Eurovision viewers were less than impressed on Thursday evening as they spotted a major error on the show. As hosts Malin Akerman and Petra Mede spoke to the audience in the crowd, they addressed how many different countries were under one roof.
During their chat, they revealed that the UK was the country that had brought the most tickets to attend the international contest. As they took a moment to speak to some countries in their native language, they went to speak to their German audience.
Shouting in excitement, Petra said: “Let me hear all of our German friends!”. However, as the camera cut to the segment to show the German audience in the crowd, people were quick to notice an error.
Instead, the cameraman cut to two men sitting in front of a Belgium flag. Cutting quickly back to the two hosts, Petra started to speak in German.
However, when another camera zoomed in on the crowd once again, it showed two people holding a Belgium flag, not a German flag. It wasn’t long before people watching were quick to call out the mishap.
@NielsStubbe said: “Eurovision just showed some Belgians holding the Belgian [sic] flag while they were referencing Germany [sic] Rookie mistake!”
@michaeldeangray commented: “Did #Eurovision really just show the #Belgium flag as #Petra says hi to #Germany?”
@krvimed wrote: “Did they… did they just film Belgium instead of Germany? Is that the joke? Are we Americans? #Eurovision2024 #Eurovision”
@KyleLabour2112 added: “Not them shouting out Germany and then proceeding to show the Belgian flag.”
@xLadyNath tweeted: “Not the Belgian flags when talking about Germany.”
With @eurovisiongeluk adding: “They showed BELGIAN fans with BELGIAN flags for Germany TWICE.”
Germany’s flag is black, red and gold with horizontal stripes, whereas Belgium’s is black, yellow and red with their stripes vertical.
During the second semi-final, BBC viewers got to see the act representing Belgium perform.
The 33-year-old, called Mustii is an actor, singer and songwriter who is also a judge on Drag Race Belgique.
Speaking about taking part in Eurovision and the song they’re singing, Mustii told Radio Times: “It’s a song from my own DNA. It took me some time to find resilience and to fight to be exactly whoever I wanted to be and that’s the story of my song. It’s sort of divided in a few parts.
“In a first moment, we acknowledge the struggle we’re going through, but at one point we realise we need to look for our inner fire to fight it because we are running out of time.”
Eurovision is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
