Eurovision is here! Delegations have been arriving in Basel in the last few days and rehearsals started on May 3. After closing the first rehearsals to the press in 2022, the EBU has now done away with TikTok videoclips. They will instead release sets of three photographs a day after each rehearsal, as well as description of the proceedings on their official channels. As such, today, we cover yesterday’s rehearsals, and continue with Greece, the seventh rehearsal of the day, with “Asteromáta”.
🇬🇷 Greece – Klavdia – First rehearsal
The following pictures have been published by the official Eurovision accounts. (Source: Alma Bengtsson, Corinne Cumming / EBU)
What happened on stage?
This description is sourced from indications given by the official Eurovision Reddit account and the staging directions/notes of the delegation.
- Klavdia wears a long dark gown covered in tiny, sparkling jewels.
- She is accompanied by a single female dancer
- The staging is very different from the Ethnikós Telikós performance, and uses a large prop: a giant rock, in the middle of the stage (making it an heir to Bulgaria 2021 and Serbia 2024)
- Klavdia begins the performance standing on a pier (which may just be displayed by the floor LED screens), and walks to the rock, on which she climbs before performing the rest of the song on top of it
- Her dancer joins her in the second verse, but they are separated during the song, reflecting the lyrics of “Asteromáta”
- LED screens, especially the floor screens, are used extensively, with the floor displaying water and then burning trees and lava, which spreads to the back wall. A few overhead shots give more strength to these visuals, which switch the atmosphere from blue to warm red and orange.
- At the end of the performance, the light bars/rigs descend from the ceiling “to create a tiered effect”.
The stage director for Greece this year is once again Fokas Evangelinos, who has worked on many Greek entries before, including the recent 2024, 2022 and 2021 performances, but also the 2005 winning staging of “My Number One”. He has also worked extensively with the so-called “Eurovision Dreamteam” of the late 2000’s and 2010’s of Philip Kirkorov and Dimitris Kontopoulos.
Stay tuned for further coverage today, with the rehearsals of yesterday, and for our live coverage on the ground starting on May 10, which will include (among other things) the full dress rehearsals and the live shows, live from Basel!
