Denmark: Basim shows off his cliché love at first rehearsal

Wiwi: The host country’s contestant Basim brought his A-game to this morning’s first rehearsal. He’s kept the basic elements from the national final and it really works. The song begins with Basim standing in the dark, and throughout the opening verse he moves from dancer to dancer seeming to chat. His dancers remain slightly disheveled—they clearly had a late night!—but their dancing is on-point and in-sync. Basim really connects with the camera, and you just want to pinch his cheeks. At times he seemed to miss his camera queues, but I’m sure he’ll sort that out before the final. Perhaps the best moment of the song comes at the climax when he unfurls a massive flag with a picture of himself and a heart. LOL. He’s taking the piss out of clichés and I love it.  This is one of the cleanest, most uplifting entries of the year. Given that he’s performing in spot #23, Europe betta watch out…

Patrick: Seems like the automatic qualfiers don’t change their National Final performances! But that’s not a bad thing: his performance in Demark was fantastic, and so is this. The vocals are quite good already, and he seems completely at ease. He’s already practicing in final costume, and it literally “suits” the song! The colours and the staging are great. Bravo.

Anthony: Emmelie de Forest brought the contest back home, and now Basim has big (invisible) shoes to fill in this year. And the first rehearsal from the hosts is looking promising. It’s pretty much the performance from this year’s Dansk Melodi Grand Prix national final. So once again, Basim are with his dancers and they connect really well on stage. Vocals are spot on for Basim. Third run-through and in comes the cliché, unfurling their massive ‘Love’ flag banner. Write Denmark off at your peril, folks. It looks like they won’t be giving up their Eurovision title without a fight to the very end. Not literally though obviously!

Judit: Flawless performance. Probably it’ll make everyone happy in the B&W Hallerne. That scuba-dub-dab-dab still working, vocals are good and I’m in love with that dance moves. Basim deserves a good place!

You can read our reviews of all of the rehearsals by clicking here.You can also keep up-to-date on the latest Eurovision news and gossip by following the team on Twitter @wiwibloggs and by liking our Facebook page.

Featured image: Sander Hesterman (EBU)