Eurovision 2025 Rehearsals: Big five and hosts recap

Day 6 of Eurovision 2025 saw the big five plus host Switzerland take to the stage for the first time.

The six acts each had a run through of 30 minutes each.

Photo galleries are provided by Eurovision and we've taken some of their team's description of the performance.

Eurovision provided details of the rehearsals on a live Reddit thread.

All images courtesy of the EBU.

Germany

Eurovision live bloggers said of the performance:

This is another performance that’s had a huge glow-up since the national final – it opens with Abor playing a classical intro of Baller on cello in front of a floor to ceiling curtain, but it’s a very cool white electric cello that’s lit up with white LEDs. Then the curtain drops along with the bass, to reveal Tynna on top of a huge prop – an 80s-style boombox stereo, maybe 3 metres high, with a central platform where Tynna performs the first verse and chorus before descending to join her four dancers, who light her up with handheld spotlights while they freestyle around her.

Tynna is wearing an outfit that’s giving Lara Croft at a Berlin rave – black military-style hotpants and knee-high military boots, a black crop top and elbow-length ruched leather gloves. The lighting and graphics add to the gritty, industrial vibe – lots of pulsing white and blue strobes, BALLER in huge white letters on the black flashing LED wall, and a huge echo on Tynna’s vocal in the chorus that makes it feel like this party is in the biggest warehouse ever.

For the final verse and chorus Tynna dances on the walkway while Abor plays his cello on top of the boombox for the second half – worth noting that his are currently the biggest shoulder pads at Eurovision 2025, but we haven’t seen Italy yet. The cello-smashing at the end? Gone, but never forgotten.

France

Stage notes of the performance were:

"On stage, the sand falls—grain by grain, like time slipping through an hourglass. It’s more than a performance. It’s a reminder: time moves fast, and every moment counts.

Maman is about love, loss, and the strength to move forward. The hourglass becomes a symbol of life itself—the cycle, the urgency, the beauty of now. Through the pain, Louane delivers one clear message: no matter what we face, we can always rise. And while the sand keeps falling, we must live—fully.”

Eurovision live bloggers said of the performance:

So, a few specifics. There’s a circle in the middle of the stage that’s covered with sand. Louane performs the entire song spotlit inside the circle, barefoot in a long, black lace dress, as sand rains down in a continuous stream from the roof above her, falling on one side of the circle.

At one point she kneels and clears a space in the sand to reveal a mirror – every movement is precision-choreographed to meet every drum beat and camera angle, and there’s some stunning camerawork of Louane through the spotlit grains of falling sand. The lighting builds with the orchestral strings, and the drum starts to pound through the floor like a heartbeat until the camera pulls back for a final backlit wide shot. Another one of those performances where we forgot to breathe for a while.

United Kingdom

Stage notes of the performance were:

“It's the morning after the night before. We reveal Remember Monday in a Regency style boudoir reflecting on the events of the previous evening.

As the first chorus hits we pull out and with a burst of movement the girls progress down the catwalk taking us back to the chaos of the previous evening.

On the main stage is a giant chandelier that has crashed down to earth. The chandelier is a striking reminder of the chaotic antics of the night before. The energy then builds before the stage plunges into darkness – leaving the chaos in its wake, the lights return and the girls re-emerge in the safety of the boudoir for a final sweet moment.

Eurovision live bloggers said of the performance:

So, to answer the questions we know you’re going to ask – the chandelier is maybe 2.5 or 3 metres high, with candles around the outside. It’s in the centre of the stage, slumped on one side, and it flashes and lights up in various colours through the performance. The boudoir is one one side of the stage - a vintage-style padded screen with a central heart cut-out.

In terms of costumes, it’s very much the Bridgerton-meets-Moulin Rouge corseted dress vibe we saw in the official video – Lauren in pale blue, Holly-Anne in pink and Charlotte in yellow, with lots of flounces and sparkles. There’s some really clever camerawork that adds to the chaos party energy – a swooping shot over the chandelier, and some nice overheads of the LED floor. There’s also a very cute final shot where they sing the closing notes through the heart in the boudoir screen.

Switzerland

Staging notes said:

The performance unfolds in a single continuous handheld shot, with no cuts, no dancers, no choreography, no set pieces, no props, no LED screen content, and no fireworks. It focuses entirely on Zoë’s presence, unfolding in a quiet, concentrated world built on emotional detail.

The image is soft and expressive, filmed on a full-frame cinema camera using the exact same Zeiss Super Speed lenses from the 1970s that were used to shoot films like Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. These lenses create blooming highlights, delicate flares, and a shallow depth of field that gently isolates Zoë in the frame. She begins seated, surrounded by infinite black and sculptural lighting that gives the performance the feeling of a Caravaggio painting.

She wears an off-the-shoulder black silk dress by Rowanne Studio, printed with abstract florals in deep reds, purples, and blues. The camera moves closely around her, capturing shifts between connection and introspection without interruption. Operated entirely by hand, it carries a natural, breathing quality that responds in real time to Zoë’s energy and presence. The result is a continuous flow of quiet, detailed observation. Intimate, immediate, and unfiltered.

At the bridge, the atmosphere ruptures. Smoke, wind, and stark, overexposed flashes interrupt the stillness. But the camera never cuts. It tilts, circles, and responds to the rupture with a visceral sense of motion, remaining closely attuned to Zoë throughout. As the intensity subsides, the audience slowly comes into view, their phone lights glowing like stars around Zoë, before everything dissolves back into the infinite black where it began.

Italy

Eurovision live bloggers said of the performance:

So this is very similar to the staging we saw at Sanremo - the song begins with Lucio at a very long piano, wearing a giant-shouldered bolero jacket that looks like the yellow one he wore in the official video, and his trademark white makeup. He performs the first third of the song here, accompanied by guitarist and co-writer Tommaso Ottomano, before taking his guitar to the centre of the stage. So far, so Sanremo.

But there are few striking differences – firstly there’s a giant prop, or actually two. We have two retro speakers at the back of the stage – one is square, maybe four metres high/wide, the second slightly smaller. Secondly, there’s a sepia filter applied to the version you see on TV, which gives the whole performance a 1970s vibe. The TV feed also has English subtitles, which is a lovely way to convey the sentiment of the song to the millions of viewers who don’t speak Italian. And finally, there’s a harmonica solo from Lucio before the final chorus, with both Lucio and Tommaso on the frame stage – a rare appearance of a live instrument at Eurovision.

Spain

Eurovision live bloggers said of the performance:

Now the staging feels much sharper and more sophisticated, and there’s a clear narrative that splits the song into three distinct acts, each packed with energy and emotion. But it’s more than just the feeling of it – each act has its own colours and graphics – from purple in the first act to red in the second, and pure white at the end that merges with the mountain backdrop at the back of the stage.

Each act also has its own combination of dancers – Melody has five in total, three male, two female - and the routines they perform are different in each act. The structure of the performance is SO clever, and despite the complexity, she owns the stage from start to finish.

The dancing in the final ten seconds is a real moment – we’re not going to tell you, because we couldn’t do it justice. But just you wait.

Full rehearsal schedule available here

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