Eurovision 2024: Dress Rehearsal of the First Semi-Final – Live Commentary! [UPTATED]
Today is the first day of the Eurovision week! So lets wish happy Eurovision Week to all the eurofans around the world! We can already feel “United by Music” all the way from Malmö Arena in Sweden and it’s just a few days before we finally know the winner of the 68th Eurovision Song Contest!
The anticipation is high for Saturday’s final! Until then, we’re here to bring you all the latest updates and the excitement from the first Dress Rehearsal of the First Semi-Final. EurovisionFun will be watching all the shows live both at the on-site press centre in Malmö and at the online press centre and will be commenting on the full performances of the 15 participating countries, as well as the United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden.
This article gets updated in real-time, all you need to do is hit the refresh button on your browser!
So stay tuned to this article as we update it with all details, preparing you for what you will see in the Semi-Final tomorrow May 7th, at 21:00 CEST.
The Show
The show opens with the iconic Eleni Foureira, representative of Cyprus in 2018 singing Fuego! She also dances oriental in a different version of Fuego. After Eleni, Eric Saade comes to the stage to sing Popular in a explosive performance. Last but not least, Chanel rocks the stage, the Spanish representative or 2022 sings SloMo in a different performance than that we saw in Turin two years ago. That a way to start this year’s Eurovision Season!
The hosts of the show are Petra Mede which is familiar to eurofans because of her previous interaction with the song contest and the actress Malin Åkerman. The female duo is dressed in pink and orange neon suits that are suitable with the LED background.
Perta welcomes us back in Sweden and she made a joke about her voting Finland last year. They also thank last year’s organizers for hosting a incredible show back in 2023. Malin praises Petra for hosting for a third time the contest and Petra said that she never tried to host with a woman and she’s thrilled for this experience.
The hosts are explaining the voting process in english AND french this year, we’ve missed so much Petra speaking French!! Malmo are we ready? Let the Eurovision Song Contest begin!
The Competing Countries – LIVE COMMENTARY
Cyprus: Silia Kapsis – Liar
The young 17 y/o Silia rocks the stage! She’s accompanied from 4 male dancers. The LED’s are mostly in neon turqoise colours, Silia has improved so much vocally from her previous attempts. She really dance in the whole performance. The dancebreak looks better than the second rehearsal, the camera shots are improved by a lot!! In the last 20 seconds the colours of the LED turns into red. This is a really good opener for the competitive part of the show.
Serbia: Teya Dora – Ramonda
Next in the running order is Teya Dora with her Serbian ballad, the whole performance is with her standing or sitting in a rock. This performance can really move you emotionally but I don’t know if this is enough to pass into the Grand Final.
Lithuania: Silvester Belt – Luktelk
Lithuania is next with Luktelk! His performance is kinda similar to the national final one. I’m really enjoying the camera shots in Lithiania. The LED’s are based in red and blue colours. Silvester really seems to enjoy the performance and that’s really important. A sure qualifirer!
Ireland: Bambie Thug – Doomsday Blue
And now it’s time for the most anticipated performance in this semi-final (at least for me). I got the GOOSEBUMPS in the begining!! Bambie really know how to pull a live performance with their voice and their face expressions. They are accompanied from a shirtless dancer that seems that he is their lover in the performance. The dancer dresses off Bambie and they are lest with a very thin suit. On the bridge for the song, the candles rise upwards, and the lighting turns red. At the end of the song they scream and the performance is finished with a LED phrase “Crown The Witch”. The croud was clapping for a long time.
Break
United Kingdom: Olly Alexander – Dizzy (not competing)
Now the first Big 5 artist hits the stage, Olly sings in a Box that seems to be a shower in the walls, accompanied from 4 male dancers in boxer shorts. The whole performance seems to be so much sexualised but it’s really good. The choreography and the camera shots are perfect. In the last chorus he leaves the box among with his dancers and he’s performing in the front part of the stage. Vocally Olly was really weak.
Ukraine: alyona alyona & Jerry Heil – Teresa & Maria
The folk duo is next to perform. In the first chorus the shots are from above with the LED floor being in grey and blue colours making a hurricane. Aliona comes to the stage for her rap part and she is vocally perfect. After that, we can see Jerry in the LED wall being as mother teresa. At the end of the performance Jerry and alyona are laying on the floor and the LED is full of women dressed in beige. Really moving performance, I loved it and I believe that Ukraine is a contender to win the Eurovision trophy!
Poland: Luna – The Tower
Something very different. We move into space, and the floor resembles a chessboard. Two towers dominate, and Luna is surrounded by two dancers, one black and one white. Then, a red figure appears like the shadow of the singer. At the final point of the song, the two towers come together and change color to red, while we also have fireworks. Seems little bit borring to me.
Croatia: Baby Lasagna – Rim Tim Tagi Dim
The fan and bookers favourite is next on the stage. The eurovision live stream is lagging so I will try to make the best commentary in this performance.We start with smoke and a setup resembling a rock concert. There are fireworks, and the lights are in various colors with alternations Marco shouted before the dancebreak dance with me in the croud. At the last chorus we can see many smoke and many pyro also. In general, the dancers and the choreo is similar to the national final one but more polished. The croud were driving crazy in Croatia’s performance.
