Eurovision 2025 Semi-Final 1 Dress Rehearsals Live Commentary

Doron Lahav

1 year ago

Live from Basel, it is the semi-final 1 jury show
18 countries will take the stage tonight (15 semi-finalists and 3 automatic qualifiers)

1. 🇮🇸 VÆB – RÓA
2. 🇵🇱 Justyna Steczkowska – Gaja
3. 🇸🇮 Klemen – How Much Time Do We Have Left
4. 🇪🇪 Tommy Cash – Espresso Macchiato
AQ. 🇪🇸 Melody – Esa Diva
5. 🇺🇦 Ziferblat – Bird of Pray
6. 🇸🇪 KAJ – Bara bada bastu
7. 🇵🇹 NAPA – Deslocado
8. 🇳🇴 Kyle Alessandro – Lighter
9. 🇧🇪 Red Sebastian – Strobe lights
AQ. 🇮🇹 Lucio Corsi – Volevo essere un duro
10. 🇦🇿 Mamagama – Run With U
11. 🇸🇲 Gabry Ponte – Tutta l’Italia
12.🇦🇱 Shkodra Elektronike – Zjerm
13. 🇳🇱 Claude – C’est La Vie
14. 🇭🇷 Marko Bošnjak – Poison Cake
AQ.🇨🇭 Zoë Më – Voyage
15. 🇨🇾 Theo Evan – Shh

The article will be updated along the show

#1. 🇮🇸 Iceland: VÆB – RÓA

The staging will resemble the one we’ve seen in the “Söngvakeppnin 2025”.
The brothers will wear silver outfits labeled “VÆB” on top and their famous sunglasses. They will be accompanied by 3 backing dancers wearing silver overalls with jumpers and hats. The dancers wore white shirts with blue and red prints beneath the silver jumpers, that look like the Icelandic flag.
The performance starts with the duo and the dancers stepping forward on the stage, the lighting is mainly blue.
The main prop on stage will be a white-painted wooden boat, where they will jump, go out and down and basically dance.
Later on, it switched to a more red view in the pre-chorus.
We can see some camera-on-screen effects, as well as sea and animal effects on the LED, and even Minecraft objects
After the second chorus, they perform under the main rectangular front frame.
Vocally, it wasn’t the best, but it seems this song isn’t about vocals anyway.

#2. 🇵🇱Poland: Justyna Steczkowska – Gaja

The performance starts on the ground, where Justyna performs between her dancers.
Before the first chorus, we get some smoke and fire jets.
The LED floor shows fire, while the LED screen show giant circular lights.
She is wearing a black catsuit with exposed shoulders. She is accompanied by 4 backing dancers: one female and 3 males. They are wearing black outfits, with skirts and high heels. The dancers have black fabric extensions over their arms, which create a wing effect.
The performance features a complex and bold dance routine.
The LED screens will present elements related to GAJA (the mother of Earth): Spinning planets, Lava, water, and neon lights. In some parts, we can see a huge circular light on the LED.
She performs the second chorus with big notes while rotating, but before this she play the piano.
Part of the performance is broadcast with camera effects like slow motion.
Thereafter, she goes up to the ceiling with swings, while the instrumental part of the song in on.

#3. 🇸🇮Slovenia: Klemen – How Much Time Do We Have Left

The LED walls present video and images of his wife and the family in general.
he lighting is mainly orange.
He performs the second chorus upside down, supported by 2 backing dancers.
He is wearing a black, elegant jacket with shiny dots and a white shirt beneath.
The concept of the performance is quite similar to the one from “EMA 2025”.
The LED wall and front LED rectangle frame present shiny stars, whose color changes from blue to red and vice versa.
The lighting is mainly vivid orange and yellow. In the last part, we get circular camera shots around him, and later on, his wife, Mojca, standing back to back with him. She wears a simple white outfit.
It continues into a slow dance.
The performance is quite simple, intimate, and emotional.
It ends with them kissing.
The vocals were on point, as good as in the studio.

