By Sunday afternoon all 43 of the Eurovision 2018 acts will have completed their second rehearsals, during which they tweaked their lights, camera angles, and special effects. For the majority of countries everything is starting to come together. But Denmark has been very clear that they are not among them.

As we reported earlier this week, the Danish delegation wasn’t satisfied with their snow effects after the first rehearsal. At the climax of the song, Rasmussen and his fellow Vikings are meant to be trapped in a raging blizzard. But unfortunately Portuguese broadcaster RTP has been using soap-like snow rather than the heavier silk snow that Denmark shipped to Lisbon. As a result the snow looked more like happy bubble confetti, and there was a severe lack of wind. DR’s Jan Lagermand Lundme called for drastic changes ahead of his second rehearsal on Friday.

And we now know that he still isn’t happy. Speaking to the DR web site, he let rip.

“We addressed our concerns and had the feeling that they understood what we were talking about,” Lundme said. “But we were far from being satisfied after today’s rehearsal. It looked even worse than before!”

“The producers seem to know what we want it to look like, but it seems like the people who are supposed to actually perform the effects do not.”

He is understandably annoyed: DR specifically asked for the effect and they pre-paid for it!

Owing to this Snowmageddon drama, Denmark will receive another technical rehearsal to test the fake snow brought specifically from home. Hopefully that snow will fall more heavily and create the drama Denmark craves.

As this is a technical rehearsal for crew, Rasmussen will not be obliged to attend.

“We did this when Copenhagen hosted the contest,” Lundme says. “If the special effect isn’t working as it should, it gets another test. What we want is a wild storm, not a lovely Christmas snow and specks of snowflakes in his beard. That just doesn’t work, and until we get it right we just have to be a little irritating.”

And if they don’t?

“In the worst case scenario — and I sincerely hope it won’t come to that — we will simply drop the snow. The way it looks at the moment, we might be better off without it. But I’m certain that the production team will be able to solve the problem before Rasmussen goes on stage next Tuesday.”

Have you been underwhelmed by Rasmussen’s snow effect? Do you think a full-on blizzard is necessary? And at what point should DR just ask for a full refund? Let us know in the comments box below. 

Read more Denmark Eurovision news

Photo: Thomas Hanses (EBU)

71 Comments
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Camilla
Camilla
5 years ago

I really like this song. I’m sure they will work it out in the end. There’s no doubt that the staging is a huge part of the song in ESC.

redfox
redfox
5 years ago

the song is terrible. like bad disney copycat

New Republic
New Republic
5 years ago
Reply to  redfox

Yes

Mikkel
Mikkel
5 years ago
Reply to  redfox

You’re crazy dude xD This song is so dramatic and fantastic, and the vocals are great!

L’oiseau
L’oiseau
5 years ago

The snow drama seems completely blown out of proportion. But it shows one important trend: This year’s focus on staging. I don’t buy the LED hysteria and am completely against bashing the host on that.. But I have to admit that its absence backfired and led delegations either to care more about staging than on the song. But it also has to with the fact that overall the quality of songs are very average at best. However I find that some entries are lost without LEDs (Australia or Bulgaria). Good examples of concentrating on musical or dance performance come from… Read more »

Passarinho
Passarinho
5 years ago
Reply to  L’oiseau

In the case of Denmark they don’t need to worry more about the singing part, they nailed it since the danish final, so at the moment they should work on staging it to perfection

CyxCy
CyxCy
5 years ago

it’s normal to be a little bit demanding, they want to offer the best possible service to represent their country. I like them, these big boys. they offer something different, and at least, if we fall asleep during the evening, we are sure to be awake after their passage. XD

cfv
cfv
5 years ago

danish soap queen, hope he doesnt slip on the piece of soap

drag kvinna
5 years ago

Vikings on XANAX, more like pussydolls

somebody
somebody
5 years ago

heavier snow’s not gonna save you. you’d better paid for a deeper voice

Tas
Tas
5 years ago

As Rasmussen said, this has been blown completely out of proportion. It’s not such a big deal, really. I understand Lundme is upset about it, and I , too, would like to see special effects similar to those we had a Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, but come on… To call it a “Snowmageddon drama” is perhaps a tad too much. A technical rehearsal never killed anyone. Neither did soap-snow.

Kappes
Kappes
5 years ago

As others have mentioned already. They payed for it. They want the best for their performance as everyone does. So give them that extra rehearsal.

