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Today’s rehearsals kick off at 10:00 CET again. It will feature the last eight acts from Semifinal one. Today we’ll see Montenegro, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, Ireland, Cyprus, Belgium and Serbia enter the stage for their very first rehearsal in the Malmö Arena.
The press, however, must take place in the Slagthuset, where they can watch the rehearsals in a cinema. We will not be able to make video’s of the rehearsals in the first four days, but we will place some footage of eurovision.tv here. Starting day two, you can also find live-blogs here.
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Montenegro
We start the day with a pleasant surprise from Montenegro. Of course, one must like this rap-genre a bit to enjoy ‘Igranka’, but Who See is performing their song well. They have come up with some kind of astronaut act, with singer Nina Zizic also coming up from the ground in some sort of outerspace-outfit. This could do better than a lot of people expected before the contest.
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Belgium
Because of logistic reasons, Belgium will do their rehearsal earlier today. Roberto Bellarosa is sounding a bit hoarse and is offkey at some points in the song ‘Love Kills’. The staging also needs a lot of work. Roberto is standing still in a blue setting, with two female backingsingers surrounding him, but they are a not really adding something to the act. Our team does not think Belgium will qualify, based on this rehearsal.
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Belarus
Alyona Lanskaya follows next in the running order today with her Latin based song Solayoh. She enters the performance from inside a giant disco globe in the center of the stage, as two male backing dancers lift her into the cha-cha style routine. The song is rather flat and the performance unfortunately does not make up the lost ground, as the whole team seems to express difficulty with the Latin number. Belarus may have been better off sending ‘The Rhythm of Love’ instead.
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Moldova
After slight technical difficulties were sorted out, Moldova delivered a pretty solid performance. The piano melody opens the number while Aliona Moon is center stage and three silhouetted dancers move around her. A few theatrics are in order, as the lighting on her dress pictures a starry and volcanic scene to match the backgrounds and she rises into the air from a platform. Definitely a potential qualifier; Moldova has an organized plan that can be well executed on show night.
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Ireland
Ireland will give us a act with a lot of drums and show. The Riverdance-act will not be used in Malmö, but they have put a lot of thought and work into this renewed act. A good solid and vocal decent performance by Ryan Dolan. This song and its performance will appeal to both jury’s and televoters and will get enough points to make it to the final, we guess.
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Cyprus
In a dark setting we see Despina singing her ‘An me thimase’. It is what you can expect of it, a very traditional Eurovision-ballad, completed with a windmachine. The vocals of the song are okay, but it does not blow us away. And that is something that this song may need to qualify. It has a chance, but it may also come in a lot lower than expected. We are not sure yet.
Lithuania
After the weird performance in the national final, Andrius had something to make up for. This ordinairy performance will not do the job. To a purple background, Andrius performs without any idea where the camera might be. There are backing vocals, but the picture is static, which makes this song instantly forgetable. With the current performance, Lithuania will probably not reach the final.
Serbia
Moje 3 keeps the ‘doubt’ performance, where one girl is surrounded by a devil and an angel. Their facial expressions and gestures are a lot better than at the national final, which makes the story complete. Our editors hope the clothes they wore today, are not the ones they will wear on the night itself. But everything else looks perfect, and Serbia does not need to worry about reaching the final.
