April 28, 2024

Malmö Messages: many cubes, flashy graphics and white clothes

For Azerbaijan, Fahree and Ilkin Dovlatov will perform this year. They sing a song with an Azerbaijani title, but mainly sung in English. Dressed in black and silver, they sing their song, with Ilkin taking on the traditional Azerbaijani mugham vocals, especially in the second half of the performance. Before that, Fahree stands alone on stage, with graphics of a figure slowly emerging from the water. Hands play a prominent role in this. photo: EBU/Sarah Cumming Electric Fields is the duo representing Australia with “One Milkali (One Blood).” No one had seen a live performance of this song yet. Zaachariaha Fielding, half of the duo, wears a white dress. The graphics initially depict a rainbow, later described as an explosion of color and light by eurovision.tv. Zaachariaha and Michael Ross are surrounded by cubes. The whole presentation is very flashy. photo: EBU/Sarah Louise Bennett Portugal is represented by Iolanda singing “Grito.” She performs in the same manner as during the Portuguese selection round. Iolanda is surrounded by five dancers dressed in white and masked. Above the heads of the six, a large cube is visible. photo: EBU/Sarah Louise Bennett For the first time since 1993, Luxembourg is on the stage. Tali will sing “Fighter” for this country. She herself wears a dark bodysuit, her dancers wear red, but not uniformly. They use some kind of white blocks during the performance. Everything is visible: smoke, fireworks, and flames. The whole presentation looks very flashy. photo: EBU/Sarah Louise Bennett in collaboration with Eurovision Artists

Malmö Messages: returning artists, strong women and underwear

Iceland is represented this year, 14 years after her participation in 2010, by Hera Björk. This time, she sings “Scared of Heights”. She starts on a sort of black platform. She has swapped her reddish-brown dress for a golden one with fringes. She is alone on stage without dancers. We see lots of lasers in the background. It seems like Hera is mainly focusing on singing. Given her past experiences, that will undoubtedly be good. And Hera is impressed, as she told us: “It was fantastic! It’s much bigger and more professional than in 2010”. Photo: EBU/Sarah Louise Bennett After the Irish witch comes a song about a witch from Slovenia. That is to say: Veronika really existed and was accused of witchcraft. Raiven sings about her being a powerful woman. She wears a silver bodysuit. Those who know the music video will recognize a lot. She starts off sitting and adds a lot of drama to the whole performance. She is surrounded by five dancers; and no, they are not naked, but wearing a skin-colored bodysuit. photo: EBU/Corinne Cumming Windows95man and Henri Piispanen show more or less the same act for Finland with “No Rules” as they did during UMK. Henri in denim and Windows95man in his underwear and then in a still not very revealing denim. The difference is that the Windows 95 logo is now blurred. It’s still advertising, and that’s just not allowed. Although he sings about the absence of rules, he still has to follow the rules. “I was nervous at first, but the more we performed the better it went. I burned my sock from the fireworks, so it was even quite dangerous. But it’s nice to be in Malmö and rehearse with all the professional technical stuff”. Photo: EBU/Corinne Cumming Also returning: Natalia Barbu. We have to go all the way back to 2007 for her last participation. Now she sings “In the Middle” for Moldova. Interestingly, she hasn’t brought the ladies who were around her during the national final. According to sources, that would be a matter of money. So Natalia is alone on the stage now. We see butterflies and blossoms at the LED screens. During the part with the violin, wings are shown on the LED screen, making it seem like Natalia is an angel. photo: EBU/Corinne Cumming in collaboration with Eurovision Artists