Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Saturday May 2, 2026. The start of the rehearsals for Eurovision song contest 2026 in Vienna after building the stage and having the stand in rehearsals the past week after weeks and months of planning and rehearsing the staging, lights, choreography and special effects and creative ideas by the artists and their teams at home while Vienna team has been programming and putting everything on computers second by second as so it is these days. If back in the day the nervous bit was could the local orchestra play the song the way wanted now it is Can they handle the visuals the way the team has planned? Times change. As usual there are several teams or people doing the creative work for various teams and behind the stagings there are many already very familiar names. Let's have a look. Black Skull Creative , a British show-making company is behind several acts this year.   Albania is among them and there won't be the signature red color this year for Albania but a prop and subtit...

ORF and EBU have finally released the rehearsal schedule for the Eurovision song contest 2026 in Vienna according several sites yet I haven't seen an official release when writing this. Finland's first 30 minutes rehearsal is scheduled on May 2 at 15.40-16.10. The second one, 25 minutes instead of the usual 20 btw it seems, is scheduled for May 6 at 15.00-15.25. Oddly the Big4 + Austria have  25 + 25 minutes rehearsals on May 7 and 9, which  But what happens in these first and second rehearsals and what are they for?  If things haven't changed much since I was there the first 30 minutes rehearsals is mostly technical. The acts get to the stage for the very first time after the stand in rehearsals have practiced the lighting and camera angles, props and all that . Usually they get to go through the song three times, four if you are lucky and happy how things progress and changes can be made after each run through as the delegation watches on screens how it all looks like. ...

Ok, the slogan is still United by Music but the Swiss like also the Unity shapes love one as they reveal the visual identity, stage and more on December 16, 2024 for the Eurovision song contest 2025 in Basel.  Truth me said there's nothing to get exited for as it seems rather seen and unoriginal to say the least, continuing where Liverpool and Malmö left just tuning down the colors a bit. Despite the cute back story of Swiss way of listening _ ears that become heart that becomes unity or something. And yes, once again it's back to kinda dark and gloomy... The stage looks rather familiar. too, and no wonder as it is once again by Florian Wieder. At least it has the Alps in it. This is his eight, or ninth if count the recycling 2020 to 2021,  Eurovision stage since 2011. (+ 2012, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024) A couple of days ago the number of participants was also confirmed: 38. Montenegro returns along with everybody from last year.  The hosts will be announced in J...

 What a relief! I was a bit worried Rai would fall to the usual Eurovision standards and choose the usual suspects for staging etc. But no!  Atelier Francesca Montinaro will create the scenography for the Eurovision Song Contest Torino 2022 stage! Hopefully that means they will do also the rest the Italian way. In a good Italian way I mean!  "It was a very demanding race in which we participated with enthusiasm and strong emotions. A race against time that kept us awake until the small hours. But it was worth it, because in the end  Rai chose us. We receive this assignment with honor and we will work to deliver to the whole of Italy a stage that shows the soul of the Italians to Europe and to the world. We would like to say a lot, tell more, but we cannot reveal any details. From now on, months of intense but beautiful work begin for us to reach the opening of this third Italian edition of Eurovision. See you in May!" Atelier Francesca Montinaro has previously desig...

Surprise! It's by Florian Wieder! One starts to wonder if there's no one else really in Europe (or in the world for that matter) who can design stages. This is his seventh Eurovision stage since 2011 (2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020) so only Swedes and Danish have preferred local talent for their stages lately. He has also designed the stages of America's Got Talent since 2011, Britain's Got Talent since 2007, The X Factors both US and UK and many, many more.  Florian Wieder says: ““The design shows the connection between the sky, the sea and the land. The horizon links these elements and that horizon will work as a window to open up the world of Eurovision 2020. The floor plan of the stage is inspired by the canals and bridges that connect land and water in the Netherlands. With this design, we want to bring the artists as close as possible to the audience.I was inspired by the unique characteristics of Dutch Design. Based on that, I wanted to create an...

"The Scenography, designed as an auditorium, is conceived prospectively to expand into the Teatro Ariston. Wide meshes of steel - almost streets - build a link with the outside through light paths. White triumphs as a symbol of purity of art. The music inside, thanks to these links, comes out of the outside drawing inspiration and reason to exist. The architectural elements give stage volume to represent an urban agglomeration, a city of the future. Through two video spirals that rise and fall in helical twist to help the music rise to new horizons. Acoustic arcs find verticality to help the sounds become universal ". This is how Emanuela Trixie Zitkowsky, scenographer of the 68th Sanremo Festival, recounts the encounter between light, image and architecture on the stage of the Ariston, to accompany the show of the songs in front of the millions of viewers at home and the 1273 spectators seated in the theater. "A thousand square meters of video and light  transfor...

