Hello! We’re back in the Press Centre for the second day ready for the second rehearsals of the second semi-final. Myself (Danny) and Martin will be taking turns during the day to give our esteemed opinions on the performances with me taking the first part, while Felix provides photos directly from the arena like he did yesterday – so stick around to get all the latest gossip!

LATVIA

First up today are PeR wearing what can only be described as a glitter explosion! This is actually perfect as an opening song to get the audience going. Visually, it’s quite manic – there’s lots of jumping up and down and then a cool bit where they walk down the catwalk in slow motion, and then there’s even a part where Ralfs stage dives and is caught by some audience members – it will be interesting to see if this works on the actual night, it’s definitely risky! One of the backing guys looks like he is using an iPad as an instrument, but I’m reliably informed by Martin that it’s actually a proper instrument that DJs use – you learn something new every day!

It’s hard to judge this song vocally as it’s not really a song about the vocals, it seems to sound decent enough. I had this down as a non-qualifier and I still believe this to be the case – it’s Latvia after all, they’ve pretty much been rock bottom in their semi-final for 4 years in a row. After today’s rehearsal, I’m not sure if I’ve seen anything that would break this run of bad luck.

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SAN MARINO

Up next is one of the big fanboy favourites, and I have to confess it’s my #1. “Fanboy, fanboy, you can call me fanboy, tra la la” 🙂 Valentina starts sitting down on stage caressing the illuminated ball from the preview video, it looks a lot better than the trick Russia have going on in the first semi. For the second verse, she gets up and walks around before the backing dancers rip off her dark cloak to reveal a red one at the moment where the song changes tempo. I was worried that they were going to go over the top with this performance after last year’s shenanigans but it’s actually quite subtle and works pretty well. I think it could have possibly been a bit brighter when the change happens though. Valentina’s vocals are pretty much perfect on each run through, she nails the last note each time.

Many people have said that the whole thing reminds them of Hera Björk and I’d tend to agree – and I think this could end up getting the same result as she did. For a country as small as San Marino, that would be equivalent to winning. There’s a LOT of support for San Marino here in Malmö, and I really really hope they make it through. On that rehearsal, they deserve to.

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MACEDONIA

The biggest news about this is that they’ve changed back to the Macedonian version – we’re not sure of the reason why, but I imagine the EBU probably weren’t too happy about it. The song starts with Lozano standing centre stage wearing a simple black suit – then for the chorus Esma enters stage right wearing a bright red gypsy style outfit. I think it LOOKS fine, but it SOUNDS a bit messy, I just don’t think the change in tempo works at all, it sounds like two songs sandwiched together. The last part of the song sounds like a shouting match between Esma, Lozano and the two female backing singers who join them centre stage. I don’t think this is qualifying, I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets twelve points from Albania and pretty much nothing else.

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AZERBAIJAN

The general feeling amongst the fans here is that we’re off to Baku again next year, and as much as I hate to admit it I think this could be the case. The gimmick with the man in the glass box mirroring every move Farid makes looks great. Farid then jumps off the box as a girl in a red dress with a long train walks down the catwalk to the stage – and on the key change the box is filled with red petals. Overall, this looks stunning on screen.

Farid’s vocals were good, and he really has a face for the camera – I think there will be plenty of teenage girls and men of a certain persuasion picking up the phone to vote for him! I don’t think the song itself deserves to win, but it looks like Ictimai really want to bring the contest back to Baku again – at least they now have an arena for it!

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Martin up now – Subway sandwich duly ingested, now it’s time for the next four songs!

FINLAND
There’s a school of thought in Eurovision circles that entries do comparatively better if they’re recognisably from the country they’re representing. Lordi, for example, might not have had the same impact if they’d been from Macedonia – but as the Finnish entrants, they had a certain Finnishness that felt comfortable to viewers around the continent.

And that’s the one thing I think Krista also has in her favour. Let’s deal with the problems, first of all: “Marry Me” is a very western song, and this isn’t a hugely western semi-final in terms of its voting demographic. The “white wedding” stage performance they’re using may be an established Hollywood trope (albeit not usually quite as garish and vulgar as it is here), but it’s still hard to see it being the kind of thing that would appeal to your average televoter in Yerevan or even Riga. And the masquerade ball in which the backing singers engage throughout, emerging from flowing velvet outfits and masks to become happy drunken bridesmaids, verges dangerously on gay bar chic.

