The week of liveshows has begun! Today we will finally see the first two dress rehearsals of the second semi final. Team ESCDaily has set up camp in the press center to tell you all the details of how the show will look.
Follow this blog to stay on top of all the Eurovision news of today!
17:46 – That concludes tonight’s dress rehearsal
Our hosts return on stage after a quick recap of the ten qualifiers and close the show. This is followed by a reminder of Saturday’s final and in this dress rehearsal the credits roll. Return later tonight for the jury rehearsal and our in-depth analysis on how the semi-finalists perform.D
17:40 – Hosts have small slip up during qualifiers reveal
Unlike the semi-final one dress rehearsal there’s a lot less slip-ups between the two hosts particularly during this segment of the show. The qualifiers are revealed and of course are random until tomorrow. Overall this rehearsal has really smoothed out and the show seems to be ready with few corrections for the jury rehearsal later.
17:28 -Ukrainian artistic dance used for interval act
For the semi’s interval acts we begin with a long and overplayed interpretive dance by approximately thirty dancers dressed in blue. Followed by the green room introductions to France, Germany and Ukraine one minute clips.
17:17 – “That’s Russian, not Ukranian…”
The presenters interview some fans and ask one of the volunteers to say something in Ukranian. She starts to speak, but then the presenter interrupts her and says: “That’s Russian…” Everyone shares a laugh about this.
17:14 – “Verka sings better than Dana International”
The second clip of Verka’s road to Eurovision comes on, in which his mother says: “You sing much better” while they are watching a performance of Dana International.
Silly mistake: Verka’s own Eurovision performance is subtitled to be from the year 2008…
17:05 – Hosts open the voting lines and recap shown.
Hosts are in the green room and after a quick chat open the voting lines with the stand-ins in the countries’ seats for the first recap of the evening.
17:03 – Ukraine will get the arena rocking
O.Torvald finishes the finalist performances and even though the press centre mainly agrees their national final performance had more to offer. Their current staging is slick and interesting to watch visually. Vocals and harmonies work well and shouldn’t finish last place at least.
16:59 – Germany looks great with it’s mediocre track
This year’s tallest participant Levina is on-stage and she looks great, simple staging is a risk but the camera angles sell her effectively. Not perfect vocally but overall decent performance.
16:52 – Hosts get lost in segway to remaining finalist VTs
Hosts are in the green room when their commentary they are meant to say is halted to just play France’s postcard followed by her live performance. Alma sounds quite strong vocally but is going off-pitch for certain notes throughout.
16:50 – Israel’s Imri generates a lukewarm party
Israel finishes the participant performances and his vocals remain decent until the riffs onto the chorus but apart from that it doesn’t sound as bad as previously heard. Imiri looks more natural on-stage and we finally get a somewhat party vibe from the performance.
16:46 – Estonia show that much needed chemistry
Koit and Toome are back and we already seem improves to their performance. Vocally Laura can hit her high note during the middle chorus, Koit’s cutaway shots have a better smoulder-pose albiet still quite funny and Koit’s hair stroke of Laura at the end looks more natural and realistic. Qualifier potential finally.
16:42 – Lithuania stand out for all the wrong reasons
Fusedmarc are on-stage and despite a decent attempt at re-creating their national final performance it overall cannot save the abysmal entry. It will benefit both Bulgaria and Estonia.
16:39 – Belarus bring energy, Bulgaria prove winning potential
Naviband provide a strong, consistent performance with the seemingly out-of-place naval boat staging that cheapens their song and it’s meaning. Bulgaria however provide a note-perfect vocal performance with Sacha’s staging being as strong as Armenia’s to be a very safe qualifier.
16:31 – Interview block with Anja
The presenters will ask her about her experience in The Voice of Australia. Obviously right now, there are volunteers portraying to be the artists.
16:23 – So much more variety
After the comic relief of Croatia we move on to Norway, with an original modern electronic song. You gotta love the variety in this second semi final.
16:15 – San Marino and Croatia bring some much needed comic relief
Valentina and Jimmie benefit from performing after Ireland as they add some fun and comic relief to the contest which after serious songs such as Hungary, Denmark and Ireland, could benefit form it. Croatia also bring the same with their solo-duet style track. The multiple images of Jacques makes the song not believeably serious and as he’s a good singer, could do better than expected tomorrow.
16:09 – Ireland goes busking in postcard and has improved vocally
Brendan Murray is next up and even though his vocal tone doesn’t come across well on-stage his pitch and key has seemed to have improved immensely similarly to Blanche. Overall good performance however could of been staged better.
16:04 – Hungary and Denmark raise the competition
Hungary has their standard well-rounded performance which adds some culture that Jamala brought last year. Whether it can benefit from the short interval will depend on the show. Denmark’s Anja Nissen is wearing the red dress and has another note-perfect performance. Two solid contenders for qualification.
15:58 – O’G3NE get through their rehearsal and hosts take small break
Netherlands are the last country to perform before a short green room break with Timur. Vocally sound as always, girls deliver but whether it can capture the audience after Romania will depend on the jury rehearsal tonight along with tomorrow’s main show.
15:52 – Claudia mellows the crowd, Romania mess up their lyrics
Claudia sounds flawless and through the updated camera angles there’s better connection on-screen. Overall strong, safe performance from Malta. Whereas with Romania neither Illinca nor Alex sound on top form today. Illinca sounds rough vocally and Alex misses his to move the cannon yet again. Overall needs some polish to this already hectic performance. Perhaps less would of been more.
15:46 – Jana gets a mic filter and seems more comfortable on-stage
FYR Macedonia is next up and it seems Jana has been allowed to use a microphone filter to make her vocals sound like the studio version. Whether this is allowed for most of the song could be debated. She seems more comfortable on-stage as a result though making it a potential qualifier.
15:38 – Serbia warms the crowd while Austria melts the audience
Tijana for Serbia has some vocal issues especially during the verses to chorus but overall gets through the performance without any major obstacles that we havent seen earlier. Nathan Trent as in previously rehearsals fully captures the audience and apart from a few off-key notes gets a great reaction from the press centre.
15:35 – Hosts introduce the countries and have another crude ‘joke’
Our two hosts introduce tonight’s countries with the running order on-screen they then introduce the first country Serbia with “In Too Deep”. One of the hosts then asks the other if he has ever been “In too deep” which the other host replying “Yes, and it hurt”.
15:31 – And again
They play the medley again, it goes well this time, but soon after that the presenters make a mistake and the show is stopped again. Half an hour into the rehearsal and things are not going smooth just yet.
15:21 – Technical issues make us repeat Ukrainian Eurovision medley
Due to technical issues, Jon Ola Sand has asked for two further repeats of the Ukrainian Eurovision medley but the reaction in the press centre suggests we’re more than happy to re-watch it again. It’s quite tongue-in-cheek but feel good and a nice reminder of Stockholm’s hosting last year.
15:05 – Open to Ukrainian women VT then the next “Love Love Peace Peace”?
We once again open to the VT of the Ukrainian traditional women in their local fashion before we go straight to introducing the hosts. After Timur goes to the green room we’re left with the other two hosts who sit on the stage and decide to play some “Eurovision hits – Ukrainian style”. One host has an accordion the other has a flute they play through the beginning of Loreen’s Eurphoria before Ukrainian traditional dancers come out and sing the hit as well followed by Alexander Rybak’s Fairytale. It ends with a choir singing Rise Like a Phoenix with rainbow ribbons projecting across the stage.
15:00: Semi-final two’s full dress rehearsal about to begin!
ESCDaily are live in the press centre about to watch the first full walkthrough of semi-final two including the opening and interval acts along with all of the remaining semi-finalists. We’ll let you know what happens during the first dress rehearsal.
So good for all the participants from so many beautiful nations to be together,, singing and enjoying peace through songs.
That’s what the world needs today: to share each other’s culture, music, and values.
A. V. M