Israel’s Eden Alene has taken to the stage inside the Rotterdam Ahoy for her first rehearsal of Eurovision 2021. Her performance includes a costume reveal and a spectacular whistle note. Are they enough to win? Let’s see.
Israel’s Eden Alene “Set Me Free” — Eurovision 2021 first rehearsal
Oliver: She hit the whistle note! Eden’s vocal was shaky on the first run but was much smoother on the second take. This shows promise she’ll nail it on the night. The staging, however, is quite bland. Eden’s backdrop is mostly static and looks like an old school Las Vegas billboard, with the song title plastered in blue and purple. Further up the stage, there are more billboards with hanging lights that show Eden’s outline moving in stop-motion. A lot happens in the last 30 seconds and it’s very jarring when compared to the slower opening. Eden’s white coat suddenly reveals into a rather underwhelming black dance costume, and she’s crowned with a braided hairpiece (which ended up wonky in two of three takes). Altogether, this last segment looks sloppy.
Padraig: Israel is elevated! There’s lots of neon, including giant signs in the image of Eden. There’s also a costume change and a crowning moment when the dancers place a crown of braided hair, like her own, upon her head. Eden owns the stage and she knows it. She smashes the high note too. We saw three takes, with the last one being the smoothest by far. That was the only time the reveal went without a hitch.
Reaction to Israel’s first rehearsal at Eurovision 2021
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What do you think? Did Eden Alene live up to your expectations? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Eden looks so beautiful and stylish!
Am I the only person who favors Israel and Eden over Malta and Destiny…I know I’m in the minority–but this just feels way more polished and Eden also delivers solid vocals and I love the ethnic instrumentation
Her tighs and calves have the same width. It looks scary.
Also her head looks too big for her body.
And you ? I wonder how you look lol
We all know she looks better in those outfits than any of y’all so stfu and stop discussing her body.
First you have issues with a woman’s breasts. Now you have issues with a woman’s legs. Gee im sorry you must have so many body issues yourself to be hating on others like that
I bet you are Miss universe………..
How envy are you to write about someone so beautiful like Eden those nonsense..really..
what was the point of this comment
A moment of solidarity for all of us who have ever had to wear “nude” tights or costumes involving mesh, where the costumer clearly had not thought through that some of us come from significantly different colour palettes. (My immediate thought to the top photo was, “okay, I totally get why Surya Bonaly’s mom made all her costumes herself.”)
I like this performance, though, and I hope they qualify!
Eden always said she wanted to have a Diva moment, but the cards she’s been dealt with only allow her to fulfill that fantasy in about 20 seconds at best. The mini-dress reveal is an act of bravado as if she’s playing caution to the wind, but only a desperado (the stylist) would actually commit a fashion crime with an unflattering and grotesque mini dress that looks like a Rorschach test. Somebody has to be brave enough to paint that picture for her. The staging has a lot to answer for too: It was probably too much to ask for… Read more »
You’ve been posting negative comments from day 1, predicting it won’t qualify. So when this ends up being a solid qualifier, are you going to stop the negativity and admit you are wrong headed about all of it?
The outfit is giving me suspiria but not in a good way
If she hits the high notes this will be around #3-6 in SF1. So an easy qualifier.
Coming after Croatia with similar song and staging wasn’t such a good idea! One of them wll have to NQ
They have nothing to do with each other. I think both Croatia and Israel qualify because they are both good in different ways and will outshine some of the other less exciting songs.
love it! i just wish she had girl dancers instead 🙁
Though the obvious comparison is with Croatia (As Heyey commented, this can even become a case of “mutual cancelling”), I also feel this is like Sweden in the sense that Eden and Tusse are much more compelling than what they’re singing and what’s going on around them.
At least Sweden and Israel are in different parts of the semi so it isn¨t that competetive. But coming third after two similar songs is much more competitive.
Just to be clear, when I compared Israel to Sweden, it was just more in a personal level of how I feel about them. Casual viewers won’t probably even put them in the same category, one feels more party pop, the other is more anthemic.