Marvic
Marvic
5 years ago
Reply to  Kappes

technical rehearsal yes…no more than that

Jake
Jake
5 years ago

Last year 2 years Sweden and UKraine did not allow confetti to fall during performances because of the danger with the fire elements. Last year Romania couldn’t have their canons fire on stage even though they spent money building them and shipping them to Ukraine. No fans seem to complain on wiwibloggs or accused Ukraine of being cheap. Now Denmark wants silk snow to fall from ceiling and everyone blames Portugal for being cheap. 1) If Denmark feels their act depends on 20 seconds of a snowstorm then they are in trouble. 2) It never snowstorms in Denmark–the most they… Read more »

Tas
Tas
5 years ago
Reply to  Jake

“It never snowstorms in Denmark” yeah, right, because Denmark is totally one of the least windiest countries in Europe… “Light dusting”? Where do you live, Antarctica?

EDWARD
EDWARD
5 years ago
Reply to  Tas

The UK’s only just across the North Sea and we still get snowstorms and our weather is better than in Scandinavia, gosh..

GiavK
GiavK
5 years ago

Greece also was granted an extra rehearsal today at noon but you are too busy to care about it…

Kit Kat
Kit Kat
5 years ago
Reply to  GiavK

Greece asked for another rehearsal becasuse they did not receive all their material, that still was at the customs. The new rehearsal is for today (Sunday).

Kappes
Kappes
5 years ago
Reply to  Kit Kat

It is sheduled for around 14:00 as I read somewhere else. Hopefully there will be a video clip.

Marvic
Marvic
5 years ago
Reply to  GiavK

get some information…Greece will have an extra rehearsal

Jenny
Jenny
5 years ago

Well Greece has too another run today, but for some weird reason Wiwi is soooo biased against Yianna this year, they don’t even care to mention it :/

tygww
tygww
5 years ago
Reply to  Jenny

Exactly!!

Philip
Philip
5 years ago
Reply to  Jenny

not biased, just not worth it. Greece is super boring..

Fanofmusicesc
Fanofmusicesc
5 years ago
Reply to  Philip

Only in your opinion

NoDramaQueen
NoDramaQueen
5 years ago

Always drama and demands! Denmark should act on the south pole to get its “perfect storm” as if the storm would help it to win the competition or get a high rank! If the Danish and the Greeks are the only ones experiencing technical troubles then this means that RTP has been doing a great job! And the rehearsals are this for… to detect problems and to solve them…

Ally
Ally
5 years ago

They know what they want and don’t take sh*t, that’s the right attitude, go Denmark to the final!

konik
konik
5 years ago
Reply to  Ally

No one is giving them sh it. They should have been responsible from the beginning and bring their stuff with them, not depend on others to save their @ss.

Anne Marie
Anne Marie
5 years ago

~ He should have the blizzard, imagine if Lolita Zero would have been in ESC with her smashed fruits everywhere, so don’t complain about the snow. ~ Why Chris said Germany is cheating bringing its LED? Each country has something : snow, an apartment (Moldova), a tanning bed (Sweden), mannequins (Romania). If I were Germany I would say that I withdraw if the host doesn’t have LED. I would really REALLY do that, especially as a big5 country. They were nice to bring their own LED and now are accused of cheating. ~ off topic – Suzanne, I love you,… Read more »

CookyMonzta
CookyMonzta
5 years ago
Reply to  Anne Marie

How big is Germany’s LED screen? I have not seen a single rehearsal, but given the picture I saw, it looks rather small.

Germany has a point. Lisbon cannot allow a BYOT (bring-your-own-tech) policy when it comes to Estonia or anyone else, and then turn around and say NO to Germany’s LED screen! If they can implement Estonia’s complex CGI projection devices into their stage system for Elina’s dress, they can surely do the same for Michael’s screen, easily.

Anne Marie
Anne Marie
5 years ago
Reply to  CookyMonzta

German LED seems big in my opinion. Malta has LED too, but is smaller. I’m sure is very hard being host country and I don’t want to be mean (I don’t know if my country can do better than Portugal), but as attitude, I think Portugal is wrong. They wanted everybody to be artsy-fartsy like them. Sorry but is not working this way.

