A neo-noir film. An anthem for equality. And a technicolor tour de force at a house party.
Today Israel, France and Spain take the stage for their second rehearsals. You can find our reviews below.
Reactions and reviews to second rehearsals: Israel, France and Spain
Israel: Kobi Marimi with “Home”
This was another vocally assured performance from Kobi Marimi. Were this The Voice no doubt he’d walk away the winner.
And there have been some minor tweaks to staging. The shattered fragments of screen behind him project his face sooner. Lighting-wise they have also brightened things up.
The neo-noir feel is still there, and the backing dancers look classy, but they’ve managed to make it feel less dour than before.
This is a host country entry and Kobi is drawn fourteenth which undoubtedly counts against this.
However, he can be proud of his performance and how expensively this comes across. How well it can do depends on the songs that are sandwiched around it in the running order.
France: Bilal Hassani with “Roi”
France dialled up the emotion during the second rehearsal.
The projections on Bilal’s face cycled too quickly during the first run, but that was mitigated by new additions in the performance.
In particular the final shot is of a young Bilal, which then fades to the messages, “We are all Kings.”
More than a few tears were shed at the wiwibloggs table after that.
“Roi” has an important message which has been elevated by the staging. This looks expensive, it looks French and Bilal shines.
Vocally it sounded as if there were a few issues in the mix – at times Bilal sounded as though backing vocalists were not supporting him – but that is what rehearsals are for and this can be ironed out.
Spain: Miki with “La Venda”
The house party is back in full swing!
Camera shots on the house are tighter, Miki looks like a man having fun rather than a man finding camera marks, and the frenetic energy from the national final has been restored.
The puppet – which represents society’s expectations – still feels unnecessary, but the Go-Pro segment has improved. There’s a nice overhead shot of the group that adds the party atmosphere.
But by far the strongest segment is where Miki and his dancers run down the catwalks for the climax.
Spain has made a lot of progress, but it still feels like there is a lot going on. The house section has been tightened up a lot, but it feels like this would be stronger without the robot and the go-pro.
Check out all of our rehearsal news here
Photo Credit: EBU
There were plenty of reviews written during Destination Eurovision. I suggest you go back and read those. The controversy and power of the lyrics was discussed in detail, as was Bilal Hassani’s androgynous look.
I do not understand what makes Spain in the number 14 in betting, this year Spain is one of the best songs, super catchy, danceable and with good vibes, this year Spain deserves at least a top 10 given how good is the song , by the setting in scene super beautiful and colorful and by its fantastic singer Miki, I hope that in the final change things for the better because this year Spain is not having what it deserves
#SaveESC #StopFrance #Moscow2020 #Amsterdam2020 #Stockholm2020 #Valetta2020 #Athen2020
Bilal and Mahmood have the advantage of LED to send the message that a non english song can’t send. Madame Monsieur had the bad luck to participate in Lisbon, and only had some lights.
Madame Monsieur needed to put on stage Mercy ( refugee child) with a piece of baguette in her hand….
Oh please….that was actually and literally the theme of the song! The mercy playing card didn´t work out the way they were expecting so this time they decided to put it directly on our faces!! PURE DEMAGOGY TO GET VOTES! THAT IS WHAT IS SHAMEFUL.
