Iceland: Watch exclusive footage from Hera Björk’s First Rehearsal!
Yesterday, Hera Björk, the Icelandic representative in Eurovision 2024, stepped on the stage of Malmö Arena for the first time, for her first technical rehearsal. Read more
Eurovision 2024: Albania’s first rehearsal!
We’re moving to the Balkans, as Albania‘s representative Besa is the next artist to take the stage. She performs the song “Titan”, hoping to prove the odds wrong and win a ticket for the grand final, on Saturday May 11th.
Who is Besa?
Besa Kokëdhima was born in Fier, Albania to mathematician parents, who encouraged her to develop her artistry from a very early age.
This is reflected in her creativity, as BESA’s music is a unique blend of different genres ranging from pop to electronic, R&B to ballads, and everything in between.
Domestically, she’s known for her catchy hooks and exuberant performances that are always full of surprises, suspense and emotion.
She has a strong, passionate fanbase, who admire her as much for her singing as they do for her activism on animal rights, social causes and equality.
The Rehearsal
Besa’s costume is bringing the first pointy shoulders of the day, as part of a blue and black pantsuit with gold detailing. She also has two backing singers, and three female dancers in nude bodysuits who perform a contemporary routine. Projections of more dancers on the LED wall and the cubes give it even more scope and drama, so it feels like they fill the stage. Simple, but really effective.
The way this song goes full drum ‘n’ bass in the final chorus gives it a really epic finish, and the tempo of the dancing is ramped up to match. No sign of pyro on this performance.
Albania first rehearsal at Eurovision 2024. Credit: Corinne Cumming/EBU
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The official Eurovision account on TikTok shared a short clip of Albania’s rehearsal, which you can watch below:
@eurovision A TITAN of a first rehearsal from Albania’s @Besa #Eurovision2024 ♬ original sound – Eurovision
On Thursday, May 2, Albania will have its second rehearsal. This is when we will get a better look at Besa’s performance on the Eurovision stage, as the official TV snippet will be released.
Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Albanian Eurovision 2024 entry!
Source: eurovision.tv
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Eurovision 2024: Malta’s first rehearsal!
The acts from the second semi-final take the stage today for their first rehearsals for Eurovision 2024. Sarah Bonnici from Malta kicks off today’s rehearsals, since she is set to perform first on the Semi Final, on May 9th. The singer represents her country with “Loop”, a highly upbeat track that showcases her dancing abilities.
Who is Sarah Bonnici?
Sarah has had vocal lessons from Miriam Christine, who was Malta’s Eurovision entry in 1996, performing In A Woman’s Heart at the Contest in Oslo. Miriam encouraged Sarah to take part in competitions herself, and from there she went on to take 3rd place in Malta Junior Eurosong in 2009.
Sarah has a star-studded songwriting team for Loop, and has also been part of the artistry. Linnea Deb and Joy Deb are well-known in the world of Eurovision, having written Måns Zelmerlöw’s Heroes which won the Contest for Sweden in 2015. Michael Joe Cini, known as Micimago, co-wrote Malta’s 2023 entry for The Busker, Dance (Our Own Party). And for Kevin Lee, this will be his 5th time working behind the scenes at the Eurovision Song Contest in some form or another. They’re joined by Leire Gotxi Angel and Sebastian Pritchard-James, who started as street performers and have now racked up over 9 million streams on their tracks.
The Rehearsal
The main dancing routine is largely the same as in the music video, other than having been polished up a bit in places. BUT the dance break has had a rework – it still has the flip, but with added shirt removal by the four male backing dancers, and also…blindfolds. There’s a very impressive salsa-style shoulder lift.
Costume-wise, Sarah is in a sparkly silver bodysuit, and THE CUBES are getting their first LED action of the day. Not that anyone will be looking at the graphics – this is QUITE the show.
PYRO UPDATE! Fireworks during the big note in the bridge before the final chorus, and a big firework finish. We are now fully awake.
Malta first rehearsal at Eurovision 2024. Credit: Corinne Cumming/EBU
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The official Eurovision account on TikTok shared a short clip of Malta’s rehearsal, which you can watch below:
@eurovision Malta’s @Sarah Bonnici has got the m-m-m-moves #Eurovision2024 ♬ original sound – Eurovision
On Thursday, May 2, Malta will have its second rehearsal. This is when we will get a better look at Sarah Bonnici’s performance on the Eurovision stage, as the official TV snippet will be released.
Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Maltese Eurovision 2024 entry!
Listen to the acoustic version of Georgia’s song, in “A Little Bit More”!
Just like last year, some time before the first rehearsals of the countries, the show called “A Little Bit More” aired on the official Eurovision YouTube channel. Read more
Slovenia: EMA’s return is planned for 2025!
RTVSLO, the Slovenian public broadcaster, has proposed that the national final called “EMA (Evrovizijska Melodija)” returns for Eurovision 2025! Read more
Finland 2024: Windows95man ‘nude underwear’ allowed
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has allowed Windows95man to wear their “nude underwear” during their performance.
For his UMK performance of “No Rules”, Windows95man wore underwear that created an illusion of nudity. However, it was not clear if he would be allowed to keep his performance as intended for Eurovision 2024. For instance, during his winning performance in Finland, Windows95man wears a t-shirt with the Microsoft Windows 95 Operating System logo. The logo is now blurred following Eurovision rules on product brands.
Although there was no problem in Finland, there was concern that Windows95man’s performance would not meet the standards of other European broadcasters with stricter rules about the type of content shown on TV before 9 pm (The Eurovision Song Contest airs at 8 pm in some participating countries).
