Eurovision is getting closer — and with it the filming of live-on-tape back-up performances in case the contest — or any of its artists — is put on lockdown. A total of five countries have filmed or will film their back-up performances in Sofia this week, as Bulgaria’s Eurovision team shared in a press release.
“Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Moldova are among the delegations that selected the Bulgarian capital for their Eurovision back-up recordings. This year, in order to guarantee that the Eurovision Song Contest will take place under all possible circumstances, all delegations must record a back-up performance in case any unforeseen circumstances prevents their participation in Rotterdam to occur.”
“The performances will resemble the Eurovision stage performances to the fullest extent possible, in case they need to be part of the show on 18th, 20th and 22nd of May in Rotterdam.”
“A special studio in Sofia was selected to be the venue of the live on tape recordings of VICTORIA from Bulgaria, Elena Tsagrinou from Cyprus, Stefania from Greece, Destiny from Malta and Natalia Gordienko from Moldova. Just like in the usual Eurovision set up, the delegations have the opportunity first to rehearse their entries. After that they will do their live performances under the supervision of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).”
In an Instagram post, shared on Sunday evening, Stefania described it as “an amazing experience” and shared major love for her team, including a group of male dancers.
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VICTORIA, who will perform “Growing Up is Getting Old“ in Rotterdam, was happy to meet her fellow artists.
“It was a tough year for all of us being unable to work together, so I am extremely happy to be able to meet other talented performers on the Bulgarian soil. I am sure that we are going to have great time together here in Sofia.”
Genoveva Christova, the co-producer of Bulgaria’s Eurovision 2021 project, said:
“Eurovision is all about giving opportunities for creative projects and exchange of knowledge. Bulgaria is already an important hub for cinematic and musical projects, among others. Now we are committed to become better in the production of live television programs, and hosting such projects is part of the journey to make Bulgaria important destination for large-scale live television events. We are grateful to our partners from Ten Dots Virtual Production Studio and Marvin Dietmann’s amazing team for working together to make this possible and of course, to the delegations of Malta, Cyprus, Moldova and Greece for trusting in us.”
Malta’s Destiny — who famously won Junior Eurovision in Bulgaria — clearly hopes to see the sights when she isn’t rehearsing. In an Instagram post on Sunday, she wrote:
“Hello guys and girls! Just arrived in #Sofia in #Bulgaria! It’s not my first time here but would really love to see some beautiful places! Any ideas on where I should go?”
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Just a question that came to my mind: can you use different takes for the final and the semis respectively? Because if you cannot it will look a bit flat compared to the live performances that can improve of get worse etc. in between semis and the grand final.
this is a funny comment but still its irrelevant
I know what’s worse. Making fun of soemones appearance, which shows that even if you are a top model you lack respect to others, something that is more important than looking like Victoria’s secret models
How does the stage look like this year? Is the organizer gonna recycle the same stage as last year?
Yes they will. They did say there might be a few tweaks with the standing crowd area not being used so we’ll probably get the green room there.
Good to know! Thanks!
Why do some countries record their live-on-tape performances in one same country instead of their home countries?
There may not be suitable venues in their home countries that meet the requirements given to them by the EBU. In the case of some of the delegations who went to Vilnius, Lithuania to film theirs there, the reason was that it was much affordable to do it there.
So basically, it’s economic.
This all looks a little like a smokescreen to me. The rules should stipulate you record this AT HOME unless there are extenuating circumstances. Malta – why?
More than just the venue, the entire costs of production may have been too prohibitive for some countries to do theirs at home.
I can hardly believe that Greece and Cyprus couldn’t find a suitable venue in Athens?
Same for Germany (they travelled to Lithuania). I mean how much more expensive it is to shoot the performance in a German venue…
Cheaper, duh.
Building a whole stage for one artist and one song is just a waste of resources.
because it’s cheaper. that’s why so many music videos are shot in kiev for example
I apology for this uneducated person
That all checks out. They’re all close to each other.
Wow she’s only 18!!?
An old child that turned from 14 to 41
They have already filmed it in Vilnius (in the same venue as Jendrik from Germany)
They filmed it already in Avia Solutions Group Arena in Vilnius. But they modified the stage and made it look way bigger.
