The rehearsals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 have started today on the Pala Olimpico stage and here is everything happened during them (click on the participants to watch a small video of their rehearsals).
Ronela Hajati (Albania): “Sekret”
The first surprise: Ronela has changed her hair colour to pink. Dressed with a sparkly bikini with black boots, is accompained for five backing dancers: four male bare-chested and a gymnastic female. The performance and voice have been good although the singer has some sound issues during the first run-through.
Citi Zēni (Latvia): “Eat Your Salad”
Nothing special to remark about the young Latvian band, dressed with their coloured costumes. The performance is similar to those that we saw during the preparties, but now with pictures of fruits on the LED background, adding more colour to the participation of the Baltic country in the contest.
Monika Liu (Lithuania): “Sentimentai”
The Lithuanian representative has appeared on the stage with the same silver sequinned dress of the national final, alone, with no dancers. The lights mainly in pink, gold and similar tones to enforce the retro style of the Monika’s song. Her face is impressed on the background between waved lines.
Marius Bear (Switzerland): “Boys Do Cry”
Marius is dressed all in black, with nothing more than a spotlight and some atmospheric lighting for support. As it’s expected his voice has sounded good, demonstrating why Swiss television has chosen him as its representative.
A big disco ball is the first element where you fix your eyes when you see the staging of the young Slovenian band. Dressed in classic sixties tailoring, “Disko” sounds as pure joy and these guys are delivering it with their usual effortless cool.
Kalush Orchestra (Ukraine): “Stefania”
Some incredible outfits in this lineup – not everyone can pull off a sparkly waistcoat paired with a pink bucket hat, never mind the German flag made entirely of fringing. But these guys are nailing it.
Lovely use of the graphic backdrop too – some really nice black & white video mixed in with traditional Ukrainian motifs.
Intelligent Music Project (Bulgaria): “Intention”
Some incredible neon lighting in this performance, and impressive use of geometric shapes on the graphic backdrop too. This is a hugely polished performance from Bulgaria.
S10 (Netherlands): “De Diepte”
Dressed in a stylish black dinner jacket and with minimalist staging: This is the presentation card of S10 in Europe. That staging is a smoky plinth and some dramatic lighting. The rest, for a powerfull performance, is the voice of the young singer, chosen internally for the Dutch broadcaster. And as we have seen we think that was a right decisition.
Zdob şi Zdub & Fratii Advahov (Moldova): “Trenuleţul”
After a long day in the arena, a bit of folklore and rock ‘n’ roll is the perfect way to wrap up today’s rehearsals. This song is SUCH fun, and Zdob şi Zdub & Advahov Brothers are bring big train energy to the Pala Olimpico stage.
They’ve gone full neon on the lighting and the graphics, AND there are even a couple of little dance routines in the chorus. It’s the first time we’ve seen the B Stage used today – there are a couple of drawbridges over the waterfall that go up and down.
This is three minutes of joyful chaos, but we are very much on board.