#4. 🇪🇪 Estonia: Tommy Cash – Espresso Macchiato

The performance is quite similar to the one from “Eesti Laul 2025”. It starts with a dark scene, and a vertical red light of the LED, while he is holding a cup.
Later on, we can see a picture of a cafe with the writing “Winners Cafe”
Tommy is wearing the same outfit as in the national final: a dark blue, elegant suit, a white shirt beneath, and a long red tie. He has a sticky yellow note on his jacket with “I Love Eurovision” on it.
For the majority of the performance, Tommy is accompanied by 2 bodyguards in black outfits. During the chorus, we see the famous “spaghetti” dance moves, and then he is accompanied by 4 backing dancers.
The LED walls are colorful and show many objects like food and coffee, in red, green, blue and yellow.
After the second chorus, we have a planned stage invader who wears a white T-shirt with “I Love Tommy”. The stage invader runs to the arms of Tommy and jumps on him. Later on, the additional person is removed from the stage by Tonmy’s bodyguards.
In the last chorus, he lies on the floor, which shows large brown coffee beans.
Vocally, it was weak, even off-key. Don’t we care about vocals anymore?

AQ. 🇪🇸 Spain: Melody – Esa Diva

The performance starts with a dark scene, where we can see only her black shadow with the big hat.
Later on, the dancers are revealed on stage.
Melody is wearing a black corseted bodice with a long train, pointy bits on the shoulders and hips, a black fedora, and black thigh boots.
Beneath that, she is wearing a shiny silver bodysuit heavily embellished with crystals, sequins, and rhinestones. The outfit featured a deep plunging choker neckline and structured shoulder design
She is accompanied by 2 female dancers and 3 male dancers.
The main prop on stage is a huge downstairs structure with nested squares on top. In the beginning, it is covered with a red curtain.
When the red curtain is removed, we
The performance aims to tell a story in 3 parts. Each part has its own roles, rules, and message. In all of them, the performance relies on Melody’s charisma.
The first part is purple-themed, the second one is red-themed, and the last one is mainly white.
The song ends with a white light that illuminates the LED mountains. The last 10 seconds rely on a dance break.
Vocally, I felt like she pushed too much and sometimes it hurts the accuracy.
The staging concept felt like too much and sometimes undefined,

#5. 🇺🇦 Ukraine: Ziferblat – Bird of Pray

Ukraine will fully utilize the 6-person limitation on stage: The three Ziferblat members will be accompanied by 3 female backing singers.
The performance from “Vidbir” has changed before landing in Basel.
The costumes are in shiny bright colors (pink, blue, and turquoise). The outfits, as in the song, are influenced by the 1970s: wide-legged/puff shoulders and lots of sparkle.
The backing singers wear golden pantsuits.
It starts with a
The performance relies on vivid neon lights in pink, green, and turquoise. There is a kind of halo around the body figure of each of them
The island of forest from “Vidbir 2025” is no longer part of the performance. The LED walls present pink and green graphics that pulse and swirl along with the song.
The performance isn’t static, as the lead singer will walk through the stage.
There’s low smoke on the stage from the beginning. In the electric guitar part, the staging features fireworks.

#6. 🇸🇪Sweden: KAJ – Bara bada bastu

The KAJ trio will appear on stage in the same brown suits (with green/yellow/orange shirts).
They will be accompanied on stage by 3 dancers (2 female and 1 male). This is a decrease of one dancer, due to the 6-person limitation.
The basis of the performance is quite similar to that one from “Melodifestivalen 2025”.
The fire pit, which looks like a bonfire, will be one of the main elements. The sausage that is “cooked” in the fire is much bigger.
Behind them, we can see a log store which is converted into a sauna mode.
The backdrop LED walls present a forest-like view, including deer and Laba. Towards the end, it is replaced by neon light graphics and laser effects.
It starts with cold lights (blue colored) and in the second half, converted to warmer colors like orange and yellow.
The staging features pyro effects as well, from flames in the fire pit to flame jets in the middle eight. The performance ends with smoke jets that accompany the lasers. It ends with a festive of green, pink and yellow neon lights,

#7. 🇵🇹Portugal: NAPA – Deslocado

The performance is quite similar to the one from “Festival da Canção 2025”.
The 5 band members changed their outfits: They wear long-sleeved jackets or shirts in muted colors, like white, red, purple, etc.
The staging concept of a band performing a live show, where each instrumentalist is attached to the corresponding instrument.
The LED wall features views like floating clouds and animated skyscapes that change colour in sync with the front LED arch.
The whole vibe is of emotional Fado music.
While the vocals were good, the energy was quite tiring. It lacks something.

