Ireland’s Lesley Roy has taken to the stage inside Ahoy Rotterdam for her first rehearsal of Eurovision 2021. And she’s going all out, taking us inside a life-size storybook.
Ireland’s Lesley Roy “Maps” — Eurovision 2021 first rehearsal
Oliver: The most complex staging of the day by far. Think Greta Salóme’s “Hear Them Calling” but in storybook format. Hopefully Ireland 2021 is destined for a better result than Iceland 2016. The set looks like something from a marionette theatre — and not in a bad way. The Irish songstress moves through forest and ocean scenes, very appropriate for the “Maps” storyline. Visually, it’s gripping, but it’s not without its downfalls. Lesley’s wearing an all-green textured velvet jumpsuit that doesn’t entirely match with the rest of the staging. Also, there’s a few issues with cues that need sorting out to make the whole performance flow a bit better, as today it felt rather static. But overall, this is promising. A good vocal performance too, besides one slightly sharp note at the end.
Padraig: Ireland’s staging is all sorts of wow! And delivers probably the most fully-formed visual narrative of the day. In essence, we see Lesley transported into a real-life storybook complete with paper trees. It’s like a fantasy version of the music video. It borrows elements from performances such as Sweden 2015, Iceland 2016, Austria 2016 and even Silvàn Areg from France’s Destination Eurovision 2019. There are still a few kinks to be sorted in terms of camera angles and shots, but they should easily be fixed. Lesley herself looks stunning, barefoot and dressed in a green jumpsuit. She seems to be holding back with her vocals, which is completely understandable given all the movements which she has to master. Also, we were only shown the final run-through, so who knows what we missed earlier?
Reaction to Ireland’s first rehearsal at Eurovision 2021
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Photo: EBU / ANDRES PUTTING
This will prove a popular staging idea and score enough votes just based on it’s uniqueness. Silvan Areg got second with the jury at Destination Eurovision 2019 with similar staging.
Well she’s got a map to the final for sure, it’s going to be an outrage if we don’t see Ireland in the final this year!
There are lots of futile comments about the performance when most people did not see the full effect. It’s like watching a film seeing only the green screen. You cannot judge this until you see the full effect. Performances like The Roop where what you saw is what you are going to get can be judged but not Ireland where people did not see the visual.
Based on this rehearsal alone I can already tell that the second one will be even better. The concept and meaning of the song of Maps is definitely evident. Ireland stands a very good chance of qualifying with this unique staging idea.
Cant say much for the visual,but vocally she wasnt be good. Good luck!
First rehearsal is always a throwaway. It’s more about working the stage and getting your cues right.
I’m a bit disappointed. The stage looks fine but the performance was not okay. Come on Lesley you can do this!
Did you watch the full performance with the visuals? If not, how can you say it wasn’t okay??
I really like Lesley! She must qualify and I believe she still can!
Promising staging but she really has to improve her vocals because it is really not good.
Keep in mind that she needs to save her voice for the next few weeks.
I think she might be saving her voice but also you gotta give her credit for singing while on a treadmill
Actually her vocals sound better than the livestreaming on wiwibloggs. So guys calm down, this is not the final product. But to be honest, it’s really a risk she is taking there, doing a lot of stuff in 3 minutes and singing live.
Her staging will look like the one of Silvan Areg from french nf in 2019 (for the ones which remember it) so it’s work only on tv. I think peoples will find it very orginal and give her bigger chance to qualify 🙂
Some parts yet but not all of it. It\’s a mix of Sweden 2015/2016 as well.
Well, this one will only make perfect sense on TV. The good news is that it takes a totally different approach compared with the other acts, which may be an asset. I’ll be rooting for Ireland. 🙂
Deserve to qualify just for the fact to have keep live back vocalists.
She’s trying to avoid Covid , isn’t it obvious
Over in Ireland we run through the mountains to escape the virus.
Gotta be one step ahead of covid
For now I think Ireland is headed straight for top3 in this semi and is a contender for overall winner. The song is amazing – it manages to be modern yet thoroughly (and very importantly after the past 2 years) nostalgic – yet it also carries an earnest and truthful message and may well have the best staging of the year. If Lesley has the vocals nailed by next Monday’s jury show that is…
The best staging of the year after seeing only six rehearsals ..
“may well” and very few countries will be doing things as elaborate as this, maybe Greece but that’s just about it.
delusional
Calm down, cowboy.
Boring…..
Such an edgy remark lol
Yes, you are!
The staging looks creative and promising, but the vocals are iffy. Let’s hope things improve down the line.
I am trying to imagine how this will look like on TV because from this clip we can’t really see a lot of things. It seems to be very TV-based. Nevertheless it seems like a very creative idea. I am a bit concerned about her vocals, given that she is also running.
Looks messy but it’s only the first rehearsal. This has so much potential.
For everyone going on about vocals, The Irish delegation said today was a tech rehearsal more then anything else and vocals were being held back, hence only 2 runthroughs!! As for what we saw, it was nothing like it will appear. You have to wait for 2nd rehearsal to see that. Hold your fire with the sideline comments till we see what we are really going to get.