Mel
Mel
5 years ago
Reply to  Anne Marie

I’m inclined to agree in the sense that I feel like Portugal’s plan has totally backfired. I can respect the intention – to make the contest more about the music – but when they left the door open for bring your own led screen / projection dress / whatever, they essentially just made things that much less equal by giving more power to countries that are willing&able to put a lot of money into their stage shows. In doing so they made the whole competition *more* about the extramusical aspects, not less.

Anne Marie
Anne Marie
5 years ago
Reply to  Mel

EBU will never allow a host to turn ESC into a radio show. Staging, the whole package will always be important in ESC. Singers can’t just stand there in front of a microphone, with the same tinfoil curtain as background.

pooky1001
pooky1001
5 years ago
Reply to  Mel

I totally agree with you on this and im not bashing the Portuguese in anyway, im English but have lived in Portugal for more than 20 years now, i liked the idea that they wanted to make the contest more about the music but allowing acts to bring their own leds etc seems very unfair to the poorer countries. Moldova put their stage together for 5000 euros and Estonia spend 65000.00 on a dress, it doesnt seem very fair to me.

Geeky Monky
Geeky Monky
5 years ago
Reply to  pooky1001

A host country would never and has never financed a projection dress (or whatever it is called) for every country. (I suppose if they did even rock bands like AWS would be wearing one.) That Estonia argument is very flawed. I believe Germany doesn’t have an LED screen, but a projection screen, Ingrosso uses only lights, and Malta is the only one with LED screens (and she probably won’t qualify). I think in previous years no host country financed projection screens. I’m so sick of this… Bashing Portugal because of the LED’s… First because we didn’t have money to buy… Read more »

Geeky Monky
Geeky Monky
5 years ago
Reply to  Geeky Monky

Now, just a final note. That Mel guy above is making a good point. Maybe the LED screen was an “equaling factor” against the schticks of “rich” countries. Maybe, most likely. But… Portugal is trying something different this year. Maybe it won’t matter so much in the end. And I think it was getting boring everyone just singing against an LED screen, seems less creative, more easy. But it can always return to the same next year. The real problem I think is that some countries are favoured by spending more money than others, and this is a constant. Something… Read more »

konik
konik
5 years ago
Reply to  Mel

Well, not really. You didnt understand their plan. There’s lots of diversity this year in terms of musical genres, so they win on that part. They made more countries work harder staging wise, instead of depending on LEDS, only Germany, Malta are using LEDS so i’d say Portugal won and achieved its goal. It’s refreshing to see so many countries working harder and being creative.

pooky1001
pooky1001
5 years ago
Reply to  CookyMonzta

I dont think Portugal have said no to the German screen, it was there on rehearsel, it was one of the wiwi blogs guys who said they thought Germany had cheated a bit by bringing their own screen but nobody seems to be complaining about Estonia, Malta or Sweden bringing their own leds.

Anne Marie
Anne Marie
5 years ago
Reply to  pooky1001

Wiwiblogger Chris Halpin said that Germany cheated bringing the screen. I don’t know what people expect from a tv show. Portugal is so wrong to think that a musical show/performance has nothing to do with visuals. Is so frustrating to see a country so narrow minded. It is a TV SHOW, do you get it? Portugal must provide a TV SHOW (meaning visuals too). The funny thing is that pretentious artsy-fartsy France might lose because they don’t have LED. Oh, how much France needed those pictures on screen! So ironic!

Marvic
Marvic
5 years ago
Reply to  Anne Marie

Portugal didn´t said that! As host they give the best lights ever on a eurovision stage!! All the entries will have a totally different staging.. Visual show its not only LEDs can you understand that??

isabel
isabel
5 years ago
Reply to  Anne Marie

German is not using an LED. It’s just a projector.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
5 years ago
Reply to  Anne Marie

I screamed at the tanning bed omg

Kip
Kip
5 years ago

We love this guy-tune entry. It’s quite the Viking anthem and needs that blizzard effect to rise to a mega-cinematic crescendo. Go Denmark and Rasmussen! We hope you make the top 10!!

Thiago
Thiago
5 years ago

Any news how we can watch this blizzard during the semi-final (not the final) in the US?

Soph
Soph
5 years ago
Reply to  Thiago

You can try changing your VPN with a service to watch the YT livestream.

CookyMonzta
CookyMonzta
5 years ago
Reply to  Thiago

Or get the SVT (Sveriges Television, Sweden) app and watch it on your Android tablet or phone, or watch it on SVT on the Web. SVT was not blocked during last year’s ESC.

