A few teething problems on the first day of the Eurovision rehearsals – surely not?! Wireless access in the EuroClub is intermittent, with the support staff handing out temporary dongles to those afflicted by problems, and the viewing  room for the rehearsals is a rather cosy upstairs cinema. No, really, a cinema! Nevertheless, esc-chat.com is on-site and reporting live, so let’s begin with the first country of the day – and, indeed, the year:

AUSTRIA
Natalia is singing well for this early on a Monday morning, let’s get that much out of the way. The backdrop is all soft purples and blues – think Maja Keuc from  2011 – although the effect is spoiled somewhat by some slightly strange illuminated fabric cylinders hanging down from the ceiling. The kind of thing Daria Kinzer appeared out of, if you’ll excuse me using 2011 references all the time! It’s a surprisingly static performance, with the backing singers standing still for the first minute or two then getting moving once the key change happens, but they’ve obviously decided this is a mid-tempo song  rather than an up-tempo one. Which is fine, but it makes it a little too “nice” for an opening number, I think. Of course, as always with these first rehearsals, they might be saving the fireworks and spinning wheels for later days!

In a nice touch, there are wooden figurines dotted throughout the standing area on the floor of the arena, to allow the cameramen to factor in the audience when preparing their shots. They don’t seem to have factored in the extra metre or so that the flags and inflatable hammers will take up, though…

ESTONIA
Those who think this song is a bit boring will probably still think it’s boring. Maybe they’re right – but presented like this and after Austria, to me it comes across like the real opener to the show. Birgit and her mini-Birgit fill out an elegant white evening  dress and allow the cameras to revolve around them. There’s a black-and-white effect for the first verse – quite appropriate for the old-style cinema where the assembled fans are watching this! – then it all goes colour for the chorus, with the backdrops fairly dark initially then glowing in green and yellow earth tones thereafter. The big note towards the end is practically made for a big fanboy cheering moment, and well… I thought this would struggle to qualify, and perhaps it still will, but I think it’s a step closer to the final at least.

SLOVENIA
We know better than to judge vocals, of all things, based on a first rehearsal. Which is probably a good thing, because Hannah absolutely biffs some of those high notes that are so important to the song. Mind you, her arms – which are shown off by her outfit – look like they could do some biffing too! The staging is standard-issue “dance song at recent ESC”, with a dark stage and the potential for strobes and effects – probably the right approach really. Not sure about the dancers, their costumes look like cast-offs from “S.A.G.A.P.O.” or Cyprus 2011 (see, 2011 again!) and they do some “Yaz bitti” moves at the start that were pretty much out-of-date when Leon used them in “Blauer Planet”. Hannah is particularly shaky on the vocals when she walks – and walk she does, out onto the catwalk and podium and then back again. Anyway, the performance became a bit more assured in the later runs (it’s almost as if that’s what rehearsals are for!), so maybe it’ll all be sitting nicely by Friday.

CROATIA
Possibly the most experimental set of run-throughs so far, simply because there are six singers with varying degrees of importance and it’s clearly tricky to know exactly how to film it. The choreography doesn’t help – sometimes the lead singer is the centre of attention, sometimes they’re all singing and gesturing at each other so sincerely that you expect an oven to turn up and some hot Russian pastries to be served, and a lot of the time they’re walking in front of each other, the cameras and so on. Which is fine – they’re clearly still working it all out, and it’s not as if they need to work on their vocals, which are as strong and harmonious as you’d expect. A couple of the group seem to be a bit lacking on the personality front, mind you, so maybe a little less of them on-camera would be a thought… Oh, and did I mention the outfits? They’re sort of a cross between Bonaparti.lv formalwear and the kind of thing the waiters used to wear at Indian restaurants in the 1970s. Which, again, isn’t necessarily too inappropriate given we’re viewing this stuff in a retro cinema environment, but I’m not sure the look is quite right for the song. (Of course, it could be it’s something traditional of which I’m entirely ignorant. That does tend to happen.)

And with that, our morning session is over, at least on the rehearsal front – the meet-and-greets with the artists should be starting soon, so watch out for video content. Meanwhile, I’ll hand over to our editor Danny to cover the afternoon rehearsals once lunch is done!

DENMARK

And we’re back with the second half of today’s first rehearsals, Danny’s here taking over from Martin. Downstairs they have started the meet and greets where people can get a chance to have a quick interview with the artists – we managed to grab Natalia from Austria for a few questions, look out for the video later on the site!

Back on the main stage, the bookie’s Emmelie is on stage in a white long flowing dress and she’s also barefoot like last year’s winner Loreen – could this be an omen? After a few minutes of setting up – we’re off! The viewing room is in total silence as she starts singing. The performance is much the same as in the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, however some of the camera shots of the drummers are a bit off, but they can work on that. They know they’re not being filmed as there are a few odd looks from one of the drummers, which got a laugh from the people in the viewing room! She sings fairly well for a first rehearsal, and I think the Danes should be rather happy with that performance. Is it a winner? It’s far too early to tell, but it’s definitely the strongest candidate so far.

On the third performance, we have pyros! It looks really effective and at the moment, I think this is the one to beat!

RUSSIA
Martin here again, briefly stepping in while Danny interviews Hannah from Slovenia! Time for one of the hot bookmakers’ favourites, Russia, to take the stage for the first time. Visually, Dina is surrounded by what can only be described as illuminated balls – to refer to the 1970s again, they look a lot like the the kind of living-room lampshades you see in photos from the era. She’s got the same “16-year-old housewife” look that Carola had back in the day – young but almost frighteningly assured. And she can certainly sing, my gosh, as can her shouty and earnest-looking backing group. The whole thing is determinedly and deliberately old-fashioned and really stands out because of it – for better or worse? I don’t know.

Oh, and nobody else in our viewing theatre wanted to link hands and stand up at the key change like they do in the video. Boring!

Danny here again, just back after interviewing Birgit and Hannah – both of whom were lovely! I managed to catch the last run through and a bit of Russia. The Russians should be ecstatic with that performance because it was the best vocal of the day so far by a country mile, both by Dina and the backing singers. It’s a nice simple performance and the last minute of the song is rather powerful. Yes it’s quite cheesy but there’s definitely a market for this type of song, I think it could so some serious business next Saturday. Ukraine should be shaking in their boots…

UKRAINE

Up next is another one of the favourites to win the title – they all seem to be one after the other! Whether it could damage any of their chances remains to be seen. Zlata is carried on stage by a giant, this got lots of laughs in the viewing room, i guess it makes it memorable at least, though not sure what the idea behind it is though.

She looks gorgeous a skinny white dress as she stands on a raised platform, at one point it looked like she was going to fall off, gravity would definitely have taken over if she had! There’s lots of dramatic hand movements – she’s definitely channeling her inner diva here! Her hair also seemed to get messier and messier after each run through. Her vocals were strong, and you can tell she is an experienced performer. Overall, it is a tad messy though, and comes across as a bit much after Russia.

NETHERLANDS
Last up today is Anouk. Simple is the word here – she stands on the satellite stage in a black outfit with rather fabulous metal boots. Vocally, again another strong performance, her vocals seemed effortless – this is a stark contrast to Ukraine’s dramatics – images of birds appear on screen behind her., aptly enough. Despite being a rather static performance, it’s filled with intensity.

The Dutch definitely have their best chance of qualifying in many years, and based on this performance, I think their run of bad luck could finally come to an end. Fingers crossed!