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

Rehearsing right now inside the Rotterdam Ahoy is Anxhela Peristeri performing “Karma” for Albania. 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!

Would you believe? We open with bold red and black! But it works, of course. Anxhela is dressed in silver, alone on stage. her vocals are assured throughout, and she performs highly confidently. The camera angles are solid, as we get quite a few close-ups of Anxhela, but they make sure we see the background as well.

There are plenty camera cuts and Anxhela is finding the camera well. The theme remains red and black with smokey flashes on the huge LED screen behind. In the second verse, more blues are seen on the background with steam jets on the LED background. The floor does not have any effects on it. Near the end of the song, the background turns grey and white, like natural smoke. For extra effect, there’s a good amount of dry ice on stage to enhance the floating image. Throughout the performance, the wind machine is on.

Several of Anxhela’s choreographed moves need to be in sync with the background, like the red smoky circles. She is perfectly in sync with these as she is finding her marks on the stage. The choreography is sometimes reminiscent of Lovewave by Iveta Mukuchyan with hints of Fuego by Eleni Foureira and Keep The Faith by Tamara Gachechiladze: Interestingly, they’re all Sacha-Jean Baptiste staged entries. If you want an idea as to hair and make-up, you’d need to think Ira Losco in 2016.

All in all, Albania are here to showcase their style. Albania wouldn’t be Albania without red, black and a stellar vocal. Very competent indeed.

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!