The first rehearsals of Eurovision 2022 have arrived! On Saturday 30 April, nine countries rehearsed inside PalaOlimpico. Albania’s Ronela Hajati opened with a pink wig and some very sensual dancing, while Moldova’s Zdob şi Zdub & Advahov Brothers took us on a hey-ho train ride (even if their teaser didn’t seem to include a train).
As part of its new business partnership with TikTok, the European Broadcasting Union has been releasing very short clips on the app. You can’t divine too much about the performances, but they do give you a flavour of what to expect. So now we want to know: Who impressed you the most?
You can watch our review videos below to hear what we think. We’ll also live stream our highs and lows a little later.
Semi-Final 1 (First Half) First Rehearsals — 30 April
🇦🇱 Albania – Ronela Hajati “Sekret”
🇱🇹 Lithuania – Monika Liu “Sentimentai”
🇨🇭 Switzerland – Marius Bear “Boys Do Cry”
🇺🇦 Ukraine – Kalush Orchestra “Stefania”
🇧🇬 Bulgaria – Intelligent Music Project “Intention”
🇳🇱 The Netherlands – S10 “De Diepte”
🇲🇩 Moldova – Zdob şi Zdub & Advahov Brothers “Trenuleţul”
That Ronela girl looks so cheap
The Netherlands is too simple. Like…… ‘Belgium 2017, Blanche’-simple. With that I mean the entry won’t do wonders with juries. However, I do think Generation-Z televoting support is much bigger than we anticipate currently. Do you people agree?
The clips are too short to make a true decision. Editing cuts on the rehearsals have always been choppy and sub-par (remeber last year and how the editing looked like we should be worried about Switzerland). But, so far it looks like Netherlands, Ukraine, and Albania are solidifying they qualifying statuses. While she’s still 11th in the betting odds, I am very positive about Lithuania too. It’s just too good not to be helped by the juries. Lavia and Moldova could go either way – Being seen as too tacky, or being embraced as being fun. Slovenia feels cute like… Read more »
I agree there’s not enough to go on (10-15 seconds and some photos). Albania – I don’t think there were any surprises Latvia – shades of Pollapönk (which may’ve improved the song) Lithuania – you can’t really see anything in 10 seconds about how it will look Switzerland – will need to see more: could be either way Slovenia – improvement in the staging from the recording but is that enough? Ukraine – expected more they are usually the staging masters Bulgaria – as expected for that song Netherlands – looking any way would be inappropriate Moldova – kind of… Read more »
I don’t mean to be a negative nellie but I’m kind of worried about Albania. I hope they change the outfits. Ronela just looks like she forgot her clothes. And the dancers don’t match at all. It’s nothing compared to the NF performance. So I just voted for Netherlands and Ukraine in the poll. Also is anybody else annoyed with the tik tok videos? I don’t have tik tok and I really don’t want to download it just to see those videos. They were so much better on youtube. They could at least also upload them to youtube shorts if… Read more »
TikTok ruins everything.
slovenia all the way tbh
The attraction of the year is definitely Albania
I wish Ronela a lot of success and as a German I will vote for you in the final, one of the best songs I personally like and therefore my favorite is Albania respect Ronela
Actually you can only judge based on pictures. Of course, for some basic people a slaying queen with half naked dancers is all they wish for…
There is not much to judge on these first rehearsals, since it’s about 10 seconds and rest is just the artists talking and such.
well they had planned a compeletely different staging that is now impossible to be excecuted so in reality they had a hard time re arraning the staging *COUGH* EBU *COUGH*
Albania was awful… omg… it could be a nq
in your dreams baby
5 seconds of performance and it’s “awful”. are you crazy?
WTF with this TikTok insanity. ???
That greedy Tik Tok partnership was a terrible idea in many senses. EBU has ruined a tradition not only about having the videos on Youtube which is much more accesible for everybody, but also about being unable to listen to our favorite broadcasters live telling us exactly what is going on. I don’t also see why these acredited people should be one week spending money in Turin while they could be doing their work from home.
This comment section of Wiwi everyday is full of xenophobia it is getting on my nerves every single day. Stop hating on Albania in every single comment and stop calling those who like Albania as “bots; hijackers” just because a small country managed to produce a very well popular and liked song. According to your logic only the popular songs you hate have bots, but others dont huh? I dont care if you dont like the song but stop saying it is overrated when you have seen only FIVE freaking seconds of the performance. And for the last time outfits… Read more »
I think the outfit is pretty decent, i don’t want them to change it.
It works very well with the song and the dance.
Ronela said herself she doesnt like the first outfit she tried anyway. She will try several outfits
Where exactly did she say that. Proof.
She said it at the press conference….
stop embarrassing yourself, Amanda
what is your problem?
Greece
greece hasn’t reheasred yet
Susan, I share you aversion to those naughty lyrics. They kind of ruin it for me. It’s a pity because I like the tune and the look.
I’m disappointed that it’s only on tiktok the first rehearsals I’m very used to youtube with good quality. I feel like I’m back in the old days in terms of video quality.
RONELA SLAYED (still needs to get rid of thst horrid outfit), LPS shockingky have and even better staging idea, Latvia’s Citi Z?ni were incredible, Stien was phenomenal, Ukraine were kind of underwhelming, Monika kept the exact same staging from her NF which is something I LOVE, and Moldova and Bulgaria were also relatively fine.
Oh yeah, and then there’s Switzerland…zzzz….
I honestly wish the reharsals wouldn’t be shown online. There is already so much pressure on the arists and they can’t prepare anything without being covered by any media.Normally rehearsals are meant to prepare for the actual competition. They are there to make sure the sound is perfect and the camera work is in place. They are for work not for competition. I honestly feel bad for the artists that they are judged even by that. Imagine just doing a little mistake during the first rehearsal. It is very likely that the betting odds are falling by then. You will… Read more »
Eurovision fan media should not be going to the contest 2 weeks before the contest. Like, why would you be there so early? Why do you need to cover a working process of the production team and the artists? To create hype? The consumers of that are going to watch Eurovision regardless, those are die hard ESC fans. They are not going to be less hyped if they don’t get access to the first 2 rounds of the rehearsals. This is just a silly thing the EBU created themselves and I really hope they will go back from that and… Read more »
Okay don’t show them online, but still let experts like William & co watch them in full and report back to us. That’s what happened before the internet. I also think it works the other way. If you have already got your act together from square one (like Cyprus did in 2018), then you deserve credit. It is a competition. What we have now is even worse, tiny clips which will be taken out of context.
William and co are not experts. They are fans like you that happen to run a blog and therefore got accreditation. And that is part of the problem of that early coverage. The “press” is a bunch of fans, they don’t work in event production, tv production, they have 0 technical knowledge of those things and they should not be allowed to give their “professional” opinions to the crowd based on half baked product. It is devastating for many entries that didn’t have a PERFET first rehearsal when the “experts” declare them “the disappointment of day 1”. F^CK THAT. This… Read more »
at first, we would not have a tiny bity access to rehrearsals this year . Later ebu decided to do the tik tok thing. Now everyone is mad,
Nothing to base a decision on really. I was slight surprised that the waterfall around the stage is going through every song. Would have thought it would be a different kind of aesthetic than some countries would be going for.
Also the sun arches… At the moment I just don’t get them really as a design choice, from seeing stills of them, they don’t particularly look very modern like the last few eurovision stages. That being said when watching with all the great camera work on the live shows, might look more impressive.
I actually think that the stage will cause a lot of more problems during the rehearsals. The arches seem not to move properly. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the first Eurovision with a big technical breakdown during a live show.
As I could understand they will remove the spinning parts and then we will only have LEDs
guys, we have a 29-second rehearsal footage from the Netherlands! https://twitter.com/EscPim/status/1520487851581915140
Wow thanks! : )
after seeing this, i can see the Netherlands flopping. maybe she will qualify but no top 10 for her.
For me it is the opposite: it looks and sounds fantastic. I’m looking forward to how it looks on tv, but this is promising. I think the chances of ending high on the score board are even better.
Without movement…too dark. Just a little bit disappointed….
What do you expect her to do? To dance like Eleni Foureira? To move like Loreen?
This is a quiet song with a deep meaning that doesn’t need much movement.
She stands really awkwardly
Yea it’s her first time on that big stage. If i was her i would also be intimidated at first and probably stand awkwardly on that stage. That’s exactly the reason the eurovision fan media shouldn’t cover rehersals at all. The way she stands on that stage at the very first time doesn’t mean anything.
