On Tuesday May 12th, the second 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!
Opening shot: Lauri the lead singer is dressed in a yellow & raincoat and holds a yellow helium balloon. It’s a bit of a scary image. On stage loads of big black helium balloons. All the lights are bright yellow. The singer moves around between the other bandmembers and all balloons. Lauri takes of his coat and runs around half naked only wearing his black leather pants and feathers in his hair. Before the final chorus a pre-recorded ‘audience’ yelling ‘Jezebel’ added by which the Finnish delegation makes fully use of the rules.
The act is mainly white and red coloured. Michael is accompanied by four dancers and a lot of backing vocals on tape. In the opening shot the singer stand in front of two mirrors which reflect him multiple times. He looks op and right in the camera suiting the lyrics. The act is merely about the dance and Michael being fierce and sassy on stage. There are a lot of camera shots from above, which don’t capture the dancing going like frontal or profile shots would have done. The lady singing the ethnic melody in the intermezzo is not on stage and probably pre-recorded only like all backing vocals and large parts off while the five guys on stage do some inline dancing and the red-white concept is broken and to many wide shots are shown.
The singer is sitting on a chair her whole performance, now and then washing her hands in a bowl in front of her, she has a constant strong focus on the camera. Konstrakta wears a nurse uniform with some flowers in her breast pocket. Parts of the song are subtitled which really add to the message “The body is healthy, so what now?”. Surrounded by five helpers dressed in black wearing white hand towels handing them over or drying her hands. It’s all about the body language and facial expressions of the lead singer expressing her concerns, sarcasm, defeat and yet not giving up. Towards the end the flashing red (alarm) lights have strong hypnotising effect. The whole act is captivating and intriguing from start to last seconds. In the backdrop we see the hands clapping and making gestures as well.
A very solid vocal performance by Nadir sitting, lying and stepping around on bleachers (a high school rack you see in sports classes). There is another guy on the same stairs that copies Nadir’s movements until he breaks away and also the stairs split into two and instead of being next to each other they end up opposite while Nadir is bulging his last exclamations. Colours turn from lilac and dark blue and towards the end the same alarming red lights as we had with Serbia’s act. After the final notes the dancer looks as if he’s shot to death and falls off the stage. After Serbia another emotionally impressive act.
Georgia obviously suffer from the technical issues RAI has with the stage. The big sun on stage initially was intended to be used as a big LED screen, now reduced to the inner arch. So it looks like a vinyl. In the backdrops we see mouths singing the pre-chorus and eyes blinking and some circus clowns too.
The four members of the band are dressed in the concept of the ‘cabinet of curiosities’ with weird figures the likes of Willy Wonka as a 1930’s pilot (the lead singer), a green dressed guitarist with a beard of herbs and flowers, a drummer with a gas mask and a man carrying a music box in front with little doors that open to show a diorama of the band in miniature. Overall the lights are mainly blue, red, purple and yellow. During the final stage of the song the backdrops and lights become more and more psychedelic. The act ends quite abruptly.
Covered in white and golden lights Emma starts sitting behind a piano on a raised glass podium. Then she stands up and walks the stairs ending on top of the piano to dance during the first chorus. She wears a dress made of a mosaic of small mirrors and white sneakers. It’s a bit weird to hear a whole gospel choir without seeing anyone on stage. Malta brought five dancers who are only used in the final stage of the song when Emma walks towards the small stage. It actually looks like two Johnny Jump’s entered incidentally the catwalk, but then they follow Emma to meet the two female dancers only to move a bit to the song and wave silly and try to get the crowd clapping along the last chorus.
Starts with a red screen with scraping nails. Achille is dressed in a black see-through outfit with prints a black cowboy head and a black feather boa with pumpkins in the ends. The act breaths glam rock, with all the make-up and zombie like guitarist and caged drummer and keyboard player. Achille almost assaults and tortures the guitarist before he says “I’m your personal Jesus” pictured as two black silhouettes behind a red screen and the guitarist gives him a kiss in return. Next up is Achille climbing a rodeo bull. The guitar player falls to the ground and plays his guitar while making hip movements and then pyro starts and Achille rides the rodeo. There is a lot of fireworks, smoke and red lights during the performance. A lot of the times though, the camera films the back of Achille and other artists. Those failed camerashots make it hard to connect.
Perfect live vocals by Sheldon, who is dressed in a long white dress with a long fluffy train. The act opens with a shot with off him standing down a pair of stairs in a V-shape. There is smoke added to the act like he is in the clouds. Besides the impressive long dress Sheldon wears a tiara and diamant mask covering his whole face. At some point he raises his right arm up and almost looks like the ‘Statue of Liberty’. Half way the song the singer starts walking the stairs which suddenly are no longer a V-shape but a square coming together at the top. On top of the stair he removes the mask, finally and looks into the camera. The Australian delegation did bring their own prop so the non-functioning stage is not a problem for them.
