Düsseldorf 2011: Semi Final Two 1st Dress Rehearsal

Welcome back to Düsseldorf after an exciting and drama filled night where Europe chose their first ten finalists for the final on Saturday. Today, we start the first of three dress rehearsals for semi-final two.  Ryan Wilson will take you through the afternoon’s events. The press contingent are all gathered in the hall to watch the show, as they are permitted access to the arena view only the first rehearsal of each semi.

The show has begun! The hosts are now going through the usual proceedings, explaining the voting and the other elements of the show. We’ll be seeing the following countries in today’s semi final rehearsal:

Bosnia & Herzegovina
Austria
The Nertherlands
Belgium
Slovakia
Ukraine
Moldova
Sweden
Cyprus
Bulgaria
FYR Macedonia
Israel
Slovenia
Romania
Estonia
Belarus
Latvia
Denmark
Ireland

Bosnia & Herzegovina
Dino Merlin takes the stage to open the show which sees him standing by himself wearing a checked jacket with a guitar against a curtain backdrop on the LED screens, with a band further away. A man dances around the stage, which might look quite odd, but it adds to the charm of the song. Later in the song, the LED screens change to a fairground scene with a carousel and lights. The entry makes a very nice opener to this year’s second semi final.

Austria
Nadine Beiler’s ballad The Secret Is Love is the second entry to come on stage today, which is mostly a black background and Nadine standing on a raised platform, wearing a black sparkling dress. Twinkling stars drop from the top of the screens. The backing singers are wearing similar outfits, and work in quite well – visually and vocally – with Nadine.

The Netherlands
A shipping themed postcard opens the stage for 3JS, whose lead singer is dressed in a white suit, where curiously, the bottom and the top do not match – an interesting choicE! Three backing dancers stand behind the boys, who give a convincing vocal performance. The danger for this song is likely to be its early draw in the semi final, but otherwise would certainly be in final contention.

Belgium
Everyone’s favourite acapella group Witloof Bay turn up on stage to present the Belgian entry With Love Baby. There is not much coordination in the outfits of the group, though I imagine that this probably the intent. The vocals and staging are quite reasonable, with some useful effects making the stage seem slightly smaller – advantageous given there are none of the usual instruments, or backing singers between the group and back of the stage.

Slovakia
An odd surfing themed postcard opens the stage for I’m Still Alive by TWiiNS, who are dressed in the same style, but different coloured dresses. The stage theme is yellow for this performance, with effects similar to Albania in the first semi final, though I can’t quite put my finger on the exact imagery that they’re aiming for. The two girls look amazing, and give a confident performance vocally, ending off with some not-so-unexpected wind machine effects.

Ukraine
It’s Angel by Mika Newton up next, who is interrupted in the first few minutes by an issue with the sand-design backdrop not appearing on the LED screens. She’s wearing a tan coloured dress with feathers at the top and a long train at the back. Her vocals are quite strong, and she ends off the song with an again, not-so-unexpected appearance of the wind machine. The sand design backdruop is quite effective, but it seems to get slightly lost in the performance.

Moldova
Second-time participants Zdob si Zdub are now on stage with So Lucky. They’re wearing their characteristic hats, with a girl on a unicycle (also with a hat!) wheeling around the stage amongst the boys. The design on the LED screens which is mainly a yellow, red and green colour (and the design I can’t really figure out) is quite effective and suits the mood of the song.

Sweden
Now for one of the more Popular entries in the contest, Eric Saade is out on stage next for Sweden. The performance is very similar to that in the national final, apart from a slightly more colouful background. His vocals are slightly weak, but improve as the song goes on (or perhaps that’s just the mixing?). The infamous glass-smashing effect appears to be used, but the effect is completely missed by the camera – perhaps it is just a rehearsal issue, but it is certainly something that must come through on the night.

Cyprus
Christos Mylordos is on stage next with San Aggelos S’Agapisa. He is wearing a black sleeveless shirt, with the backing dancers also in darker outfits. A black and yellow design is mainly used for the staging effects, including an inventive use of the podium in the middle of the arena with a design that looks a bit like a bee. The vocals are quite good, but the song is likely to struggle being bookended by two up-tempo songs.