You are shameful. You ‘re desperately seeking any pretext for spitting your hatred. Many hoped that France would use the little Mercy on stage, and we did not fall into this trap. Many hoped that Bilal would do a megalomaniac staging and he did not fall into this trap, he highlighted two great dancers to make his message plural. we are closed to the goal without trying to copy anyone. Bilal is unique and his proposal is unlike any other choreography already seen in Eurovision. And I have no doubt that next year, our next contestant will do something totally… Read more »
People need to stop being hateful to France, this is a quality performance and does more than The Netherlands, Russia and Sweden who are the over-hyped to f-k favorites to win. Duncan just remains at a piano for the entire performance which for me weakens and cheapens it, Russia always deliver quality but, the staging mirrors are just jarring and cheap looking and Sweden, the weaker version of Bigger Than Us and weaker vocals too. Every year the Swedes do deliver quality but, just like last year they are over-hyped just because it’s Sweden. Bilal utilizes a message of acceptance,… Read more »
Stop trying to sell us that Roi is a song about intolerance and judgement. That’s not the reality. Roi is a song about Bilal and his life, that’s all. We could see it during Destination Eurovision, in his videoclip, in the lyric video… it’s always about Bilal, always projecting clips of his childhood. When this egocentric message failed (cause it failed, nobody was buying it), Bilal decided to sell us his dancers and their drama. He is using their drama to succeed… but only in the stage, cause when something like the Orange Carpet appears, those dancers disappear. Bilal only… Read more »
How can you compare what Mahmood and Duncan are doing with what Bilal is doing? Bilal is literally projecting videos of his dancers in the background. They are not “just dancers” like in the case of Mahmood: Bilal is using their drama to receive votes cause the song and his own story FAILED. And yes, I say drama cause that’s what Bilal is trying to sell: their hard childhood and how now they achieved their dreams. He tried to sell us his story, his problems, during months, and he FAILED.
So true.
France is not gonna win, this year a quality song + performer will win.
Last year Madame Monsieur was really high in odds and they ended in 13° place with a much better song than Bilal’s. I’m quite skeptical about his chances of winning or ending in the top 10.
In fact, I believe this year will be the year of surprises.
The strategy used by the French delegation is great but not new to the audience and the juries. The times where the most touching film won the Oscars are over. Démodé. Nowadays I personally appreciate more something different, creative, with essence and positive if possible.
I totally see Portugal suiting your last sentence.
Portugal, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Slovenia, Poland among others are creative and unique in their way this year in my opinion
Agree but I find Portugal more artsy.
Ok, so let me get this straight: Eurofans are furious at france for “using” the background dancers to gain sympathy votes in the final, but were happily clapping along when: -hatari used the israeli political situation to gain the protest vote + the queer vote for their bdsm clothing. -when jamala sang a song about the genocidal history of her people – when countries like poland and russia send disabled singers and portray the message of the song around their disbability. And i could go on and on with this list. So to be short: I really don’t see the… Read more »
Very true
I agree with most of your POV, but we might see different limitations. In the case of Monika or Yulia, it’s their story that they’re selling, so if they succeed, they win for themselves. While here, the delegation shares us the story of these dancers. If they succeed, some people, including me, were uncertain of whether their success would bring any benefit towards these dancers. It would still be known as Bilal Hassani’s performance.
You really have a thing against Hatari don’t you? I see you posting about them all the time!!
i agree.
Totally agree with you.
I do not understand all these negative messages…it sounds to me like a french or Bilal bashing.
Congratulations to french delegation and to Bilal; this year, staging is so nice and very touching.
Bilal’s song is telling us a true and very sincere story. Bravo and never mind for all the haters or jealous people…
Yes and against anything Swedish in general. Don’t forget that.
I think Bilal is making a statement too obvious that it’s almost silly. Hope it doesn’t win. And the song is not that good. Period.
Maybe I’ll make an essay about what’s going on with France. — France is a beautiful country with a beautiful language, and has risen up their game since 2016, so people would look at them as big contender to win (while in relevance they are not really one). That’s one of the factors we have them in the top 3 odds today. — Now, onto the staging. The art deco backdrop was great and I would not change a thing about it. However, we will talk about the dancers. Generally, interpretive dance is bad, but we’re not talking about the… Read more »
TOUCHÉ! I couldn´t agree more!
I think it is easy to be self-righteous about every performance. In some way they are all selling an image. I don’t think France is any different. It is down to the viewer to decide if that is an image they buy into or if they don’t. I don’t know but I’m guessing the dancers willingly decided to join Bilal’s performance for their own reasons and you can say Bilal himself is being cynical but then again, name me an artist who isn’t being cynical in an attempt to get votes?
