Back in the press centre for the 7th day of rehearsals after a bloomin’ terrific Dino Merlin concert last night. That man is a star in every respect and is going to suck up all the Balkan and diaspora votes, particularly if Serbia and co. don’t make it to the final. Sarajevo 2012 anyone?

Exciting things await us today. How will the big 5’s first rehearsals go? Will Dana International bother to turn up for her press conference? Will Saade’s glass ever break? We’ll be here and blogging all day long, so stay tuned to esc-chat.com for all the news and gossip!

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And with that, a scary thought emerges: we’ve seen the winner! Who will it be? I’m still none the wiser, but maybe things will crystallise over the next few days. For now, it’s off for dinner then out to EuroClub, as the Welcome Party is particularly exclusive this year (i.e. delegations and toffs only). See you tomorrow for the last day of rehearsal action before we enter the big final week!

SPAIN
Slight delay in reviewing this one because I popped in for the UK press conference – Blue are very happy with how things are going, and seem very relaxed and content with life. Unfortunately, the press centre security team were being rather over-officious, ejecting a wheelchair-bound UK fan from the press conference area for having the “wrong” type of accreditation despite the room being barely half-full. All a bit unnecessary really.

The Spanish performance is happier than these tidings, anyway. They’ve done exactly the right thing with it really, stuck a ridiculously infectious dance on it – it’s bordering on being just plain ridiculous, but aren’t all the best dance routines? There’s not much here to suggest a very good result, but Lucia and her dancers have a fantastic time on stage, she sings it well and comes across as a thoroughly pleasant girl, and who knows, there might be some points in it if it catches the right kind of summer mood.

GERMANY
This isn’t an ESC entry, it’s performance art. Absolutely visually striking, basically unique in the contest’s history, and the fact that it’s the home entry makes it even better. Paloma Faith, sorry, I mean Lena has come on such a long way in terms of her stagecraft over the past year – you can tell she’s a genuine pop star nowadays. The routine is similar to the national final (with the aliens on stage and on the backdrop alike) and there’s even a “UFO beam-up” vibe about the lighting. Quite how it’ll do on the scoreboard is anyone’s guess – right now I’m thinking 8th-12th – but it’s a memorable moment that’ll rightly grace clip shows for years to come.

UNITED KINGDOM
It’s Saade all over again: I deliberately haven’t read any other blogs before writing this, but I’m confident it’ll be ripped apart by people who don’t know the difference between a performance and a rehearsal. And considering this rehearsal was plagued by technical difficulties, including malfunctioning microphones and – most notably – a mini-screen that refused to play ball, I think the Blue boys did just fine. They didn’t go full-on with the dance steps because they didn’t have to, but by the end they were seducing the cameras and generally seemed pretty at ease (though who knows, they might yet moan their way through the press conference yet!). I’m not mega keen on the aforementioned mini-screens, but the overall feel is very much one of a real act doing a stadium gig, and they look rather dashing in their suits in – what else? – slate blue. All in all, as a UK fan in the rare position of being able to support his country at ESC for once (my last three were Andy Abraham, Jemini and Nicki French, for heaven’s sake!), I’m happy with that first outing – yes, there were difficulties, but the whole thing had an aura of professional confidence about it rather than the whiff of panic that would have emanated from a Dubovie in a similar situation.

ITALY
Full disclosure: Italy is my favourite this year, not that I have particularly high hopes for it in the voting, so I’m likely to be particularly critical (or fanboyishly positive) when it comes to this one. So far I’m satisfied enough. Raphael’s anti-performer schtick will always be tricky to film, but over the 40-minute session, the camera angles started to come together – the last minute in particular being visually striking, with a strong focus on his nimble fingers – and all in all, it was a decent enough session. Not sure about the backdrop, which looks almost a bit avant-garde for such a traditionalist kind of song, but the singing was on cue throughout and the song will probably have its audience regardless of how it looks, so hey!

FRANCE
Hear those warning sirens in the distance? That’s the accountants at French TV frantically looking to see where they can cut their budget so they can afford to host ESC next year.

OK, OK, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. This is still a peculiarly structured song in something of a niche genre, and Amaury looks a bit odd while singing it, pulling some strange facial expressions and sporting stoodent hair that could really use a bit of conditioner and some tender loving care. On the other hand, he sings it impeccably and the backdrop – which we spotted during technical testing the other night – is STUNNING. There’s no other word for it, it’s so deep and rich, and because I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it justice in words, I scooted across to the arena to take the photos below. Good old £59 Argos camera!

France, then: a real, real contender and justifiably riding high in the betting odds. I can’t quite see it going all the way, but if not this, then what?

ISRAEL

It’s sad when the kindest thing you have to say about a former ESC winner’s latest performance is that it’s “less crap” than it was before, but I’m not sure I can bring myself to call this “better”, considering her voice is still terrible and the song is still arse. The whole thing is significantly less crap, though, and the main reason for that is that Dana actually seems bothered now. The other day was obviously nothing more than a soundcheck from an experienced artist; now she looks imposing in a natural green-coloured dress that appears to be woven from palm fronds, and she properly engages with the camera, particularly during the final chorus when she struts all the way down the catwalk to the podium and assaults the viewers down the lens to finish. Very, very effective, and firmly in “qualifier” territory for me now, which is annoying considering how half-arsed the actual song is!

MACEDONIA
Another thing we learned from the Bosnian party last night is that Vlatko really is as unconvincing a rocker in real life as he comes across on screen. This peculiar mix of pseudo-rock and traditional dancing really isn’t workingon stage, unfortunately, and I don’t see any easy way they can rescue it now.

BULGARIA
Nothing new on the vocal and visual front, but we have a few clarifications, if you like. Firstly, Poli is definitely sticking with the long-ish white dress that gets whipped off halfway through in a “Croatian strip” style (I’m still not convinced, but OK, I suppose it has a Vanilla Ninja-esque quality to it). Secondly, she’s not walking out to the podium any more, which I’d say is entirely sensible – she comes onto the “apron” at the start of the catwalk but nothing more. Other than that, it’s business as usual – the stage looks great, she’s singing well for someone who’s almost certainly hungover, and it’ll all depend on how Europe is feeling about Bulgarian-language chick rock on the night.

CYPRUS
Christos’s bottom is winning a lot of friends here, but I suspect that’s all the song will win. I fully understand why they’re doing the whole staging thing – it’s dramatic and difficult, so it needs something visually – but it’s more confusing than it is effective, and Christos’s lack of experience is reflected in his struggle to find the cameras with any real commitment. There’s still time to file away at this one, though, and I wouldn’t say it’s completely without a hope just yet.

SWEDEN
The glass broke! Hurrah! OK, it didn’t look great and they need to work on the timing, but at least that’s one drama out of the way (theoretically at least – you can bet it’ll remain a topic of conversation for some time yet in the press centre and the Swedish tabloids alike). Saade is back in his Clay Aiken lesbo biker jacket and singing really well – it’s almost as if his performances the other day were mere run-throughs or something! –  and providing he’s not put off by the whole stress of the thing then this is going a long, long way in the final.