Olly Alexander took to the stage today for his first rehearsal for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö.
Olly, backed by four hot dancers, is bringing a homo-erotic boxing motif to his Eurovision performance of Dizzy, which is the first song in his own name since stepping away from Years & Years.
Olly’s Eurovision performance transports viewers into a post- apocalyptic dystopian boxing gym locker room, aboard a spaceship hurtling toward Earth through a black hole in 1985!
We’re not making this up, we promise. Essentially there’s a big room set on stage, lined with dirty tiles and shower heads – this whole thing feels like a grittier version of George Michael’s Outside, so very much the vibe of the official video.
Olly’s four male dancers are wearing (the bare minimum of) red boxing gear, and the camera angles keep changing so it feels like the room is rotating, backed by a spinning black hole graphics on the LED. It really does feel like they’re in a dirty locker room hurtling through space.
In short, it’s VERY ambitious and mind-blowing bit of staging, with a gym bag full of special effects that mean it only really comes to life on screen.
Also a note on the song arrangement – to our ears, there’s a new middle eight with extra strings, and the build to the final chorus is different.
Olly will perform at this year’s Eurovision final in Malmö on Saturday, 11 May. Watch on BBC One.
Photos by Sarah Louise Bennett