About dancer. Do you know if she has some genetic disorder that makes her unable to lose weight…? Because how is it even possible to be obese as a dancer? Seriously, dance is an amazing exercise to entire body. I mean, if it’s not genetic, what kind of lifestyle do you have to lead to still be obese even if your job is one huge exercise?
Can you even imagine her joints being a dancer that is as wide as she is tall???
I didn’t wanted to add a single Youtube view to the FR thing but I forgot turn off the autoplay and this **** came on.
How it is even possible that the poorest vocalist of all the contest this year can win ????????
I want to screaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam, on what world are we living. It’s not even 0,0001% of Sergey vocals and class
Eurofans do something we can’t let that happening. It would mark a total lost of credibility of the eurovision as a song contest.
Now I even prefer seeing Duncan to win, this tells you all.
Just vote for your Russian drama queen once and for all and please SHUT UP now.
France is so winning this.
Paris 2020.
Not my favorite before, but now I’d bet all my savings on it.
Best from Spain
Credit to France for taking a song that is a contender for last place and making it relevant through staging and presentation. That’s why the contest isn’t carried out over the radio!
France for the Win. Sorry Duncan. #Marseille2020
Thinking that France can win is crazy. Thinking that Marseille could host the contest is even more…
if it ever happened, it will be played between Paris, Nanterre, Lille and Lyon. Unless they decide to test in advance equipment planned for the Olympic Games, or to do the show outdoors (Nancy, Nîmes, Carcassonne)
Honestly the go-pro moment looks really interesting, hope it works. It’s fun how some people complain about too many things going on, but then praise some other circuses. I love the staging. It will not fail in making an impact. Also, France is playing the sympathy vote. They want to pull a “Conchita Wurst” bringing those two non-normative dancers. Conchita had the voice but Bilal is struggling in every note, though obviously people won’t pay attention to that. I don’t like this type of strategies but will most probably work. About Israel, I don’t quite like the song, but the… Read more »
Israel and Swedens songs are strikingly similar. The chorus has the same melody. One is fast and the other slow but essentially the same. Weird
Songs comes and go but singers like kobi from israel you see once in a very long time…i think one day eurovision will be aonord that he performed there
I don’t really understand why so many people are annoyed by the fat and deaf dancers? Roi is a song about intolerance and judgement, they aren’t that out of place
So if critique is OK for you, we have the right.
If not: delete comment ?
OK, there are some real insults but the comments are globally OK here compared to twitter or Facebook.
No homophobic things for example
Also when we use France, we target the French team including the singer, not french people
And I can have a bad critique on my country (=eurovision team) if I estimate that they do pitiful and hypocrite tricks for winning the contest.
So, having worked on the choreography, having found a real good idea by using two talented dancers who had to overcome obstacles, have reworked the music and worked on the voice, have also reworked the look of Bilal for you is so many “pitiful” choices for you? From the beginning there is a wave of unjustified hatred against this kid, just because he proposes something different, just because he has a good “head to cheek” as we say at home, and that people feel strong behind their screen by taking him for a punching ball, just because he had the… Read more »
Very well said. Bravo
Bravo !
Bilal is representing a country but that doesn’t mean that the critiques he’s getting are aiming to France? Tbh your comment is just nonsense
She ain’t no Conchita. Conchita had poise, restraint, dignity and didn’t rely on PC gimmicks. Shame on you France for being so patronizing and cynical.
At least Conchita was aesthetic to watch, looked like Jesus.
“conchita didn’t rely on pc gimmicks” umm yeah… Right.
Fat and deaf dancers are just a cheap tactic to make weak songs stronger, quit embarassing yourself
Yes
and not present on the orange “red” carpet of the opening ceremony. Just the Diva Hassani with very long white wedding like dress….
Incredible/Terrible
Shame on my country which plays this kind of egocentric strategy
how is inviting two talented dancers to perform with him embarrassing lol ?
That Steven Universe reference!
All I wanna do is see you turn into a giant woman,
A giant woman!
