On Tuesday May 10th, the first semi final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 will take place. Read the article below for a sneak preview of how all the performances in that show are going to look!
ESCDaily is live in Turin. With a team of journalists we follow all the rehearsals to analyze how every country will stage their song. When even the slightest detail changes, we will update this article for you, so keep refreshing this throughout the upcoming weeks to get -the latest information!
01 Albania – Ronela Hajati – Sekret
Ronela wears a silver and pink outfit. Her four male dancers wear traditional skirts. Before she starts off screaming and yelling “Europe are you ready to make some noise?”. We get to see Ronela surrounded by four dancers with hoods like monks. In front a female dancer is crumbling over the dancefloor. The whole act is a mixture of wannabe erotic (Ronela making out with the female dancer, who lays down on the floor) and that does not really match the little girl’s pastel pink colour of her outfit. At some point there is traditional inline dancing with all six of them.
02 Latvia – Citi Zēni – Eat Your Salad
A vivid performance in colourful setting by Latvia. Dressed in the Italian national flag colours plus yellow and orange the band jumps around on shoes with chunky heels. The saxophone guy playbacking is not really convincing. The “pussy”-word is silenced out which comes across a bit awkward as if there are technical issues. It looks as if the ‘sun’ on stage only the innercircle is used for LED-projection. The other arches are used for lights. In the backdrop and LED floor multiple colours and fruits pass by. The singer yells “Thank you Europe and Latvia we hope we made you proud”. The group member in red closes off the energtic song and performance in a split-pose.
03 Lithuania – Monika Liu – Sentimentai
Monika is dressed like in the national final, in a long glittering silver dress. She could flirt with the camera to seduce the viewer more, as she looks over the camera a lot of the time. At some point the image of Monika is dubbed. Generally there not much going on visually. The most interesting is the part where she is humming towards a new chorus. Then the lights are turned into dark blue.
04 Switzerland – Marius Bear – Boys Do Cry
Vocally Marius performs very much okay. His leather jacket is not really flattering. Marius has thought through every single movement. Starts of with purple and blue shining from the back. Standing behind a microphone Marius sings his song, connecting with the camera constantly. A broken heart is projected on his face and stitched on his jacket. There are many other projections being used in his performances, which suits it a lot and makes it powerful. The young boy from the video clip is also being shown at the side of the screen in a projection.
05 Slovenia – LPS – Disko
The Slovenia delegation brought a giant disco ball in center of the stage. The guys look like a student band and are dressed in suits. Dark green and dark red velvet fabrics. Stage presence was a little stiff. The ball is on wheels and that looks stupid. Behind the drummer is placed on a platform to make it look like he is on top off the ball, but the viewers still see the construction and all safety measures. The camera is swirling around the guys who stand with the back towards the ball,. This gives the act a little needed motion, as the movements of the band players are very formal and almost minimalistic.
06 Ukraine – Kalush Orchestra – Stefania
Beautiful opening of a sunrise mirrored in the floor and we see the waterfall border of the stage. Some shots of 6 shadows on the floor slowly moving as if the wind blows them. Lead rapper wears his pink head little too much over his eyes, and wears several layers of clothing with on top a traditional patterned vest. So is the flute player who sings the chorus is similarly dressed without pink hat, and instead of a vest a cape. The dancer and second rapper are dressed in very busy printed outfits.
On the outer sides the contrabass player and a backing singer are dressed as big mobs in the colour (from top to toe) black, red, yellow and green. Looks weird. Overall a lot of impulses for the eyes. Maybe after the rather stiff performances of former three countries the more chaotic will stand out even more. During this act it’s for the first time the director chooses to film the clap-along crowd during the acapella part of the chorus. There is a break dancer dancing on two huge projected hands on the floor LED’s. End shot, Yellow sun, blue rays of light, in the exact colours of the Ukranian flag.
07 Bulgaria – Intelligent Music Project – Intention
Opening with a splitscreen with drummer and guitar player, then followed by the lead singer wearing a black outfit and hat. The singer knows how toplay the camera. Colour settings are flashing blue and white lights. After the first phrases Rommie Romero throws away his hat. The ‘sun’ on stage looks like ball with speakers projected on it. Towards the end of the song orange/red colours are added and closeup of the long guitar solo being play backed while the lead singer looks like he’s putting a spells on the guitars players fingers. All people on stage wear black leather outfits and long hair. After the breakdown in the song pyro technics burst out adding to the atmosphere. The visuals fit the song. End shot from above is a pictured frame of a dove on the LED floor with Ronnie standing in the middle.
08 Netherlands – S10 – De diepte
Stien is standing on a small Square-shaped podium, with subtle lighting. Setting is in real contrast with the Bulgarian. First verse is really close up, not revealing her nice outfit yet. She wears a short black top and long skirt, both lack, showing her belly in a classy way. The wide shots come when the ooh’s and Aaah’s start. Second verse, only a silhouette. During the part where Stien sings ‘Oh my God what do I have to do’ a beautiful shot from aside showing bidding hands and looking up fits perfectly the desperation expressed in the lyrics. During the bridge S10 steps of her podium and walks in front and we get to see a little of the audience as well (waving flags probably). The final 30 seconds the staging is very intimate again, Filmed from above slowly focusing more and more into a close-up.
