing, we now got a baby crying and lots of people chitchatting over the backing track, big improvement!

🇫🇷 | France

Some connection issues meant I only saw the last minute of the first run-through, when she's all happy and the song is faster, and I sure hope the two minutes before sets the mood a bit better than that... This bit almost felt ridiculous and awkward, with the camera swaying (?) or shaking (?), her waving hands casting massive shadows all over her face and generally just sounding like a Yoplait advert.

A full run indeed makes far more sense (shocker!), and also makes the last part of the performance fit in, with the song slowly building to that combination of happiness and desperation. Personally I find the song quite uninteresting and repetitive, and Barbara seems a bit like that girl on the first row at school that never forgot to do her homework, but they're doing everything right with it here, and the whole solitariness and simple and dark staging makes it stand out a mile.

There's some really striking shots in it, so look out for those - one from above where her shadow suddenly explodes into lots of birds, then with the floor being made out of little stars and she's basically floating on it, like in the French final. And my favourite one, for some reason, is a little close-up on her hand.

Day 8 | Second Rehearsals | Auto-finalists | 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 🇳🇱

Good morning from the Irish extension of the press centre! Sild and myself will bring you live reports of the last day of technical rehearsals, while Jordy is back in the arena taking videos. He's allowed to post a combined total of 2 minutes - if you have any special request, please put them on our message board! (personally I'm hoping for a Blas howling compilation)

🇳🇱 | Netherlands, No Definite Article

Starts off with Jeangu doing his sexy moves and surrounded by two backing singers and it's just fine, and then when he sings the title a red dancer appears very close to the camera quite awkwardly - at first I wasn't sure if they were meant to be there or is just a stage invader / photobomber. Rather confusing.

The dancer in red seems to be still there after a while and even interacts with the rest of the team, so I guess it's intended. I'm sure it means something very deep and important, but I'm not quite sure it's working. 

Vocally I cannot fault Jeangu - he's flawless at every runthrough and sounds very pleasant too. And he's quite charismatic too. If anything's going to save this rather messy staging, it's him.

Third runthrough and I'm enjoying it more, possibly because I knew what to expect. Over to Sild for the next three finalists.

🇩🇪 | Germany

If you take the LED background of La Venda and replace Miki with Plastic Bertrand, this should give you a clear idea of what to expect. It's obvious that Jendrik isn't a professional singer, struggling to keep up with his own song and becoming out of breath, but I guess none of this would matter for the target audience of this. He does have charisma and enjoys it, which is perhaps more important here.

Oh, and it seems he gave up on Dutch and speaks German again. I think.

Despite his best effort, I don't feel hate towards this. I just feel "aww, overexcited non-singer gets to be on a Eurovision stage! How lovely for him! As long as there's just one of these..."

Also, I can confirm that all colours on my rather old TV work. Good to know.

🇮🇹 | Italy

After so many favourites sabotaged by SJB, it's nice to see a performance that's just, well - a performance, focusing on the band's skills that we already know they have. There's a good play of lights (black and white at first, then turning to a red theme during the "parla.." bit, and near the end changing to blue and red again) and silhouettes on the background, but mostly the focus is on the band, as it should be.

Third runthrough and first goosebumps moment for me this year with the pyro. At first it's a curtain and then it's EVERYWHERE... OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG SOOOOO GOOOOD OMG OMG

But anyway, yeah, this should do as well as this song can, whatever that means.

Day 7 | Second Rehearsals | Second Semi-Final | Second Half | 🇬🇪 🇦🇱 🇵🇹 🇧🇬 🇫🇮 🇱🇻 🇨🇭🇩🇰

This will be a rolling blog, each country in running order, so please refresh to update.

Good morning from Amsterdam (or well .... the Otherdam). Today it's my big pleasure to update you  - on the second rehearsals from the remaining countries in the second semi-final from home, while Jordy will be hanging around in the arena.


🇩🇰 | Denmark

Another upgraded version of the NF performance. They even wear the same outfits. What's new is that there are backings on stage that get their own shot clapping after the word 'dansegulv', which is a nice touch. Also the stage looks amazing. In the same colours we were used to, pink and green/turquoise, but there's a nice animation that makes it looks like they're standing on an even bigger stage. During the bridge Jesper runs towards the sattelite stage, but he also returns quite quickly.

No notable changes in following runthroughs, only the pyro at the last not when Laurits joins Jesper on his mini-stage. The act looks finished and fun as always.

🇨🇭 | Switzerland

Totally not the staging I was expecting for this, but that isn't a bad thing at all. As you know Gjon is standing on a white 'thing' and even has some sort of choreography. We see some very close close-ups and Gjon looks into the camera. He's selling this pretty well, vocally it also sounds more than fine.