Tas
Tas
5 years ago
Reply to  Thiago

The official Eurovision website often provides links to live broadcasts of the national/semi/grand finals, as far as I know.

Sasha
Sasha
5 years ago
Reply to  Tas

They geoblock it in the US because of their agreement with Viacom (owner of Logo). They have “exclusive” rights to broadcast so everything not on Logo gets blocked. Logo shows the final but not the semi finals. Last year, we did watch it on SVT, as CookyMonzta mentioned. Hopefully SVT does not use geoblocking this year too.

Catriona Colville
Catriona Colville
5 years ago

They paid for a specific stage show, and they haven’t been provided it. They every right to grievance, and another rehearsal. Fair play to them for speaking up.

CookyMonzta
CookyMonzta
5 years ago

If Lisbon didn’t want anybody (be it Estonia, Denmark or Germany) to bring their own technology to the stage, they should have put it in this year’s rulebook. It is not the fault of the other nations that this show’s director didn’t think to discourage BYOT while going low-tech with the stage.

Robot
Robot
5 years ago
Reply to  CookyMonzta

The stage is not at all low tech. It is actually very high tech, using technology that has never been used before. Silk snow and wind doesn’t seem very high tech to me…

Marvic
Marvic
5 years ago
Reply to  CookyMonzta

if you think this stage is low-tech you´re completely out…get some information!

EDWARD
EDWARD
5 years ago
Reply to  Marvic

I don’t mean to be rude but where exactly IS this high tech. The only high tech I’ve spotted is from competing nations themselves!

Danny
Danny
5 years ago

Yeah, because that is going to save this lame entry. And who’s going to clean all your blizzard in 40 seconds?

konik
konik
5 years ago
Reply to  Danny

why are you being downvoted for speaking the truth? sigh

CookyMonzta
CookyMonzta
5 years ago

Are they trying to create the same effect as they did at DMGP? I hope they get what they want. Rasmussen is my #6 going into this contest.

Lian
Lian
5 years ago

There’s an extra rehearsal for Greece, too.

Larin
Larin
5 years ago

You can barely tell there’s snow on their NF, it lasts for a few seconds

Vic
Vic
5 years ago

The snow looks weak as hell, i understand them.

xanit
xanit
5 years ago
Reply to  Vic

The song is weak as hell tbh

konik
konik
5 years ago
Reply to  xanit

downvoted for saying the truth…butthurt danes. You wont achieve top 5 lol

Conii
Conii
5 years ago

jeez….

nik
nik
5 years ago

Greece will also do an extra rehearsal because they also face problems…. Nice production Portugal… #notevenclose

Tanja
Tanja
5 years ago
Reply to  nik

Don’t be mad with Portugal… We are a very poor country without money for LEDS and a happy song.

Marvic
Marvic
5 years ago
Reply to  Tanja

right because LEDs are expensive…also a happy song is very difficult and expensive to produce…LOL

isabel
isabel
5 years ago
Reply to  nik

Greece asked for an extra rehearsal, but it was their own fault. Some of their equipment didn’t arrive on time. It arrived now, so they asked for a new rehearsal.

http:wait
http:wait
5 years ago
Reply to  isabel

The equipment arrived on Monday or Tuesday i think so its not their fault. They fail to display some effects and some other things.

Marvic
Marvic
5 years ago
Reply to  nik

you gotta be kidding?! every single year several delegations had to repeat rehearsals…thats normal!
Remember Portugal in 2015??? they had to perform against because of technical issues…so what?

Somebody
Somebody
5 years ago

And obviously you don’t mention that Greece is also having an extra rehearsal, showing once again prejudice.

esc1234
esc1234
5 years ago
Reply to  Somebody

come on they may not be informed…

Geeky Monky
Geeky Monky
5 years ago

“The soap bar glows white in my bathroom sink tonight
Not a happy viking… To be seen
A kingdom of disappointment
And it looks like they’re the queens

Love the draama, love the drama, don’t let the drama go

Let the bubbles float on!

Snowmageddons of bubble confettis never bothered me anyway”

Geeky Monky
Geeky Monky
5 years ago
Reply to  Geeky Monky

I think they should complain as much as needed, I’m just joking.
Don’t want to convey the wrong idea.
But I do love the drama.