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.
Next to rehearse is… Romania!
First Rehearsal
Much like Ireland, there is a lot to remember in this performance! Let me start by describing it a little like a Loreen – Statements style of arts performance rather than an outright musical number. The message isn’t necessarily clear, however they have tried their best to recreate the music video. The staging is dark with mostly blues in the colour scheme, but there is an epic moment at the end of the first chorus (probably the best part, for me) where the blue turns to red. She then comes out on to the satellite stage and is constantly moving. Worth noting she has a face-mic rather than a proper microphone, which is probably a good thing as she’s constantly on the move and being ‘chased’ by the backing dancers much like in the video.
The first minute is solid, she sounds great, she looks great (albeit a little lost – which I guess is the message of the song!) and the third run we got lots of smoke on stage too which added to this part. It just gets a bit messy when it moves to the satellite stage. She’s struggling to keep her breathing under control. She has leeway because there’s natural accentuation there but is it enough to be voteable? They have a great staging in theory but need to sharpen the message and give Roxen some more breathing room.
Before Eurovision
Young singer Roxen became the first ever artist internally selected by Romanian broadcaster TVR to fly the Romanian flag at Eurovision. This came after Romania’s 2 worst ever results consecutively in 2018 and 2019. Last year, she performed 5 songs in the Selectia Nationala national final with “Alcohol You” eventually being chosen. However, following the cancellation of the 2020 contest, TVR announced that both Roxen and her song would be selected internally for the first time.
In 2021, Roxen released her song for Eurovision Song Contest 2021 “Amnesia”. The song itself feels like a natural follow-up to her song from last year, this time speaking about self-love and reminding the listener that it is okay to take a step back to love or protect yourself. You can check out the music video here: