The Eurovision 2024 festival already has all its finalists prepared. In addition to the Big 5 countries and host Sweden, Serbia, Portugal, Slovenia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Finland, Cyprus, Croatia, Ireland, Luxembourg, Latvia, Austria, Netherlands, Norway, Israel qualified between Tuesday and Thursday. , Greece, Estonia, Switzerland, Georgia and Armenia. A complete picture that will see its culmination this Saturday at the Malmö Arena.
Every year, the festival’s production reaches unsuspected levels thanks to the efforts of the public television in charge of organizing it, in this case SVT. However, the public is rarely aware of the details and efforts intrinsic to the galas, so that everything is seen in perfect condition. An action that has been immortalized through several TikTok profiles, which have shared a cameraman in action.
During Slimane’s out-of-competition performance with his song Mon Amour this past Thursday, one of the spectators in the pavilion caught the task of the operator, in charge of following the French singer. The man in question carried a large camera with one arm in his hand, along with an equally large spotlight and other technological gadgets. All of this carrying him by weight, with several elements also around his waist thanks to a belt.
The video shared by user Dave Gibson has more than 4 million views, in addition to 332,000 likes and nearly 3,000 comments reacting with surprise to the events. “Incredible work and fluidity, you don’t know how much a flying arm weighs with all that setup. A round of applause to all the steadycam operators who are always there giving their best in the shadows,” one user celebrated about her task.
Despite this surprising work, not all the technical aspects of the second semi-final were well received by the public. The performance of Eden Golan, an Israeli representative, was marked by the controversy surrounding the constant bombings in Gaza. On social networks, spectators said they had noticed canned applause, unnatural silences and other inconsistencies among the boos at the Malmö Arena.
Within this climate of tension, Belgian public television began its particular live broadcast with a forceful message, directed directly at Israel for its actions in recent months. “We condemn the violations of the Israeli state. Israel is destroying freedom of the press. That is why we momentarily interrupted the broadcast,” read a writing on a black background broadcast on VRT1, moments before the gala began.
