@Coda_ESC I'd imagine 95% of the audience would have assumed she was playing live anyway. Rybak certainly wasn't marked down by anyone for not playing live. It will only serve to make the other musicians look slightly weaker by comparison, at a push.
@JamesMakesStuff I would imagine most of the other musicians understand why the violin was granted permission. Now if, say, Luxembourg had asked to play her violin live and was denied then that’s a different story.
@dolphin_dane I guess the deciding factor is whether it needs to be plugged in or can just be mic’ed up like a vocal would be. Finland and last year’s Italian perf fall into the second category. I don’t think Veronica would be granted as it falls into the first.
@SchlagerKaty We did just have a Swedish-hosted contest that heavily featured their past winners so I get it if they wanted to go in a different direction (not that the actual line-up is much more inspired).
@AmazingSMP@regina_wtf@Misterk511 No that 1 person will be Atvara herself, and presumably there’s nothing happening that requires anything to be moved around during the performance. Obviously the army of stage hands readying the stage between performances don’t count towards this.
@TheTuftandQuiff It's rare but they have done it a few times in the past. Off the top of my head they had Forever Young for Lola's funeral and Lonely This Christmas on Nigel's Christmas episode. I think Ronnie and Roxy had You Got The Love too.