Prior to the contest, many fans placed Israel in the danger zone of the semi-final, where it was unclear whether the nation would qualify or not. Based on the song, I thought it had a strong chance of qualifying, but now more than ever, I have to place it back into the danger zone. We got to see three run throughs, meaning that in total Eden ran through the performance four times. Talk about making use of rehearsal time! It certainly helps that there are no big props in the performance, just Eden and her dancers. The choreography is a big part of the performance, and while good at times, I think it’s missing that edginess I expected. The other issue I have is that the choreography is such a big part, yet the lights failed to shine bright on all the performers, so the dancers were left in the shade. Because of that, I think this performance lost a lot of its sharpness. It could have been super slick, but at this stage it just feels a bit sloppy.
The stage features blue and purple lights, similar to the theme of Croatia. Set Me Free is projected on the backing screen, and during the performance the side screens come on with abstract animations of Eden. She moves across the stage to the smaller front stage, and then returns back to the main stage for her costume reveal. For most of the performance, she is wearing a black and white outfit which is revealed to a nude and black outfit. They also add a hair crown to her head at the end of the performance.
The vocals in the first run through we saw were sub-par at best. Eden definitely seemed overwhelmed, and we could audibly hear that. The next run throughs improved, and each time she did hit the whistle notes at the end. Once she feels more comfortable on stage, her true vocal talent should hopefully shine through. For now, though, she remains in the danger zone.