Today, second rehearsals for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 kicked off. Countries rehearsing on Day 5 include Albania, Latvia, Lithuania, Switzerland, Slovenia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, The Netherlands Moldova, Portugal, Croatia, Denmark, Austria and Greece. First to rehearse today was Albania’s Ronela Hajati.
Ronela Hajati’s second rehearsal
Today we got to watch Ronela Hajati’s second rehearsal from the online Press Centre. We got an in-depth preview of how her staging will look on TV on Tuesday 10th May, when she performs in the first Eurovision semi-final. You can watch a small clip of her second Rehearsal here!
What we saw in Ronela’s second rehearsal?
Photo Credit: EBU/Andres Putting
Ronela has had an outfit change for her second rehearsal. Gone is the pink hair and black outfit. Ronela is now wearing a pink outfit. She has also brought back her ponytail from the national final in Albania. Ronela’s personality is fierce throughout the rehearsal. She really brings all her energy to the performance. There were some issues with the new outfit, Ronela had to keep making adjustments to it.
Ronela swings her ponytail around during the break-down in the song. I am glad that this element from the national final is back. I really felt it added to the atmosphere of the performance. We will definitely be seeing this on Saturday night I would feel. There is a really nice LED effect before the breakdown on the floor, there is a pink flame that fades to blue, it looks really cool. There are quite a few wide shots in this however it is still perfectly presentable.
What Happened in Ronela’s first rehearsal
After Ronela’s first rehearsal, Tim gave his initial thoughts on the snippet that we saw. You can see how he felt about her first rehearsal by checking our TikTok here:
@thateurosite #stitch with @eurovision We just saw a bit of @Ronela Hajati’s rehearsal for #Eurovision, and here’s what we thought #fyp #foryou #Albania #RonelaHajati ♬ original sound – thateurosite
About Ronela Hajati
Ronela has been making music from a young age, and rose to prominence in Albania during the early 2010s. Her appearances on shows such as Top Fest and Kënga Magjike helped to propel her into the limelight, and she saw chart success in Albania with songs including “Mala Gata”, “Mos ma lsho” and “Marre”.
Despite this success, her first studio album, “RRON” was not released until 2021. However, it was worth the wait, with singles “Prologue” and “Aventura” reaching numbers 2 and 3 on the Albanian charts respectively. It was following this that she was selected to participate in the 60th edition of Festivali i Këngës – and the rest from there is history!
Albania’s Eurovision Journey
Albania made their debut at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004 with Anheza Shahini with “Image of You” which managed to place 7th in the final. Since their debut, Albania has participated 17 times and qualified the final 10 times; their best result came in 2012 when Rona Nishliu placed 5th with “Suus”.
In 2021, Anxhela Peristeri represented Albania with “Karma”, which gave the country its third straight grand final qualification and finished in 21st place with 57 points. Coincidentally, it was also their third song in a row to be sung in Albanian.
What are your opinions on Ronela’s second rehearsal? What changes would you make? Let us know in the comments or on social media. Be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
News Source: EBU
Photo Source: EBU/Nathan Reinds