Bulgaria
It’s now time for Na Inat by Poli Genova, who is wearing a cutoff style white dress and a black jacket. Her very confident vocals promote the song well, but some refining in the audio mixing wouldn’t go astray. She walks halfway out to the podium, which is something I’m not sure we’ve seen before yet. Water effects are shown in the background and look quite impressive.

FYR Macedonia
Skopje-native Vlatko Ilievski is up next with Rusinka. He is dressed in a black suit and white shirt and holds an electric guitar, while his backing dancers are dressed in impressive white and red outfits. They dance behind him through the whole song, doing a dance which suits the song to a tee. A rotating box appears on the LED screens and is quite a nice effect.

Israel
Quite fittingly, a plane is flying over the arena at the moment the one and only Dana International takes the stage (albeit initially in the wrong place, requiring some quick footwork!) to perform Ding Dong. The stage looks quite empty, with Dana dancing and singing some way away from her backing singers, who are doing the same dance moves seen in pretty much all Israeli entries. Her vocals are reasonable, and she ends off the performance across the catwalk at the end of the podium.

Slovenia
Maja Keuc is up next for Slovenia, wearing a black, gold and silver dress. The staging looks similar to in the Slovenian final, with a similar colour theme on the LED screens. Her vocals are naturally very powerful and Maja moves confidently on stage.

Romania
A mass of different size spheres on the LED screens introduces the Romanian entry – Change by Hotel FM. The lead singer David is dressed in a black and red vest with pin stripe pants, with the band appearing behind. The vocals in this are quite strong, and the staging is quite effective, overcoming the issue of the relative size of the stage to the group. Probably one of the best use of the LED stage effects in the contest.

Now we’re watching some kind of karaoke contest with old Eurovision songs as a commercial break, including Johnny Logan and this year’s hosts.

Estonia
Fan favourite Estonia is up next, with Getter Jaani’s Rockefeller Street. She is dressed in a purple/pink dress, and her backing dancers in black streetwear and coloured dresses. The LED screens predictably show a city scene, with colours matching the outfits of the stage participants. Getter gives a confident vocal performance.

Belarus
Anastasiya Vinnikova proclaims her love for her homeland in her entry I Love Belarus, one of this year’s most talked about entries. Her vocals seem to be quite weak, though the performance is lifted somewhat by very effective staging and use of the LED screens, which look similar to those in the preview video. It will be certainly interesting to see how this goes down with European television audiences tomorrow!

Latvia
Musiqq performs Angel In Disguise next for Latvia, with the guys wearing outfits the same (maybe identical?) and similar staging to that in the Latvian final. Four backing singers stand off to the right of Musiqq, with both them and the guys providing a confident vocal performance.

Denmark
Four-piece band A Friend In London are up next with the rock anthem New Tomorrow. The band members are dressed in all black (with the lead singer in a backless shirt!), and stand in front of a stage which uses various patterned effects in a white light. The song seems to run slower than it normally seems to, particularly in the verses. Lead singer Tim runs out across the catwalk to the podium before the final chorus, and then quickly runs back. It’s a promising entry which receives quite an applause in the MPC.

Ireland
The second semi final is rounded out by Jedward with Lipstick, who wearing glittery red jackets with bizarre big rings on the shoulders (hard to explain in text format!). The LED screens predictably show pictures relating to Lipstick and other things similar to the preview video(s). The twins are energetic as ever, bounding around on the stage as they sing, meaning that the vocals are a little shaky. Ironically however, the vocals get better towards the end of the performance, when presumably the guys would be even more exhausted! Definitely hard to predict how this will do.

Now we’re seeing a recap of all the entries in this semi final. At this point, it’s probably worth mentioning to you all that Eric Saade apparently did not break the glass during this rehearsal (though there was debris on the ground), though I would imagine he will break the glass during tonight’s Jury Final. Another thing worth mentioning is that for most acts, the vocals improved considerably between the day and night rehearsals for the first Semi Final, so we can likely expect some improvement in those entries with weaker vocals.

After alot of messing about with the countdown between the hosts, we now seem to be on the interval act which is a large group of guys dancing between two pianos.

Now, the fake qualifiers for this rehearsal are:

Sweden
Slovakia
Moldova
Cyprus
FYR Macedonia
Belgium
Austria
Bosnia & Herzegovina
The Netherlands
Ukraine

And that ends this rehearsal, thanks for joining us this afternoon. Be sure to stay tuned for the live blog of tonight’s Jury Rehearsal!