After Malene's second rehearsal this Tuesday, the Danish delegation frowned heavily upon ETV's camera work. From a TV productional point of view, the rehearsal was totally useless, the Danish delegates angrily concluded.

»Three of the cameras weren't being used during the rehearsal. That meant that we only got to see four of the all in all twenty-eight individual camera shots«, says Morten Carlsson, Head of the Danish delegation. »Twenty-four shots were simply pictures of the ceiling! It was impossible for us to see how it's going to look to the TV viewers.«

Morten Carlsson has been head of Danish delegations since 1993, and he also says that he has never experienced anything like this before. »After the second rehearsal I did not exactly use sweet talk towards the ETV engineers – I admit that – and we were actually close to being granted an extra rehearsal.«

The Danish delegates declined the possible offer when they realized that these three cameras would not be used in the extra rehearsal either. However, all delegations will be allowed to watch a tape of the first dress rehearsal. »So there's still time and possibility to make minor corrections to Malene's choreography and how the crew are going to film her«, Carlsson sums up.

The idea behind the many rehearsals is not only to give artists a chance to get accustomed to the stage and sound, but also to give countries an opportunity to influence the way in which their respective artist(s) and their performance will be televised. This in order to avoid allegations of the host broadcaster being biased.

Watch a video here of Malene Martensen singing 'Tell me who you are' at the airport.