Before I arrive in Baku, I’ve done a quick detour to Dubai to visit my friend Michael, who will be accompanying me to Azerbaijan later this week. Since it’s 42 degrees outside at the moment, I thought I’d come in to cool for a bit, and what better way to pass the time than to watch the rehearsal videos of the first semi final! I haven’t seen ANY of these yet, and I’m only watching each one once and writing down my first impressions, so these are likely to change drastically over the next week or so!

So here we go…

MONTENEGRO

Along with Leto Svet, this must be my least favourite Eurovision song in the past few years, if not longer. It’s a terrible opener to the contest, with no discernible tune or hook, and it’s not helped by the fact that Rambo looks as if the stage is the last place he wants to be, and it’s only saving grace is the countdown clock on the screens behind telling us how much of the song we have left to endure. If this qualifies, I’ll run down the streets of Baku wearing nothing but a Montenegrin flag…

ICELAND

And now we move on to the Contest proper! Greta and Jonsi give a typically strong Icelandic performance, with both of them looking and sounding great. I imagine the violin solo will look wonderful too on camera. Jonsi might look pretty but it’s all about Greta for me! I’d say this was pretty certain to qualify, but can it beak the non-Johanna Icelandic curse of qualifying but then not doing so well in the final?

GREECE

I’m getting hints of Emmy from Armenia here, catchy pop song sung by a pretty girl with a little bit shaky vocals. The dancing looks great but there’s only one backing singer and it really exposes Eleftheria, who sounds ever so slightly off key throughout the song. They are guaranteed some high points from Cyprus and Albania, but will that be enough to see them through?

LATVIA

Along with France, the Latvian preview video was my favourite of the year, both for completely different reasons! Anmary is definitely an engaging performer, and her vocals are great, much, much better than the National Final. but it all looks a bit messy on stage, and it doesn’t really come alive until the last chorus here my favourite, the classic Israeli strut makes a comeback! I’m just not sure it’s going to be enough to catch the viewers’ attention though…

ALBANIA

This is definitely the Marmite entry of the year, either you love it or hate it. I was firmly in the former camp and this rehearsal has done nothing to change that. The staging for this suits the song so well, dark and mysterious. Rona gives an outstanding vocal as always, however, I think the song is just too left field to appeal to the masses to ensnare enough votes to qualify. I think the juries however will love this so it could go either way…

ROMANIA

Now this one was a pleasant surprise. I had doubts that the lead singer, XXX, would be able to carry this off but she sounded perfectly fine. I couldn’t really see the performance as the EBU decided to intercut the rehearsal with some behind the scenes clips for some inexplicable reason, (please stop! Let us just see the performances) but from what I could see it suited the song well. Looks like Romania will be keeping their 100% qualifying record!

SWITZERLAND

It seems like aeons ago that the Swiss song was the first entry chosen for Eurovision back in December. Over the past few months, it’s been mid-table for me. The performance on stage in Baku wasn’t anything spectacular, though their diction seems to have improved somewhat. Not really sure on its chances yet, I’ll have to think about that, but its borderline at the moment

BELGIUM

One word to describe this would be “sweet”.  Iris looks innocent and sounds perfectly fine, if not completely perfect, but that can be worked on.  This one might not be high on anyone’s list and most people see this as a non-qualifier, but I get hints of Filipa Azevedo with this one, and I think we’ll be hearing this again on Saturday night, despite all the odds against it.

FINLAND

Oh WHAT a disappointment we have here. I loved this in the National Final but something’s happened here. They’ve got rid of the dancers which I think added to the performance, and while Pernilla sounds great, it just looks very flat on stage and dare I say it, boring. Such a shame, as I was so pleased when my favourite language finally made a return to the Eurovision stage, and Pernilla seems lovely, but at this stage, I think they will be on an early flight home on Wednesday.

ISRAEL

This one has been a bit of a grower for me over the past few weeks so I was looking forward to this rehearsal, and, well, it went ok. The chorus is my favourite part of the song but I’m not sure whether it was the mix but I could barely hear the female singer at all. So I’m not sure what to think about this one.  At the moment, it sounds and looks like an eleventh place in the semi-final, and as such, will just miss out.

SAN MARINO

I have to admit this song is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. I know it’s a lot of rubbish but I can’t help it! I saw Valentina perform live in London was rather surprised by her great vocals. It is a bit of a shame they are wasted on this song though. She performs it to the best of her ability, though not sure what to make of the performance. Nice to see a return from her “friends” from the video though, including the camp guy, who is holding an iPad!

CYPRUS

Many have this down as this year’s Kate Ryan and even I had worries about this, but this performance totally changes my opinion. While not having the strongest vocals ever, Ivi’s performance is good enough, Not sure what the table made of books is all about though but I’m sure that will become apparent when we see the final costumes. I’d love this to qualify, and based on this, I think she might just do it!

DENMARK

Denmark really seem to have got the hang of this Eurovision lark recently. They keep sending MOR entries that, while might not be the most amazing songs ever, are catchy enough to capture the votes of both juries and televoters. This year is no exception. Soluna performs this really well, in the same get up as the national final, and nice to see a return of the female drummer too. I think this will be top 3 in the semi, pretty much guaranteed.

RUSSIA

Ok, I have to get this off my chest. I HATE this song. If it wasn’t for the gimmick of the Grannies, it would crash and burn. They do have a great gimmick though that I think will get enough televotes to get them over the line but the juries are (hopefully) going to dismiss this. It all seems a little bit forced now though, as if they are just going through the motions.

HUNGARY

This is another one which has grown on me over the last few weeks; All in all, the Hungarian song is a pretty credible piece of pop music. Whether this type of music is Final material, I’m not sure. It’s nice but it’s just “there” and perhaps it’s just not memorable enough to get the votes needed to qualify. Shame though as it will probably miss out over songs which are not as good, but that’s the way of the Eurovision world…

AUSTRIA

I never really liked this and this performance completely cements that opinion for me. The only good part was the light show which they’ve had to take out for some reason, and it is a serious detriment to the whole package. The pole dancing just looks cheap and nasty and really leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The way it stands at the moment, it looks like an early bath for Austria.

MOLDOVA

While this isn’t my favourite song in the contest, it’s by no means the worst. It’s catchy and well sung. Pasha looks like he has the craziest backing dancers of the year so far, and some of the choreography is a little bit questionable to say the least but overall, it works, and I think it’s got a good chance of qualifying.

IRELAND

MEH. I’ve never been a Jedward fan at all so I’m finding it hard to judge this one objectively.  The song itself is a pretty inoffensive piece of pop music, and the vocals are fine, with a lot of help from the backing singers of course! As for the gimmick, well it looked all very unspectacular, but I have a feeling that’s just a stand-in until the final dress rehearsals. Overall, unspectacular, but I’d say their good draw will be enough to make the final but they won’t do anywhere near as well as last year.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Ok, based on those once only viewings, I’d put the following down as qualifiers:

ICELAND
GREECE
ROMANIA
BELGIUM
CYPRUS
DENMARK
RUSSIA
MOLDOVA
IRELAND

And one of HUNGARY or SWITZERLAND – they’re both so similar I can’t decide…

Right, I’m off to enjoy the sunshine, will be back with more views on semi 2 in a few days, just before I set off to report LIVE for you in Baku!