But it was The Netherlands delegation themselves who put a video out there, not a fan media
Hard to judge from 5 seconds, no? I mean S10 delegation put an extended clip on her channel where she moved to the B stage but we didn’t see that on TikTok
I honestly liked everyone apart from Ukraine Albania The concept was for me really surprising yet meaningful so I honestly Appreciate it. But I don’t like her outfit 2. Latvia their baggy costumes ain’t my cup of tea but I loved the colors their energy and it looked so fun even from the 25-sec vid and the 5-sec footage we got *COUGH* EBU *COUGH* (also I think their singer was wearing high heels) 3. Lithuania Must be tough cuz they said their original plan cant be executed now. THANKS, RAI WE APPRECIATE YOUR IMMENSE EFFORT I’ll talk about this later… Read more »
Well how can we judge by 20 seconds real footage of the rehearsals? Adding the fact that the main element of the stage which made it special doesn’t work… how can we even have an opinion?
There is absolutely zero chance Albania finishes in the top 10 of the actual competition, regardless of how many polls their fans keep hijacking on wiwi.
Maybe not final for Albania this year…
Literally the weakest semi and you say there is no final. We literally qualified last year with a trashy ballad.
My god here we go with the xenophobes again. Polls are “hijacked” by everyone. Every fan favorite is popular. Just because you don’t like the song it does not mean the others don’t like it. What? You think Netherlands fans are genuine and Albania fans (who finished 9th in OGAE, 5th in INFE, 13th in EuroJury) are bots? Lmao, next level deluded.
Look Xenophobia in dictionary, please. ????
Albania unfortunately don’t have song for first 10, or final to be honest.
1. Video with Game of Thrones moments has been seen gazillion times
2. Lyrics meah
3. Naked guys on stage, tacky and so 2008 Ruslana moment
Girl look super fun and would love to hang out with her but song is meah …
oh, you mean, from the 10 seconds we saw? um, I guess Ronela or S10. Bulgaria and Slovenia had surprise staging so that was nice. I preferred last year when they had both rehearsals on youtube
This didn’t feel like the first day of the rehearsals to me. I didn’t feel the crazy excitement, I wasn’t glued to all Eurovision sites, I didn’t rewatch the clips 50 times, I didn’t feel the odds or the contest shift, it kinda felt like a pre-party. Maybe it was the stage not working correctly, maybe (probably) it was the fact that we only got 5 seconds of actual performances through Tiktok, or maybe it was the fact that we kinda knew the staging of 75% of the acts beforehand (I.e. they copied their NF staging). I guess Albania was… Read more »
Rehearsals are not a part of the show, up until 10-15 years ago you wouldn’t be getting any access to them at all. Glue yourself to the screen when the actual show begins. People have no chill.
I can totally relate to that. I’m a huge Eurovision fan. I love watching all the rehearsals and reactions but this year i don’t have the same excitement as in other years. But that’s also due to the fact that the entry from my country is already seen as placing low and not doing well even though the artist is talented. I feel like eurovision fan media already has their early favourites and i don’t wanna waste my time seeing always the same artists being interviewed and covered while others don’t get nearly the same attention. It’s like they mostly… Read more »
what a silly question!? how can anybody judge the rehearsals?
Rehearsals are not show time, they are work time. They are not meant to be seen and judged by the fans and the press, but to serve as time to prepare the artists and the production team for the actual show. In recent years the fans and the press been given increasing access to the rehearsals that started to be seen as part of the official competition. THEY ARE NOT, the competition will start in 2 weeks. It is very healthy to have malfunctions and hiccups during rehearsals, especially during the FIRST ones. That reveals the weak points of the… Read more »
Shut up. Rehearsals are part of the hardcore fan experience. They have taken that first glimpse away from us so they don’t hurt the poor artist’s feelings.
Shut the f^ck up you little turd. Nobody owes you or the “hardcore fans” anything but a polished show. A polished show requires the best working conditions for the people who work on it and having turds like you watching and criticizing the rehearsals from day 1 is definitely not a part of good working conditions. Besides, are the hardcore fans going to skip on watching Eurovision if not given any access to the rehearsals? No, obviously not, so there is no point to try to please further this small bunch of people in the expense of those who are… Read more »
Damn I hope so. Where did you find that info?
S10, no doubt.
Bulgaria and Slovenia improved, The Netherlands were good as expected but i would want them to try something different because this was too simple (although it doesn’t bother me because it fits the vibe of the song).
It’s such a pity that Lithuania had to go through all of this i would prefer their new staging than the national final one, Latvia, Ukraine Moldova were ok.