All I wanna be is someone who gets to see a giant woman.
yep lmao
Wait, nevermind. I guess the next question is ‘will they fuse onstage to make a giant woman?’
Well done for displaying such incredible tolerance – please tell me which songs you like so I can see the hypocrisy dripping down off you.
Our song (yes I am from France) is so cliché and calculated, really don’t deserve this overate
Israel: Welp, looks like they chose the best angles for their own entry. Aside of that, the staging looked kind of weird for me since unconnecting elements (like, pyros?) clashed together. Kobi sounded good as always. France: I feel uncomfortable for this entry. Some people have said they nailed the staging with those dancers, but for me it’s just as if France was slutting in on televotes. As Sabrina has said, the key is how do you feel about the message presentation, and I feel manipulated more than touched. Tamara’s “Proud” has the same message but it hits me better.… Read more »
Israel: a respectable old fashioned staging for a respectable old fashioned song.
France: it’s polished and professional. The key is how do you feel about how they convey the message: do you feel emotionally touched or manipulated? I believe there’s an overreaction by both sides. I appreciate their intent, but I still think the song and the singing aren’t good enough to justify all this sudden hype.
Spain: it looks pretty good on camera. Miki is very likeable, but he could be even more if he had more freedom during the performance.
That’s a very smart, balanced comment.
Well, Sabrina’s comments are usually very balanced. I sometimes envy her capacity to say her opinion without offending anyone. Although I try hard, I am unable to always be so politically correct.
Thank you guys. 🙂 I don’t even consider myself a very politically correct person, I just try to give the artists and delegations the same treatment I would like to get if I was in their places. Imagine the pressure on these people’s shoulders. In the end, they’re all trying to do their best. And if they achieve that, the show will be better for all of us.
Israel: a respectable old fashioned staging for a respectable old fashioned song.
France: it’s polished and professional. The key is how do you feel about how they convey the message. Do you feel emotionally touched or manipulated by it? I think there’s overreaction by both sides. I appreciate their intent, but I still don’t think the song or the singing are good enough.
Spain: it looks very good on camera. Miki is very likeable, but he could be even more if they gave him more freedom during the performance.
France is so proud of their vote-baits dancers that they don’t even dare inviting them to the red carpet ceremony. How classy, the values, the message bla bla bla. Every other countries all the dancers and backsingers all together.
Trying to play the Diva , the Conchita 2.0.
It was so weird that I didn’t believe you.
I checked…
And you’re right….
Everything is buzz with this guy.
Pathetic/Disgusting/…
Choose the right answer.
hmm kate’s dancers didn’t come to the red carpet either and we don’t hear you complaining, i wonder why lol….
They do the promotion of the differences in the song until hiring a fat and a deaf dancer on stage.
They emphasize on this as on diversity, self power when you’re different.
But when there is a huge occasion to do this out of the stage while photographers are present…
Oops, no one except the self proclaimed star (by his behavior).
Sorry but it’s pure hypocrisy from my country (I mean eurovision team).
They are promoting only one thing: the singer himself and expect only the win.
LOL
He did the press conferences with them, most articles say their name, there are a lot of photos of bilal with them outside of the stage but go off I guess ! Also they’ll be performing on international tv, in front of 200 millions viewers, so they’ll be fine don’t worry about them 😉
Again it only bothers you when it’s bilal but when it’s another artist it’s okay suddenly smh
I don’t want to repeat myself, but they put them out of the closet only when they need them.
For this evening, it was the Bilal’s show. Everything planned.
