This was the London Eurovision Party 2019

The London audience were treated to the first live performances of the year outside of their own countries from Italy's Mahmood and France's Bilal Hassani. Both wowed the ground with 2 songs each as the audience got to hear more than their Eurovision entries.

The night was split into 3 acts, with performers singing at least 1 song each. In true London Eurovision Party style, many of the acts got to hear the audience sing their songs back to them.

SuRie rises like a phoenix

The show opened with the United Kingdom’s Eurovision darling SuRie returning to the party a year on from her participation. Talking about her stage interruption last year, she explained that when things go wrong, you have to rise above it, nicely bridging towards her cover of Conchita Wurst’s winning song Rise Like A Phoenix before performing her own entry Storm to a rapturous crowd.

After SuRie, Magdelena Tul, Holly Tandy (Eurovision: You Decide 2018), Eye Cue (North Macedonia 2018) and Sweden’s Anna Bergendahl performed. Then came the first of the 2019 Eurovision artists and that honour went to Eliot from Belgium who performed Wake Up.

Miki from Spain came out to get the event pumping with El Equilibrio before his entry, La Venda. His energetic dance moves and up-tempo songs really got the crowd going.

KEiiNO bring out the confetti

Czech Republic's Lake Malawi, no strangers to performing in the United Kingdom, opened Act 2 with their Eurovision entry Friend Of A Friend and then performed another of their songs before Carousel performed their Latvian entry That Night. Host Nicki French then performed a Eurovision favourite, as is the tradition at the event. This year, she gave Go (Before You Break My Heart) a go, the English version of Gigliola Conguetti’s 1974 entry Si for Italy and proved that the timeless track is as much a favourite as ever.

Estonia’s Victor Crone performed Storm, Poland’s Tulia hit their harmonies performing Fire Of Love (Pali Sįe) and Ireland’s Sarah McTernan performed 22 in quick succession before Leonora performed Denmark’s entry Love Is Forever for the London crowd.

Staying with Scandinavia, Norway’s KEiiNO increased the tempo again with Spirit In The Sky complete with confetti cannons which had the audience demanding more. Their wish was granted with a KEiiNO styled rendition of Lady Gaga’s Shallow. Up next was Albania’s Jonida Maliqi who wowed the crowd with her entry Ktheju Tokës before Sweden’s John Lundvik closed Act 2 with his crowd favourite 2018 Melodifestivalen song My Turn and then Too Late For Love, bagging a huge reaction from the crowd.

Bilal shows off his dance moves

The last of the night’s Nordic entries kicked off Act 3 with dance megastar Darude and Sebastian Rejman performing Superman and Look Away to get the crowd buzzing again. They were followed by PÆNDA from Austria and her Limits. Bilal Hassani received a huge reaction for his French Eurovision entry Roi before dazzling the crowd with another of his songs Jaloux (Jealous) complete with some big dance moves that the crowd loved. There's more to come on that front in this year's postcards too, as you can see in the sneak peek that we gave earlier this week.

The show moved from one 'Big Five' country to another as Mahmood who performed Soldi for the first time outside of Italy to yet another huge reaction before The Netherlands’ Duncan Laurence performed Arcade. After Jurij Veklenko  performed Run With The Lions, it was time for the United Kingdom's very own Michael Rice, who performed Bigger Than Us with songwriter John Lundvik cheering him on all the way from the VIP balcony.

Michael got a huge send off from the United Kingdom crowd. Finally, Nicki French returned to close the live performances with her 2000 Eurovision entry, Don’t Play That Song Again.

Behind the scenes

Backstage, artists were able to relax in the green room, or in some cases, work on some musical collaborations, as was the case for Ireland's Sarah and Lithuania's Jurij.

Making dreams come true

The participating acts spent the afternoon meeting the Press at Hotel Indigo's 9th Floor Roof Bar, but the fans waiting for a glipse of their icons were not left disappointed. Bilal from France even duetted with one happy fan.

Partying into the night

As the party carried on into the early hours, not just the fans had fun on the dance floor as many of the performing artists on the night danced with fans and met the London partygoers. 

Above the dance floor, artists chatted with fans, had selfies taken and signed autographs making it a true night of memory-making for everyone present.

Up next...

All eyes turn to Spain's capital Madrid where PrePartyES will take place on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 April with 22 of this year's participants.