How time flies! Already in a week, next Sunday morning, April 30, the first country Sweden will have its first rehearsal ( read more here ) on the Eurovision song contest 2017 stage in IEC in Kyiv. By then a lot is done on stage already; the dummy rehearsals with the local students have performed the songs over and over while camera and lightning crew has been fixing and fine tuning their part of the show. Once all this done, the real divas walk in and want all possible changes of course and the real work starts :-)  This angle reminds me of Helsinki 2007 really.....  Is that a medusa? Pastel colors are in  Just for some comparison....

Fans were complaining before about everyhting but NTU has come up with the logo, slogan, stage and allocation draw in January. Just as promised. :-) And even the ticket sales will start in a week or so... The stage (on top) looks very much inspired by Vienna and Helsinki with the Baku backdrop. But then again it's the same designer. Except for Helsinki of course! Looks promising. The semifinal allocation is sorted out as well today with the Host City insignia ceremony, passing the contest officially from Stockholm to Kyiv. A nice tradition started after Helsinki 2007 from the initiative of the Helsinki city people.  Italy, Spain and United Kingdom will vote in the first semifinal which is bad news for San Marino. Germany. Ukraine and France will vote in the second semifinal which is good news for San Marino if they send Serhat again..... And Finland? AGAIN first semifinal and AGAIN first half! This is 8th semifinal one in ten years, and the starting numbers have ...

    Today the Sanremo festival had its first official press conference and Carlo Conti announced Maria De Filippi as his co-hostess. The king od Rai and the Queen of Mediaset will have a joint adventure so get ready for Maria's rolling "r" and very, very deep voice. She's borrowed from the competing channel for free so she doesn't get paid by Rai or the taxpayers.  Maybe that's why she didn't look very happy today hardly ever smiling and looking rather miserable most of the time....No other hosts or "vallette" will be walking down the legendary staircase, so Sanremo becomes very much like Eurovision with a hosting couple doing the job alone. The stage (have a look at the video here ) is already being built and will be very technological as they are these days giving "each song a different look and feel" so this is also very Eurovision, isn't it? It seems the circle is closing as Eurovision was born from the idea...

The stage construction inside Globen Arena is in full swing and apparently 36 hours ahead of schedule so everything's going smoothly. The LED back wall is ready as are the arcs. The actual stage deck is going up next along with the subdeck that includes for example the pyro firing ramps. The whole thing should be finished and ready by April 23 while the rehearsals with the contestants kick on on May 2, Finland's Sandhja having the honor to test it first. The week before stand-in singers are using the stage and with their help the positions for cameras, backdrops and special effects are being sorted out before the real artists get up. They will have the technical rehearsal and one more rehearsal to finetune the details and make minor changes before the dress rehearsals start. There are 250 people working on the stage day and night. Ola Melzig is the technical director for the 12th time in 16 years. He says this year it's all about masculine feel with angular shapes...

SVT has revealed today the stage design for Stockholm Globen Eurovision song contest 2016 in May. It is designer by Frida Arvisson and Viktor Brattström, the same team that did also Malmö 2013. And it wouldn't be a Swedish Eurovision without something new and unseen before: this time it's a LED wall in a new way; it's "broken" and the artists can move inside it creating optical illusions leaving people wonder if it is possible at all what they are seeing. This kind of stage gives almost unlimeted possibilities, the only limit is one's imagination and it will be very challenging but also inspiring for the acts to come up ideas how to use it the best way possible. The lighting effects play a major role this year and it's more about design that effects to give it all a softer look and less pixeled. Something we haven't seen before. So they say and we will see in May. 

Last week ago ORF revealed the stage design for Vienna 2015 Eurovision ( here )  but now several other stage designs are out in the open. On top you can see that of Sanremo 2015.  Then we have that of Swedish Melodifestivalen and that of Latvian Supernova and an interesting looking one for the Danish DMGP.  Which one is your favorite?

After venue, slogan, theme art and presenters here comes the stage design. ORF's got its eye on you.  “The vision for the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest is the bridge from the past to the present and the future. The eye is a symbol of this bridge – a mutual respect between cultures, countries and people. ” explains Kathrin Zechner, ORF’s TV director. The stage consists of 1288 individual pillars and measures 44 metres in width, 14,3 metres in height and up to 22 metres in depth. The LED pillars can produce a wide variety of lighting effects as can the 11 metre diameter stage floor. In the background, there is another LED wall of 22 metres wide and 8,5 metres high. As we knew already before, it's design is by Florian Wieder. He's been helped by lighting designer Al Gurdon and director Kurt Pongratz. With first look at these pics this blogger thinks of Helsinki 2007 somehow.....