Rehearsals for Eurovision 2025 at St. Jakobshalle in Basel are now in full swing! We have seen snapshots of the performances of the first eight participating artists in this year’s second semi-final, with commentary provided via Reddit.
🇲🇹 Malta: Miriana Conte with “SERVING”
The storytelling aspect at MESC is mostly gone now, however, we have a huge new prop now, and it’s a huge sparkly red lips holding a spinning disco ball, which is three metres high and is slaying in the centre of the stage. The lips turn, and guess who’s inside? It’s Miriana who is wearing a bright yellow dress with a huge skirt made from tiered netting with black sleeves, which later turns into a catsuit that’s the same style as the one we saw at MESC, but now black and red with a lot of sparkles.
🇬🇪 Georgia: Mariam Shengelia with “Freedom”
We start with a large geometric rock that stands in the centre of the stage, with Mariam appearing on the top of this rock and wearing a silver gown that is structured with many layers of organza along with some satin, which makes her blend in with the rock. The back walls shows a moon rising behind Mariam between the two stage mountains which soon turn into a red sun with storm clouds and neon rings.
🇩🇰 Denmark: Sissal with “Hallucination”
There’s a central transparent curtain that hangs in the middle of the stage it stretching from the floor to the ceiling. The curtain is split into four parts, making it flow effortlessly, with the assistance of a wind machine. Sissal is very comfortably singing on a black plinth in the middle, in a tunnel of pulsing neon lights and strobes. Sissal is adorned in a blue and white coat with hundreds of organza layers, which is soon shown to be a long-sleeved leotard and thigh boots in sparkly electric blue.
🇨🇿 Czechia: ADONXS with “Kiss Kiss Goodbye”
Adonxs is slaying as always with a silver wide-legged trousers, with a white top that’s just a vest but with sleeves and white gloves, along with the staging being white, matching it all neatly together. The LED, however, has strobing black shapes, which is fitting for a dystopian theme. During the second verse, the floor goes white as four dancers join Adonxs for the dance verse in their matching outfits to get into the dance break.
🇱🇺 Luxembourg: Laura Thorn with “La Poupée Monte Le Son”
This is very different from what was seen in The Luxembourg Song Contest, however, the Doll-Laura concept has been kept along with the male dancers who combine 60s-style moves with puppet references. Laura is in a pale pink with corset-style lacing, paired with silver thigh boots, which later becomes a sparkly silver dress underneath. There are no female dancers this time, and at the beginning, the theme is shown by Laura being in a pink and red 1960’s 1960s-style doll’s house.
🇮🇱 Israel: Yuval Raphael with “New Day Will Rise”
Israel also had their first rehearsal on Tuesday.
🇷🇸 Serbia: Princ with “Mila”
At the beginning, Princ is placed in the centre of the stage as a halo of light backs his shadow, as three male dancers in black outfits. He is drawn into a choreographed contemporary routine. Princ is shown to be wearing a tailored red suit, which is matched by a later scene as he is dragged, the LED screen explodes with red lights and fiery graphics. Mila has had a major overhaul since its original debut, with the opening moon from Pesma za Evroviziju no longer existing in the final version.
🇫🇮 Finland: Ich Komme with “Erika Vikman”
Erika starts this by being on a circular gold plinth before she drags her gold microphone all the way towards the frame stage. She is dressed in a similar outfit that was seen at UMK however the latex is replaced with leather and structured in the waist with metallic studs and long black gloves. As also see in UMK by the end Erika mounts her giant gold microphone and rises into the sky. The LED wall is pretty much what was seen at UMK.
Today (May 7th), second rehearsals begin for all acts competing in Semi-Final One, with the official clips from their performance being revealed sporadically throughout the day.
All About Eurovision 2025
Switzerland will be hosting the 69th edition of the competition following Nemo’s historic win at Eurovision 2024 in Malmö. A few weeks after their win, Reto Peritz, and Moritz Stadler were announced as the Executive Producers, with other roles revealed in July 2024.
Basel, Bern & Biel/Bienne, Geneva, and Zurich submitted bids to host next year’s competition, with Basel and Geneva being shortlisted as the final two cities. After the shortlist, it was decided that Basel will host Eurovision 2025, at St. Jakobshalle with the shows taking place on May 13, 15 and 17.
The visual identity for this year’s contest is “Unity Shapes Love”, which was developed by Art Director Artur Deyneuve, and was inspired by the Swiss tradition of direct democracy, with the message conveyed visually through the iconic Eurovision heart symbol.
What do you think of the rehearsals so far? Let us know in the comments or on social media! Be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and Bluesky as we prepare for Eurovision 2025
News Source: EBU
Photo Credit: Corinne Cumming/Sarah Louise Bennett/Alma Bengtsson/EBU
Giwrgos Oiko 
Samantha