09 Moldavia – Zdob și Zdub & Frații Advahov – Trenulețul
After the intimate minimalistic setting of the former act, Moldova bursts into a colourful festive act introduced by a close up from the guitar being played. Lights are purple and yellow, dresses are extravert. Lead singer wearing a red jacket, black pants and baseball cap and two red braids. The brothers Advahov (the older instrumentalists) wear suites with busy black and white (almost cow like) printing and have a contagious happy dance routine.
Floor LED shows traditional patterns and the waterfall border is shown every now and then too. So are are the projected lyrics ‘Hey ho let’s go’. In the backdrops many colours. in the intermezzo the guitar player plays the guitar lying on the ground while the LED floor flashes various colours. Towards the end the singer, violin player and accordionist walk off the stage in front of the waterfall and play the audience. The two bridges to the small stage lift up and show colourful LED projections. Overall a very dynamic act. ending with the lead singer imitating the horn of a train.
10 Portugal – Maro – Saudade, saudade
A really comforting and soothing performance. Maro is standing in a circle with her 5 backing singers. Not on the mainstage but on the small stage singing an ode to her deceased grandfather. It’s almost angelic and Maro looks really innocent with her two braids. The opening shot is using the ‘sun’ as a subtle orange halo around her head. On the grund we see some smoke. Her suit is lilac combined with white. The soft clapping along is registrated calmly. The focus is on Maro, while the other supporting singers are hardly lit and wear dark silky outfits. In the backdrop we see a mixture of colours in random pattern.
11 Croatia – Mia Dimšić – Guilty Pleasure
Pink dressed, black booted Mia takes the stage with her black guitar. She starts in the dark and it isn’t until about a second or 15 that we see her in the light. There are many blue lights and purple accents.. She’s accompanied by two male and one female singer doing some slow complicated modern dance routine changing partners as the song is about adultery and making choices. Choreography projects rejection, disappointment, hope and standing in between a relation ship. In the end Mia is left alone on the stage as all dancers leave the stage. Croatia does not really make use of the backdrop nor the LED floor. All figurant dancers are dressed in grey outfits. Last chorus is in Croatian, but during rehearsal the prerecorded backing vocals were not in Croatian but English.
12 Denmark – Reddi – The Show
Starts off with a reflection of the lead singer while seated an playing the piano. She wears a green/black glittering suit. One guitarist wears a purple white-checkered suit. The other one wears an orange suit. The drummer is dressed in purple. The floor and backdrops shifts to all kinds of random colours. A lot of fast camera switches to various close-ups, zoom ins and pull backs of guitars, faces, drums. All is energetic but chaotic too. Vocals are quite weak.
13 Austria – LUM!X feat. Pia Maria – Halo
Vocally this is a car crash as well as timing as hitting the right notes is concerned. Visually it’s not very attractive either. Pia Maria looks like a red haired demon almost with a nighties anime hairdo and make-up. She is standing quite static, with just swaying her hips a little in her black outfit next to the DJ booth with LUM!X. He tries to get the crowd going by yelling cliches like “What’s up Europe, are you ready to party!” and ‘Let me see those hand up!’.
Both are surrounded by a steel construction circle with lights flashing white or red. It literally reminds me of light warning on a highway when an accident happened. Steam and pyrotechnics near the end and we get to see some audience dancing along during the a capella handclapping part of the song just before the end. Off course LUM!X finnishes with a screamy “THANK YOU EUROPE”.
14 Iceland – Systur – Með hækkandi sól
Iceland brings a serene act. Their song is about the rising of the sun so expect beautiful sunshots and a lot of yelow/gold/orange lights. The three sisters are on stage standing in line with their brother who is the drummer. His presence seems useless in such a sweet song. The focus is off course on the sisters singing their perfect harmonies. The LED floor looks like water and from the bottom of the pond some yellow lights are shining nicely through the water. The women are dressed like hippies. During the bridge we get to see all three in one with the leadsinger faced frontal, the two others in profile.
15 Greece – Amanda Geōrgiadī Tenfjord – Die Together
On stage there is a ravage of chairs that are thrown over. Amanda starts while seated on one. The whole setting is blue and white. with a lot of blinding lights from behind (near death experience reference). In the backdrop you see a scene of a love couple holding hands. In a shot from above the legs of the chairs to melt on the LED floor. When Amanda sings ‘Take my heart and rip it out’ it’s really emotional and almost a psychological thriller as Amanda kneels and has some hand choreography gripping that heart and freakin’ out. And the blinding lights appear again. There are many well-registrated close-ups.
16 Norway – Subwoolfer – Give That Wolf a Banana
A slick act by the two wolves, and three dancers. All wearing yellow morphsuits and sunglasses and have a funny sync dance routine. In the back there is a DJ-booth. Behind that one stands an helmed astronaut. So basically none of the performers can directly connect to the camera. So they have to use their hand gestures and dance instead. The act has in instant appeal. There is mainly blue and yellow lights and towards the end more the Norwegian national red colour is added. The two wolves, wear dark blue suits and white button-up shirts and a blue tie.
17 Armenia – Rosa Linn – Snap
The act is situated in a young girls bedroom, with all furniture and walls covered in white memo’s. Rosa starts off sitting on the bed playing her white guitar singing her first verse. Then she’ll start walking through her room taking of large pieces of the wall uncovering some words; the date 22nd of June, a Eurovision heart, and finally she rips of a whole big round piece off the wall which leads to step out of her cocoon onto the stage, where the audience sees Rosa for the first time while she sings the final chorus of the song. The singer is dressed in a beige/white casual outfit. The whole act looks kinda sweet.