Eurovision 2022: Check in which half the ten finalists of the first semi-final were drawn!

The first semi-final has just finished, with the first ten finalists being Armenia, Greece, Iceland, Lithuania, Moldova, The Netherlands, Norway Portugal, Switzerland and Ukraine.

Through the press conference that is currently taking place these ten countries will choose the half in which they will appear in the Grand Final on Saturday.

This is the half each qualifier drew:

  1. Switzerland – 1st half
  2. Armenia – 1st half
  3. Iceland – 2nd half
  4. Lithuania – 2nd half
  5. Portugal – 1st half
  6. Norway – 1st half
  7. Greece – 2nd half
  8. Ukraine – 1st half
  9. Moldova – 2nd half
  10. The Netherlands – 1st half

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Eurovision 2022: The 10 finalists of the 1st Semifinal!

The 1st Semifinal  of the 66th Eurovision Song Contest was held with success live from the Pala Olimpico in Turin, Italy.

The 10 countries who qualified to Saturday’s Grand Final are:

  1. Switzerland: Marius Bear – “Boys Do Cry”
  2. Armenia: Rosa Linn – Snap
  3. Iceland: Systur – Með hækkandi sól
  4. Lithuania: Monika Liu – “Sentimentai”
  5. Portugal: Maro – “Saudade, saudade”
  6. Norway: Subwoolfer – “Give That Wolf a Banana”
  7. Greece: Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord – “Die Together”
  8. Ukraine: Kalush Orchestra – “Stefania”
  9. Moldova: Zdob și Zdub & Advahov Brothers – Trenulețul
  10. The Netherlands: S10 – “De Diepte”

 

The 66th Eurovision Song Contest began with a video about the ingenuity and creativity of Italians. Then The Sound of Beauty, the official song of this year’s event was presented live on the stage of PalaOlimpico which was complemented by the instrumental version of last year’s winning song Zitti e Buoni.

In total, 17 countries claimed the 10 tickets leading to the Final. Those were:

  1. Albania: Ronela Hajati – “Sekret”
  2. Latvia: Citi Zēni – “Eat Your Salad”
  3. Lithuania: Monika Liu – “Sentimentai”
  4. Switzerland: Marius Bear – “Boys Do Cry”
  5. Slovenia: LPS – “Disko”
  6. Ukraine: Kalush Orchestra – “Stefania”
  7. Bulgaria: Intelligent Music Project – “Intention”
  8. The Netherlands: S10 – “De Diepte”
  9. Moldova: Zdob și Zdub & Advahov Brothers – Trenulețul
  10. Portugal: Maro – “Saudade, saudade”
  11. Croatia: Mia Dimšić – “Guilty Pleasure”
  12. Denmark: Reddi – “The Show”
  13. Austria: LUM!X feat. Pia Maria – “Halo”
  14. Iceland: Systur – Með hækkandi sól
  15. Greece: Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord – “Die Together”
  16. Norway: Subwoolfer – “Give That Wolf a Banana”
  17. Armenia: Rosa Linn – “Snap”

At the end of the competitive part, the interval acts took place. Benny Benassi gave a unique mash up of his biggest hits receiving a big round of applause. It is worth noting that finally Diodato will get his chance to sing the 2020 Italian entry “Fai Rumore”, in his home country, two years after he was selected as the Italian representative for the 65th cancelled Eurovision Song Contest.

Then two of the so-called Big 5 were on stage in Turin where we saw an snippet from their participation. We’re talking for Alvan & Ahez from France and “Fulenn” while Mahmood & Blanco from Italy performed “Brividi“.

Shortly afterwards, the executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, Martin Osterdahl, spoke, followed by the announcement of the ten countries we have already mentioned and will compete in the Grand Final on May 14th.

Eurovision 2022: Jury Show of the First Semi-Final!

One day before the actual shows the so-called Jury Show happens which isn’t visible to the usual audience (only to those who received press accreditation and to the experts). The Jury Show of the First Semi-Final took place today. Professional jurors have already ranked all 17 acts of today’s show.

