My last night in Berlin! Before I start packing for tomorrow, I’m gonna review the rehearsals of today, as always from my side judged from the videos of escdaily. Also read Martin’s live blog review from the press centre.

Tomorrow I’ll be blogging from Cologne, then it’s only a few days left until Düsseldorf! Yay!

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Dino Merlin and his gang go on stage and know what to do really. This was a very competent rehearsal. Not totally flawless, but the polish comes in the 3 most important minutes of the year. The staging is perfect for this, a good opener.

Austria

I have said it before and will continue saying that this is THE dark horse. Watch out for it. Nadine stands in the middle of that huge stage, in a good distance to the backing singers. You can’t help but see her as a modern Mireille Mathieu. This is the big ballad of 2011. Personally, I’d change the colour of the lights a bit and replace the purple by somewhat more golden, but that’s just a thought because I can’t find anything negative about this. She sings it perfectly, and despite the fact that it’s on spot 2, this is sailing into the final.

Netherlands

In the first minute this sounds like a common radio song, but then it’s somewhat getting flat and boring. Staging is good, the lead vocals not quite there yet – in the higher notes. The backing vocals in the 2nd chorus are a bit weird at first but you get the point, hopefully they’ll work on them though. In total, the whole entry is OK, but there are not a lot of reasons why people should vote for this. Hence, this will stay in the semi.

Belgium

Enough has been said about the song. Now let’s focus on how they do their job. They seem to be in tune, though this being a capella, and with a strong reflections in the hall it’s quite hard to judge cos it sounds like a mess with all the reverb from the hall. This will be different on TV. The beatbox is a bit less annoying than the greek rap. They actually do what the song requires them to do. The staging is ok enough for this as well. Still, it’s one weird entry.

Slovakia

Can the Twiins make the most repetitive song of the year a bit less penetrating? Vocally, there’s nothing annoying really, which I was scared about before. The backdrop supports the song as well. The whole staging is quite enjoyable. So the only annoying part of this entry remains to be the repetitive chorus that seems to go on for 4 minutes and keeps stuck in your head for 5 sleepless nights. Hard to call. Might work when you hear it the first time, which is what counts here. For the more experienced listeners of this it’s quite boring.

Ukraine

I have to watch my tongue here. I absolutely adore the art of Kseniya Simonova. But that’s not the point of the Eurovision Song Contest. So let’s focus on Mika Newton and her song. The singer is the least charismatic one that ever came out of Ukraine. The song is probably the worst composition they have ever submitted to Eurovision. It’s a horrible screeching and wailing, and they seem to know that. Whyelse would they try to distract the audience with the sand paintings? It’s a shame really, that this extraordinary artist (and I do not mean Mika there) is joining this appalling entry. Why does she do that to herself? Ukraine, you used to be so good!

Moldova

Them again, returning without the grandma but instead with conehead hairdo. The entry goes nowhere really, there is nothing interesting about it. I don’t even hate it. It’s just a 3 minutes long Nothing. Nothing funny, nothing disturbing, nothing nice, nothing horribe. Just nothing. Next please.

Sweden

Very impressive intro with the whole staging. But then he begins to sing, and not very competent. He takes long breaks in between, on some places he’s far away from being spot on. The choreography is state of the art, but the singing is the worst I have heard so far this year. If he gets his singing right, then it’s a definite qualifier. If not, then it will fail with the juries. And then, Eric will fall. He is just too charismatic and lovely to wish him a failure, but if you complain about the live-vocals-rules before the event, knowing you can’t sing by yourself while dancing (and he seems to know that), then you didn’t deserve anything else but missing out. This is pathetic. At the moment: Fail. A lot of work needed. I wish him the best.

Cyprus

For some reason this suddenly sounds and looks nice. Let me tell you, Sweden is trashing no glass, *this* is trashing *Sweden*. And I was more an Eric Saade fan before today, than one of this kind of entry. This is definitely qualifying, everything in it is very effective. Surely, the song itself misses some memorable line, but the whole packet is voteworthy. Well done!

So that’s all reviewing from me for today and from Berlin, off to Cologne tomorrow!