During the bridge however for some reason his face is lit with purple light which looks a bit odd. But that's the only thing negative to mention here. This is definitely still a contender.

On the backdrop at times we see some sort of silvery water effect, which looks pretty cool. During the song part of the object he's standing on is being slightly transformed. During the last chorus white spots are lighting up from the background and the floor. It looks great and sounds amazing. It's only the purple bit that seems a bit out of place, but that's not going to break this.

There were small some technical flaws here, the shadow of a cameraman was visible and also a stagehand changing the structure on which Gjon stands in the middle of the song was shortly visible. But these are things that they should be able to fix.


🇱🇻 | Latvia

We didn't get to see the first run, but Jordy just informed me it was stopped in the middle of the song for reasons apparently not obvious. The second run went fine, she and her three backings on stage (yay for that) all in green (backings with the well-know head pieces) and a quite busy yellow-golden abstract backdrop which is also projected on the floor. I was actually positively surprised, expected it to look and sound much more hopeless than it did. Even though it's hard to make something of it and in this semi it is facing quite a hard task. 

Samanta starts at the back of the stage, a bit alike Georgia, but now in green lights. After that she joins the backings center stage. Near the end there's a nice shot from above after which they make the well-know crown gestures. The crown also features as part of the background animation, which as stated above is mostly abstract and busy. Perhaps busy enough for the singers wearing green to get a little bit lost on stage. But all in all, a very decent performance. Is it qualifying? That's probably not the case.

🇫🇮 | Finland

Yay, it was about time for some action, and we get it. The performance, as was to be expected, isn't really much different from what we saw in UMK, but an upgraded version, due to the stage being a lot more impressive. The lighting is mostly red and white. with lots of rays of light in all directions. 

Hardly anything new to tell about this one except that it looks solid and will obviously qualify. And what happens there depends on a lot of other factors, but it could actually get pretty high.

In the third run there's also (modest) pyro effects during some of the choruses. Not the most original song in its genre but well executed.

🇧🇬 | Bulgaria

So Victoria is sitting on this cliff/island thing you've all already seen. With a picture next to her which at one point she emotionally looks at. Stage is all golden lights and golden stars. Much gold in other words. And at one point there's golden sand coming from above gliding through her hands. There were some pretty odd and probably unintentional camera shots in the first runthrough. Also I wasn't fully convinced by her vocals, which seemed to be off at times. But it also seemed she wasn't trying very hard. 

Second run is much better. I called it a cliff/island what she's sitting on, but it's hard to tell what it is. It's floating in a sea which has golden refelctions in the water. And it somehow seems to be turning around during the song. 

They apparently had to cut a bit from the intro and the beginning now sounds a bit odd to me. 

All in all, I'm not feeling the winner vibe some others seem to get, yet. Which may also be because of a bit messy camera work, too much movement, I think it would have worked better if they focused a bit more on Victoria. 

🇵🇹 | Portugal

Performance starts of in 4:3 black and white, and stays like that until the end of the first chorus. The screen widens and we get colour. On the backdrop we shortly see what I suppose is meant to be Amsterdam, then we see silhouettes of an orchestra playing, including a huge piano, all this with a golden background. Near the second chorus a woman appears on the LED wall. At this point the singer walks to the sattelite stage with the woman 'walking along' with him on the transparent LED screen, which is well thought of. Stage colours are very warm (mainly gold and some hints of blue) and well suited to the song. There's also a projection of a big golden heart at one point.

His voice may not be what everyone likes, but he sounded fine for how he sounds. At least the first two runthroughs, there were some pretty ugly notes in the third ...


🇦🇱 | Albania

OK, this looks pretty amazing, from the first second. Anxhela is all alone on stage an wearing a glittery silver dress. On the backdrop we see a lot of red 'explosions', later it becomes a mix of red and turquoise / greenish blue, which may sound odd, but it looks great. During the last minute this turns into a cloudy sky. There's also some smoke on stage. Vocals are totally fine here too, as the artist must realize this *may* be what Europe actually gets to see and hear. Some reporters say 'Iveta' (Armenia 2016) and I can see some similarities indeed. Very well done, and as it was already a borderliner I feel this performance has probably pushed them to that side of the border they want to be at.


🇬🇪 | Georgia

So we're having breakfast with Tornike. Perhaps not the most exciting start of the day, as not a lot happens. Unlike reports from last Tuesday, he is now singing the song as we know it, and it sounded decent enough, even if I feel that the (recorded?) backings are a bit too loud in the mix at points. At the beginning of the song Tornike comes through the stage doors which are lit in white. They close when the starts singing and the backdrop turns into a what sort of resembles a night sky with many moving golden stars.