Albania

Very sensual and sexual performance with a good camerawork. Ronela is very charismatic and it looked like a worthy opener. The choreography was fierce. Overall, it was a great performance. Let’s see whether juries liked it or not.

Latvia

Amazing and very energetic performance from Citi Zeni. The camerawork is on point and vocally it was perfect. Is it a song that would be appreciated by juries? No clue.

Lithuania

Elegant, minimalistic but impactful performance from Monika Liu. Stunned by this.

Switzerland

Visually – gorgeous, vocally – I wouldn’t really say.

Slovenia

It was fun, although the soloist got lost in the light! Vocally excellent, nothing else to add.

Ukraine

Timofiy improved a LOT. Energetic, impactful and mesmerising performance from Kalush Orchestra. One of the bests, for sure.

A break before Bulgaria

Bulgaria

This staging is exactly what a rock song needs. One of the best vocals.

Netherlands

Very minimalistic and simple staging. S10 was nervous, hopefully she’ll be better for the actual show.

Moldova

It’s indeed fun. Personally enjoyed this one a lot. The audience did it too.

Portugal

Very emotional and atmospheric. The staging is perfection.

Croatia

Such a cute performance from Mia! Amazing camerawork and excellent vocals. Croatian was added to the song (she sung the last chorus in Croatian completely).

Denmark

Great performance, nothing else to say.

There’s a break after Denmark. We see some from Sunday’s Turquoise Carpet.

Austria

Vocally not really great, but it has a very effective staging!

Iceland

Atmospheric performance and a very easy song to listen to. Impressive!

Greece

Massive winner vibes there…

Norway

Such an astounding performance from the wolves from Norway! Enjoyed it a lot.

Armenia

Flawless vocals and fascinating staging.

We see the recap of all 17 songs once all artists finished performing.

Dardust is on the stage playing a drum. Sophie and the giants are on the stage. Tons of pyro as we see Daniel Benassi at the back of the stage at a DJ booth.

A tribute to Raffaella Carra. Laura talks about her and then Fiesta is played!

Afterwards the second recap is on!

Diodato performs his ESC 2020 song – Fai Rumore. In the dark, he sits and plays at his piano and sings. A choir softly sings along in the chorus. Diodato starts off behind the stage and is on the front side with lots of people dancing around him on stage in smoke. Perfection.

Alessandro chats with the JESC 2021 winner – with Maléna. We see a small clip of her JESC victory and of her song. Promo clip for Yerevan is shown as well right after the clip.

Mika has a conversation with Alvan & Ahez and Mahmood&Blanco. 

France

In the beginning it was very shaky, but then everything went very well. Energetic, impressive and outstanding performance from France! WOW!

Italy

Vocally they’ve improved a lot since the second rehearsal. They don’t engage with camera which makes it at some point better. Brilliant performance!

The announcement of the qualifiers right after Italy’s performance!

The qualifiers of the Jury Show were:

  • Latvia
  • Portugal
  • Lithuania
  • Norway
  • Denmark
  • Greece
  • Armenia
  • Switzerland
  • Austria
  • Netherlands

P.S these are not the real results.

The actual show will be broadcasted tomorrow.

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Eurovision 2022: The Dress Rehearsal of the First Semi Final! (Live)

Today is the first day of the Eurovision week! We can already hear the “Sound of Music” echoing from Pala Olimpico in Turin and it’s just a few days before we finally know who is actually going to win the 66th Eurovision Song Contest!

The dress rehearsal of the Eurovision 2022 First Semi Final has just started. EurovisionFun will be watching all the shows live at both the on-site press centre in Turin and at the online press centre and we will be covering this rehearsal, commenting on all the performances and describing in detail what is happening during the show.

You will be able to to follow the entire process and get the feeling that you are right at the heart of the contest! This article gets updated in nearly real-time, all you need to do is hit the refresh button on your browser and all the rest is on us!

