This afternoon, Norway’s Eurovision 2012 hope Tooji had his very first rehearsal on the Eurovision stage in Baku.
Like a lot of the artists, it looks like he chose to use the rehearsal as a chance to get to know his way around the stage and to find his feet. So it’s clear he’s holding back on the performance somewhat – especially at the beginning. Although he does get more into it by the end. As with Loreen for Sweden earlier today, not much has changed from his winning performance at the national final earlier in the year. And that’s a smart move – we love the original performance and think it works splendidly well for both him and the song. Although you can’t see it in the video below, there is also planned to be some pyrotechnics during the middle eight. And hallelujah for that – we love a bedazzling pyrotechnic session during a big pop song!
Tooji is another of this year’s fan favourites. He’s not considered an obvious winner, but it’ll be very surprising to not see him make the final from his semi next Thursday. And we really do hope he finishes in the top 10 next Saturday, if not higher.
The above picture was taken from the official Eurovision website, where you can also have a look at other photos from his rehearsal.
Also check out the much loved acoustic version of ‘Stay’ here.
Love the clothes and he sounds surprisingly good considering he’s dancing so much–go Tooji! Wish the lights went down at that climactic moment though–that was my favorite part
Other than that, as long as Tooji remembers to get his strut on in the prechorus and nails those fab facial expressions (the raised eyebrow on the line “Can’t stand the heat”, for example), he’s perfect 