But the comparison between Croatia and Israel will be unavoidable, given the genre, the color scheme and the running order. I feel Croatia is catchier, but Israel looks more professional. Maybe Israel has the upper hand because of the jury.
I’d dare to say that the Israeli song is perhaps even slicker and punchier than the Swedish one, albeit perhaps even more abstract and calculated.
I agree. And I’ll add that if one doesn’t pay attention to the inconsistency in the lyrics like we did, “Set Me Free” is very easy on the ears.
Her vocals are good as expected. Song is still bland and staging is.. well female vocalist with all male dancers.. (shocking). Still she may qualify who knows, she has a lot of supporters in this site.
Why that dress though..?
So far, every high-tempo choreography besides Israel’s have a lot of inconsistencies with sync. Dancers should really work on that till next week.
Great performance by Eden.
Hmmm I don’t really like the black “dress” maybe her voice will get some points with the juries but I would be happy if someone else qualified in her place
Israel was above Croatia yesterday , but Croatia is back again at the 10th qualifying spot in the odds .
However , Croatia is at the 6th spot at the odds to Not qualify.
y’all give too much importance to numbers decided by british men with a gambling addiction
main pop girl energy. literally the full package. she deserves the world
!!! Nice dresses fit so good in the whole concept. Problem in the high note in the 1st run, very improved hit at the end. Overal this is surprisingly a big grower.
Likely qualifier !
Oh, no! Why those uninspired costumes? She should have kept the pink pantsuit from the video. That was fun and fresh. This is basic. The leds are bad. And the dress reveal? Ew. It doesn’t suit neither the song nor the performer. Who came up with the idea of having Eden in the nude, covered with her braids? I’m really disappointed and sad for her. They need to mail her the sparkly bodysuit and the pink outfit from the video for the second rehearsal asap.
The “What are we livin’ FOY” and “Like we did befo-OY” made me wheeze, sorry
I don’t think Aiden should be hitting those whistle notes right now. I feel like she should be marking that part until we get closer to live show date so that her voice doesn’t wear out and her whistle notes sound bad or can’t reach them.
I love Aiden Eileen
croatia is 100% qualifying and will outshine israel. croatia is the guarantee of israel not qualifying because people will vote for croatia instead.
Meh, looks like JESC in my opinion.. I don’t like the dress or the shoes especially. The backdrop boring.
wut!!??
that dress is ugly af lmao. I don’t think loreen would have won melodifestivalen with that dress hahaha. guess we have our last place in this semi.
She is 100% gonna qualify Juries will plce her top 5 for her voice and the song is good produced.She is charismatic so televoters will place her also high.
Please change the dress
It’s hideous, reeks of desperation in a “I will wear anything for attention” sort of way.
A small it of subtly would do much better.
By the looks of it Israel’s and Croatia’s stagings (mainly background/neon lights/costumes) look very similar, so they might cancel each other out. They are very close to each other in the running order as well. I think we will lose one of them in this semi 🙁
That’s what I figured too. We either have Croatia or Israel the final, or neither will qualify, but I can’t imagine both qualifying. They’re both too similar and Might cancel each other out.
Yes, that’s exactly what I’m thinking! I think Israel screwed itself over more, because they probably knew Croatia would go with the neon theme. Like you said, it could possibly be that they both fail to qualify. Israel has the voice though, that could please the juries, and I think that televoters will like Croatia more.
Another barbara dex contender . Do these people not see how crap their outfits are
She can SING, and we all know that. However, this isn’t a sexy diva banger like Cyprus, Azerbaijan, and Croatia are. This costume is very out of place here. Had she picked Ue La La, this would be a good fit. For Set Me Free, not so much.
This semi final just keeps getting more difficult.
I think the background didnt fit a costumes
ANOTHER DRESS REVEAL?
Oh boy this is gonna be a fun semi
(nvm)