Good morning and welcome back to ESCBubble’s coverage for Eurovision 2021! Over the weekend we brought you all the updates of the first semi finalists rehearsing. It seems to have flown by, but we’re already over to the second semi final! Today we will have the first nine competing in semi final two
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 Two will take place at 21.00 CET on Thursday 20th May 2021 with sixteen countries competing for ten qualifying spots for the final.
Next to perform is a cool 80s throwback from… Poland!
First Rehearsal
Sunglasses… check. Neon lights… check. Lights stuck to hands… check!
Rafal is giving us the ride of our lives with his performance, which starts again backstage with him and his boys all kitted up in sunglasses and looking somewhere between cool kids and a dad brigade. It’s full on choreography throughout which Rafal mostly manages pretty well. He’s on stage with 4 male backing dancers who each have a light attached to their hands. If these lights were multicoloured I think it might be more appealing.
At one point, Rafal grabs the camera and runs around with it which whilst looking messy is somewhat effective. He also takes his sunglasses off after the first chorus and makes a lot of ad libs. All in all, a surprisingly good performance in movement but lots of vocal work needed particularly at the end. Visuals are good but needs to get the rest of it on that level for it to be in contention. Gives relatively similar vibes to Serhat back in 2019. The backdrop is effectively the music video again.
It sounded and looked a LOT better on the final runthrough of the rehearsal, with a lot of additional pyro effects added for pretty much the entire song. The ad libbing at the end still needs a lot of work though.
Before Eurovision
Rafal Brzozowski became a television personality in Poland after competing on The Voice of Poland back in 2011. Whilst he was beaten in the semi final, he went on to become a regular host and musician since. Rafal competed for the chance to represent Poland in Eurovision when he performed “Sky Over Europe” at Krajowe Eliminacje 2017, however the song placed second behind Kasia Mos with “Flashlight”.
In 2021, Poland opted for an internal selection and paired Rafal with “The Ride”, an 80s-synth inspired pop song which is a world away from the intimate piano-accompanied performance he gave previously. Sunglasses on & neon signs a-plenty, check out the music video for the Polish entry here: