Ever wonder what it’s like to be Eurovision’s Contest Producer?

Trying to create three impressive live television shows with 41 delegations competing is no easy feat. Supporting each delegation, with their own ideas, requirements and production team, can't be an easy job, but that is one of the many tasks that fall to the Contest Producer before the running order of the shows can be planned.

How do you create the staging for the competing entries?

Christer explains: "Firstly, you have to collect the visions for the staging from all the delegations, if they have them. Some don’t. Some are very intricate and precise, some just 'want something nice'. Once you have that, you have to start banging all the songs into your head and you start to find a melody in the two halves to the show that you’re given".

"Once the visions are created, you have to realise it. There’s the manufacturing of the stage props, and you have to turn the visions into reality. It all has to be done quickly and produced quickly, but slowly and surely, it begins to come alive".

"Once we have the staging and props, we audition local artists to act as stand-in artists and put the camera, lighting and back-stage team together. They then start rehearsing with the stand-in artists and when we feel that we have got things set, we film it and send it out to each country and give them a first preview of what’s to come when they get here".

"This is usually a bit of a shock for each country because as a creative person, you always have your own film in your head which is based on your own reality and one which is often much more exclusive than what you actually get in real life in a television show. It’s good to get that when you’re still at home because you realise that’s the reality, this is the reality that we’re going to, that’s how the stage looks with its benefits and limitations. When they get here for the first rehearsal, they already know what’s waiting for them".

Why do we have the two-round rehearsal process?

"Once all the concepts are complete and the staging is built, we get into the rehearsal process and we do that twice with each country. After each take we go to the viewing room, we make corrections and we make changes. After the first rehearsal, we make big changes, sometimes structural changes in the act, after the second one it's more tweaking. Once we get into the final week, it’s fine-tuning and we close that window where you can make big changes".

"It’s always a bumpy road because everybody always has extremely high expectations not only on us but on themselves and for the result looking forward. I have a feeling that with the buzz outside this bubble, we’re all just stuck in here, but outside the bubble in the real world, they hear the buzz about their chances and some have higher expectations now, some have lowered theirs. There is people coming to terms with the reality that we’re in".

How do you decide on the running order for the competition?

"Actually, the difficult part is to arrange the order of the two Semi-Finals because at that point I just got to know the songs really, and that’s why I really have to bang these songs into my system to get the melodies in. By Thursday night, I know every song inside out, every phrase in them so by that point it comes very naturally. I also get 10 on the Tuesday already so I already have a spread of songs and I have the Big 5, so I have more than half to play with already".

"Then what happens on the Thursday night is I go straight to my office after the show. Jon Ola Sand comes along and this year I also think that the show producer Yuval Cohen will join us. I use big shiny post-its because I love that, I can put them on the wall and play around with them. I sing the songs in my head and look at the colours, the props they have, what the acts look like. Then I start banging ideas about, and playing with orders. I think how does that song sound after that one, 'what is needed after this one to make it interesting for the viewer?'".

"Then I usually find a situation where two songs fill the same function for the purposes of a television show. Then, if I have any variations possible, I’ll turn to Jon Ola and say ‘alright, what do you think about this, this is my proposal’. Either he agrees with me or he has another opinion. So then I’ll move it around and say how about this, and we’ll say that works better sometimes, or I might argue my case and say why it doesn’t work as well. We both know that as long as I have a good argument to support my gut instinct, he’ll say ‘OK, I’ll buy that’ until we get to exactly how we think the final should look".

"It’s very much based on facts because we have the colours, we have the props, we have the tempo, we have the energy but of course in the end, it’s a feeling as well".

What happens when things don't go to plan?

"Obviously, we've had issues, but that’s primarily down to very difficult and complicated props. For example, in Austria in 2015, they had to put Sweden next to a commercial break because Måns Zelmerlöw’s projection wall took time to set up. Usually that’s the type of things you have to think about for the backstage crew because they have to get the changeover done in just 40 seconds".

Which country has the most complicated staging this year?

"All of them! This year really is the most complicated I’ve ever seen. This is my fifth time as a Contest producer, but this is the toughest. We have Australia being wheeled on and off stage on her pole. We had the same with Russia last year when she was on top of a mountain. Actually, Australia has three poles. Australia is very complicated".

"Denmark is complicated too with a huge chair and five people that have to get on top of it. Then we have to get that one of stage as Sweden's prop comes next in the semi-Final".

"And Spain is really complicated to set up too, it’s a house! They built a house on stage! Israel is complicated too, they have huge props, and Malta as well. They’re all so complicated this year".

Has a delegation ever made a complete change to their staging after the first rehearsal?

"Yes, it’s happened. For sure that has happened. It’s not easy to come up with a solution but it would be the delegation and the producers would work together. We have been this year fiddling about with Malta. They started out with one prop. We had difficulties getting the lighting right. So we tried it without the prop. Now we’re back to the prop. Normally, what would happen is that we’d try to make it a proper number. The biggest changes can actually be in camera work. You can abandon a complete idea because it just doesn’t work on camera".

What was the toughest challenge you've faced in 5 years as Contest Producer?

"It’s always when a country is not happy. Because no matter what result you have in the end, I want every participant to be proud of these three minutes because they have to live with them for the rest of their lives. That is my primary goal, to make everyone happy, even if they’re 41st of if they win, they should be proud of what we did for them. That’s the toughest challenge of all".

Christer Björkman is a former Eurovision Song Contest artist, singing I Morgon är En Annan Dag in 1992 for Sweden. He was the former Head of Delegation for Sweden, winning the Contest twice with Loreen in 2012 and Måns Zelmerlöw in 2015. He's also been a member of the EBU Reference Group.