We are LIVE from Basel and the St. Jakobshalle for the first dress rehearsal of the Grand Final, which is only open to the press.
The running order has been revealed earlier in the night, and is as follows!
- 🇳🇴 Norway – Kyle Alessandro – “Lighter”
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg – Laura Thorn – “La poupée monte le son”
- 🇪🇪 Estonia – Tommy Cash – “Espresso macchiato”
- 🇮🇱 Israel – Yuval Raphael – “New Day Will Rise”
- 🇱🇹 Lithuania – Katarsis – “Tavo akys”
- 🇪🇸 Spain – Melody – “Esa diva”
- 🇺🇦 Ukraine – Ziferblat – “Bird of Pray”
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom – Remember Monday – “What the Hell Just Happened?”
- 🇦🇹 Austria – JJ – “Wasted Love”
- 🇮🇸 Iceland – VÆB – “Róa”
- 🇱🇻 Latvia – Tautumeitas – “Bur man laimi”
- 🇳🇱 The Netherlands – Claude – “C’est la vie”
- 🇫🇮 Finland – Erika Vikman – “Ich komme”
- 🇮🇹 Italy – Lucio Corsi – “Volevo essero un duro”
- 🇵🇱 Poland – Justyna Steczkowska – “Gaja”
- 🇩🇪 Germany – Abor & Tynna – “Baller”
- 🇬🇷 Greece – Klavdia – “Asteromata”
- 🇦🇲 Armenia – Parg – “Survivor”
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland – Zoë Më – “Voyage”
- 🇲🇹 Malta – Miriana Conte – “Serving”
- 🇵🇹 Portugal – NAPA – “Deslocado”
- 🇩🇰 Denmark – Sissal – “Hallucination”
- 🇸🇪 Sweden – KAJ – “Bara bada bastu”
- 🇫🇷 France – Louane – “Maman”
- 🇸🇲 San Marino – Gabry Ponte – “Tutta l’Italia”
- 🇦🇱 Albania – Shkodra Elektronika – “Zjerm”
Last year, this is when everything began with Joost Klein, and him not performing despite appearing in the flag parade. Let’s hope this year goes better for everyone!
Intro act
We begin with an introduction video of the hosts looking for the trophy, which is actually being delivered in a very action-style, Tom Cruise-at-the-Olympics kind of way.
The trophy is an a bulletproof suitcase, delivered in parachute to the mountains, then by ski, bike and boat. This gives Olympic vibes a lot, and has a few funny moments with Eurovision songs like “Fly on the Wings of love” when the suitcase is dropped by the parachutist!
In the end, it arrives in the arena, where Nemo wants to take it, but is told off by Sandra: “You, don’t touch!”
Nemo then sings “The Code” in the arena, on the main stage. They stand in the middle of a circle made of lasers, and drones fly around them during the second part of the performance. STANDING OVATION here, as Nemo leaves the stage, wearing a stunning white dress.
Flag parade
The flag parade begins with style, with a series of lasers used to show the colours of the countries’ flag, being launched from the back of the main stage, to hit the frame in perfect position. The name of the country also appears on the backscreen, while a fanfare plays the drums next to the trophy.
The artists enter the main stage at the front of and walk down the walkway to the frame stage where they exit from both sides alternatively.
After Greece, dancers take to the stage to dance “The Mantra”, for a few seconds, before Parg arrives . Same after Denmark, but
Everyone is accounted for except perhaps Gabry Pont (someone else was bearing the flag in his place from what we could see), and Lucio Corsi even brought Tommaso with him for the parade. The entire press corps is clapping along! The loudest cheers were for Austria, Finland, Portugal, Denmark and France.
The parade ends with the fanfare getting to the walkway and finishing the music. VERY GOOD flag parade, we think.
We’re then joined by Sandra and Hazel, with Michelle Hunziker joining them for the Grand Final.
The hosts greet and welcome people in English, French, Italian and German. Hazel says that some peope said two women should not host the ESC. “They’re right, it should be three women!”
They then explain the voting and present the running order, then begin the countdown to the opening of the voting, once again opened at the beginning of the show. And LET THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST BEGIN!
🇳🇴 Norway – “Lighter”
The stage operators prepare everything, and from our high vantage point we see that they have a coutdown on the LED floor to make sure they leave the stage in time.
We won’t talk much about the staging, because nothing will change. Vocally, Kyle sounds a bit tired at the beginning but it gets better as the performance progresses. Big cheers here for the end, and it is a good opener to put people in the mood.
