And that completes our live blog from the “morning session” in Vienna. Join us here as the afternoon continues with Estonia!

GREECE
I believe it’s important to be scrupulously honest as a blogger, so here’s the naked truth: I’m buggering off to film a little section with ORF at my apartment during the lunch break, so I’m shutting down my laptop now. I’ll watch Greece’s first performance before leaving the press centre, but I won’t get the change to blog about it until after lunch – and I’ll be relying on the testimony of my colleages at the “gamblers’ table” to inform me about any unexpected developments in the later run-throughs. Till then!

UPDATE: Right, so basically it’s “as you were” for Greece, too. It was already one of the most impressive performances on Monday, feeling very much like the finished article. Little has changed in the meantime other than the drama being – if it was at all possible – ramped up even further. No change in terms of the staging, and while we were cursing the excess of dark blue in the second semi-final, here it adds a quite fitting and appropriate bit of class to proceedings.

Is it qualifying? Yes. It’s ideal semi-final fodder, even if it crashes and burns in the final. Given the choice between “average song performed excellently” and “excellent song performed averagely”, the former is always the way to guarantee qualification, and that’s exactly what Greece have realised here.

FINLAND
As you were before, really. Not so much dry ice today – the Finns clearly used up their budget on Monday. Otherwise, it’s the same busy, swerving camerawork and the same standard-issue performance from the boys. Of all the rehearsals today, this was always going to be the hardest one to say anything new about. So I’m not really going to try, unless Kari suddenly decides to change into Trijntje’s old dress for the final run-through or something.

Is it qualifying? I think so, yes.

NETHERLANDS
Right, let’s see what they’ve changed in what was one of the most criticised first rehersals. The veil is still there in the opening shot (and based on the run-throughs so far today, they’re still deciding which veil to use).

Oh, but THE DRESS is gone! Trijntje is wearing a much more sensible black number now – still with some visible boobage, but less obviously so – and a wee black leather jacket on top. She already seems happier. So is the press centre: a huge round of applause erupts at the mere sight of her.

The backing singers now look… differently ridiculous. There’s no “NO YES”, but they seem to have rolled out some kind of boob-accentuating prints, maybe as a response to Boobgate. Oh well.

Third run-through, and Trijntje’s black jacket is gone, to be replaced by a…. red thing with big white cartoon eyes on it, and some kind of smiley face on the back. Just as we thought things were getting back to normal. It makes sense they’d try out something completely different, just in case – but surely they’ll take her back to black for the show itself.

Still waiting to see this “augmented reality” we were promised. Is it just the “LOVE” projection on her hand? We saw that on Monday already.

Is it qualifying? Trijntje’s status as an outsider with the bookmakers is deserved, but in a fairly balanced field of 16 runners, anything is possible. She’s certainly one of the most assured vocalists here, and she changes up the vocals towards the end to make the song sound less repetitive. I would call it a “no” at this stage, though.

BELGIUM
Loïc is in a dark, long-ish jacket and shirt today. Not sure I like it. Too formal? With his hair flat, he looks a bit like a dressed-up Jedward twin now. Backings are still all in white.

The backing vocals are lower in the mix than they were on Monday, although they still sound a bit nasty on the middle section when they’re isolated. It kind of highlights how good Loïc is, really. The cameras are picking up the moves much better than before, though the second verse (where Loïc lies on the floor throughout) still seems a bit pointless, and we’ve seen him accidentally wandering into shot while he positions himself there.

There are some freaking awesome bits of pretentiousness in this, with Loïc gagging himself with his hand, doing a backwards robot-walk… the final shot is also super effective, an overhead view of the five backing singers lined up on the floor. (No, really, it’s good. Even if it does look like they’ve fainted en masse.)

Is it qualifying? I think so. You have to admire an entry that’s so wilfully arty and unashamed of what it is – and I’m quite sure the juries (in particular) really will. It’s difficult and different, and certainly the staging is a risk, but it’s a calculated one. I just wish Loïc was a little more experienced, because he occasionally looks like a lost little boy in the middle of it all, when instead he should be commanding the scene. That might be what ultimately makes this “just” a qualifier instead of a contender for a really big result.

ARMENIA
Already coming across much better than it did on Monday (it’s almost as if the rehearsals have helped). This is still a structural and conceptual hot mess, but at least the singers seem more comfortable with the concept now.

Genealogist 2 still comes in behind the beat every time. Genealogist 6 still looks like she’s missing the camera, but I think that might just be her eye make-up. Aw, bless, they even stand together to practice their group bow at the end.

They’ve found a better camera shot to cover up the five seconds of awkwardness prior to the “let’s all gather in the middle of the stage for the overhead view of the world” section (which is probably the most effective part of the song on screen, for all it’s cheesy as hell).

Meanwhile, Felix is sorting through Moldovan photos opposite me and has just uttered the phrase “Oh, good, nipples.”

Is it qualifying? The Armenians are getting absolutely everything out of this. The question is how much there is in there in the first place. I like to think voters will see through it, both musically and lyrically, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see it emerge from one of the magic envelopes on Tuesday night.

MOLDOVA
The producers are now using fake applause before, during and after the songs. They must be expecting some seriously vicious booing for Russia.

Anyway, Moldova. Still the same three minutes of woman-hating sleaze it was on Monday, with lots of grinding on scaffolding and inappropriate use of leather hotpants. Exploitative camerawork throughout. The backing dancer rips Eduards’s shirt open near the end before he executes a near-perfect #backflipfail (so close!). There’s someone in the audience with a huge Moldovan flag even though there’s no audience yet. I am confused. But this is weirdly effective in its utter inappropriateness.

Is it qualifying? It’s gross, but the final kind of needs it as a WTF moment. Heavily borderline, but there’s Romania and Spain to vote for it and probably a few countries who can be persuaded by non-diaspora means, so: possibly.

Introduction
Good morning everybody! And it really is the morning, for once. Today is the first of two marathon sessions in which each of the countries in the first semi-final will get 20 minutes to develop what we saw during their first rehearsals on Monday and Tuesday.

Between now and the lunch break at 12:45 CET, we’ll see how things have changed – or not! – for Moldova, Armenia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Greece, and I’ll try to give you a general insight into how I see the qualification chances of each country as we walk go along.