ESCXTRA: Live from RotterdamπŸ‡¨πŸ‡­ Switzerland

πŸ‡¨πŸ‡­ LIVE DAY 4 REVIEW: Gjon’s Tears from Switzerland raises the bar for staging a ballad

The penultimate country to rehearse, Switzerland just re-entered the contenders circle

ESCXTRA.com are live for day 4 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 Georgia, Albania, Portugal, Bulgaria, Finland, Latvia, Switzerland, and Denmark.

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

First of all, let me say that this staging is completely unexpected. A lot of people were expecting Gjon to be behind a piano, or even recreating elements of the music video. More specifically, many people were expecting him to ‘copy Arcade’. To my delight, none of these turned out to be the case. Sacha Jean-Baptiste avoided all possible ‘universe’/’galaxy’ tropes and instead opted for something fresh, clean, refined and crisp.

Styling wise, Gjon is the latest artist to give us some sparkle with an embroidered black shirt. He spends the entire performance on a giant white sculpture, which acts as a 3D frame for the molten silver-effect LED animations. Rather than merely stand still, Gjon performed a highly stylised choreographed routine in which he scaled different parts of the sculpture. The camerawork is very clever and slick, making the staging feel even more dynamic.

As expected, the ‘wow’ moment delivered. The climax of the song sees a spectacular light show, in which parts of the structure move apart and Gjon is seen standing on a lone beam. As expected he sounded incredible throughout, despite delivering choreography and having several marks to hit.

If you thought Switzerland were out of the running, think again.

Rehearsal video clip

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!

One Comment

  1. My favourite, but I\’ve only seen a teaser of the staging. Everybody seems to be hating the choreographie, which is probably the reason for his odds dropping so much.
    I\’m so sad. I thought this song could win.

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