As day six of Eurovision 2021 rehearsals continues, it’s time for two more acts to take to the Rotterdam Ahoy stage. Next up for their second rehearsals are the acts from Czech Republic and Greece. Will we see any major staging changes? Let’s find out…
Second rehearsals at Eurovision 2021: Czech Republic and Greece
Czech Republic’s Benny Cristo “omaga” — Eurovision 2021 second rehearsal
Oliver: No huge changes from Team Czech Republic. One of Benny’s dancers is wearing a black beanie instead of the pink one from the first rehearsal. They also did a take with Benny wearing glasses, but he ditched the frames for his final run. This song is a lot of fun as a studio cut, but that charm is lost in the live performance. Benny’s energy is extremely low and he’s mumbling through a lot of notes, often sounding out of breath. It’s not what we’re used to from the Czech star. Hopefully he will thrive more with a live audience, but qualification still seems a long way off.
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Padraig: Benny is very cool. And sometimes his coolness reads as low-energy. Because for much of his time on stage, it feels like he’s not giving his all — which seems crazy to say given how much choreography he’s doing. Thankfully, this seems to be just a case of him taking it easy. The last run-through was by far his best and Benny’s charisma shone through. He had glasses on for the first two takes, but they were gone for a third. It doesn’t look like he’ll be wearing them for the live show.
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Greece’s Stefania “Last Dance” — Eurovision 2021 second rehearsal
Oliver: Stefania is easily a contender for best dressed at Eurovision 2021. Her purple catsuit serves Dame Diana Rigg eleganza, and it’s fabulous. The Greek performance is solid once again, but it suffers in the staging department. The concept is good, but the colour palette is a few notches too vibrant and the green screen effects still need some smoothing out — although Stefania’s midriff wasn’t mistakenly keyed out this time. All in all, it’s not very easy on the eyes. Vocally it’s very strong however, and Stefania is slowly but surely becoming more confident with her movements.
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Padraig: Technically, this was a much better rehearsal for Greece. All the glitches seem to have been ironed out. Mercifully, Stefania’s midriff remains intact for the entirety of the performance. It’s all coming together in terms of choreo and vocals. However, there are movements of uncertainty in Stefania’s eyes. She’s not owning the stage quite yet.
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Read more Eurovision 2021 rehearsal news here
Photos: EBU / ANDRES PUTTING / THOMAS HANNES
I still don’t like the Greek song but I will admit that their staging is on point. She looks great up there. Fab costume too.
Firstly, let me just reiterate how stunning Stefania looks. She’s a beautiful girl naturally, and that outfit just highlights her overall beauty. Also, vocally she’s very strong.
That being said, she looks nervous and a bit stiff. Perhaps she’s holding back for rehearsals, but she needs to look a bit more comfortable for her to get into the top 10. As it stands now, I can see the Greek entry landing in position #11 to #15, just missing out on the top 10.
Regardless, criticism aside, Stefania’s entry is overall much stronger than Demy, Yianna and Katrine were.
I still believe that chezh republic will qualify
Stefania is too young for this performance. It is like a lost school girl in purple space with som weird dance moves. I think she would have been better off with some kids dancing together in a class room. Or like In the movie fame where they start to dance in the cantina. The stage director is not feeling her or the song.
Wait how are the comments on youtube so positive but everyone here is so badly criticizing the staging and Stefania?
Downvote me and do whatever you want but i liked the staging. Yeah the green screen effects need some fixing but overall it is a great act. Stefania (yes she was nervous) but that’s just a rehearsal.
I think that the best thing that everyone can do is to stop hating (because that makes Stefania feel worse) and wait until her performance in Thursday.
In this site people only downvote you if you write positive comments om Sweden.
I just dont know how to feel about the greek staging.The song is kinda epic sounding but the staging has comical touches. Reminds me of The mask movie with Jim Carey.
Yeah, kind of how i feel. I mean I am definitely taking ideas for my next zoom meeting. I hope they fix things.
Exactly how I feel, thanks for bringing it up. Since the moment I heard the song, I’ve been listening to it on repeat and have been praising it on social media with my supporting comments. But this staging is killing the whole vibe of the song. I fell in love with the official mv, I gave my heart to that Pegasus and gorgeous Atlas but Fokas Evangalios turned out to be El Diablo 🙁 He literally stole my hopes for Greece winning the whole thing. Yea I seriously believed Greece could win cuz the song is epic sounding and Stefania’s… Read more »
Czech Republic: The kaleidoscope looks good, as does Benny, charming as usual. The choreography seems nice too. Maybe the lack of energy many of us are feeling is just the natural and expected difference between a rehearsal and the real deal.
