Every year the Eurovision Song Contest broadcast is nearly flawless. And it’s all thanks to the dozens of rehearsals that the artists, the hosts and the technical crew go through in the weeks leading up to the final. During those rehearsals and final run-throughs, there are countless mistakes, bloopers and funny moments that you can’t experience at home. Thankfully our videographer Ron Kavaler had his camera rolling non-stop during all of the open rehearsals and he has compiled some hilar highlights for you in our special video.

You can watch the rehearsal outtakes and bloopers video below. Among other things, you’ll see beloved Ilinca struggling with her ear piece, Lucie Jones wagging her tongue when she thinks the cameras are off and lots and lots of stagehands mopping up the floor after Demy’s half-naked dancers go splish-splash on stage.

Eurovision 2017: Rehearsal outtakes and bloopers

This Is Bulge

Demy sang that “holding on to what we have can be so complicated”. And it seems her dancers understand that, as they continuously adjusted their bulges on stage. We caught the action from many angles. The struggle is the joy, right? Appropriately enough, the stage was quite wet during this performance, so dozens of crew members had to rush in and mop it all up. We salute their tireless efforts!

Hey Mamma!

Looking back through the rehearsals footage, it’s pretty obvious that Moldova’s “Hey Mamma” was going to do very well. This song is so contagious that our hosts, Oleksandr Skichko and Volodymyr Ostapchuk, broke out into dance every time they heard it (you’ll see they aren’t the only ones). We’re impressed that the hosts can bust these moves and feel the groove. Hey Mamma!

The Czech Artsvik

During the jury show for the first semi-final, Armenia’s Artsvik faced one of the year’s most embarrassing (yet funny) moments. It wasn’t embarrassing because of her. But rather because of the audio crew member who played the wrong track.

Dear Artsvik wanted to tell you “a story about a girl with history”. But the audio crew decided it wasn’t her turn, while playing the Czech Republic’s backing track. Artsvik remained calm and waited for the mistake to be fixed. It took a minute or so — pretty stressful given that it was the minute or so before one of the biggest moments of her life — so we must applaud Artsvik for dealing with this unfortunate issue so calmly. What a professional!

Jon Ola Sand’s joke

Jon Ola Sand is always so serious and diplomatic. But even he can be funny during a long week of rehearsals.

While Italy’s Francesco Gabbani was waiting for producers to resolve some technical problems before his performance, floor manager and funny man Henric Von Zweigbergk suggested that if similar problems happen during the live broadcast that Jon Ola will take over and tell jokes.

Jon Ola admitted he has funny stories but asked for a few moments to find a good one. We really hope to hear those stories one day, Jon Ola!

The United Kingdom’s “Beautiful Mess”

Working as a Eurovision stage crew member isn’t easy. It’s tough both physically and mentally, as you have about 40 seconds between each song to completely change the setting of the stage. Mess up and you could ruin a performance.

It’s easy enough to sort the stage when OG3NE appears without any props or microphone stands. But when The United Kingdom’s Lucie Jones brings a massive backdrop made of mirror shards it’s mission impossible — even with dozens of stage workers.

The crew first faced a time crunch during the semi final rehearsals, when the “Big Five” countries were performing one after the other. The crew just couldn’t set up the stage in just 40 seconds — nor could they deconstruct it for the next song either.

They solved the issue during the grand final by having a long break that featured Måns Zelmerlöw’s sketch with the hosts, allowing the crew a couple of minutes to get the stage ready for Lucie. Well done.

The stand-ins

In a production as large as Eurovision, the stand-in portion of the show is very important. It helps hosts, producers and cameramen figure out their angles and what can go wrong. But it’s also a lot of fun. In our video we show you some of the funny volunteers who sat in for the stars in the green room, singing their hearts out and expressing their love for the viewers while pretending to be Australia’s Isaiah and Spain’s Manel Navarro. We love the Ukrainian volunteers so much, as they also helped us out a lot during our stay in Kyiv — well done guys (and girls).

Want more? Check out our YouTube channel and also the channel of our video editor/videographer Ron Kavaler.

 

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL FOR MORE EUROVISION VIDEOS

8 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Kate
Kate
6 years ago

I’m not sure if the heading ‘We cannot stop laughing’ is applicable. On another note, when will the dates for ESC 2018 be decided?

Niel
Niel
6 years ago

Is there any requirements for a person to become a member here ?
Like, she / he has to be from a participating countries ?

Regina Phalange
Regina Phalange
6 years ago

Great job! <3

Ugnius
Ugnius
6 years ago

Btw, I know it’s not the best place to ask, but why is there no news concerning sanctions to Russia and Ukraine ? EBU meeting had to be held at this Monday, but everyone is silent about it…

William Lee Adams
Admin
6 years ago
Reply to  Ugnius

We’re definitely all waiting for news. Perhaps there is some behind-the-scenes negotiating going on? The Reference Group may have presented its decision to the various broadcasters and is potentially awaiting a response?

Jo
Jo
6 years ago

Alex falling off the cannon is one of the best. They should’ve kept it for the main show.

Áustria
Áustria
6 years ago

I lost 23 minutes waiting for a moment to laugh….

William Lee Adams
Admin
6 years ago
Reply to  Áustria

Lovely. Thanks for watching.