Day 4: new sun troubles, a Swedish circle and many more

Today is the day of the stage again. Today the EBU has made an official statement about it: “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 fair competition for all participating countries.”. What position that is, is still being discussed. So to be continued again. It is certain that a number of countries now have to make changes in their staging.

Meanwhile, 9 countries rehearsed for their performance in the second semifinal.

IRELAND: Brooke takes the stage in a bright blue suit. During her performance she is assisted by four dancers. They start the song lying on the floor! Ireland uses many floor projections. Brooke is also praised by Eurovision.tv for her strong voice. Pyrotechnics are used at the end of her performance.

NORTH MACEDONIA: Andrea stands alone on the podium for North Macedonia. She sings her song completely wrapped in black leather. In her performance she uses the lifting bridges over the water. Shadows of hands are visible on the LED screens. The sun is not only orange but also white and blue.

ESTONIA: Stefan starts his performance on the B stage. He is accompanied only by his guitar. Later in the song, he goes wild: then he uses the entire stage to present his performance. The two cowboys from the national final stayed home.

ROMANIA: WRS from Romania wears glittering wetlook trousers. He also wears a red blouse, but according to Eurovision tradition, that goes off. He turns out to be wearing a sleeveless shirt with glitter underneath. There is a lot of dancing. As a result, the Romanian likely gets a lot of attention from the crowd.

POLAND: The Polish competitor Ochman is also in black, he wears a black suit. He is assisted by four dancers, who seem to represent some kind of water spirits. Flashing light effects can be seen during the performance. The waterfall on the stage is also used… what else could we expect with a song about a river?

MONTENEGRO: Vladana has her entire performance on the B stage. She wears a blue dress during her performance. The background is also blue, with splashes of white as graphics. Vladana mainly remains in one place.

BELGIUM: The Belgian Jérémie Makiese impressed with his song. Jérémie is flanked by four dancers. He himself wears blue-grey trousers, a black shirt and a silver jacket, while the dancers wear black jackets. At the end of the act all the light falls on Jérémie, who is standing on a platform on which flames are projected.

SWEDEN: Cornelia Jakobs ranks high among the bookmakers. As the Swedes always do, Cornelia Jakobs also puts on the same act as during the national final Melodifestivalen. The starry sky at the beginning, the large, first green and then red, circular plate right behind Cornelia, even the silver-black clothing and the bare feet are the same.

CZECH REPUBLIC: The Czech group We Are Domi is the last to rehearse today. The group uses a lot of light, which makes you feel like you’re in a disco. Funny effect: the ‘sun’ on stage looks like a vinyl album here. Eurovision.tv mentions the cello-string guitar: the guitarist made it himself.

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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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