Coming after some heavy up-tempo stuff, the calm beginning may make this stand out. There's a box on the stage on which Tornike is sitting for the second verse. This is when we see part of the lyrics appear as projections on his face. All in all it's hard to compare as it's the first thing I've seen in full. Also the stream got cut off halfway the second runthrough ....  

I think the opening is effective, and this is important. But I'm not convinced it keeps the attention for long. Also I can't help thinking Tornike feels pretty bored by it himself.

All in all, decent, and not chanceless, but also not very eventful.

Day 6 | First Rehearsals | Big Five (+ Netherlands) | 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 🇳🇱 🇫🇷 🇬🇧 🇪🇸

This will be a rolling blog, each country in running order, so please refresh to update.

Heyhey, it's me again! No, I wasn't in EBU jail, but simply enjoying the views from within the arena while my very capable colleagues shed their light on the second rehearsals. We're back to first rehearsals, so back to me as well! Bring it on!

🇪🇸 | Spain
Blas started his rehearsas standing in the dark with blue'ish lights. Blas is hardly visible. The staging and backdrop look quite beautiful. The backdrop is depicting a dark universe with stars and an eclipsed sun. At one point there are two spots shining on a giant moon that is hanging above Blas. Even though the moon is ruining the staging, it all looks rather gorgeous. The staging doesn't seem to be the issue here. It's the fact that Blas is howling like a frog that is being boiled alive.

🇬🇧 | United Kingdom
The first thing one notices are the two giant white trumpet props on stage that are slowly moving whole James stands on a little stage in between those trumpets. The rather simple backdrop and lighting is mostly a mix between red and blue. He's surrounded by four dancers who play the trumpet as well. James is wearing a long leather jacket with a golden necklace. This together with his attitude on stage of him being a badass doesn't seem to suit him at all. At one point James, after all the dancing with his mates, gets back on the small stage and lasers surround him. I'm guessing this was supposed to look impressive, but it really doesn't. It's a rather harmless performance and as random as unimpactful as we've been used to from the BBC. Other than that James vocals are pretty good.

🇫🇷 | France
Massive response from within the press centre for this rehearsal, but I'm a little less impressed. Barbara is a class act, sings amazing, captivates the camera, but (as I believe this is the question you all want answered) this doesn't seem like a winner. The staging is simple and effective. Barbara is standing behind a microphone stand with a spot direct at her. The entire performance it's spots shining on Barbara and camera shot from different angles.. and nothing else. At one point the camera seemed a little shaky and I'm not entirely sure whether this was part of the act. If it is it's rather odd. Anyhow, as said, I understand they tried to keep it simple, but at the same time it also feels like a waste not to make better use of the incredible features the stage has to offer to really go for that wow-moment. Now it's lovely and qualitatively well done, but also a little underwhelming. I can see the juries eating it up, but do I see Europe massively voting for this? Nope.

🇳🇱 | Netherlands
The performance starts of with a close-up of Jeangu with two of the backing singers/dancers joining him from the sides in the shot before a purple background. Throughout most of the performance the backdrop depicts some sort of transparent layer that seems to be broken/into pieces and also shows the lyrics of the song every now in graphics of bricks breaking (which is probably convenient since everybody seems to hear broccoli). Somewhere in the middle of the performance, while the backdrop depicts Lion-King’ish warm colors, Jeangu and his dancers move towards the bridge on which they perform the choreography we’ve seen more often, incl. the knee moving moves, while the transparent LED-screen (and later on the backdrop as well) depicts a true color-explosion. At the end they carry on to the extra stage to perform more dance routines. It’s solid staging and Jeangu is obviously a great performer. Unfortunately, the whole performance isn’t able to lift the song to heights that potentially might’ve been possible. This will probably keep the Netherlands away from the last spot in the final, but I can’t see it doing much better than that.

🇩🇪 | Germany
Jendrik (really, just name your child John or Hendrik), is on stage together with three other backings who stand on the side behind microphone stands. As expected, the whole performance is an energetic explosion. Next to the three backings, there’s also a saxophone-playing dancer wearing a.. hand. Throughout the entire performance they’re all doing some rather weird, but I suppose for some fun, goofy dancing, including a tapping part. The backdrop is an explosion of different colors. Jendrik’s wearing a pink blazer with a black shirt underneath and black pants. He’s playing around on his ukulele and at one point when he’s doing the let’s-say-words-fast-after-one-another part, he’s looking from side to side in different cameras. He looks like he needs a shower and although they’re trying to be playful and fun, it looks rather cheap and amateurish. This is absolutely not my cup of tea. I think it’s all rather annoying. I feel very much hate.

