Azzi Asar reports from the ESC rehearsals

Eurovision Song Contest co-host Assi Azar spoke with Graham Norton on his BBC Radio 2 show this morning and shared some information from the rehearsals of the Madonna performance. So, spoilers ahead.

I saw the rehearsal yesterday, it’s an amazing show, what she’s doing on the stage. She’s literally taking over our entire stage, changing it completely. I can say she’s literally building a chapel inside our arena in 40 seconds. That’s the time she has from the moment we get off the stage to the moment she goes on the stage. It’s unbelievable.

And we’ve met her yesterday before, to practice the interview and she was so sweet. I heard so many rumours about Madonna and we were standing there for 30 minutes waiting that everyhting will be ready and she was adorable. I think I’ve asked her to marry me, I divorce my husband and my husband approved that divorce. She asked my husband to join us on the marriage and for me it was an uplifting experience to be with her.

According to Assi, who’ll be presenting the show alongside Erez Tal, Bar Refaeli and Lucy Ayoub live from Expo Tel Aviv tonight, there was never any doubt in his mind that Madonna would be performing, despite all the conflicting reports, Digital Spy reports.

I think that we should be so honoured that Madonna came all the way here to perform for us. Of course. Both sides get a lot out of it – Eurovision gets Madonna, no need to explain, Madonna gets the 200 million viewers that are watching her tonight.

Every time that something happened like she is performing, she’s not performing, I thought, ‘It’s going to close at the end’. She’s gonna perform at the end, so let’s just move on from the ego issues of both sides.

Click here for the complete episode (the Madonna bits are around minute 24:00).