This year's Eurovision Song Contest has got off to a rocky start, with press in Italy reporting that a 'broken' stage is causing concern amongst the acts and delegations.
While Eurovision 2022 won't get going properly until next week, with the semi-finals on Tuesday, May 10 and Thursday, May 12, before the grand final on Saturday, May 14., this year's contestants are setting foot onstage for their early rehearsals this week, to iron out any teething problems before performing in front of an audience.
This year's event will take place at the Pala Olimpico arena in Turin but, after Italy won the right to stage Eurovision following Mansekin's triumph in Rotterdam last year, things haven't gone entirely to plan for the host nation, with reports that the giant sun, the centre piece of this year's set, has malfunctioned.
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The huge two-sided sun is adorned with lights on one side and LED screens on the other, but a huge spanner has been thrown in the works after it failed to move around, meaning it is stuck on one side. Pictures of how the stage malfunction has affected rehearsals so far have been shared on Twitter, with Malta's Emma Muscat one of those impacted the most, having long since decided on the visuals for her performance.
The 40 countries competing in Eurovision this year will have designed the aesthetics for their performance with the stage in mind, but it has been confirmed by European Broadcasting Union that the sun will remain in the same position for every single song in the contest's semi finals and final.
A statement from the EBU read: "During the technical tests in Turin, the production team has experienced challenges with how long it takes to adjust the “sun” to different positions in the time between the different performances. Together with the host station RAI it was therefore decided that the sun will remain in the same position during all 40 songs, to ensure a fair competition for all participating countries."
The Eurovision odds currently have Ukraine as favourites to win, ahead of Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom, but with the stage threatening to impact performances and force some last minute changes could that hamper certain countries chances of victory?
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