Day 1: Mikolas Josef shows off his gymnastic abilities – REVIEW

ESCXTRA are live from Lisbon for day 1 of rehearsals ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018! The countries rehearsing today, in chronological order, are Azerbaijan, Iceland, Albania, Belgium, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Israel, Belarus, Estonia and Bulgaria.

We’re streaming live from the press centre

Furthermore, read our handy guide for a more detailed look at this contest’s rehearsal schedule.
In addition, for our immediate reactions to every single rehearsal, you can follow our live stream from the press centre at the Altice Arena by visiting our YouTube channel.
The latest artist to rehearse is Mikolas Josef from Czech Republic. We have just watched their first run through of Lie to Me live on screen and here is our initial reaction.

Staging

Two breakdancers against light-up screens, Mikolas starting on a small staircase, lots of blue and pink, looks good! Mikolas is having fun but it’s obvious that he’s reserving his energy for the live performance, which is a shame for us. About halfway through, the dancers join Mikolas on the staircase and they do some pretty cool dancing together. My favourite part is Mikolas doing a gymnastic breakdancing move near the end….although in the second run-through, that changed to him doing a front flip off the staircase. Either way, both moves elicited a lot of “Ooooh!”s from the press centre!

Vocals

Everyone involved in this is perfectly in tune, but again, it’s obvious that Mikolas is aware that this is only a rehearsal – he’s not putting his all into his vocals. He handles it all mostly by himself, other than a female backing vocal singing the “La la la” part. It should work wonderfully when he actually puts the full effort in to it!

Costumes

Mikolas is wearing his trademark performance costume – the white shirt and black skinny jeans with the bowtie and black backpack (although he did have issues with it sliding off his shoulders!) The backing dancers are dressed in a similar style, one in an oversized blue sweater and the other in a pink bomber jacket. It all works together to give one cool and charming package from Mikolas!

Watch the rehearsal!

Stay tuned for our reaction to Ieva Zasimauskaite as they rehearse When We’re Old next for Lithuania. If you want to know what to expect for the rest of the day, check out our rehearsal schedule here. Meanwhile, remember to tune in to our live stream from the press centre for instant reactions to each rehearsal.