But Krista does fit nicely into that “cheeky Nordic beauty” mould that viewers clearly recognise and acknowledge – and actually, the girl-on-girl kiss that concludes her performance here doesn’t detract from that particularly, since it’s done with tongue firmly in cheek rather than as any kind of obvious political statement (whatever might be said in the press conference later). So it’s the personality she projects, and the strength of the song’s chorus, that will get Finland through to the final if anything does. (Whether I still want to see them there after Krista and her backings march through the press centre “DING DONG”-ing for the 19th time is another matter.)

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MALTA
I had my worries about this the other day. Yes, the first set of rehearsals are primarily there to get the first camera shots sorted out and all that, but Gianluca and his gang seemed to be struggling with the whole routine of professional TV production in the first place – perhaps understandable given he’s very much an amateur in this field.

Things are hanging together a bit better today, but I’m still not hugely convinced by the staging they’ve chosen or the way it’s being filmed. Gianluca looks a bit forced as he wanders around the stage from person to person, occasionally interacting with them as he does (though there’s a cute moment where he knocks the ukelele-player’s hat askew and is rewarded with a dirty look). He then meanders out to the satellite stage and back again while a bench is brought onto the main stage, which is where Gianluca and his gang end the song (much like in the video clip).

The organic Shoreditch chic of the staging, right down to Gianluca’s trousers (which are somewhere between ochre and burnt umber), is a little at odds with the backdrop, onto which the song lyrics are projected in various fonts and colours throughout the song. And none of it has any real connection to the underlying story that’s being told. As a package, it doesn’t not work, but there’s something messy and undefined about the whole thing and I do wonder how it’ll come across in the context of a pan-European vote and alongside some far slicker and more mature songs and performances.

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BULGARIA
Full disclosure: before I arrived in Malmö, “Only Mushrooms” “Samo shampioni” was one of my least favourite songs this year. I didn’t get the studio version and I didn’t particularly like the way Elitsa and Stoyan complained about the results of their national final until they got their own way.

So it was a great surprise when, although some of the camera runs were still shaky, I found myself really, really enjoying this song when we saw it for the first time on Wednesday afternoon. Among other things, I’d forgotten how persuasive the percussion duo are as live performers – they feed off each other well (as you’d expect) and Elitsa is visually striking: if ever anyone had the hair for a wind machine, it’s her.

So how are things looking today? They’re still ironing out the difficulties that inevitably come with filming a song that involves a heck of a lot of instruments and stage moves, and it didn’t help when Elitsa lost one of her illuminated drumsticks (now there’s a phrase you don’t say every day!). And there are some peculiar choices outside the personalities of Elitsa and Stoyan themselves: the bored-looking backing girls dressed in national costume who appear to be channelling the spirit of Monty Python’s “Knights Who Say Ni”, for example, or the hunchbacked bagpipe player who writhes around in the background for part of the song before turning up at the end in some kind of American Indian headdress. As you do.

Still, though, it’s one of the most visually and sonically striking entries in this semi-final – atonal, but knowingly so – and it comes across as a dose of musical professionalism after some of the entries that precede it. That alone could well be enough for Bulgaria to qualify from the semi-final for only the second time. (And we all know who was responsible for their first qualification…)

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ICELAND
Whereas, by contrast, this was one of my absolute favourites going into the contest this year – and I’m a little worried about it now.

Depending on your definition, this is arguably the first ballad of the semi-final, and of course it’s a hugely traditional one in so many senses – right down to the staging, which has Eythor Ingi (as his name is now being written on the caption) literally just standing there and singing the thing. The backing group turn up in the shadows after the key change, but otherwise that really is all there is to the staging.

And of course simplicity can be a boon at ESC, particularly if it comes across as authentic. There is an authenticity about this performance, but it’s one that risks highlighting the campfire-song-by-numbers approach to the melody line, and that might be a dangerous game to play. But you know what? He sings it terrifically – I mean terrifically – and I do believe that this contest rewards well-structured, well-performed, authentic songs even in these days of upside-down men in glass boxes, so I remain hopeful.

(He really needs to wear the black suit though. A couple of the runs on Wednesday and today have involved a white jacket, which: no. Just no.)

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And back over to Danny for the next four!

GREECE

This one starts off with Agathon standing in the middle of the stage surrounded by the members of Koza Mostra who all do some funny slow motion movements – that definitely seems to be a theme this year with Montenegro and Latvia also incorporating this into their routine. As the beat kicks in there is a shot of the drummer before the other 4 members start their energetic dance routine (the sixth member of the band is obviously not allowed on stage due to Agathon taking his place – I hope he’s not too peeved off!) There’s a neat bit near the end where the stage goes dark and all the instruments light up, and then there’s a bit of traditional Greek dancing too – it wouldn’t be a Greek entry without it, would it? The last shot is Agathon stroking his moustache and this gets a few smiles from the press centre.

Visually, it’s possibly not as manic as I’d have liked it to be, they could have gone all out a bit more, and there’s a couple of shots of Agathon just standing there, and not connecting with the camera which I don’t think *quite* work. I am sure this will stand out after Iceland and is definitely qualifying. As for the final? I’d say low top 10.

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ISRAEL

Lynda Woodruff, sorry Moran Mazor is up next wearing THAT dress, this time with added sparkles. I don’t think it’s very flattering at all for her body shape, but she does look gorgeous with nice sweeping hair and lots of bling. I also love glasses so she gets plus points for that!  This is a very simple staging, with Moran standing centre stage, a pianist to the right and two backing singers off to the left.  There’s some great sweeping camera shots and the whole thing comes across as quite classy. It’s a very dark stage here, with swathes of light blue and white, sometimes this doesn’t always work but for this type of song it seems quite appropriate. It’s quite difficult to hear the vocals here in the press centre as the sound isn’t turned up very  high, but from what I could make out she sounded good. I think she deserves to qualify, and as there’s not really much like it in her semi, she’ll make it. I bet she’s happy she’s not in the first semi though!

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ARMENIA

Meh. Meh. Meh. This song is SO not me at all. Men with guitars just don’t do it for me, give me a hot mess in a slutty dress with a pounding dance beat any day! As such this is another difficult one for me to judge. There’s lots of dry ice which looks good, and it looks like they are not wearing their stage outfits as one of the guys has a T-shirt with EUROVISION emblazoned on it. It’s another simple performance with the guys just standing there playing their guitars. There’s some really cool fire pyro effects too on the last run through.

Overall, it’s decent enough if you like that sort of thing. My friend Emma Backfish, from ESCXtra certainly does – so it does have its fans. I can’t see it qualifying though.

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HUNGARY

Well this one is certainly colourful to say the least – they are still using the backdrop of the preview video and it all looks good on screen. It’s just Alex, a male guitarist and (we think) Helga Weber, the same blonde female backing singer as last year’s Hungarian entry. Vocally, it’s good. Not really sure about Alex’s outfit and hair though, but I guess he has his own style. This is another simple performance, and as the song itself is quite simple, it all fits together.

This is a very divisive entry among the fans, it’s very well liked by a lot of people, and I think it could get quite a lot of jury votes because it’s “real” music. Again, this one isn’t really my thing but it has certainly grown on me a lot this week. My prediction for this at the moment is that it’s qualifying.

And with that, Danny gets to go and prepare for tonight’s Belarusian party and it’s back to Martin for the rest of the day’s rehearsals!

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NORWAY

Whatever happens to Margaret Berger next week, however she does in the voting and whether she lives up to her fan favourite status or not, one thing can be said for sure: the stage at the Malmö Arena is practically made for “I Feed You My Love”. The sparseness of the performance as we knew it from the Norwegian final has been supplemented by cool blues and icy whites, with edgy shapes and sharp angles all over the backdrop. And it really works.

Not all that much has changed otherwise in the last three months. Margaret’s outfit is a bit more blingy (and the lower section appears to have gained a slit down the middle), there are three backing singers to replicate the prerecorded backing vocals from Melodi Grand Prix, and otherwise it’s just the drummer in the background and Margaret doing her “slightly melted ice-queen” thing. Vocally it’s strong, visually it’s striking, and even if the song is too dark to fully cross over and hit the heights on the scoreboard, I’m starting to see it as a safer bet for a solid result than the other Nordic fan fave, Denmark.

If I have any criticisms, and I admit this is a minor point, Margaret does seem to be trying very hard not to blink on that first long walk to the front of the stage! But Eurovision success hardly lives and dies on such matters…

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ALBANIA
I made a point of watching the final run-through of this one in the arena, because it uses heavy pyrotechnics and they’re a crucial feature in Albania’s chances for progressing to the Saturday night. Plus I like fire, heh-heh. (Hey, I used to love Beavis and Butt-head.) In terms of filming, this is a largely standard rock performance for the first two minutes: Bledar and Adrian do their thing, drummers beat their drums in the background, and the predominant colour is – shockingly enough for Albania – a vivid red.

But it’s in the last minute that things really get going. There are a few puffs of fire and smoke throughout the song, but Bledar strutting out onto the satellite stage marks the highlight of the visual presentation, when sparks start shooting out of the neck of his guitar as he “plays” the solo. That, accompanied by some firework-esque explosions at the top of the arena, will be an eyebrow-frazzling highlight for the punters in the arena, and they’re very effective on camera too. Are they worth the points that will take Albania into the final with an otherwise quite “difficult” (and native-language) rock song? We’ll see.

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GEORGIA
Speaking of songs that really get going in the last minute and are accompanied by pyros… “Waterfall” appears to be constructed around that huge key change, although the build to it is very effective too. I’m still not keen on the opening shot, where Nodi stares off to the side as the camera pans toward him, looking for all the world like Marty Feldman. After that, though, it’s an elegant visual build as the two protagonists move around each other – and then the thing explodes, with puffs of smoke (not great on camera, I’d say) and the obligatory curtain of sparks (pretty great on camera, I’d say) as the shouting continues.

I say “shouting”, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with how they sing and perform it, but it’s very much from the school of “loud is the new good”. As such, I don’t really agree with the lazy comparisons with Ell/Nikki’s “Running Scared” – if anything, this is far more reminiscent of Chanee & N’evergreen’s “In A Moment Like This”, and that’s the kind of result I can see this getting. It would deserve it… but not more than that.

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SWITZERLAND
This set of rehearsals seemed to go very quickly. There’s very little to set up with Takasa, I suppose, and even less to tweak and change between takes (although they did have a false start to their second run-through today).

The Artists Known As Salvation Army stand in a line, wearing white shirts bearing the logo “Together We’re One” (nooooo, it’s “We Are One”, haven’t you seen the branding all over town?), playing their respective instruments, and pretending to interact and be joyous even though this must be approximately the 1,384,729th time they’ve done this since mid-December. In a cute touch, the big bass drum played by easily the most likeable member of the group has been borrowed from a Swedish brass band for the occasion, and bears words to this effect.

No camera effects, no messing around, nothing much of interest here. It’s very Swiss.

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ROMANIA
It’s 9 p.m. and almost everyone in the press centre is itching to get away, but we have three run-throughs from Romania’s Cezar to endure sit through enjoy first.

This really is one of the most bizarre things I’ve seen in recent Eurovision history. It should be enjoyable trash of the highest order, but he appears to be taking it entirely seriously, and not in that fun “doesn’t have a clue but is amusingly dumb” way that you sometimes get from Belarus. Quite the opposite, in fact: Cezar’s approach to the song and performance practically sucks the life out of it, or what little life it had left in it.

He starts surrounded by flapping cloth which turns out to be home to a number of dancers. They give it some modern interpretive dance for most of the three minutes, none of it in time with the music or particularly meaningful to these eyes, occasionally turning to Cezar as he rises up on a podium surrounded by the aforementioned cloth. Meanwhile, Cezar stays in his head voice almost throughout – could he not at least drop down for the second verse to spare us a little? – and is dressed, frankly, like a black velvet diamond idiot. He’s scary, the whole thing is humourless, and if this qualifies then Romania will never not qualify.

Fortunately, the Romanian rehearsal session was improved – a hundred times over – by the impromptu audience participation that just happened in the press centre, with a couple of enterprising souls on a neighbouring table rocking their own falsetto and easily outperforming (and out-charming) the good Cezar. (There may have been a slightly filthy tweak to the lyrics, too.) Rapturous applause ensued – cabin fever has duly struck – and we can all go home happy.

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So here we go! Thanks again for reading today, and if you like what we’re doing, don’t forget to tell a friend!