Welcome back to ESCBubble’s coverage for Eurovision 2021! After the first seven countries took to the stage at the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam for their first rehearsals, we are flying through to day 2! Today, the remaining nine countries performing in the second half of semi final one will be rehearsing so keep following our coverage for all the updates throughout the day.

As always, you can check out our ongoing coverage through both our Live Rehearsal Blog and also rolling  daily updates on our Twitter Account.

If you are avoiding potential rehearsal spoilers then don’t read any further! Semi Final One will take place at 21.00 CET on Tuesday 18th May 2021 with sixteen countries competing for ten qualifying spots for the final.

We’re back from lunch, and so are the acts! First up this afternoon is… Israel!

First Rehearsal

Eden Alene absolutely oozes confidence and stage credibility as she performs. The routine is intensive from the very beginning, joined by 5 male dancers. There’s a blue & pink/purple neon vibes to this song as well, which is pretty similar to Croatia’s only 2 songs beforehand.

She starts with a darker stage, surrounded by her dancers and singing in to the camera wearing a white long jacket style of dress rather than a more traditional dress. She struts from the main stage to the satellite, accompanied by a neon outline of herself dancing along the  dropped side screen. It’s non-stop on the choreography side, just completely giving 100% energy every time. The camera angles were changing with each of the runs so there was definitely some tweaking going on.

The big finish has Eden stood in the middle of the big screen surrounded by her 5 dancers, ahead of the final run of big notes her jacket is ripped off to reveal a black undergarment and a crown of braids is placed on her head too. She hit all of the notes every time. The whistles were fantastic. Goosebumps!

Before Eurovision

Eden Alene won HaKokhav HaBa in January 2020, winning the ticket to represent Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest. Fans may remember that when the contest was first cancelled, Eden was live on air at the time giving an interview and her tearful reaction to the cancellation warmed many hearts of Eurovision fans. Fortunately for Eden, last March, Israeli broadcaster KAN confirmed that she had been internally selected for the 2021 contest.

The search for Israel’s song for Eurovision 2021 was a long adventure lasting several months and several revamps! With a series of demos initially released and voted on, followed by 3 final versions of songs to be voted on, including her eventual chosen song “Set Me Free”.  Shortly after being chosen as Eden’s song for 2021, a final revamp occurred and at the end of March, the final version was released. You can give the final version a listen in the music video here: