Liveblog is now in chronological order – auto-refreshing is deactivated.

11:40 GOOD MORNING

Morning peoples! We are ready to blog semi final 2! Keep this page open and it will automatically refresh and give you all the news about the stage action for today!

12:10 MALTA

First up today are the lovely bunch from Malta. In the first rehearsal this really shot up in my list of potential winners. Today, it’s still just as polished as ever. I really like the selfies on the screens for this. I also noticed that there’s a camera attached to Michelle’s mic stand – is she taking selfies for herself or recording her performance? Overall, not a lot of changes from the first performance and I think the Maltese should be happy with that run through, and you never know, we potentially could be going to that little island in the Mediterranean next May?

© Andres Putting (EBU)

12:30 ISRAEL

Time for a little bit of sassiness next with Israel. This is just coming together brilliantly. Mei is in fine voice and there’s nothing to worry about on that level. I think this gives me the best 10 seconds about this year’s Eurovision with “THE STRUT” as I have decided to call it.  They’ve ditched the lying on the floor part and instead they crouch down and this looks much better. I think the only thing I would change about this is that on the final walk down the catwalk, I’d have the dancers a bit closer to Mei to make it look more effective but otherwise another excellent rehearsal. Some people are using that dreaded term “fanwank” but unlike say, Kati Wolf or Xandee, Mei can actually SING and I would say top 10, with the right draw, could be within Israel’s reach.

© Andres Putting (EBU)

12:52 NORWAY

There’s not a whole lot different with this compared to the first rehearsal. If I had to use one word to describe it, it would be FINE. I still don’t think he’s got much stage presence though. I get that the whole feeling of this song is that he is supposed to be a fragile man, but he just looks like he does not want to be on that stage. There actually a few mumblings in the press centre that this could be a shock non-qualifier and while I am not so sure of that, I really cannot see this in the mix on Saturday night.

© Andres Putting (EBU)

13:10 GEORGIA

Ok then. This really does feel like the longest three minutes of my life. Mariko is wearing a green dress which is probably the most hideous outfit we have seen on the Eurovision stage since Yohanna in 2009. There’s still the man in a parachute. There’s still the wailing. There’s still everything completely wrong about it. I made a bet the other day about this one and I am still confident I won’t have to carry it out.

© Andres Putting (EBU)

13:38 POLAND

La Pologne are next – what a contrast from Georgia! Cleo and the girls are definitely shaking what their mamas gave them here. There are more shots of the girls sitting on the catwalk giving us suggestive looks and I think this is going to be excellent material for many a Eurovision clip show in the future. Qualifying? Without a doubt, and if this gets a decent running order near the end of the show then I think we could easily see it in the upper echelons of the scoreboard come Saturday.

© Andres Putting (EBU)

14:10 AUSTRIA

Conchita is now wearing her stage outfit which is a gold sparkly dress with a very long train. Visually, this is stunning, lots of long shots at first with her in complete darkness and I think that first shot of her close up is definitely going to be a WOW moment for many people watching at home. Vocally, there are a couple of dodgy notes on each run through but I think she is holding back a little, which is no surprise because this is a tough song to sing. On the second run through we get some pyros! There’s an issue with the overhead camera on the third run through which has to be started again.  The pyros are even bigger third time around! Overall, not quite as strong as the first rehearsal but if this manages to get out of the semi then I think it’s going to be dangerous!

© Andres Putting (EBU)

14:35 LITHUANIA

The last one before the break is Vilija who is still wearing her black tutu with a blue and her male dancer is wearing a black leather outfit with a blue trim. Hmmm. Barbara Dex anyone? This is a very elaborate routine, perhaps not quite as much as Estonia but there’s still a lot going on. It is quite messy though, but Lithuania have the UK and Ireland in this semi and they can usually guarantee a bunch of points from them, so I wouldn’t count this one out at all for making it to Saturday night.

© Andres Putting (EBU)

14:55 LUNCH BREAK

Now we have half an hour’s break – time to grab coffee and a pastry and get some fresh air! Back in a bit!

14:20 FINLAND

Break is over and we are back with Softengine! This performance is getting ever more polished on each run through. As I mentioned the last time, they make good use of the spotlights for this one and this kind of song really works on a stage like this. The only issue I have is that I am not quite sure that this song is suited to a Eurovision audience but I do think it’s a qualifier.

© Andres Putting (EBU)

14:45 IRELAND

Kasey is in the same dress as last time and we’re still getting a very colourful golden show from them. Vocally, it’s better than before and she is connecting with the cameras more, instead of just wandering around the stage however on the following run throughs she loses it again and it’s back to her looking lost again. I also feel that it all comes across a bit flat with the presentation because after the first minute it doesn’t really go anywhere. Overall, an improvement from last time, but I do think it needs to improve more for a chance to qualify. But I am sure it will get high points from the UK at least.

© Andres Putting (EBU)

16:10 BELARUS

It looks to me as if they have changed the choreography at the beginning of this song, and apparently, they got Alexander Rybak to help with the staging too! Teo starts the song alone on stage with his backing singers/dancers joining him after a few seconds. Decent performance from Teo here first time round – on the third run through there was some issues with the sound and it cut out just as Teo sang the line “I’m so sorry” HAH! Overall, this was good. The only thing is that I think hinders it’s chances is Belarus’ lack of friends in the semi. For me, it’s a borderline at the moment.

© Andres Putting (EBU)

16:35 MACEDONIA

Tijana has her stage outfit on which is a black suit with white piping, and long dangly blue earrings – this gives her a rather androgynous look, but it suits her! There are now some lighting effects where she and the male dancer who is wearing white are illuminated by them as they interact with each other. The backing dancers are wearing the white glasses which I’ve seen some people in the press centre wearing – I’m going to try to get a pair! Tijana isn’t though for some reason unlike in the first rehearsal. Perhaps they thought it was too distracting? Indeed for the later run throughs even the backing singers remove the glasses. This is working better than the previous rehearsal but I think could still do with a bit of tidying up. I haven’t decided about this one yet regarding it’s qualifying chances.

© Andres Putting (EBU)

17:00 SWITZERLAND

Very similar from SEBalter this time around. He is being very expressive and the whole group look like they are enjoying themselves on the stage. Summing it up in one word, I’d say it was jolly. Vocally it sounds fine and he holds the last whistle note really well. I had this down as a sure qualifier last time around, but the general consensus with the press is that it’s a borderline qualifier. Based on this performance I do think that it’s more on the qualifying side than not. The Swiss should be happy with that.

© Andres Putting (EBU)

17:20 DINNER BREAK

We’re on a break for an hour now, we will be back for the last three rehearsals at 18:20 CET!

18:20 GREECE

Greece are up now and they are wearing the same costumes as the first rehearsal. There’s a number of shots of the audience in this one, which looks quite funny with the almost empty arena – a few people are going to get their moment of glory on Thursday! The trampolinist is back again, and I am still not decided on this. I really don’t like the moment when the 2 singers join him on it, they are all out of sync and it just looks a bit amateur, if they could get them jumping at the same time then it would look better. Overall, not really a lot of differences from the first rehearsal. Vocally a bit ropey but they get away with it for this type of song. This is winning the Press Centre vote for the first semi narrowly over Israel, and I think it could quite possibly win the semi, but I don’t see it as a winner overall. It will be up there though.

18:50 SLOVENIA

We’re entering the final stretch now, with Tinkara! The caption finally has the Slovenian flag, Tom from ESC Nation told me that they had the Russian one the other day! Tinkara wears her stage outfit, which is the same as before. This time she spends most of the song standing in front of the mic stand, and only takes the microphone in her hand right at the end. The camera shots look good, and there’s a nice one when she sings her long note where the camera pans away to show the whole stage and it looks very impressive, and then there’s a great shot right at the end where the same camera zooms right in on Tinkara for the final note. Overall though it’s a much more confident and settled rehearsal than the first one, so I think the Slovenians will be happier about that. A couple of issues vocally though, she really isn’t getting the ad-libs down, so she needs to improve on that. As for it’s qualifying chances? I’m a bit on the fence with this one. The draw I think definitely increases their chances. It definitely has a shot! Oh, and I just realised that Hannah Mancini, last year’s entrant wrote the English lyrics to this!

19:18 ROMANIA

Last up for today are Paula Seling and Ovi. Will their technical issues be ironed out? It’s not starting well as there seems to be a delay, but we finally get going 8 minutes late. The hologram finally works properly – and looks quite good actually. Paula now walks on from the left instead of the right which also works better. The circular piano is still there and I think it looks a bit useless but I guess they needed something for Ovi to do while Paula sings her verse. Rumours are that they wanted to have a suspended piano in the performance but it wasn’t possible with the stage set up. Yet another long wait after the first run through. Hmmm. But they’re finally back! The walk down the catwalk seems to be gone for good as they embrace each other which gets a few “OH NO”s in the press centre and then they stand static. I think they should have kept the walk in. There’s another wait before we get the last run through. Overall, MUCH better than the first rehearsal, and its a sure-fire qualifier but I’m not sure of it’s chances in the final.

19:45 IS IT OVER?

And we finish 15 minutes behind schedule, which isn’t too bad actually.  All the rehearsals for semi final 2 have now finished! I have now realised that this semi is SO open, I am really struggling to pick my 10 qualifiers, I would say almost every single country could qualify. The reveal of the envelopes is going to be so exciting! Our live coverage comes to and end now, so I’m off to get some food and a little rest before heading round to EuroClub for a while! We are back tomorrow – or the Big 5 plus Denmark for their first rehearsal. It all kicks off at 10.00. See you then!