Internationally renowned lighting designer and director of photography Jerry Appelt
specified the new Claypaky Scenius Unico as the main stage workhorse fixture for
his richly composed lighting design for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, hosted
at the International Exhibition Centre, Kyiv, Ukraine.
This year, 42 countries participated in the global TV phenomenon, each supported
by a striking stage and light show embracing video, special effects and a procession
of scenic props and costumes, all of which combined to make the lighting of this
world famous event an ever more challenging proposition.
Taking up that challenge for the third time, Appelt’s lighting solution was born from
a creative collaboration with scenic designer Florian Wieder. This was centred
around a fresh take on the Proscenium arch, which curved majestically from
upstage, and was further complemented by a video floor and an arena-wide LED
video backdrop.
Appelt harmonised this with an entirely kinetic rig, based around a huge, three-
dimensional structure affectionately known as the ‘Beehive’. Saturated with lighting
and media technology, the Beehive hung above centre stage, behind Wieder’s
arching scenic projection surface and in front of the video backdrop to offer a
versatile central focus to the stage lighting. This in turn was encircled by layers of
curved, automated truss elements, all carrying Scenius Unico, equipped with
OSRAM Lok-it! HTI 1400/PS lamps.
The Scenius Unico, supplied to Eurovision by global lighting, video and rigging
expert PRG, provided Appelt with a superior quality of light and 6500 K output
colour temperature to work alongside the production’s considerable video output.
Appelt could shape the light’s beam to within a fraction of centimetre through its
advanced framing system, currently one of the most advanced on the market.
In the end, thousands enjoyed three spectacular live shows at Kyiv’s International
Exhibition Centre, while over 200 million viewers tuned in on television on the night.
On YouTube, records were broken as the Grand Final was watched by some 4
million people.
On the night of the Final, 26 acts sang their hearts out on stage, but there could
only be one winner -and that was Portugal’s Salvador Sobral.
