Eurovision is back! Delegations have landed/arrived in Vienna these last few days and rehearsals started last weekend. Just like last year, for the first rehearsal, the EBU releases information on the day of each rehearsal, with a sets of three photographs published the day after. As such, today, we cover yesterday’s rehearsals, with the last semi-finalists. And the fifth one on stage was Ukraine’s “Ridnym”.
🇺🇦 Ukraine – LELÉKA – First rehearsal
The following pictures have been published by the official Eurovision accounts.
What happened on stage?
This description is sourced from indications given by the official Eurovision Reddit account.
- LELÉKA wears a white dress and white trousers, “with small strands of fabric layered and attached in a way that responds well to her movements”.
- She starts the performance on a white catwalk (which seems to be band of light LED graphics on the floor), leading her to her bandura player, Yaroslav Dzhus
- After the first chorus, the staging goes dark, and LELÉKA becomes the main focus, in the middle of the stage.
- Colours come back later in the performance, with a special graphic moment for the signature long note of “Ridnym”
- A lot of drapes are used in the performance: on the LED screen and on the stage itself, as props, with wind machines making them float in the air
- The performance closes on the LED drapes turning red, like a theatre curtain
The stage director for Ukraine is Illya Dutsyk, who has previously worked with artists on the Ukrainian national selection Vidbir, including Ziferblat last year, but this is his first foray into Eurovision itself.
Here’s the small message LELÉKA had for the Eurovision fans after her rehearsal:
Stay tuned for further coverage today and tomorrow, with the second rehearsals of most of the first semi-finalists, and for our live coverage on the ground starting on May 9, which will include (among other things) the full dress rehearsals and the live shows, live from Vienna!
