Day 3: start of the 2nd semi rehearsals

Day three of rehearsals: the second semifinal has started. Nobody knows about the stage anymore. We try to keep you informed. For the time being, we’ll stick to the nine countries that rehearsed.

FINLAND: Expectations were obviously high with a big name like The Rasmus in da’ house. In black and yellow rain gear, the stars stood on stage between huge black balloons. Eurovision.tv praises the professionalism of the band members.

ISRAEL: It was quite exciting whether Israel would participate or not. However, the security issues died down. And so Michael Ben David stood on stage in white, surrounded by his dancers. Remarkable: eurovision.tv reports that there is good singing. That has not been done so far.

SERBIA: Konstrakta’s act is little different from what we saw during the national final. She has the healthy hair of Megan Markle, which she also sings about. She washes her hands regularly. The dancers around her carry towels. Everything to stay “In corpore sano”, in a healthy body.

AZERBAIJAN: It was to be expected: Azerbaijan has a standout act. Nadir Rustamli sings from a sort of staircase that looks like a grandstand. There is also a dancer in that stand. Halfway through the act, the stand is split in two and the dancer and singer can see each other.

GEORGIA: Circus Mircus represents Georgia. And clowns belong to a circus. A singer in a leather jacket and flying goggles, a man with an eye patch and a belly organ and a bassist who seems to have borrowed the hat from the Ukrainians. That last man has a beard of flowers. Many colors can be seen on stage. Surreal is how even the official site describes it.

MALTA: Emma Muscat performs in a dress covered with silver. She is flanked by four dancers. Later during the act, she sits behind a huge piano. She also uses the so-called B-stage, just in front of the green room. The sun springs into action and gives off its golden light during this act.

SAN MARINO: You can expect a striking act from Achille Lauro. He wears body stocking, cowboy boots and hat, a black boa and he is at a red rodeo. While you’d expect that with the title “Stripper,” the clothes don’t come off. Where there is smoke there is fire: that certainly applies to this act, which ends with a lot of pyro technics.

AUSTRALIA: Of course Sheldon Reily wears his jeweled mask. Surprising is the huge white suit he is also wearing. At the bottom of the suit is a huge tow. Eurovision.tv compares it to a wedding dress that drags on the floor. It almost seems as if Sheldon is staying in the clouds.

CYPRUS: Andromache is singing in a purple dress with what looks like a huge fan behind her. The dancers move around that fan. The fan is also used to display the graphics. Different colors are visible.

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History

70 years of Eurovision: a child and a double

The Eurovision Song Contest is celebrating its 70th anniversary. That is a wonderful milestone. We at Eurovision Universe love diving into the history of the contest. That is why we are taking a closer look at the contests of the past 70 years. 1986 For the first time, Norway was allowed to host the Eurovision Song Contest. Former contestant Åse Kleveland hosted the event at the Grieg Hallen in Bergen. Greece withdrew at a late stage, and Italy was not included either. However, the Netherlands and Yugoslavia were back, and Iceland made its debut! Elpida, who participated for Greece in 1979, entered the stage for Cyprus. The ladies of the French group Cocktail-Chic had performed in backing choirs many times but had never participated solo. Debuting Iceland had selected a solo singer for the national final, but internationally he was flanked by two colleagues. Together they formed the group Icy. For Turkey, the group Klips Ve Onlar performed a song about Halley’s Comet. Once again, Dutchman Peter Schön was asked to arrange the music. For the first time, Turkey finished in the top half of the rankings with a respectable 9th place. Also striking was the ballad from Switzerland, a song that might well have won effortlessly in another year: “Pas pour moi”, sung by Daniela Simons. And certainly striking was the Swedish entry “E’ de’ det här du källar kärlek”. Duo partners Lasse Holm and Monica Törnell were already making it a party, but when the delegation leader appeared on stage shirtless, the spectacle was complete. Sandra Kim However, no one could match Belgium. Sandra Kim sang that she was 15, said she was 14, and only admitted ten years later that she was actually 13 when she won the song contest. Sandra had already released a single before. With “J’aime la vie”, she effortlessly won the national final and later the Eurovision Song Contest. The question was no longer whether she would win or not, but by how many points she would do so. Immediately after she won, presenter Åse Kleveland promised her a giant ice cream. In the turmoil following the victory, it took a while before she actually received it. Sandra Kim is still a well-known singer in Belgium. A few years ago, she won the Belgian version of “The Masked Singer”.   1987 In Belgium, the agreement was that the Flemish and Walloon broadcasters would organize the contest in case of a victory. Given the political sensitivity of the time, this went disastrously wrong. Ultimately, it was the Walloon broadcaster that organized the contest. Viktor Lazlo presented the Eurovision Song Contest at the Palace on the Heysel in Brussels. She garnered much praise for this.  Gary Lux participated for Austria for the third time. The group Wind, finishing second two years earlier, performed for Germany. We saw one of the group members, Rob Pilatus, shortly afterwards as half of the duo Milli Vanilli. The two scored a number of big hits before it came out that they didn’t sing a single note themselves. Alexia was once part of the first group to participate for Cyprus, but now she was alone on stage. She performed the swinging “Aspro mavro”. And then, of course, there was Johnny Logan. For the second time, he was on the Eurovision stage as a singer. He was immediately the big favorite. Big stars Umberto Tozzi and Raff participated for Italy. Their song, “Gente Di Mare”, came third. People were outraged that the two did not appear in tuxedos, but they certainly had a gigantic hit with the song. By now, we can consider “Gente Di Mare” a Eurovision classic. Also noteworthy were Anne Catherine Herdorff and her backing band Bandjo. Their “En lille melodi” was frequently compared to “Ein bißchen Frieden”. And then there was Novi Fosili, the group that participated for Yugoslavia. Singer Sanja Doležal celebrated her birthday that day, although presenter Viktor Lazlo did not allow you to tell anyone. For group member Rajko Dujmić and his colleague Stevo Cvikić, it was the first entry they wrote, but certainly not the last. Johnny Logan The Irishman Johnny Logan, whose real name was Sean Sherrard, won the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1980. After that, just about everything went against him. As an inexperienced artist, he was ripped off by producers and managers. As a result, he took to drinking and ran into financial trouble. The years that followed his Eurovision win were not pleasant for Logan. But the Irishman fought his way back. And when things improved for him, he wanted to go to the Eurovision Song Contest one more time, if only to prove that it *can* be done in a pleasant way. And he did it. Johnny Logan was the overwhelming favorite for the final victory. When it finally came to that, Logan was so emotional that he could barely manage to sing the reprise. He had to stop halfway through, and the final note didn’t come out very cleanly. But that didn’t spoil the fun. Johnny Logan never disappeared from the scene. As a composer, he would even win the Eurovision Song Contest one more time. And anyone who is a loyal visitor to the annual Het Grote Songfestivalfeest in Amsterdam can still see him live every year.

