In past posts on Stand-In Central, we’ve covered the Eurovision Song Contest — from the perspective of stand-ins!

In May 2018 was the Eurovision Song Contest, this year held in Lisbon, Portugal. Stand-ins again took the stage to sing and dance in the setup for the contest, and videos of some of their rehearsals made it online.

For 2018, there seems to have been fewer releases of videos of stand-in rehearsals. That said, some snippets did make it online to show what talent these stand-ins do have.

How Eurovision Uses Stand-Ins

According to EurovisionWorld.com, the Eurovision contestants’ delegations send their choreography and other instructions to the producer of the broadcast, who tries to program the cameras and lighting to meet their specifications.

Local music artists act as stand-ins for the actual Eurovision contestants, who in turn perform the songs and choreography in order for the producer to rehearse the show, but also to let the contestants’ merely step in and perform without the need of complicated rehearsals.

As EurovisionWorld.com explains, “It is up to each broadcaster/performer to publish the stand-in rehearsals themselves.” Some of these videos are taken down soon after they make it online. And some of these videos remain!

Rehearsal Process

Before the technical rehearsals with cameras and lights, the stand-ins rehearse their songs and choreography.

Here’s a “sneak peak” into the work that goes into the stand-in rehearsals before the big technical rehearsals:

An unnamed stand-in in an early rehearsal of Germany’s entry, “You Let Me Walk Alone”:

Stand-In Performances

When it comes to the technical rehearsals, the Eurovision stand-ins give it their all. While they might fake playing the guitar or drums, they still fully commit to singing their songs and performing the choreography, all to help the timing of the camera and lights for the delegations to get good senses of how their final performances will look.

Below are videos from stand-in rehearsals shot in the leadup to Eurovision 2018.

But first, a peculiar stand-in rehearsal of “La Forza” for Estonia, which purportedly depicts not a stand-in but possibly a technical assistant:

https://youtu.be/-xoAUDke9kQ

Stand-in Sara Claro rehearses Greece’s entry, “Oniro Mou”:

https://youtu.be/yV_iBJmCuA0

Stand-in Alfredo Costa rehearses Austria’s “Nobody But You”:

https://youtu.be/RhwWvpnoa4s

Alfredo Costa also stands in on the Netherlands entry, “Outlaw In ‘Em”:

https://youtu.be/WckqUij-OyM

Did you come across other stand-in rehearsal videos for Eurovision 2018? If so, post the links in the comments!