Over four months since the first entry was chosen and after an April full of well-attended preview parties around the continent, rehearsals for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest begin this Sunday morning. By this time next week, we’ll have a good idea of which countries have arrived in Lisbon with a convincing stage package all ready to roll, which performances still need some work – and which are beyond saving.

The rehearsals will be avidly followed by the fan press in the press centre, including our very own Felix who arrives in Lisbon on Wednesday. But what should they be looking out for as each of the 43 countries takes to the stage for the first time? What do we want them to be reporting in their blogs, tweets and videos? Here are five things we’ll be sure to keep a keen eye on.

1. Netta
The very first day of rehearsals will see the first appearance by this year’s fan darling (and current bookmakers’ favourite), Netta from Israel. “Hotly anticipated” doesn’t come close to describing it. Unlike a handful of the 2018 entries, we have at least seen Netta at a couple of the preview parties, but that didn’t necessarily tell us a great deal about the Israeli staging plans. Will she be allowed to use her looper properly or will it be pre-recorded in some way? Will she be trapped behind the technology or will she get out and move a bit? Can the camerawork bring across the fun of the entry and the singer’s quirky facial expressions, or will it all come across as a bit, well… silly? We’ll find out very soon.

Love is not a gadget, love is not a toy

2. Backing vocals
As we all know, Eurovision entries are permitted a maximum of six people on stage (or just behind the stage, if recent years are anything to go by). Several of this year’s songs, however, come with masses of backing vocals that we haven’t seen them recreate live yet. “Oneiro mou”, the Greek entry, has layers of particularly processed harmony vocals that felt like they would be tricky to pull off, but a recent brief rehearsal clip suggests that things are looking good on that front. Austria’s Cesár Sampson will presumably be accompanied by five singers as they attempt to replicate the gospel choir feel of “Nobody But You”, while it will be endlessly fascinating to see how the diverse vocal styles of Bulgarian common framework (ahem) Equinox come together on stage after several live performances that felt less than entirely live. Perhaps most perilously of all, none of the four non-singing members of EWS from Hungary look like they’d be able to recreate the choir of heavenly voices that basically sing the last, post-key-change chorus of “Viszlát nyár” while lead singer Örs screams for his life. They have room for one off-stage female backing vocalist, but things could get awkward for Hungary – if not outright messy – unless they’ve managed to come up with a solution.

Oh, and then there’s Russia. But that could be a category all by itself.

Scream if you wanna go faster

3. Props
As some fans are keen to remind us again and again (and again), for the first time since Oslo in 2010, the ESC stage this year will not feature any LED walls. The Eurovision Diary blog tantalisingly informed us that a number of countries have embraced the challenge of coming up with more innovative ideas for presenting their ideas than simply showing some computerised images on a backdrop, so that sounds promising. We know Benjamin Ingrosso’s Tron wall will be making an appearance, and there has been no end of controversy over Elina Nechayeva’s projection dress, which apparently comes with an eye-watering €60,000 price tag. But what else can we expect? Will Mélovin from Ukraine be allowed the stairway and burning platform from his national final performance? Can Eleni Foureira commit arson on a car without setting off the arena sprinkler system? How will France and Germany live up to their promise of on-stage video screens of their own? And will the end result be more Lazarev or Gaitana?

Doom bars

4. Stage colours
The last few years have seen an overdose of blue stages, often accompanied by white outfits. With the theme for ESC 2018 being “All Aboard!”, the concern is that Portugal’s seafaring past might mean yet another blue Tuesday (and Thursday, and Saturday). We’ll be looking out for any countries that break the mould and stand out with a genuinely interesting lighting concept amid what threatens to be a veritable tidal wave of navy and aquamarine colour schemes. The land of Festival da Canção might be giving us a more organic contest this year – and why not? – but that’s no reason to just accept the visuals you’re given, sing your song and hope for the best.

Song sung blue

5. Don’t get carried away!
The key thing for any Eurovision fan to remember about the first round of rehearsals is that they really are just that. Technical rehearsals, even. Sometimes a country might only manage a couple of run-throughs during their allotted first-day time. For instance, when escgo! was last in the press centre in Vienna, Stig and Elina from Estonia and Loïc Nottet from Belgium spent most of their first sessions getting the stage placings and camera angles right for what were two technically quite complex pieces of filming – while there was very little in the way of actual performance. Just because a country takes its time over these things doesn’t mean it’s all going wrong. Indeed, just because Carola saves her voice at a rehearsal of “Invincible” doesn’t mean she’s decided to not bother singing the chorus at all on the big night. You see? It’s been this way for years. You know these things. So do we. But we’re fans. The tendency to overreact is built-in. And if nothing else, it’ll be fascinating to see whether the betting markets respond to any first-day glitches.

Shadowy men on a shadowy planet

Don’t forget to stay tuned to escgo! as the rehearsals begin. We’ll have extensive coverage from both near and far, with Shi’s traditional long-form analysis from San Francisco and Martin’s betting blogs accompanied by Felix’s on-site insights, rehearsal reports and audiovisual goodies from inside the Eurovision bubble in Lisbon. So clean out the crumbs from under your refresh button and get ready for the fun!

image sources: eurovision.tv, YouTube, SVT