After a shorter set of rehearsals yesterday, we’ve had ten countries covered today, from Slovenia to Lithuania. Here’s a recap:
Slovenia:
Slovenia are starting the day. Eva is onstage in her stage outfit, a long flowing white dress with decorative flowers on it. Her backing singers have dropped their somewhat odd head wraps from the national final performance and are in different white dresses behind Eva. The lights are tones of red and yellow and Eva is sounding very good. A strong start to the day from Slovenia inside the arena, it looks very elegant on stage and sounded good too despite a few bum notes. It should stand out coming straight after Ukraine and Bulgaria and from what I’ve seen it should be going through.
Croatia:
We have some choreography reminiscent of the music video. She has two male dancers and three backing singers situated in the middle of the stage. We have the graphics of the sky from her promo video in the background. When the song picks up towards the end the two dancers bring out a large sheet that encapsulates Nina and her singers. Nina’s dress will probably be doing something involving lights as there are wires hanging from the back of her dress. She sounds good, as well.
Sweden:
The staging is the same as MF with the same dance routine, the same lighting etc. We get as close to a blackout of the stage as possible at the breakdown. Vocally it sounds very good and it’s a great, solid rehearsal. The only difference it appears is that there are three backing singers on stage with her. Loreen is clearly saving herself in this rehearsal and not giving 100% but it was very strong anyway.
Georgia:
Well that was the ultimate car crash that we expected, an incredibly hilarious performance from Anri and something completely different to, not only Loreen, but more or less everything else we’ve seen at Eurovision before. The Joker is joined by five female backing singers/dancers who start standing on chairs before coming in for a dance routine. Anri has a drum and a piano on stage with him which he used throughout. He does have a powerful voice though and I do expect this to get through!!!
Turkey:
Can’s performance starts rather-fittingly with a sea/lighthouse backdrop, continuing with a red background. He is flanked by five dancers, who make a boat around him… harbouring his ship, if you will! His vocal performance is also very competent.
Estonia:
Estonia onstage now – Ott is sticking to the formula that won him Eesti Laul, though he is wearing a bizarre waistcoat t-shirt combination which hopefully won’t be his outfit on the night. He sounds great as usual and the emotion in the performance is still palpable.
Slovakia:
Max Jason Mai and friends have a typical band set up on stage, with guitars and drums. The problem here is that they’re incredibly static on stage, looking more like emos that the rockers that this song needs them to be. If they could find some energy from somewhere then this would be in with a shout, as it’s completelt different from anything else in the semi.
Norway:
Norway now – Tooji is rehashing his Melodi Grand Prix performance but it just doesn’t seem to be working as well. The vocals aren’t fantastic, but the moves are probably the best thing about this performance. This could definitely be in danger of not qualifying at this point.
Bosnia & Herzegovina:
Bosnia & Herzegovina onstage now – Maya Sar is by herself at the piano, keeping her performance low key. She is up by the middle of the song and stands in the middle of the stage by herself now. There is absolutely nothing bad about this performance, but this feels like it’s missing something, and many people have been hinting that Bosnia & Herzegovina’s good record of being in the final might not contiinue.
Lithuania:
Lithuania is the last on today to rehearse. Donny has brought along a glittery blindfold and a larger screen version of the silhouette of women dancing from the national final in Lithuania. Donny seems to be keeping most of his moves the same from his winning performance in Lithuania. Overall, he is a very strong singer, but a lot of this feels very disjointed and might not make an impact.