#8. 🇳🇴Norway: Kyle Alessandro – Lighter

Kyle wears a black outfit featuring armour. It is a bit different from the one in the national selection. The upper part of the costume, around his neck, is lighter and more silvery.
The majority of the elements are borrowed from the “Melodi Grand Prix 2025”.
He is accompanied by 3 male backing dancers, one of whom is Daniel Grindeland (an international breakdancing champion).
The performance demonstrated a significant use of LED and lighting. The backdrop walls will show a series of post-apocalyptic mountain graphics.
The performance is dynamic: Kyle dances through different parts, and moves along different parts of the stage (walkway and front stage).
The Norwegian delegation uses lighting on the roof that lowers during the second half of the song. In the bridge, Kyle is between many spotlights.
The front stage will include some flames. In the second half, we’re able to see fire jets.
The main change is that the backing vocals are more dominant than before, this time supplied by 2 backing singers behind the scenes.
Kyle wasn’t accurate. I found it too shouty.

#9. 🇧🇪 Belgium: Red Sebastian – Strobe lights

The red and black lighting from “Eurosong 2025” will also appear in Eurovision 2025, but on a larger scale. The lights will appear on the backdrop LED wall, as well as the front frame.
He is wearing a red PVC suit with triangular shoulders (similar to the outfit in the official video). The fabric is smooth leather. He also wears red shoes.
The moving platform from the “Eurosong 2025” won’t be part of the staging in Basel. Red Sebastian will stay with his feet on the ground for his Eurovision 2025 performance.
He is accompanied by 3 dancers on stage, who wear red/black outfits in a similar style to the singer’s outfit. They look quite similar to him,
The concept sees Red Sebastian appear 4 times on the stage (himself and his 3 backing dancers). They hold their microphone the same way, but he is the only one to sing.
The performance includes a lot of long shots, sometimes the stage looks too small (as it is)
In the first chorus, we can see his character on the LED floor and he interacts with it,
In the second chorus, his doppelganger runs along the stage, it looks like they go out of his body
The LED walls show multiple people dancing in a club.
Vocally, he was flawless (and it is quite challenging in this kind of song). The visuals are quite captivating

AQ. 🇮🇹 Italy: Lucio Corsi – Volevo essere un duro

The performance is intimate, and it looks more like a concert, rather than a Eurovision performance .
The lighting starts with blue and smoke, and then transforms into yellow and brown.
The performance will feature on-screen English subtitles, so non-Italian speakers will be able to understand the message.
Lucio is wearing a giant-shouldered yellow bolero jacket and is accompanied by Tommaso on stage. Lucio’s face will be covered by white makeup.
The performance starts with Lucio sitting by a long piano, while Tommaso in on the guitar.
Later on, Lucio takes his guitar and moves to the center of the stage.
The staging relies on 3 main props – Two retro speakers (One of them is bigger and square) and a sepia filter. The filter enables to apply of brown and white effects for the screen viewers.
There’s also a live instrument appearance: Lucio will play the harmonica, while being in the front frame stage with Tommaso
Vocally, it sounds the same as in the studio cut, but will it be enough?

#10. 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan: Mamagama – Run With U

The scene is quite dark.
Mamagama will be accompanied by 3 backing dancers on stage: 2 females and one male.
The band members wear stylish black leather suits with red accents, where Asaf and Hasan wear different kinds of jackets. Arif wears a sleeveless shirt
Their dancers wear sparkly red and black catsuits.
They hame a half circle platform behind the band, where Asaf walks on from time to time,
The performance starts with the 3 members in a circle
I found the dance movements random, where in some cases the dancers his the band members. WHY?
Along with the performance, the band members play different instruments, like drums, guitar, and Saz (a traditional string instrument, long-necked lutes).
Vocally, it wasn’t good enough, and it seems this kind of song doesn’t fit to the Eurovision stage

#11. 🇸🇲 San Marino: Gabry Ponte – Tutta l’Italia

The performance has changed since the national selection.
The 2 backing dancers aren’t part of it anymore. Gabry wears a silver jacket and black shirt, and the performance focuses on him. He stands behind a deck (which resembles a DJ booth) built of panels reflecting lights. The identity of the 3 singers is still unknown, and their faces are covered with stylised masks.
Gabry is accompanied by two instrumentalists: One on accordion and one on the tambourine.
Backdrop LED walls show pulsing lights, graffiti, and some sculptures. The floor is filled with artwork of blooming flowers that later looks like a neon wave that washes all.
One of the (strange) visuals is a sculpture chewing a gum pretty brutally,
The staging is based on short and fast camera shots, where Gabry’s lip-synching in one of the main shots.
The final chorus features flame jets and fireworks, while the song ends with fireworks
The lighting is colorful: gray, blue, orange, and pink.
I still find it quite strange that the focus is on Gabry.
Even if the song is good, something is off about the performance,