This is a dark horse IF they nail the staging and vocals. It’s just a first technical rehearsal so i don’t worry much.
When you have a complex staging, it’s normal to have some issues with camera shots, vocals etc.
I am really curious to see the final staging. GO IRELAND!
Imagine the audience in the arena watching her running towards nothing…
I don’t think it will qualify, staging isn’t everything, even if it will look good on TV. The song itself and her vocal skills are just not enough for this semifinal.
who cares about the 3k audience in the arena? The public at home will vote.
That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be respected and with smth like this, they are not!
Don’t act like you care about 3000 people in the arena, that’s just a lame excuse to be negative about it tbh
You’re right re respect, but they don’t have a swing vote! So it makes more sense to aim the performance to the TV audience
How exactly is anyone being “disrespect”? I mean, other than your ignorance disrespecting the intelligence of others here?
Spot on Alex.! This performance will look great on TV and appeal to the televoters.
Juries also watch the performances on TV, so it’ll appeal to them too.
Er… there are screens in the arena showing the TV feed. The audience will be fine.
Clip is kind of misleading, like it looks as though the performance is made for those at home, we couldn’t really see the images and the video was shot stage side, I think it will look different at home watching on tv. First rehearsal was never going to be perfect.
Overall staging is better than what I expected anyway. But that’s just my opinion
it’s obvious her staging is full of augmented reality and tv effects so of course your going to be confused by the staging now. wait for the second rehearsal and we’ll understand more i think it’s very promising
AR isn’t available to the participants but I agree it’s the kind of performance that looks different on TV.
It’s been mentioned everywhere that AR is being used. Or is that only for the show?
Catchy chorus, interesting background…unfortunatelly a lot of problems and difficulties in her vocals.
Certainly NQ (with these vocals). Possible NQ/Q with improved ones.
Fans were saying that Blanche from Belgium will not qualify because of her weak vocals and she came 4th in 2017.
So ? what it difference does it make ?
Saying don’t count her our before you see this live basically because yes, people did say that about Blanche and she came 4th. Basically, wait until the 2nd rehearsal or semi before saying nq or will do badly.
Ofcourse the semi live is the most important. This is just an estimation of the moment. I said that irrelevant to the final tv result…with those vocals is convicted. She needs a combo of good visual result (we know….almost nothing at the moment) and good vocals to have chances.
Blanche’s vocals were weak because she was nervous, not because she can’t sing.
It seems like the staging needs some work but overall I see a potential top15 here!
Plus her voice is decent for me to enjoy the performance..!
I think this will miss out on qualifying. Probably will come 11th -13th in the semi final.
I wasn’t confident about her vocals even before her rehearsal. Watching her on the Late Late Show performing SOML is enough evidence as to why.
I do feel Ireland go a bit over the top with their staging sometimes (like in 2017).
This staging is solely focused on a TV audience which makes sense considering the Covid restrictions. The effects all brought together are impressive. If you are just seeing the behind the scenes recording in this article, it obviously does not look as impactful. Other sites have had the full for TV effect and it is as Padraig says a ‘WOW’ performance that can only get better.
pls slay and qualify, cartographical queen!!
Not sure if this will qualify
the staging is confusing me at the moment but it looks really promising!!!! she’ll get the vocals right on the night I know it
Few vocal mistakes when singing live, but not a problem, she will polish those. She is fantastic and the song is really beautiful.
This is intriguing and sounds promising if they can sort out the cues. What Lesley is wearing is fine, but maybe give her a long jacket on it too like in the video/RTÉ performance to give it like a Loreen effect.
Regardless what happens I’m proud of Lesley, she is trying really hard and who gets it perfect first technical rehearsal? Give it some time and don’t be so quick to cancel someone who is actually trying to put on a winning show.
Proud of you Lesley, don’t let the couch potatoes drag you down when your thriving!
Intriguing staging, but all those vocals. Let’s hope that’s just a bad day and they’re better. I say that island change to qualify ride or die on Leslie’s voice, if she’s good she’s through, if she’s not she’s out.
I am not sure about vocals.
Why ? because it’s 100% live unlike Sweden ?
I don’t care about Sweden but she is singing out of tune.
Tbf I think she was more focused on making her cues than being vocally on point.
Had higher expectations tbh..
The song just makes me so happy.. If the staging is nailed a definite qualifier
It sounds really promising! Well done Ireland.
She looks beautiful , the staging is so cool and her vocals will improve because in rehearsals she has so much more to focus on than this. If she improves a bit more this is absolutely qualifying
Dodgy vocals and messy staging. It’s borderline.
the live streaming by wiwi said the exact opposite
so is it good or not??
They didn’t have the effects, but other livestreams did!
I watched the live commentary on other ESC fan sites which was stronger than Wiwiblogg’s live coverage- William’s sister is flaky in her commentary and says really odd things.
That makes me like Suzanne even more.
Sounds intriguing, I’m looking forward to see how the whole thing looks.
A qualifier for sure