Read More »
History
Martijn

70 years of Eurovision: a child and a double

The Eurovision Song Contest is celebrating its 70th anniversary. That is a wonderful milestone. We at Eurovision Universe love diving into the history of the contest. That is why we are taking a closer look at the contests of the past 70 years. 1986 For the first time, Norway was allowed to host the Eurovision Song Contest. Former contestant Åse Kleveland hosted the event at the Grieg Hallen in Bergen. Greece withdrew at a late stage, and Italy was not included either. However, the Netherlands and Yugoslavia were back, and Iceland made its debut! Elpida, who participated for Greece in 1979, entered the stage for Cyprus. The ladies of the French group Cocktail-Chic had performed in backing choirs many times but had never participated solo. Debuting Iceland had selected a solo singer for the national final, but internationally he was flanked by two colleagues. Together they formed the group Icy. For Turkey, the group Klips Ve Onlar performed a song about Halley’s Comet. Once again, Dutchman Peter Schön was asked to arrange the music. For the first time, Turkey finished in the top half of the rankings with a respectable 9th place. Also striking was the ballad from Switzerland, a song that might well have won effortlessly in another year: “Pas pour moi”, sung by Daniela Simons. And certainly striking was the Swedish entry “E’ de’ det här du källar kärlek”. Duo partners Lasse Holm and Monica Törnell were already making it a party, but when the delegation leader appeared on stage shirtless, the spectacle was complete. Sandra Kim However, no one could match Belgium. Sandra Kim sang that she was 15, said she was 14, and only admitted ten years later that she was actually 13 when she won the song contest. Sandra had already released a single before. With “J’aime la vie”, she effortlessly won the national final and later the Eurovision Song Contest. The question was no longer whether she would win or not, but by how many points she would do so. Immediately after she won, presenter Åse Kleveland promised her a giant ice cream. In the turmoil following the victory, it took a while before she actually received it. Sandra Kim is still a well-known singer in Belgium. A few years ago, she won the Belgian version of “The Masked Singer”.   1987 In Belgium, the agreement was that the Flemish and Walloon broadcasters would organize the contest in case of a victory. Given the political sensitivity of the time, this went disastrously wrong. Ultimately, it was the Walloon broadcaster that organized the contest. Viktor Lazlo presented the Eurovision Song Contest at the Palace on the Heysel in Brussels. She garnered much praise for this.  Gary Lux participated for Austria for the third time. The group Wind, finishing second two years earlier, performed for Germany. We saw one of the group members, Rob Pilatus, shortly afterwards as half of the duo Milli Vanilli. The two scored a number of big hits before it came out that they didn’t sing a single note themselves. Alexia was once part of the first group to participate for Cyprus, but now she was alone on stage. She performed the swinging “Aspro mavro”. And then, of course, there was Johnny Logan. For the second time, he was on the Eurovision stage as a singer. He was immediately the big favorite. Big stars Umberto Tozzi and Raff participated for Italy. Their song, “Gente Di Mare”, came third. People were outraged that the two did not appear in tuxedos, but they certainly had a gigantic hit with the song. By now, we can consider “Gente Di Mare” a Eurovision classic. Also noteworthy were Anne Catherine Herdorff and her backing band Bandjo. Their “En lille melodi” was frequently compared to “Ein bißchen Frieden”. And then there was Novi Fosili, the group that participated for Yugoslavia. Singer Sanja Doležal celebrated her birthday that day, although presenter Viktor Lazlo did not allow you to tell anyone. For group member Rajko Dujmić and his colleague Stevo Cvikić, it was the first entry they wrote, but certainly not the last. Johnny Logan The Irishman Johnny Logan, whose real name was Sean Sherrard, won the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1980. After that, just about everything went against him. As an inexperienced artist, he was ripped off by producers and managers. As a result, he took to drinking and ran into financial trouble. The years that followed his Eurovision win were not pleasant for Logan. But the Irishman fought his way back. And when things improved for him, he wanted to go to the Eurovision Song Contest one more time, if only to prove that it *can* be done in a pleasant way. And he did it. Johnny Logan was the overwhelming favorite for the final victory. When it finally came to that, Logan was so emotional that he could barely manage to sing the reprise. He had to stop halfway through, and the final note didn’t come out very cleanly. But that didn’t spoil the fun. Johnny Logan never disappeared from the scene. As a composer, he would even win the Eurovision Song Contest one more time. And anyone who is a loyal visitor to the annual Het Grote Songfestivalfeest in Amsterdam can still see him live every year.

Read More »
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