Aphrodite is the Greek name of the goddess who’s Latin name is Venus. Cyprus brings a big shell as a prop where Andromache stands in the middle of the shell and sea waves just like the famous painting ‘The birth of Venus’ (by Botticelli). Two dancers rise up from the adjacent waves, then join the singer in the middle in her sweet (mainly arm) choreography. Some silhouettes are projected on the shell behind Andromache so it looks as if she Aphrodite surrounded by her nymphs.
If you have seen the official video of girl bathing in a river, this captures the same atmosphere. Off course the waterfall bordering the stage is in sight multiple times (works very good as opening shot). The colours are mainly soft blue tones combined with yellow/orange, sometimes red. Andromache is dressed in a classy off white combination of a long skirt and modern top. Sadly the singer is struggling a lot with the vocals.
Starting of lying on the floor Brooke and her four female dancers in a big heart projected around her. She is dressed in shiny bright blue hot pants with tulle and long gloves and boots in the same colour. Her dancers wear white outfits, but as the lights are mainly pink it looks pink too. in the backdrops expect a lot of hearts. All in all everything (dance routine, lights, clothes) vibes this is a TikTok-friendly teenage girl act. Vocals are not too strong, but OK-ish. Compared to her national final this is a huge improvement. The tongue-in-cheek parlando part should have been filmed in close-up maybe. For Ireland the stage issues might turn out to be an advantage. as the LED’s in the middle part of ‘the sun’ is used and now subtle instead of too much in your face.
A rather dark scenery. Andrea wearing a long black silk robe, black boots and dark black make-up. Two black teardrops like a Pierrot under her eyes. Not much happening on stage. The singer looks a bit angry in the camera and she sings aggressively. The bridge to the small stage are lifted and showing black and white photo’s of stop signs by hands. The camera turns around Andrea a lot. Not much happening during her performance and she looks a little lost on stage.
Stefan wears a beige casual outfit and his guitar. The viewer gets treated close ups of both him and the guitar. In the backdrops a western landscape. But the LED-sun is sadly missing here. Stefan walks around the stage quite energetic back and forth on one catwalk to return to the mainstage for the chorus. He’s clearly enjoying his performance, then again Stefan jumps on the catwalk when the backing track sings the chorus and he walks to the small stage to finish his song. Probably we get him to interact with the audience. The act ends like it starts, with close ups of Stefan and a visual fade effect where the screen goes to black vertically.
A nice modern dance opening by one of the male dancers. The guys wearing tight black trousers and dark red tops only covering the shoulders. The women wear high heels and long red dresses with large holes in it showing skin. WRS wears a typical red festive Latin shirt with ruffles and a black pair of trousers. They dance along the song in different group combinations. WRS dances intimately with the woman before switching to the male dancer. The chorus lyrics are visible on the floor and far in the backdrops. Overall the act lacks energy.
In camera rain in the opening shot from above the river theme combined with a thunderstorm. Kristian is wearing a very classy dark blue almost black suit. There are four female dancers twirling around in the dark, probably they symbolize the strings that kept him. The floor and backdrops show water patterns. There are many wide shots but hardly good closeups as the singer sings most of the time with his eyes closed.
Vladana is wearing nice beaded long blue dress. Attached to her back is a big transparant circular shield with little LEDS as if she is surrounded by a halo. During the most difficult notes Vladana is not singing but shamelessly the backing vocal track is on. Colours are mainly blue. The last verse she sings in Italian before finishing in English again. Last shot is seeing her from behind as a silhouette against her ‘halo shield’ and viewing the whole audience so probably every will be asked to switch on the flashlight on their smartphone.
Again blue settings of light. Jeremie has a silver jacket and black T-shirt underneath and wears a casual grey denim trousers. Some mikado in the backdrops and little more colour is added (red and gold). The Belgians make a lot of use of light beams (mostly white). Four dancers in black outfits join on stage. This is a song were every note has to be pitch perfect. The singer is not there yet. The best part of the song is actually the ending after the ‘false ending’. We get to see Jeremie with a huge amount of white light from behind, singing some ad libs.
Cornelia also starts singing seated on the ground with bare feet an soft golden dim lights. In front of a big from behind green lit screen she sings on her kneels. Stands up an turn the shield around. It turns red and some smoke puffs show. The Swedish delegation always comes very well prepared to Eurovision and must be very annoyed. Even in the second rehearsal we haven’t seen one proper run through. Constantly there were sound issues and camera men walking in sight or stepping up the microphone cable.
In the opening shot we get to see the a close-up keyboard/touchboard player. Domenica sings her first phrases kneeled in front of that booth. In the backdrops we see roman statues explode during the chorus. All three band members are dressed in the same colour combination; dark purple and white. The singer wears a pantsuit and purple glass necklace. Lights are switched off halfway the song according the lyrics, before starting to flash again towards the end. A lot of white lightbeams swaying around on the beats.
Ukraine draws first half, Ronela from Albania eliminated
Read back: First Dress Rehearsal of Semi Final 2
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