Albania was very different than what i thought, Switzerland was the most boring out of them all (just too plain)
But i am still not sure with that 10sec clips what each delegation wants to achieve on the stage..The snippet was not enough for anyone to even make assumptions about the stagings…
P.S EBU PLS BRING YOUTUBE BACK
Come on, we didn’t see anything today.
Based on what??? Based on messy 10sec clips??
Off topic, but tonight France’s odds are shortening hour after hour, and now it’s 10th in the betting odds ^^
P.S. I want normally videos of rehearsals on YouTube, the big mistake is TikTok, too short and confusing videos, HUGE NONSENSE!
You can upload up to 3 minutes videos on TikTok, so the videos were short because the EBU decided to make them that way. The only major thing that differs TikTok from YouTube is the aspect ratio.
Videos of rehearsals from last years were more based on stage performances segments, cadres were clearer, simply yt videos are better and more sirious for this things than Tiktok’s which customized for phone resolutions…
Ok so i went through all the performances. Switzerland, Ukraine and Moldova had the worst ones. Omg so messy. The best were Albania and Netherlands however the Netherlands is a little bit too simple. I also liked Lithuania but come on she didn’t make a single change from the previous performance.
Slovenia was not bad at all. They can be a surprise qualifiers.
Surprise ? I wouldnt be surprised 😛 ahah
About that comment on Lithuania, I belive Monika doesn’t need to make any drastical changes at all to her staging and performance. It’s absolutely as elegant and classy as it was in the NF. 🙂
How the heck is Albania up there yet the clip of her rehearsal that they gave us was the shortest one of all (not even 10 seconds reached)?
Probably because the rest were even worse than we excepted or very messy or boring.
I can’t judge based on a snippet but I think Ukraine (too overdone) and Albania are overrated
Well you just did lmfaoooo
i thing albania is very very ok
Albania is overrated…Ronela’s costume is a horrble, worst than Destiny’s costume from last year…Her performance from national final is absoulutly better as weel as coreography and her and dencers black costumes…Monika Liu is my fav, classy performance with sophisticated moves and iconic look, my vote goes to her today…S10 is my second, very simply and effectively, reminds me of Hoover’s vibe and performance from Rotterdam…
so you like black costumes on everyone 🙂
Eurovision fan media often cares more about drama, looks, politics and weirdness than about talent and the meaning of a song. Albania wasn’t bad – but the way they place songs from Lithuania or Switzerland low just because the songs are slower truely p*sses me of.
I agree
You see Albania brought an unexpected concept, It is about loving whoever you want but all that pink hair and pink and blue kinda disappointed me cuz it really doesn’t fir with the song. But I do think her outfit is absolutely horrible
Pink hair is so outdated, pink – blue concept of lights and LED screens is totally unexpected, dencers and her outfit is out of sync and many many mistakes…I expected fire, black leather costumes, their standard black – red lights and again FIRE!
Awesome! You noticed all of that in 5 seconds! (yes, I’m being sarcastic)
Sorry to disappoint your asses. Next time we will send another trashy ballad so we finish 17th again and then win the “UNDERRATED ROBBED QUEEEN” award. What an achievement!
Literally only FIVE seconds of the performance has been leaked and you call it overrated. Brain left the chat
Albania is amazing
I only liked S10, everything fits to the song, the darkness, the black clothes, the loneliness…
I would like Ronela if she kept the national final concept with female dancers with that ‘tribal’ moves, if they worked it she could have done an epic performance. According to the videos and photos it seems she got inspired by Helena Paparizou in some moments but it doesn’t fit at all.
You mean group dancing part? Lol, that dance is very common in Albania too, it’s not a particular dance of Helena Paparizou. It’s Balkan culture, nothing to do with Helena or Ronela.
Why do the first rehersals need to be compared and commentend? Can’t you just leave the artists alone in the beginning? Aren’t “mistakes” in the first few rehersals not only often unaviodable but also an important and cruicial part to just experiment on the new stage? If the EBU was respectful to the contestants they wouldn’t let any information about how the first rehersals went out of the room. If the artists and delegations don’t experiment enough, because they are top early under obervation and judgment from outside, it is also lowering the chances to find an even better staging.… Read more »
that’s the exact reason why ebu this year is posting them on tik tok
so that we can barely see and not be able to judge
I mean firstly they said we wouldn’t be able to see them at all so that’s kind of a favor
Amen. I see it the same way.