Iceland: Hera Björk – Scared Of Heights
The performance of the mother of mothers Hera Björk, started with her standing at the top of some stairs. The LED backdrop is in golden colours and really suits with her iconic dress. Vocally Hera never dissapoints. At the middle of her performance the colours are transformed in red colours. Up until the second chorus, she is alone on stage, and then her backing vocalists appear. The platform rises, and we see fireworks as well. She seems that she enjoyed the performance by 100%!
Break
Germany: ISAAK – Always On The Run (not competing)
The performance starts in a lounge with a fire in a barrel. In the chorus, the whole living room catches fire, and Isaak stands in the middle. In the end, we see the backing vocalists on stage, while the fires go out. It’s decent as a whole, but I don’t think it has much hope with the audience.
Slovenia: Raiven – Veronika
After Germany, next on stage is Raiven. She is dressed with a transparent bodysuit, at the begining of the performance she is layed on the floor by herself and then in the chorus, she is accompanied from the dancers. To be honest as much I like the song by its own, i don’t like the camera shots and the choreography. At the end of the song, the LED floor is in blue colours like they are floating in the sea.
Finland: Windows95man – No Rules!
The egg makes its appearance again. It opens, and we see Windows95Man in his familiar style. The dancers have a 2000s style, and the shots are framed to give the impression that the singer is naked. In the end, he wears denim shorts with fireworks. By far the worst staging i’ve seen today. This is so disturbing to my eyes and unsighty in general. I can’t really imagine people really enjoying this.
Moldova: Natalia Barbu – In The Middle
In The Middle as a song had so much potential in my opinion but the staging seems a little bit empty. Natalia is serving with her vocals but with her standing for 3 minutes in a row seems a little bit borring unfortunately. The LED until the violin part is with purple colours and a purple tree. The violin part is with the angel wings we knew from the rehearsal clip and then until the end the song is with golden colours (both of the returning contestants are using golden colours and both of them have huge chances not to qualify…).
Sweden: Marcus & Martinus – Unforgetable (not competing)
Finally, something interesting in this semi-final after two entries. The performance is the same with the one from Melodifestivalen but this is way better. It feels like the inside of a club with flashing lights and dancers. A very professional presentation that will surely do well in the Final.
Azerbaijan: Fahree feat. Ilkin Dovlatov – Özünlə apar
Next act on the stage is the male duo from Azerbaijan, the LED wall is with a human unknown gender and the LED floor is with the hands of it, based in purple, grey and white colours. In the middle of the performance two huge hand props were revealed in the stage. Overall, the performance was nothing special, I don’t think that this has chances to qualify.
Australia: Electric Feilds – One Mikali (One Blood)
Even though this song is not my cup of tea, I firmly believe that this performance stands out from the second half of this semi-final. The staging has not something unexpected that leaves you speachless. The camera shots are really good but that’s all. “On the LED screens, we see scenes from the video. Then three dancers-vocalists appear, and in the second chorus, the didgeridoo appears, and the title of the song is written on the wall.
Portugal: Iolanda – Grito
I would like to note that I didn’t liked this song back in the national final but now that I’m seeing this performance it’s so cool and for me this is a sure qualifier. The vocals of Iolanda are on point and the camera frames and shots are perfect. One of the floating cubes is lower the whole performance based on the other three. The performance is based in white colours as we already knew.
Luxembourg: Tali – Fighter
Last country before the competing part of the show ends is Luxembourg, the country made it’s comeback this year with a french/english pop song, which is unusual based on the previous representatives. Tali is really good vocaly but the camera shots are so weak. The performance is based in purple and golden colours as well. Thank god, she changed the braids from the rehearsals. There is fog on the stage and shots towards the audience. In the last chorus, we also have fireworks, and the word ‘Fighter’ appears on the LED screens.
A recap of all the entries follows.
Interval Act
Petra Mede present us in a really special interval act the double Irish winner Johnny Logan! Johnny sings Loreen’s Euphoria with a live orchestra. A beautiful performance!
We are now watching a video with the turquoise carpet that took place yesterday.
A recap of all the entries follows.
Second Interval act for semi-final one is Benjamin Ingrosso in a amazing medley of three songs.
Certain Qualifiers
Cyprus
Lithuania
Ireland
Ukraine
Croatia
Finland
Portugal
Luxembourg
Borderline Qualifiers
Serbia
Poland
Slovenia
Australia
Non Qualifiers
Iceland
Moldova
Azerbaijan
The Results
The green room is behind the stage and the LED wall opens so we can see the contestants behind it. Martin Osterdahl executive producer of Eurovision Song Contest 2024, declares that he is happy to see that we now have a valid result!
Here we have a big change, as the 15 competing acts stand on stage, without their delegations, waiting for the result. The camera shows them one by one, as the presenters announce the qualifiers. After the first 5 qualifiers are announced, Alesha interviews them backstage and then we learn the 5 remaining qualifiers.
The ten countries that (virtually) qualify to the finals for the purposes of the rehearsal were the following:
- Portugal
- Australia
- Ukraine
- Lithuania
- Poland
- Azerbaijan
- Cyprus
- Serbia
- Slovenia
- Finland
Closing the televised show, we will get to watch a recap of the ten finalist songs.
Watch clips of the dress rehearsal from inside the arena in our YouTube channel!
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Norway
Malta
Serbia
Latvia
Portugal
Ireland
Croatia
Switzerland
Israel
Moldova
Sweden
Azerbaijan
Czechia
Netherlands
Finland