The outfit of Windows95man has been the subject of debate regarding apparent double standards on what could be considered an “indecent performance” and acceptable nudity. For instance, female representatives have performed with revealing outfits without being considered problematic.
Windows95man will perform in the First Semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Malmö
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf1NS1vEhSg&ab_channel=EurovisionSongContest
Source: Yle
Stay tuned at EurovisionFun for more news Finland’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024!
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Finland: The results of the first show of Viisukupla – Eurovisionsbubblan 2024!
Yle, Finland’s public broadcaster, is once again broadcasting a pre-show for the Eurovision Song Contest, presenting and rating the songs that will take part in this year’s Contest. Read more
Watch the performances of Serbia and Slovenia in “A Little Bit More”!
Just like last year, some time before the first rehearsals of the countries, the show called “A Little Bit More” aired on the official Eurovision YouTube channel.
So, for all this time before the rehearsals, Eurovision TV will upload different performances of the artists, like different versions of their songs, or covers of songs from other artists.
The first video for today, is the Serbian representative Teya Dora, covering her TikTok sensation song, “Džanum” in a new piano version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y1bZySkeOI
The second performance of the day, is the Slovenian representative, Raiven, doing an acoustic version of her Eurovision 2024 song, “Veronika”:
Eurovision 2024: The schedule of the third day of rehearsals (Monday 29 April)!
Malmö Arena opened its gates on Saturday for the rehearsals of the 37 participating countries of the 68th Eurovision Song Contest, and the action continues today with the first eight countries of the second semi-final taking to the stage for the first time.
With no major changes expected this year, the rehearsals for Eurovision 2024 are expected to take place in the upcoming week. Rehearsals are divided into two phases, the first which will run for four days from today until Tuesday 30/04 and will include the initial first rehearsals of all countries taking part in the two semi-finals of the contest and the second which will run from Wednesday 01/05 until Saturday 04/05 and will include the second rehearsals of the countries in the two semi-finals as well as both rehearsals of the countries competing directly in the Final, namely the Big 5 and the host Sweden.
Last year’s changes in the way the rehearsals are covered are maintained this year, as the Press Centre opens on the Monday after the first and second rehearsals.
As a consequence, the information we will have for the first week of the contest will come exclusively from the material provided by the EBU to accredited journalists, as well as through the Live Blogs on Reddit and the short videos on TikTok.
Today’s Schedule
Eight countries are set to take to the stage at Malmö Arena for their first rehearsal, with Malta and Sarah Bonnici “kicking off” on Saturday morning. The detailed schedule for the second day of rehearsals of the 68th Eurovision Song Contest is as follows (Mentioned in CET/Swedish Time):
Eurovision 2024: Which rehearsal had the most views on the first day?
Yesterday, the big moment we’ve all been waiting for has arrived! Rehearsals began with the first seven countries of the first semi-final taking the stage.
However, as we know on TikTok, all the first rehearsals are uploaded. Apart from their performances, we’ll also get a sneak peek backstage before they take the stage for the first time in a video of about one minute.
One of the many features of TikTok is the ability to add songs to each user’s video creation. However, the TikTok algorithm is usually able to detect the song used in the video, assign it to the correct track, and then include it in the total number of videos where that sound has been used. Based on this capability, the most popular songs before rehearsals were from the Netherlands and Italy. Will they receive the same promotion as before?
In less than 24 hours (April 28, 2024, time 17:20 CET), since the first clip from the rehearsals was uploaded, we have a indicative sample of which rehearsal was favored by the audience (here it should be noted that the videos were uploaded one after the other with a one and a half hour interval and there was a significant delay in their publication).
The rehearsals that had the most views are:
- Poland: LUNA – The Tower – 711.3 thousand views
- Ukraine: alyona alyona & Jerry Heil – Teressa & Maria – 608.1 thousand views
- Serbia: Teya Dora – Ramonda – 606.7 thousand views
- Croatia: Baby Lasagna – Rim Tim Tagi Dim – 484.7 thousand views
- Ireland: Bambie Thug – Doomsday Blue – 208.7 thousand views
- Cyprus: Silia Kapsis – Liar -195.8 thousand views
- Lithiania: Silvester Belt – Luktelk – 193 thousand views
With this small sample, we can infer that:
- Poland’s performance possibly appealed to fans, with the caveat that the stage presence was a surprise – either positively or negatively.
- The rehearsals of Ukraine and Serbia also gained huge popularity, surpassing the following four positions in views, demonstrating their strength in the semifinal.
- Croatia, as one of the major favorites of the competition, did not gather particularly high views, although fans and betting companies have placed it at the top for victory, resulting in the stage presence not making enough of an impression.
- Similarly, Lithuania did not impress fans at all, as it maintained the same appearance as its national final.
TikTok has played a significant role in the success of Eurovision songs in recent years. For example, Duncan Laurence’s winning entry “Arcade” became a global hit a year after winning the competition when it was used in over a million videos on TikTok. One of the earliest TikTok successes from Eurovision was Getter Jaani’s “Rockefeller Street”, which went viral on the platform in 2018 and has since been used in over two million videos. Let’s not forget that Armenia’s entry in 2022 by Rosa Linn with “Snap” gained over a billion views on the platform. Finally, Norway’s entry last year gained significant worldwide publicity months before the competition week, where it secured fifth place.
For detailed information about the rehearsals, you can check out our related articles:
The second rehearsal for the first semi-final countries will be held on the 1st of May, when we will know how things will appear on screen for the representatives.
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Stay tuned at EurovisionFun for all the latest developments regarding the Croatian entry in Eurovision 2024!