🇱🇺 Luxembourg – “La poupée monte le son”
Luxembourg is back now. I sometimes wonder, especially for second semi-finalists, how it feels to perform so often in rehearsals, but in Laura’s case, the Luxembourg Song Contest was also heavy on rehearsals so it should be fine for her. And she hits the last notes every time!
🇪🇪 Estonia – “Espresso Macchiato”
Tommy is not the best vocalists of this year, but he is not trying much for this specific rehearsal. His voice is sometimes drown in the backing music. Instead of “Free coffee for everybody” he just yelled some vowels at the end.
🇮🇱 Israel – “New day will rise”
Once again, quite a silent reaction from the crowd, except some very specific sections of the stands. The vocals are better than in previous rehearsals.
🇱🇹 Lithuania – “Tavo Akys”
Israel’s prop is hidden behind the mountains and not put backstage immediately for some reason. But the performance begins with no delay for Lithuania.
Lukas’ vocals are on point, as always, and he gives it everything he has. Public or no public, their performance is Always on fire!
🇪🇸 Spain – “Esa Diva”
Huge cheers as the postcard is played, as always.
The performance is great, but one cannot help to think Spain has a good chance of coming last despite everything, especially with this running order (very similar to last year’s with Israel, Lithuania then Spain).
Big “Una diva es valiente, poderosa!” from the press at the end, and the loudest cheers so far.
🇺🇦 Ukraine – “Bird of Pray”
The mic starts a fraction of a second too late for Ukraine, which also happened earlier with another song. But apart from these, the rehearsals has less issues than those for the second semi, which had a lot of crowd shots to add more time between acts.
I say that but at some points Daniel can’t be heard and we don’t know if it’s a microphone issue, or just him saving his voice.
We have a commercial break now, with some small delays for some reason. Michelle then asks Sandra about her 1991 experience as the Swiss representative at Eurovision in Rome, and she starts singing it all again, with the backing vocalists next to her like in the 90’s!
Then Michelle covers “Nel blu dipinto di blu (volare)” with Hazel playing the guitar!
🇬🇧 United Kingdom – “What the hell just happened?”
Just like in the second semi-final, Hazel asks a random fan (the main stage operator) to anonunce the next country: “Please enjoy the United Kingdom!”
Vocally great, big cheers from the press, no big différences than usual. Not sure how high it will finish, though.
🇦🇹 Austria – “Wasted Love”
In case you didn’t know, the paper boat is actually lowered and operated by an operator with a perch/fishing road.
JJ is saving his voice, so he’s sometimes drawn in the backing vocals in the first verse. But vocally very solid. 9th place in the running order is typically a winning slot for a ballad like this: will we go to Austria next year?
🇮🇸 Iceland – “Róa”
We saw VAEB perform at the Eurovision village yesterday, but this has not tired them at all. They are their usual explosion of energy and good vibes, and it’s a very efficient song coming across the much “sadder” and “grim” atmosphere of “Wasted Love”!
Small break to put Latvia in place, and Michelle and Hazel re-do the tongue thing from the first semi on camera.
🇱🇻 Latvia – “Bur man laimi”
Tautumeitas has us clapping along the “Bur man, bur man laimi” section. The atmosphere works as well as it did in the semi-final, on screen and in the audience.
We can confirm that the tails are actually on the LED screen and note made through augmented reality.
Quite the cheers here at the end!
🇳🇱 The Netherlands – “C’est la vie”
There is something cathartic in seeing Claude singing on that stage: the first time The Netherlands has performed on a Grand Final dress rehearsal since 2022. I was present in the arena in Malmö and remember our panic, not understanding why Joost had been skipped.
The clapping along and the French help it make it a better experience.
🇫🇮 Finland – “Ich Komme”
For Erika’s performance, the platform she steps on in the first chorus is actually brought during the first verse, with a few operators holding it on the walkway and running to the main stage to put it down, with camera angles hiding everything.
There is apparently an issue with the mic so Erika does not climb on it and remains on the ground instead. The cameras pick up on it very fast and film her on the floor. Big “Erika! Erika!” shouts from the crowd. There won’t be a repeat though, at least not now, as we hear the stage director say “We move on!”. We don’t understand what’s happening on stage as the mic is still there. A video of the previous winners is broadcast to make us wait.
UPDATE: There is a repeat immediately actually, the hosts have just announced it, and the postcard is being replayed.
🇫🇮 Finland – “Ich Komme” (second performance)
We see the giant mic being put in place, and it seems to be ready for a lift this time. Erika climbs on it, and it rises in the air with the biggest cheers yet from he press yet! The pyros on it work too!
Komming twice, this diva is not down, and the press explodes at the end. The support is massive in here.