We will keep you up to date with all the latest details about this dress rehearsal for the First Semi Final show, allowing you to get a glimpse of what you will get to see tomorrow May 10th, at 21:00 CEST when the actual semi-final show takes place.

Read more

Eurovision 2022: EurovisionFun on the Turquoise Carpet! (Videos)

The opening ceremony of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, the Turquoise Carpet, took place yesterday in the spectacular Reggia di Venria. Artists and their team, from the 40 competing countries were presented and talked with the press and their fans. EurovisionFun was there and spoke with the contestants of this year’s contest.

You can have a look at at the interview of each artist, in the videos below:

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy!

Eurovision 2022: Lithuania’s Second Rehearsal!

The third act for today is Lithuania with Monica Liu with her song “Sentimentai” and she is ready to make her second impression of this year’s Eurovision stage in Turin.

Who is Monika?

Monica Liu is one of Lithuania’s most popular and respected artists. After graduating from the University of Klaipėda, where she studied jazz, globe-trotting Monica spent time studying in Massachusetts, living in London, before then settling in Vilnius.

Since her debut in 2015, Liu has released three albums and plenty more singles. Her repertoire is so impressive that she’s been called upon to sit on the panel of two of Lithuania’s biggest talent shows: The Voice and The Masked Singer.

According to the artist, she has been considering making her way to the Eurovision stage for many years, and the time proved right for her now, upon the composition of Sentimentai, which was written and recorded in London.

The Rehearsal

The performance starts with many close ups to Monika’s face. She makes use of the lights in various parts of her performance. The first long range shots are in the first chorus. Any many parts of the performance we can see a second Monika. She also wears the same dress as she wore in the national final.

Below you can watch an exclusive preview clip of Monika’s rehearsal:

EBU / CORINNE CUMMING

EBU / CORINNE CUMMING

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EBU: “The sun will remain in the same place in all 40 songs, to ensure a fair competition”!

The European Broadcasting Union gave its first statement, on the technical issues that have been created, with the stage of Eurovision 2022 .

Speaking to the Danish broadcaster, DR, the EBU referred to the issues that have arisen and are affecting the scene, for the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest.

The statement given to DR states that:

During the technical tests in Turin, the production team has experienced challenges with how long it takes to adjust the “sun” to different positions in the time between the different performances. Together with the host station RAI it was therefore decided that the sun will remain in the same position during all 40 songs, to ensure a faircompetition for all participating countries.

The creative director of the Danish participation Birgitte Næss-Schmidt, explained that the sun has two sides . One side has lights on it, while the other consists of LED screens and that the sun is currently adjusted to have the lights facing the audience.

As a result, some countries that were going to use LED screens in the sun had to make last-minute adjustments to their performance.

In addition, she added that at the last minute, the Danish delegation was asked to make changes in the appearance of The Reddi, as they can not as an organization support what has been requested.

We were told that the stage did not work, three days before our first rehearsal. Fortunately, we had chosen not to use the turntable itself in advance, because we did not think it worked optimally, so it has been fairly simple for us to adapt our performance

Birgitte Næss-Schmidt

We remind you that stand-in rehearsals  were held with great difficulty and several missions expressed their dissatisfaction with the material they received from the rehearsal of their participation. The technical issues addressed by the missions may therefore include the malfunction of the sun’s structure.

Added to all of the above there were problems in countries rehearsing on the first day of rehearsals, as of Latvia and Lithuania

Source / Photo: DR / EBU / NATHAN REINDS

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Lithuania: Monika Liu’s performance was impossible to be staged as expected!

The rehearsals of Eurovision 2022 started with many problems. Already, difficulties with the stage’s sun seem to be facing this year’s event in Turin, since the structures that make up the stage cannot move as a whole, based on Cinguetterai. Instead, they can move in a quite reduced manner due to a mechanical failure.

In addition, as you were informed, the stand-in rehearsals were carried out with many difficulties and several delegations expressed their dissatisfaction with the material they received from the rehearsal of their participation. The technical issues to which the delegations were referring may therefore include the malfunction of the sun construction.