🇮🇹 | Italy
Damiano is on stage with three other musicians. He's wearing leather pants and is completely (apart from the straps) shirtless. They've placed a staired platform on the middle of the stage with LEDs, which has a drumset on it. At the start there's a camera shot of him walking around this platform. He's then joined by two guitarists. Throughout the routine there are lots of flashes with Damiano going wild while interacting with the others. It's what one'd expect from a rock performance. The backdrop is mainly white with shadows of musicians on it. Towards the end there's lots of fireworks, he's walking up this platform, performing together with the drummer, walking down and laying down on the stage. Vocally Damiano's flawless. As said, it's what one would expect from a rock performance, so I'm not blown away. It's good. Winner vibes? Not really.

Day 6 | Second Rehearsals | Second Semi-Final | 🇦🇹 🇵🇱 🇲🇩 🇮🇸 🇷🇸

This will be a rolling blog, each country in running order, so please refresh to update.

Well, hello. Jesus is popping off to heaven today which means I have time to do a bit of blogging. Hope I can remember how.

But while we're waiting for Vincent Bueno to finish his lunch, let's take a moment to remember his grandma, Kay, from Eurovision 1965.

🇷🇸 | Serbia

Hajde da ludujemo.

Wear black, they said. It will look classy, they said. Stylists have been wrong before.

Struggling with this one. They sing well enough and gyrate all over, but the whole package feels a bit empty and without the necessary joy. Maybe it's just the lack of pink and purple that's confusing me.

Sanja serving some "C'mon Ahoy" realness during the bridge.

Nah, I'm just not feeling it and I'd really like to. It ought to be a right boppy banger.

So that's over and out from me for today. If you're very lucky I'll make another appearance soon, regardless of Jesus's travel arrangements. Jordy will be back to deal with the finalists. Tot ziens!

🇮🇸 | Iceland

The silhouette start is MAGIC. I wonder if they wrote the unnecessary slow bit at the beginning of the song just to include this?

I know I am meant to be bringing fresh eyes to this. But well, we all know the routine by now.  Excellent on camera, this should sweep up plenty of televotes. Juries, hmm, maybe less so? 

But anyway, me during this performance:

Ooh. And unexpected pyro.

🇲🇩 | Moldova

Good news: Natalia has safely removed herself from Kirkorov's lap. Although the fixed grin is still there.

She looks very comfortable singing this and I think will turn it up a notch when it matters. Does feel like she's very much in rehearsal mode. Some of the shots are a bit strange when she's turning on the turning thing. They film her from the side or back and it seems like the timing is a bit wrong. And the "body talk talk talk" choreo looks like she just needs the loo.

Impressive looooooong note towards the end. Not sure who's singing it though. 🤔

Camera work tighter in some parts on third run-through, but less tight in other parts. Hmm.

Dunno. It remains a bit of a let-down when you think of what might have been, with a huge prop and some more fun. Song is still a fave of mine but this performance is more low-calorie sweetener than a delightful sugar cube. 

So here's a delightful sugarcube I prepared earlier.

🇵🇱 | Poland

Talking of lights. But these are less impressive and can't distract from...well...I'm fairly tone deaf, but even I can hear those tones. 🙀

"I'll make it through..." We'll see Rafał, we'll see. Even with shades on. There's precious little to say about this. There's a bit of dancing, he takes his shades off and puts them back on. It's even more half-hearted than Azerbaijan. 

At one point he seems to be standing in the middle of the pyro.

Seriously, if that was the ride of my life I'd be asking for a refund.

🇦🇹 | Austria

This is very competent and he is in fine voice. I'm really not a fan of the song, but did wake up with it in my head the other day. If that means anything at all. Note to his Amen sister: It's possible to sing and walk at the same time.

Song really shows off his voice, much more so than I imagine last year's song would have. Not that I can remember last year's song, but anyway. Simple staging with some gorgeous white then purple then orange lights and a catwalk thingy that I'm worried is going to surprise him by moving like Sakis' giant stapler. 

At times he is trying to emote a bit too much. He should leave that to Vasil.

This starts with some lovely dry ice mist. He sings so clearly, the death and funeral lyrics can't be ignored and that could be a bit off-putting.  Vincent is clearly fishing in jury waters, and it worked for Cesár in 2018 with a similarly bland piece of competence, so who knows?

Gosh, this is a lighting orgy ❤️