Greece: I really love that catsuit! The visual effects aren’t eye-grabbing as many were expecting, but I’m still feeling positive about the staging. For viewers without big expectations, it can be a nice surprise. But of course, the effects need to work properly.
everything about greece’s entry is so flavorless, they need to find their spark that made them successful in the 00s again
Greece FX looks so cheap and horrible that are ruining completely the song.
Okay Czechia is a NQ and sorry but I don’t really like Greece’s staging
Wtf..
The YouTube comments about Greece are more than positive but here all the positive ones have more than 20 downvotes. Are Malta and Azerbaijan buying the same bots?
What have Malta and Azerbaijan got to do with this?
So than you explain to me how it is even possible that she won the poll for best first rehearsal. Where did those votes came from? I do have an idea, don’t you?
700 people from Greece?
Greece looks super awkward. LOL. It’s very funny and little bit cringe. Czech Republic had a potential of qualifying but performer’s vocals and staging totally ruined it.
Ok, so Greece is nice but Stefania doesn’t acquire the same dancing abilities that people like Helena Paparizou or Foureira have. She is so stressed when she is trying to do this basic dance routines. You can read in her face the “I have to move my hand, now my feet, now i am twerking”… The juries usually don’t have issues with that but this doesn’t captivate the audience. Her vocals are fine, the song is fine, the dress is amazing, the staging very nice indeed but there wasn’t any need for her to do dancing routines. Like for example… Read more »
I wasn’t expecting this for Greece. The staging is seems a bit weird to me. But the song is great so it deserves a top 15.
I dunno, I think Greece’s concept is pretty cool. Her vocals are good too.
Perfectly reasonable from Czechia but nothing particularly that stands out – is it going to be memorable enough?
Cool staging concept by Greece but Stefania looks nervous – the performance needs to be more confident if she can go bring the best out of the visuals.
I think Stefanias stage is nice, she is a beautiful young lady, vocals seems to be ok, but somehow she doesn’t seem to be able to keep up with the music when singing..
Just watched Greece. It looked stellar until the “never seen before” effect.
Only I think Greece is doing a Mans kind of presentation?
I know when im wrong, i gotta say this staging is pretty cool
Greece is who im talking about
Congratulations, girl!!!!
greece is really flopping for me. this staging is not it :/ i love stefania though and she looks beautiful
I think the invisible man thing in Greece’s rehearsal is a distraction, I don’t get it
The worst thing about Greece is the chroma effect. I appreciate the risk, but that effect in particular is really hard to implement in a live performance, it’s really easy to see imperfections here and there. I hope they can improve it in the following days, that will be the key to their success.
Greece 10 times better and classy than Malta.
Still don’t get why he changed hairstyle.
1. Greece (fabulous! Stefania’s vocals are out of this world)
2. Czech Rep. (lacking energy but I love the song)
Can someone answer me a question? Why do all positive comments about Greece get downvoted? I haven’t seen that happening anywhere else, in contrast with Azerbaijan or North Macedonia
Yeah he needs to let those ‘too cool for school’ vibes go and give us full energy, it matches the song more and it will elevate the performance. Right now it looks too chill.
Stefania is so young yet she really commands the stage, so impressive. I’m curious to see what the green screen effects will bring on our screens and how it’ll add to the performance. Cause at the moment the city visuals are not a winner staging. The stair part is giving me some Ariana Grande ‘No tears left to cry’ vibes though and I’m loving it. Not to mention those breathtaking vocals!
Are the Greece haters downvoting because I said she commands the stage and compared her to Ariana or are the Greece stans downvoting because I said she doesn’t have winner staging? Curious to know, keep the downvotes coming anyway <3
Malta bots on panic
ariana grande is the pop girl with the worst stage presence tho lmao
I mean yea, they were the ones that knew what they were going to do so they hyped it out there.
Wait, I remember a Dutch producer also saying that, so the hype for Greece started from there
Anyone else getting Albania 2009 vibes from the backing dancers’ costumes? (Greece)
Yup! Totally reminded of that
Yeah but on the screen it’s gonna be totally different so what’s the point of this comment?
Tell me something, do the people inside the stadium see the green stuff only?
Love Benny!
He’s got that star quality, can’t deny it.
He is able to elevate what is actually quite a bland song into something that stands out.
I think he’ll qualify despite the bookies writing him off.
I just love Benny and his charisma.. my guilty pleasure song this year.. 🙂
what’s there to be guilty about in liking omaga ?