If they were really promoting their “strong” message, they would be proud to share celebrity and flash lights with them, but it is only purely opportunistic (and hypocrite).
no one watches the opening ceremony, the huge opportunity to showcase their talent is to be on stage with bilal during the final ! and they’re both very happy to perform with him btw also you’re still not answering why it’s a problem when bilal doesn’t bring his backing dancers but it’s okay if kate (or mahmood, i believe his dancers were not there either) don’t either! also bilal’s dancers were actually at the opening ceremony with him (inside), so they probably just didn’t want to come with bilal on the red carpet 😉 anyway, i think you should just… Read more »
Maybe the dancers didn’t want to participate to the orange carpet, have you taken that into consideration? Plus, Bilal is #nodiva
“Quand je rêve je suis un roi” Un… qoui??? France, really? I mean, whatever happened to Baby Jane? 😀 That is, to your repu…..n values, hi hi hi… 😉 On the sunny side though, it was about time that France be honoured with a new, long awaited victory, and should it actually happen, I will be sort of glad, I guess. Speaking of which, an interesting parallel comes to mind: If Bilal Hassani gains a victory for France this year, it will happen exactly 50 years after another Morroccan-born performer accomplished the same,-namely, Frida Boccara with her timeless “Un jour,… Read more »
WTF whho is putting so much money to bet for France ??go to loose all .love it
Bring back fast food music!!!
I am French and I really do not understand why all of a sudden this has become one of the bookies favourite. It’s so clear that if this does very well it is only because of the message because being honest his vocals (Bilal’s) are still not well and the song itself sounds a bit narcissistic. Regardless, I think this will not do as well as last year.
BILAL…This is pure demagogy. He is trying to play the sympathy/empathy card…He is using an appealing message to get votes. it´s just like if last year, MADAME MONSIEUR would put Mercy (the refugee child) on stage holding a piece of baguette in her hand…
And guess what? They ended up 13th while everybody loved the song. France has learnt from their mistakes, they are playing the game 🙂
Did you watch the whole performance? Sorry…but not for me. And the last sentence on the screen?…..oh please! Everything is so CLICHÉ.
I have to agree with you, Annie. Bilal’s staging this year it feels to me like a desperation move and a way of pandering to people, and that bothers me very much. At the end of the day, it’s a song contest, and despite the bookies and press people going bonkers over it, I think”Roi” is not strong enough to win
I liked Mercy as a song and was indifferent to the meaning (I’m not one who cares much about meaning in any song as long as it sounds good).
I liked Mercy too. No artifacts were needed for me to like it but apparently it wasn’t enough for them.
Race is over guys, PARIS 2020
ye France is buying everything lately. After Football world cup last year, the 2024 Olympic games they have now decided to buy Eurovision 2019.
I wish we had that much money 😀
Hermès You have. C’est vos impots :’)
France held the Euros not the World Cup. It was Russia that bought the World Cup…
We even bought a Miss Universe three years ago. How wealthy <3
I will be really disappointed if the Netherlands lose the trophy over France. Really this will become a circus. And it is so obvious what they are doing with the fat dancer it just becomes even more annoying.
Netta won last year and Cyprus came second and you’re only talking about circus now ? At the end of the day he has the best staging and the best message regardless what people say
Last year was last year this is a whole new contest. And it is a song contest best song should win not best staging. And by the way France is neither best song or staging sorry.
Best staging ? let me laugh.
Chriss is right. Bilal’s song absolutely doesn’t deserve left part of the scoreboard. Perhaps with the staging it will do top 10. But the song is not good enough. For me, there are objectively a least of 15 better songs than Roi. Same for singers.
Bookies are going crazy…
I don’t want to sound mean, but I don’t really get this sudden hype for France. Yes, the staging is pretty interesting. but the song and his voice are still average. I would be so disappointed if it would win.
And also tbh, I don’t find anything so special about the snippet. Maybe the press is watching something else, that isn’t shown to us yet, but so far there’s nothing extraordinary about it. So I don’t get people who are blown away just from that 40sec snippet.
This text exactly works for Azeri entry too.
I think that everybody outside that press room is confused about the hype around France! The song is still quite bland, his vocals are not not good, and the staging is nothing we haven’t seen before (Bojana Stamenov did it before). Really waiting for Saturday to see what is so special about this.