🇮🇹 Italy – “Volevo essere un duro”
This performance works very well after the madness of Finland, as it is calmer but not “Bur man laimi” levels of calm. It remains a song with quite a bit of bass, and loud vocals. The harmonica solo is still very great watch and listen to!
🇵🇱 Poland – “Gaja”
Poland works. What more can we say? The cheers are as loud as they were for Erika, and it’s a really efficient performance in the arena.
🇩🇪 Germany – “Baller”
Tynna has some shaky vocals at the beginning, unfortunately. I still Believe the energy levels could be higher, but we are swinging our heads and shoulders, so it should be fine overall?
Some shots still work very well, like the boombox explosion or the rave party.
There is a small break to re-explain the voting rules.
We also get a small video filmed backstage with the Hazel and the crew working on the props. We see the Azerbaijan halo, the Maltese lips, th Italian speakers, the Swedish fir trees, and much more! We even have some footage from what look like head or front cameras on the crew to see their point of view of getting fast on stage to take accessories and props in and out of the stage.
🇬🇷 Greece – “Asteromata”
Like Poland, Greece just works. What else can I say? This was very good, very beautiful, and we cheered on Klavdia very loudly!
🇦🇲 Armenia – “Survivor”
Parg is a bit off-key at the beginning of the performance, but he gives it all his energy and still puts the stage and the audience on fire. This is one of the best glow-up in terms of staging in the season.
🇨🇭 Switzerland – “Voyage”
Beautiful performance again but we don’t see any camera angles in this rehearsal. Still, we light up our phones at the end, and consider whether this could somehow become a surprise winner…
🇲🇹 Malta – “Serving”
No red hair for Miriana this time, but the rest is quite similar in terms of energy and charisma. This is better than her previous rehearsals, as was the live performance yesterday.
The bell ringing makes the arena shake off its bass. The final is impressive. The doubts gathered in the last few days are disappearing the closer we get to the final!
🇵🇹 Portugal – “Deslocado”
Huge cheers for Napa in the stands as they take to the stage, especially from the French-Portuguese journalist sitting on my left.
Joao (the singing one) wave at some Portugal journalists in the stand during the section on the frame stage, as they sing along the last chorus.
Despite the shock of their qualification, people are now very happy to see them on stage, and it feels like they felt our enthusiasm.
🇩🇰 Denmark – “Hallucination”
Saving her voice, Sissal does not go high before the first chorus and does not sing it, asking us to do it for her: “You guys will have to sing the chorus for me, I’m sorry.”
We of course comply, for both choruses. She really is saving it, she does not sing anything powerful from her song (the choruses, the middle-eight/bridge, and the final “Ahahahaha”), either staying mute or singing in a different key, less powerful.
We have a little call-back to the “Made in Switzerland” interval act from the first semi-final now. I was re-watching it on the bus, on my way to the arena, and it was indeed among the greatest interval acts we’ve seen in recent years.
🇸🇪 Sweden – “Bara Bada Bastu”
Time for those who remain the favourites, despite drifting odds: Sweden.
This is still a superb performance, and we’re singing along in my row of the stands, even doing some of the choreography.
The cheers are there, but not at the Erika or Klavdia level.
There’s a small break where we go to the Arena Plus, with the two hosts in the empty stadium for now, in full day!
We then see a video of both hosts travelling the city with a bike equipped with a mic and a speaker to ask people to sing along. Shoutout to the team of firemen singing along to “Fuego”!
We’re then back to the arena, where the hosts rehearse their text with great conviction, asking the inexistent crowd “Can you sing, Basel?!” and stuff like that.
The pause is quite long, it’s a commercial break, and it will probably help the next song: France.
🇫🇷 France – “Maman”
Despite serving her voice on the last few “Mamans”, Louane gives a flawless performance. The jury vote victory is in reach.
🇸🇲 San Marino – “Tutta l’Italia”
The press corps is less enthusiastic and engaged in San Marino’s performance, though we do hear a few “Hey” and “Tutta l’Italia, tutta l’Italia, tutta l’Italiaaaaa”.
Clever to put the famous artist for San Marino towards the very end, as they did in 2021, to kep the viewers watching.
🇦🇱 Albania – “Zjerm”
This is the last Eurovision song of 2025 which I will hear in the arena, so it’s quite a special moment for me and a lot of other journalists without tickets to any of the Following shows.
This is a strange choice to finish the night, and I am not sure the position is helping it. Hughe cheers on our part though, and Beatriçe gives us an extra shout before the last Shndrits!
[We will update the article regularly]
