The penultimate rehearsal of the day is from iolanda from Portugal. iolanda has kept the staging almost identical to the one of her performance in Festival da Canção, and apparently no changes were made from the last rehearsals on Sunday. She is wearing a white dress, and she is still accompanied by five white-clad contemporary dancers with covered faces. The middle cube has been lowered to create a more intimate space and add artistry to the performance. Who is iolanda? Iolanda Costa was born on November 4, 1994 in Figueira da Foz, in the Coimbra district, Portugal. She demonst ..read more

Taking to the stage next are Electric Fields from Australia. The performance is very similar to the one of the last rehearsals on Sunday. The duo is supported by two backing singers, a dancer, and a digeridoo player. In the background, an explosion of light and colours across the LED wall, the LED floor, and the cubes. Zaachariaha is still wearing a white dress, while Micheal Ross is wearing a one-piece suit. Who Are Electric Fields? Electric Fields is a music duo made up of vocalist Zaachariaha Fielding and keyboard player Michael Ross. The duo has been active since 2015 i ..read more

Next up on stage today are Fahree and Ilkin Dovlatov from Azerbaijan. Apparently, the performance did not undergo changes since the last rehearsals on Sunday. The staging is still dark but effective, with Fahree standing alone in the centre of the stage, backed my monochrome graphics that show an animated figure slowly emerging from the water. In the second half, two huge cupped hands appear on the stage and Fahree can sing the final verse and chorus standing between them. Fahree wears a black and silver shirt and trousers combo, while Ilkin is in similar dark clothes, donning sparkly sleeves ..read more

Ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest next week, we had the opportunity in Malmö to speak to Norwegian representatives Gåte, who is set to perform their song “Ulveham”. Gåte spoke to us about how their first rehearsal went on the Eurovision stage, their experience at the pre-parties last month, and which Eurovision entry from this year they would put their Gåte-spin on if they were to cover it. You can watch the full interview here: Thank you Gåte for speaking to us, and good luck at the contest! Find out more about how their first rehearsal went: Norway: All the Details About Gåte’s First R ..read more

After another break, the next artist to rehearse on stage today is Natalia Barbu from Moldova. The performance did not undergo changes from the rehearsals on Sunday. Natalia Barbu is still alone on stage and behind her, on the LED wall, we can see a backdrop of seascapes, gardens, trees, flowers, and butterflies on the LED cubes. She has kept some essential elements, like the handclaps and the white violin. During the violin section, towards the end of the song, the background turns into two giant angel wings. Natalia is wearing a white dress. Who Is Natalia Barbu? Natalia Barbu ..read more

Next up on stage today is Windows95Man from Finland. Windows95Man has kept the staging similar to that of the UMK performance, with the same large denim egg prop, but complete with a cloudy LED screen behind the performers like on Sunday. The handheld fireworks still feature in the performance, but the underwear has been changed and now it features the four colours of the Windows logo. Who is Windows95man? Teemu Keisteri, known professionally as Windows95man, is a DJ and visual artist from Espoo, Finland. Born on 22nd August 1985, the artist studied photography at the Institute o ..read more

The next rehearsal of the day comes from Raiven from Slovenia. Some small details of the performance have been changed from the first rehearsal on Sunday. Raiven starts off her performance on the floor with five contemporary dancers. Her movements spark off pulsing graphics on the LED floor while the dancers intertwine their bodies, but this time the background is darker and it seems that the clouds from Saturday have been replaced by waves. Pyro, low fog and wind are still used to enhance the dramatic level of the performance. Raiven is wearing a dark silver bodysuit, while the dancers are w ..read more

The next artist to do their second rehearsal is Hera Björk from Iceland. No major changes have been made from the first rehearsals on Saturday. Hera Björk’s staging is very similar to the one of her national final, Söngvakeppnin. She still starts the performance on a black pinth, with five singers in the background. We can still see the use of gold graphics and silhouettes of dancers on the LED wall. Hera has kept her gold dress with fringes. Who Is Hera Björk? Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir was born on 29 March 1972 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Hera began her music career in 1986, and has ..read more

With their rehearsals just around the corner, the Big Five countries have begun their journeys to the Eurovision 2024 host city. Although rehearsals for the semi-finalists are already well underway, the countries that automatically qualify for the Grand Final (aka the Big Five) make their way to Malmö today. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom will have their first rehearsal tomorrow alongside host country Sweden, once all of the semi-finalists complete their second rehearsals. France Flags in hand, the French delegation are ready for their journey: Germany The German delega ..read more

Next up to rehearse is Baby Lasagna from Croatia. There don’t seem to be many changes from Croatia’s first rehearsal to their second – Baby Lasagna retains the key elements of his Dora-winning performance but has increased the nods to Croatia in the staging. There’s smoke jets, fire jets and fireworks used in this energetic performance of “Rim Tim Tagi Dim”. Who Is Baby Lasagna? Marko Purišić, known professionally as Baby Lasagna, is a Croatian singer-songwriter. He was born on 5 July 1995 in Umag, Croatia. Marko Purišić started his musical career as a guitarist in the Croatian rock ..read more