The first Dress Rehersal of the grand final of Eurovision 2024 was completed a while ago. The 26 countries took to the stage for the first time today to try things out and improve any mistakes, ahead of the crucial Jury Rehearsal tonight.
Tonight, 37 juries will vote, thus determining 49% of the total result. The remaining 51% is the result of the televoting of the public from the 37 participating countries , combined with the Rest Of The World vote.
HOW THE SHOW BEGUN
A beautiful introductory video, it turns to the great Swedish artist Bjorn Skifs who performs his single Hooked On A Feeling . Essentially, he started Swedish music’s climb to the top.
This is also the theme of the established flag parade. All the participating countries of the final parade on the stage, one by one, in the order of their appearance, to the sounds of legendary Swedish tracks that marked the world music scene.
More specifically, during the impressive flag parade, Beautiful Life by Ace of Base , She’s Got The Look by Roxette , I Follow Rivers by Lykke Li , Sun Is Shining by Awxell & Ingrosso and the dear Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) by ABBA .
Really, a very nice start from the Swedes!
THE PERFOMANCES
The two presenters of the evening, Petra Mede and Malin Akerman , after explaining to us the procedures regarding the voting, gave the signal for the start of the grand finale, as well as the voting for the public. This year, the voting starts right before the first perfomance. We remind you that the night opens with the host Sweden, while the “final whistle” is given by Kaleen from Austria. You can remember the order of appearance of the final HERE.
Who stood out?
An impressive start to the show, with hosts Sweden making an explosive start to this year’s final to the cheers of the crowd. In the same vein, Ukraine at number 2 gave another great performance on stage, with Jerry Heil ‘s stellar vocal performance wowing the crowd once again.
Israel , necessarily, stands out for all the right and wrong reasons. Eden Golan, in an excellent performance, elicits, as in the semi-final, applause as well as disapproval. Really, the audience is split down the middle!
A special case is Spain . Nebulossa have clearly taken the crowd into the arena with them and managed to create a bit of havoc at today’s – lunchtime – rehearsal as well. Can Spain get a good result in the public vote? Let’s see!
Another special case, Ireland , which stood out by reaching Malmö. Another impressive performance and very loud and intense applause. Can Johnny Logan , who had spoken of victory for his country, turn out to be true? That remains to be seen tomorrow.
Different from what we are used to, Dons on behalf of Latvia gives a performance with strong emotion, while also looking very relaxed and comfortable. He gets loud applause from the audience.
We want to be objective, but it is impossible not to mention Greece at this point. Marina in a very dynamic appearance, nothing to do with what we saw yesterday. Energy, comfort with the microphone as well as a very good vocal performance make up the scene of today’s rehearsal for our country.
Outstanding performance for the Swiss Nemo , who although faced a technical problem at the beginning of the performance with the handphone, managed to cope like a pro. Thus, he gave yet another iconic “performance”.
We are coming to France . Words are very poor for Slimane , who every time is even better. France is coming with a bang, which is convinced that it can reach very high.
The remarkable perfomances
Lithuania and Norway are like good old wine. Moving at the same levels that we have met them on stage, they offer convincing performances and they are going for a top ten finish, in a – anyway – difficult year for predictions.
Angelina Mango changed clothes and hair again for Italy’s rehearsal. He seems to be picking up the pace, and now is the time to do so.
The Armenian LADANIVA are based on Jaklin ‘s amazing vocal and “theatrical” abilities. She really “carries” the whole song on her shoulders.
We put Baby Lasagna in this category, just because some changes in sound were noticed. In Croatia ‘s perfomance, the main vocals are heard more clearly, while adjustments have been made, with effects, in some places. Also, his voice has become stronger in relation to backing vocals. Overall, we notice a cleaner sound that works in favor of the song. Otherwise, a dynamic performance that justifies – absolutely – the title of favourite!
“Thank You Next”
Below expectations, once again, Olly Alexander from the United Kingdom . While the scenery that has been set up on stage is impressive, he himself cannot perform vocals at all. A real shame.
INTERVAL ACTS
After the completion of the first recap, hints are left by the presenters about a possible appearance of ABBA. But, finally, after some jokes, it is revealed that the group that starts with A and will perform live is Alcazar . The Swedish pop group reunites to perform on stage.
Then the references to the legendary Swedish band continue, but finally Carola , Charlotte Perrelli and Conchita appear on stage, performing Waterloo together!
After the second recap, in a humorous video, we see the postcard of… Petra Mede ! She says, characteristically, that she asked for it from the organizers and that no one can refuse Pietra!
Loreen ‘s time has come! Last year’s winner, in an impressive setting, performs her brand new song Forever , while we also listen to a cover of Tattoo . Kaarija Dima Bilan
THE SHOCK
Somewhere here it should be noted that Joost Klein , while he normally attended the flag parade, never appeared on stage to perform Europapa . In other words, we went from the appearance of Luxembourg to that of Israel . The EBU has announced that it is investigating an incident involving the Dutch artist and that it will not rehearse until further notice.
We await news in due course, then!
Which entries are you looking forward to seeing in tomorrow’s final?
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