A week before the actual Eurovision Song Contest 2016 rehearsals began at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, the stand-in rehearsals took place. They are now available for watching on YouTube.

During the stand-in rehearsals, high school students and young local musicians performed this year’s entries with the exact (or nearly exact) choreography and performance, instructed by the information received from the delegations regarding their stage appearance. These rehearsals are being used to technically check the stage’s facilities and test the camera work, and the result is being sent to the respective delegation in order to get an impression as well as to send fixes and changes to the host broadcaster. Furthermore, the host broadcaster creates performances for countries without special requests, in order to give them ideas.

These rehearsals are a great place for finding new talents and it is likely that artists who stood in this year will take place in the Swedish national selection, Melodifestivalen, next year, as happened with Ellen Benediktson who took part in Melodifestivalen 2014 and 2015 after standing in for France in Eurovision 2013

The stand-in rehearsals are being uploaded by the performers themselves. A total of 11 can be found here, and it is likely that more will be available online soon. They will be added to this playlist as soon as found.

Australia: Josephine Thunell – Sound of silence

Belgium: Mathilda Lindström – What’s the pressure

Bosnia & Herzegovina: Aksel Mörk & Vanja Gruvsjö Lehtola – Ljubav je

Croatia: Sofie Brehnfors – Lighthouse

France: Alfred – J’ai cherché

Georgia: Aksel Mörk & Band – Midnight gold

Moldova: Sofia Sjöstrand – Falling stars

Norway: Josephine Thunell – Icebreaker

The Netherlands: Isac Aspberg – Slow down

Sweden: Sam Nilsson Ezeh – If I were sorry

Ukraine: Frida Linnell – 1944

Stay tuned to ESCToday for more news regarding the Eurovision Song Contest!