On top of all the above, there are also problems in the countries where they are rehearsing today. There were technical and sound problems for the Latvians in the second run of their first technical rehearsal. On the other hand, this morning, the leader of the Lithuanian Eurovision delegation told LRT (Lithuanian public broadcaster) that they are no longer able to make Monika Liu’s Eurovision performance as expected.

In particular, they revealed that they were informed this morning that they can no longer put on Monika’s show as expected, saying:

What we have planned, we will not see on the Eurovision stage.

The exact elements of the Lithuanian stage performance that had to be discarded have not been revealed. The required change in scenery is speculated to be related to the kinetic sun issues reported this morning by La Stampa.

Read all about what happened at the first rehearsal in Lithuania, unfortunately with several problems, here.

Lithuania’s second rehearsal will take place on Wednesday 4/5 so we’ll have a better idea of what we’ll see from Monika Liu on the competition stage.

Monika Liu is competing in third place in the first semi-final on May 10, with the song “Sentimentai“.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acya6UcJP1k

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Source: LRT

Eurovision 2022: Lithuania’s First Rehearsal!

The third act for today is Lithuania with Monica Liu with her song “Sentimentai” and she is ready to make her first impression of this year’s Eurovision stage in Turin.

Who is Monika?

Monica Liu is one of Lithuania’s most popular and respected artists. After graduating from the University of Klaipėda, where she studied jazz, globe-trotting Monica spent time studying in Massachusetts, living in London, before then settling in Vilnius.

Since her debut in 2015, Liu has released three albums and plenty more singles. Her repertoire is so impressive that she’s been called upon to sit on the panel of two of Lithuania’s biggest talent shows: The Voice and The Masked Singer.

According to the artist, she has been considering making her way to the Eurovision stage for many years, and the time proved right for her now, upon the composition of Sentimentai, which was written and recorded in London.

The Rehearsal

Unfortunately, the Lithuanian Head of Delegation has told LRT this morning that they are no longer able to stage Monika Liu’s Eurovision performance as they expected, due to a lot of technical difficulties. So, as we know so far, the Lithuanian Delegation decided to present something completely different from  what they expected.

On the first run, Monika has gone for a stunning silver sequinned dress and a backdrop of atmospheric swirly graphics. Otherwise it’s a stripped-back, classy performance – no dancers and props required, Monika’s totally got this.

There’s a lovely camera shot at the end of Monika’s performance where it sweeps up from the waterfall to Monika on stage. In her long sequinned dress she looked like a fish – it’s a really nice ending that makes the most of this incredible stage.

Below you can watch a small clip from Latvia’s first rehearsal from Tik Tok:

@eurovision Lithuania’s @MonikaLiuEurovision brought bags of class to Turin! 🇱🇹 Check out her first rehearsal on the #Eurovision2022 stage! #Eurovision #eurovisiontiktok ♬ original sound – Eurovision

EBU / NATHAN REINDS

EBU / NATHAN REINDS

The Second Rehearsal of Lithuania will be held on Wednesday 4/5, so we will know more details of Monika’s performance on the stage in Turin.


 

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Lithuania: Vaidotas Valiukevičius will be the spokesperson for 2021!

LRT, the Lithuanian public broadcaster, announced that Vaidotas Valiukevičius will be the spokesperson for this year’s Eurovision for Lithuania.

Vaidotas Valiukevičius will announce the 12 points of the Lithuanian jury on the Grand Final of Eurovision 2022. Vaidotas is the lead singer of The Roop, representatives of Lithuania for Eurovision 2021. They finished 8th in the final with “Discoteque”, giving Lithuania their best result since 2006, their third overall top ten finish and their second-best result in history.

Vaidotas is the second participant of 2021 that will be the spokesperson fpr Eurovision 2022. The other one being Greece’s spokesperson, Stefania.

Lithuania is represented by Monika Liu and the song “Sentimentai” and competes in third place of the running order of the First semi-final on May 10.

Source: eurovoix.com

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Lithuanian participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy!