ESCXTRA.com are live for day 1 of rehearsals ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 taking place at the Rotterdam Ahoy in The Netherlands!

The countries rehearsing today, in chronological order, are Lithuania, Slovenia, Russia, Sweden, North Macedonia and Ireland. Plus, we’ll be given a backstage look at the recording of Australia’s live-on-tape performance.

Follow every rehearsal live

Below, you’ll see our written review of each rehearsal. If you want more, you can follow our live stream where our team will be reacting live to every single rehearsal as it happens! Furthermore, read our handy guide for a more detailed look at this contest’s rehearsal schedule.

Rehearsal review

Rehearsing right now inside the Rotterdam Ahoy is Tusse, performing “Voices” for Sweden. We will continue to update this article as each run through takes place, so make sure to keep refreshing for the most up-to-date review!

We see Tusse on stage with an outfit that is slightly different to what we saw in Melodifestivalen. The costume is an all-red affair with cut off sleeves and more flowing material. At the beginning, we see the lights flashing gold whilst the LED backdrop is largely black with white puddle effects.

At the end of the first chorus, the four dancers emerge just as in Melodifestivalen. During the second chorus, we see a red block on the LED floor which begins a very red colour palette for the second half of the song and in particular the middle 8. In the middle 8 Tusse and his dancers are bathed in too much red light arguably which could do with toning down in future rehearsals.

One of the best improvements over the Melodifestivalen performance is the addition of more dancers on the LED backdrop towards the end of the song which emphasises the anthemic message of the song. The quality of the LED dancers is also very high, they look just as real as the real dancers!

Rehearsal video clip

As soon as Eurovision.tv upload the video clip of this rehearsal, we will embed it right here for you to enjoy!

Stay tuned for our reviews for the rest of today’s rehearsals at the Rotterdam Ahoy. If you want to know what to expect from the rest of the day, check out our rehearsal schedule. Meanwhile, remember to tune in to our live stream for instant reactions to every rehearsal!