Bojana’s song was more about herself
How corny. Deaf woman I get but fat dancer? Why not represent someone who’s actually struggling or opressed. Fat people are the epitome of 1st world privilege. Having so much food available, over-eating to the point of becoming obese… are we supposed to feel sorry for her? She’d be a 10 times better dancer if she lost weight. This performance was brought to you by Nestlé. Fat-acceptance only benefits the food companies.
Meanie Mimi, no name, MUCH?
Preach!
Except weight isn’t just an issue of eating too much, there are plenty of genetic and health reasons a person may be overweight. One of my closest friends is overweight and she’s tried so hard to lose weight but no matter what she does she just can’t, but she still gets treated like she’s disgusting and not trying hard enough when all of her friends know that she IS trying. Overweight people are treated unfairly by everyone, and even doctors often dismiss fat peoples health issues as their weight when in reality there was a much more serious issue completely… Read more »
Relax, France is always overrated by the bookies.
Wait, yeah, why do we forgot about that? 😛
The songs which are not very good but do have an unexpectedly good staging just get a lot of positive attention now because of the low expectations. Therefor they get a boost now in the odds, as traction around the songs goes up. In the final when most people hear all songs for the first time the real quality songs will end up on top again.
I’m not gonna give in to the outrage present in the comments, and just say what I see – this year France is giving us a fantastically revamped song (that was quite good to begin with), slick, creative, majestic, simply beautiful staging and a solid, charismatic singer bringing us a postive, empowering message. Is it my winner? Definitely not. But you’ve gotta reward a hard work of French delegation, and in my opinion this act deserves a top 10 finish. And who cares about the betting odds? They’re not prophets, it’s normal that they overhype some entries during the rehearsals… Read more »
Preach.
I completely understand the hype around ROI, it’s one of those songs that I have listened to frequently since it was chosen in the national final and I still haven’t gotten sick of it. Didn’t think it would do well since I wasn’t expecting such amazing staging, but the song is finally getting the appreciation it deserves and I think it’s a total dark horse to win.
His voice is not good enough to win, in the end people will not vote for off-key singing..
this is true, his voice doesn’t live up to the studio recording definitely
songs still a bop tho
He isn’t off-key anymore with that revamp though so people will just discover an vocally average yet charismatic singer 🙂
France has already bought the victory. I feel sorry for all the dutchies that had such high hopes this year.
Go back to your hole in the ground, dear!
Clearly you must be upset that your dear sergey won’t win this year, he doesn’t even deserve to be top 5 bookies prefered to rely to much on the staging rather than the song and look where it got him
tbh I really don’t get the sudden hype around France…
I think you all are overreacting on France, and acting like it’s all about the staging and the song has no importance. Roi is bland as it can be and it’s not going to win this contest.
well clearly staging matters otherwhise Sergey would’ve never won televote in 2016
staging matters too, but his song was a bop anyway, cheesy but still a bop.
I think that Sergey’s pretty popular in former Soviet countries helped and will help this year too.
I like both Bilal and Roi, however: the complete act/message feels like Conchita Wurst all over again.
I’d be sad for The Netherlands to end up second again, right behind a guy with a wig instead of a beard.
With respect, but I don’t think those compare on a same level since Duncan’s staging, song, lyrics and personality are not about the acceptance of nudists.
With respect, Una, but that is the most childish and unmature comment I have read in a long time. We all have a butt but we not all have a wig. So it is right for Eleni Foureira to have only her nipples covered with some shiny fabric and do some twerking on stage, or for Maruv to have 4 woman doing a human centipide, but it’s not OK to show 1 second of butt in a video where it absolutely make sense for artistic reasons and it, in fact, adds something to the clip? If anyone sees anything sexual… Read more »
Kobi has the best voice in the contest by far but his song is probably not going to appeal for the masses…only to the ones that are looking to hear a real song and not a circus
« A real song » LOL, are you Salvador Sobral talking about fast food music? Sounds a lot like this
And to qualify an androgyne guy, overweight and deaf dancers of a circus … Really appropriate
I have a huge respect for Bilal, but the song Roi sorry … don’t hate me but i just don’t like it