Eurovision Song Contest update: Giant set pieces and an ugly crash on stage | Eurovision Song Contest

Rehearsals are there for a reason, as it turned out again today. A lamp that doesn’t work and not enough time to set up a performance: things go wrong. Even big in Ukraine: rapper Alyona Alyona made a big splash on stage.

She fell flat on her face, but got right back up and connected to the music at the right time. It looks like she didn’t get anything from it, but Alyona Alyona hasn’t said anything about the blow yet.

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Presenters Petra Mede and Malin Akerman still have to get used to each other a bit. Mede knows the Eurovision Song Contest stage like no other: she has presented the event twice before, in 2013 and in 2016. Akerman clearly finds it a lot more exciting and therefore made quite a few mistakes.

The Eurovision Song Contest stage will again be decorated this year with all kinds of decor items. For example, Poland has brought gigantic chess towers, Serbia and Ukraine have fake rocks on the stage and Ireland has opted for a large chandelier. Impressive, but the United Kingdom takes the cake in this first semi-final: Olly Alexander has brought a complete bathroom.

Setting up those set pieces must be timed precisely. Partly for this reason, the postcards in which countries introduce themselves have been made slightly longer this year, Cornald Maas tells NU.nl. This gives the people behind the scenes a little more time to clean the stage and prepare it for the next act.