They already filmed in Siemens arena
Imagine – all these filmings are taking place all over Europe with travelings around in groups in order to prevent nontraveling to Rotterdam. I mean…go figure. Hahah
Do you think that all these delegations want to travel all around Europe to record some live-on-tape performances? No. But they have to. By the time they aren’t capable of having the equipment to do those preformances in their own countries (because who know that Eurovision would need this overall?) some countries decided to have their performances together, so that the cost of the production will be limited (that’s why Jendrik went to Lithuania, Vasil to Serbia and the QUEENS in Bulgaria, also I think that Albania had their live-on-tape while Anxhela was in Sweden)
Sightseeing? In this economy??
Why not if it’s outside. Do you stay indoors 24/7?
Good luck to all queens, and I am sure every single one of them will qualify! Also, I heard Greece slayed the performance. I hope they don’t get leaked though.
Wasn’t Croatia also supposed to be in Sofia with them?
On reports this must have happened. But Albina was on Saturday on a venue in Zagreb so I doubt she went in Sofia. Maybe she will go in the future, maybe no, maybe she went and she kept it secret, just like Elena until today (not like Stefania, but mostly Natalia and especially Philip Kirkorov who flooded Instagram with multiple stories from Sofia)
Why would they keep it secret? It’s free promo for their entry on IG.
I guess Albina has a different schedule but she has to film it before the deadline later this month.
All the queens in Rotterdam (I also think also Albina is going to Sofia for live-on-tape).
The fun fact is that the four dancers that will be in Stefania’s side in Rotterdam also recorded the live-on-tape of Moldova (so imagine if Natalia is positive on covid-19 having Stefania’s dancers on 2 songs in the same contest, it’s kinda weird).
From Greek site reports, Elena Tsagrinou but especially Stefania slayed on their performances. Hope they gonna slay too in Rotterdam
We talk about Greek based Eurovision-based bloggs (just like Wiwibloggs you know). But it also seems on the odds that things went well, by the time we see both Greece and Cyprus improving in the odds (imagine in betting opportunities for the top 10 Greece right now is in the 10th place, while for the winner Greece swings between 12th-14th place) Let’s pray anything will go okay in Rotterdam for all artists. Imagine that in Greek radio now you hear lots of times Stefania’s song, but mostly Elena’s song, something that doesn’t usually happen in that big range (just like… Read more »
Why aren’t they filming that back-up thing everybody in their own countries? And are their stage show ready yetl? Singing is ok but i am not sure if they had enough time to cover dance/stage show etc…? I guess that back-up clips only will be like standing and singing… And if one participant sings live and the other from back-up clip will it be fair?
It will be fair because everybody knew beforehand that they needed to provide a back up performance and it’s what they signed up for when they decided to do eurovision during the pandemic. Nobody wants to have covid and use the back up performance during the liveshows but they prefer it to not competing. It’s the only option to hold eurovision with a pandemic. They aren’t filming in their own countries because building a complex stage + hiring a venue 39 times is expensive
So bulgaria has money to build a stage? So why are they always leaking money feom eu?
Stefania lives in Utrecht. Why is she flying all over Europe to film a back up performance in these COVID times? (The same applies of course to all other delegations.) Isn’t the idea that we travel as little as possible at this moment?
Kontopoulos is coming from greece,so its easier for him…
Well, she had to be in Greece to record the song and the videoclip (as these couldn’t happen otherwise). Also, because ERT and CyBC don’t have suitable venues for live-on-tape performances which Bulgaria somehow has, they all went (joined also by Malta, Moldova and Croatia, even though the last one hasn’t confirmed it) to Sofia for that recording.
Of course all covid tests are being held for every person travelling, because Greece has very strict measures.
After all, she is going back in Netherlands, where she will probably stay until the Eurovision
She can live next door to arena in Rotterdam and it doesn’t matter. She goes where team Greece goes.
Then the greek delegation would need to hire rotterdam ahoy and make sure a mega stage would be built only for Stefania + the greek delegation would need to travel to the netherlands. It would be just as complex.
Is not all over Europe Greece and Bulgaria, take a life
I read Bulgaria are under lockdown right now, I’m not sure they should be out sight-seeing. The whole point of this back-up thing is to prevent the spread of Covid, or so I thought. In Rotterdam, they are meant to stay in their hotels all week.
Destiny is like child I didn’t want do grow up ._.