🇮🇸 That Eurovision Review: sparkles and party for Hera in her first rehearsal

Today the rehearsals for Eurovision 2024 continue in Malmö. Countries rehearsing on Day 2 include Iceland, Slovenia, Finland, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Australia, Portugal, and Luxembourg. The first to rehearse today is Iceland’s Hera Björk.

Hera’s first rehearsal

The first to take to the Eurovision 2024 stage at Malmö Arena in Malmö was Iceland’s Hera Björk. Hera will be competing in this year’s competition with her entry “Scared of Heights” following her victory at Söngvakeppnin 2024.

Following Hera’s first rehearsal, a clip of what went on was posted on the official TikTok account of the Eurovision Song Contest. The clip showed her before and after she took to the Eurovision stage for the first time, as well as giving us some insight into how well her first rehearsal went.

Once the official Eurovision TikTok has been uploaded, you can watch it here.

What did we learn about Hera’s staging?

Hera’s staging remains somewhat similar to the Söngvakeppnin final, just elevated to the Malmö stage. The only exception is her outfit, where she has replaced the red jumpsuit from the national final with a gold one. She is joined on stage by five backing dancers. The stage show features lots of gold graphics and silhouettes of dancers to make it feel like a big party on stage.

What we thought of Hera’s first rehearsal

Jazzi gives her thoughts about Iceland’s first rehearsals, which you can watch here.

Who is Hera Björk

Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir, who goes by the stage name Hera Björk has been in the music industry in Iceland for nearly 40 years. In 2008 she was a member of the group Frostrósir, before embarking on a Eurovision journey.

Hera Björk first participated in the Danish selection back in 2009 with the song “Someday, she finished second in the selection. In 2010 she competing in the Icelandic selection for Eurovision, Söngvakeppnin which this time she won with “Je ne sais quoi”. Hera placed 19th in the Eurovision final in Oslo. Later, in 2019 Hera competed in Söngvakeppnin again with the song “Moving On”, she finished in 4th place.

“Scared of Heights”, her Eurovision song was written by Ferras Alqaisi, Ásdís María Viðarsdóttir, Jaro Omar and Michael Burek. Michael also produced the song.

Iceland’s Eurovision Journey

Iceland made its debut on the Eurovision stage in 1986, finishing 16th with the song “Gleðibankinn” (Bank of Fun) by ICY. In their 35 appearances, Iceland has finished in top 10 an impressive 7 times. Their best result to date is second place, which they have achieved twice. The first time was in 1999, where Selma Björnsdóttir received 146 points for her performance of “All Out of Luck”. The second time was in 2009, with Yohanna singing “Is It True” and receiving 218 points.

Iceland’s most recent representative on the Eurovision stage was Diljá, singing “Power” in Liverpool. At the close of the voting, Diljá finished 11th in the semi-final with 44 points from the televote. This meant that Iceland missed out on qualifying for the final.

What do you think of “Scared of Heights”? Are you excited to see Hera return to the Eurovision stage? Let us know your thoughts! Also, be sure to follow “That Eurovision Site” on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok as we prepare for Eurovision 2024!

News Source: That Eurovision Site / Eurovision.tv

Photo Credit: Corinne Cumming / EBU