#12. 🇦🇱 Albania: Shkodra Elektronike – Zjerm

Beatriçe is wearing a red crepe satin dress with sparkle on the bodice and lots of draping. She wears a white glove on one of her hands. Kolë is wearing a double-breasted military jacket, like a pea coat.
The staging has quite changed since “Festival i Këngës 63”. The lighting is mostly lowered, especially the backstage lights.
The LED walls present geometric shapes, some of them in red and black. Those shapes also appear on the frame LED and on the floor.
The stage is split into 2 parts: Beatriçe‘s part is lit in black and red, while Kolë‘s part is black and white.
There are black and white light boxes in the center of the stage, where Kolë stands. Beatriçe utilizes a bigger space of the stage, where she performs her vague dance moves and hand/arm choreography.
There’s a use of flame jets in each chorus.
Vocally, it was one of the strongest performances of the night

#13. 🇳🇱The Netherlands: Claude – C’est La Vie

It starts with a dark scene and intimate orange lighting.
Claude is wearing a purple satin suit featuring silver decoration and pockets and black shoes
Initially, we see him alone on stage with closeup shots.
In the chorus, the camera goes in circles around him.
Thereafter, we see the contemporary dancers around him.
As he walks along the stage, we see the violin instrumentalists on the main stage,
The song ends with Claude standing in front of a mirror-like object, where we can see a video of tiny Claude from the video clip dancing in front of him
I found the staging a bit too dark for this kind of hopeful song.

#14. 🇭🇷Croatia: Marko Bošnjak – Poison Cake

The messiest performance of the night: The lights keep changing from red to green, pink, and more.
The performance features several camera effects like shaking and on-screen effects (moving serpent as well)
Marko wears a full Bordeaux cape outfit with fur around the shoulders. Beneath, he wears a blue and white outfit. 4 dancers accompany him and wear matching blue and white outfits with frills and ribbons.
The lighting creates a dark, intimate, and mysterious atmosphere. The lights criss-cross each other and intersect green and red clouds and flames.
The main props is a cauldron in the middle of the stage, where Marko and the dancers cast their spells into for the first verse and chorus.
In the second half of the song, they step forward to the front frame LED.
Towards the end, Marko removes the upper cape and reveals his blue and white outfit. The camera artwork also includes a shaking effect.
The staging includes low fog, while we can see flames and fire jets on the front stage. The smoke fill the LED wall, while the lights give more of techno vibes.
Vocals were problematic in this performance. Especially when he sang too close to the mic in the choruses. The final notes were performed in the wrong pitch, and out of key.

# AQ.🇨🇭 Switzerland: Zoë Më – Voyage

The staging is intimate and creates a cinematic atmosphere.
Zoë is wearing an off-the-shoulder black silk dress with abstract floral red, blue, and purple prints.
What’s special about the performance is the camera shots and the simplicity. We won’t find props or LED lights, nor dancing or additional people on stage.
The performance is filmed on a full-frame cinema camera, like in the 1970s movies.
She begins the performance while sitting on stage, surrounded by dark lights.
In the bridge, smoke, wind, and stark, overexposed flashes fill the stage, but the camera shots are continuous.
The idea is that the arena audience will lit the stage with their phones.
The performance ends in an intimate moment, where the scene is once again dark.
It works better than expected, a contender to get many jury points,

#15. 🇨🇾 Cyprus: Theo Evan – Shh

The performance features 2 main props: Two scaffolding towers.
4 male dancers accompany Theo on stage. All of them wear black trousers and black vests.
The performance starts with Theo and 2 dancers creating the shape of a famous mysterious figure via a silhouette.
As the song progresses, the scaffolding towers shift positions and create different forms. Theo and the dancers move the scaffolding towers as part of the choreography, which can be described as a gymnastic routine.
The performance features dynamic visuals and graphics, as well as diverse lighting: From black and white to red and black, and then black and white.
The camera work focuses on the different figures, but on Theo as well.
The “secret” figure which the song refers to is Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, as we can see Theo with open arms and 2 dancers behind him.
I think the camerawork isn’t good enough, as some shots are questionable and show them just moving the prop.
However, the choreography is quite demeaning, yet Theo delivered. It sounds like they relied on the backing vocals more than expected.

Eurovision 2025 will be held in Basel, Switzerland on the 13th, 15th, and 17th of May 2025.
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