The second rehearsals are well underway in Rotterdam but unfortunately Ukraine’s second run on the stage didn’t quite go as planned. Kateryna Pavlenko — the lead singer of Ukraine’s group Go_A — felt unwell on Wednesday morning, so as a precaution, a stand-in singer had to be whisked in for the second rehearsal.
The EBU issued a statement explaining the situation and why Kateryna was absent from rehearsals:
“The lead singer of Ukraine’s band Go_A, Kateryna Pavlenko, reported feeling a little unwell this morning. In accordance with the health and safety protocol she has undergone a PCR test for COVID-19 and, as a precautionary measure, Kateryna will miss this afternoon’s rehearsal and press conference.
“We wish her good health and will share more information when we have the results of the test.
“The other members of Go_A have all tested negative for COVID-19 and will perform with a stand-in singer. They will also attend Ukraine’s press conference later as scheduled.”
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Go_A have since confirmed that Kateryna has been given the all-clear to attend future rehearsals.
Go_A’s rehearsals for “SHUM”
Earlier in the week Go_A’s first rehearsal was a triumph and many elements of the band’s performance were inspired by their music video. The video took us away on a psychedelic rave in the Chernobyl forest which they dug up and planted in the middle of the Rotterdam stage.
Performing on a small wintery island, the group is surrounded by bare trees and backed up with a LED graphics which take us off this planet and into another psychedelic, utopian world. Kateryna is popping out of the screen wearing a furry green coat which makes her look like a beautiful creature in her own frozen universe.
The folky-techno rhythm takes you into a hypnotic trance you never want to end. There is definitely a futuristic feel to “SHUM”, a song ahead of its time. The energy of the song is completely matched and sustained with the vocals – completely on point and not a note was dropped.
During Wednesday’s second rehearsal, even without their lead singer, their rehearsal had much of the same quality and added improvements around the band by tightening up the camera angles. The stand-in singer Emmie also did Kateryna proud and gave an excellent performance.
In their latest Instagram post, Go_A thanked Emmie and announced that Kateryna will be back for the next rehearsal. We wish Kateryna a very speedy recovery!
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What do you think of Go_A’s rehearsal performances? Let us know in the comments below.
Its official she is NEGATIVE! yes
Ukraine rised up to 8th place on odds 🙂
Kateryna has the NEGATIVE test!
thanks God, Kateryna has the NEGATIVE test!!
Now let’s hope she’ll be all well and healthy for the next rehearsal… and for the shows, of course!
Folks, she’s not “in the clear”… According to her Instagram stories, they’re still waiting for her test results. I’m quite nervous. Their song’s success relies heavily on the energy of the live performance, and I feel like using the live-on-tape could destroy them. It’d be such a shame if such a deserving entry ended up as Ukraine’s first NQ because of Katya’s bad luck.
She already had covid-19 in Sept 2020. would be a miracle to catch it again.
I have to admit that with Emmie as vocalist, was the first time I enjoyed the song… hope Kateryna get well soon. But could Emmi replace her?
oh… Kateryna started posting her IG stories
vasil’s vocals are kinda good, replace rafal instead
it must be the special poll “who should be replaced by Emmie?”; the results will quite interesting…
Emmie van Stijn seemed quite impressive. Can anyone comment on her Ukrainian pronunciation as Danish it sounded quite convincing 😀
her Ukrainian pronunciation is pretty well but slightly childish for Ukrainians’ ears – that’s why Ukrainians find the performance very cute
When I hear her singing It’s very clear to me that she only memorized the pronounciation and she doesn’t actually know Ukrainian, but overall I’d say she did a pretty decent job
She is not a native speaker, of course there is an accent, but it is not strong, everything was clear and it was pleasant to listen to her. She is a great fellow, she did a very good job !!! Thanks her!
Just found out that she learned the song two hours before the show! This is amazing!
solid performance, very slight accent, barely noticeable. If you’re not paying attention could pass as one of the dialects. she did incredible job.
I am so pleased that Kateryna has been given the all clear to attend future rehearsals. I hope she’s feeling better soon. Go_A have been my favourites since day one and it’s great to see them getting some more recognition, their stage show looks great.
lol… the best sarcastic ESC joke to date
I wonder if the Eurovision participants were required to be vaccinated. You would think the EBU would require vaccinations for them.
Vaccination for covid is not mandatory anywhere in the world.. it is a personal choice at the end of the day, so EBU cannot demand or impose such a rule on the participants..
The EBU could definitely make vaccination a requirement to enter their competition if they so desired. It is definitely not a personal choice to kill other people.
No, vaccination is not required to participate and I imagine most participants aren’t vaccinated yet given their age.
Yes, I recognize that they won’t have been vaccinated yet. I said “could” – for the purposes of future contests. I was responding to the post saying vaccination is a personal choice. Of course it is a personal choice, no one can force you to take it. But the EBU “could” make it a condition of future entry into the contest – you have a personal choice not to take the vaccine, but that does not give you the choice to infect other people if a business/institution/government/society decides that vaccination is a pre-requisite to take part in their activities. I… Read more »
If they were forced to get vaccinated in the Netherlands that would create outrage in dutch news and tabloids and people would see it as ‘jumping the queue’ since almost nobody under 50 have been vaccinated yet and even many of our essential healthcare workers still haven’t had the jab. It could create negative publicity and more bad mood against this years eurovision and certain decisions like allowing it to have an audience at every show.
Of course, I think I am being misunderstood. Yes, this year is too early, it would be a PR disaster to vaccinate the contestants in front of wider society. I was referring to the notion that vaccination for COVID is not mandatory. What I was saying is that yes, it is not mandatory, but it may become mandatory in future contests. A lot of businesses are already requiring vaccination as a prerequisite of the job and I have absolutely no problem with that. Medical grounds is absolutely fine for not taking the vaccine but not because you don’t fancy it… Read more »
They’re still trialling it till March 2023, I think and so, it’s up to your personal choice whether you want to be part of this trial or not.
I was answering your first post where you asked whether it’s required this year.
As for the future, no one will care by May 2022.
Let’s really really hope so!
Not all countries have equally good vaccine. in Ukraine everyone runs for their life when they see Indian or Chinese vaccine. It’s better to catch covid-19 than die from untested liquid they try to inject.
emmie DID the damn thing. a queen
Wait- if she’ll be back for the next performance….then what was wrong with her that made her miss this one if not covid? Travel gut?
It can be anything! She’s human!
From stress to any another realness
Yesterday evening was reported that her test is Negative
I just hope it’s not her throat and she will be able to sing.
what a beautiful moment! this performance of Go_A with the Dutch stand-in singer Emmie van Stijn will be legendary…