In my opinion the EBU should start to give all the artists a bit more space to do the preparations without the fans. I don’t want a poll for every costume change, every single mistake in a rehearsal. We don’t need that. And especially the artists don’t need that.
I am worried that the stage malfunction is real. The “sun” appeared to be at the exact same position for all the entries today and didn’t move at all. I hope they will be able to find a solution for that because the stage looked so promising with all the possible positions those arches could do it would be really disappointing to loose all that. Another thing, I’m happy that the fans and press get as little as possible access to the 1st rehearsal. I would go a step further and allow the press and fans only see the first… Read more »
I watched Latvian news tonight and they had an interview with someone from the delegation who said that Italians are doing a bad job with lighting and cameras. They hope they will fix all the issues by second rehearsal, but they are prepared for the worst. The main issue for Latvian performance is that the shots the Italian cameramen are producing are too static and doesn’t flow the way Latvian delegation imagined and described (btw there is a new delegation for Latvia, or at least part of it, saw a lot of new faces). They did not even mention the… Read more »
Well the camera angles are the least of the problems. Those can be easily changed
I have no idea what to think about the stage and also the camera work. The rehearsal videos look similar to other countries. Also the stage doesn’t look less technological advanced than in previous year. But..i worry for the camera work and the overall production. Because if they do similar camera work like during San Remo i don’t think the show will have the same feeling like we are used to these days.
The EBU is there for a reason. In Tel Aviv the first rehearsals had terrible camera work, like really bad. The crew was made mostly out of Israeli members who don’t have much experience in such complex live events. After a bit of scolding and practice they got their sh*t together and produced a decent result (not the best but definitely not terrible). So, in Turin they will figure things out as well.
Fingers crossed
I think most fans are just projecting their wishes and preferences when commenting the rehearsals, because what we have now is next to nothing. This new communication policy is killing the hype. You can see that on the odds, the rehearsals had no sizeable impact.
And why should the first time those artist step on this stage impact anything? Why is this even sound logical to you? The entries are not ready yet, this is work in progress, so there should be no impact based on a non finished product. The Eurofans should really stop with this BS. Like stop. Nobody should be judged by the first or even second rehearsals. This is idiotic.
And why should the first time those artist step on this stage impact anything? Why is this even sound logical to you? The entries are not ready yet, this is work in progress, so there should be no impact based on a non finished product. The Eurofans should really stop with this BS. Like stop. Nobody should be judged by the first or even second rehearsals. This is id!otic.
How are we supposed to decide who was the best?
All we got was 5-10 seconds of an iPhone recorded TikTok on a malfunctioning stage. If I’m being honest, today’s rehearsals meant nothing to me.
Seems people are just voting for their favourite songs, because they can’t take anything from 7 seconds of footage, and no press centre commentary.
Except Bulgaria. It’s pictures looked fantastic.
Albania and Netherlands had the best in terms of staging and rehearsals, Ukraine however, I found messy, unorganized and meddling. Albania is looking to be a 7-10th Qualifer and overall midtable finish. Netherlands is in contention to be a Semi Final winner and potential Jury winner in the Semi Final
Netherlands singer didn’t sound good live, especially chorus part, uuuuu aaaaaaaa part, is weak vocally
it is the first rehearsal, she is probably saving her voice for the semi/later rehearsals. lots of artists do that
I think it was fine, it is just different key than in the studio version
On YouTube is a rehearsel clip from Avro/Tros S10. Thats much better.
Why every poll has to be rigged by some fans?
i’ve gotta give it to the netherlands. s10 looked absolutely stunning in the rehearsal clip, the wind blowing in her hair is such a beautiful shot and i love that she is singing in a different key than the studio version. a very good rehearsal and i think the best bet for jury winner. i also voted for bulgaria, not because i like the song but because i think the staging isnt half bad and elevates the song enough to see bulgaria not place last. i still don’t think we’ll be seeing bulgaria in the final but it is nice… Read more »
as for my least favorite rehearsal i’d say moldova. i had high hopes for them to deliver something interesting and creative and was let down by the genericness of the staging. such a fun song deserves more thought put into the staging because if it isn’t staged well it is going to be seen as just a joke entry. i heard that the EBU didnt allow moldova to bring the train on stage so i hope they can figure out a better way to stage it because i don’t see it qualifying as of now