Welcome back to Slagthuset, the home of EuroClub and, until the press centre opens on Friday, the location from which the gathered fan press is reporting on the first rehearsals for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The viewing room is still in a cinema, but a much bigger cinema than yesterday, and one that’s directly accessible from the meet and greet area on the ground floor without having to negotiate stairs or other obstacles. Slagthuset seems to have a lot of interesting spaces! Now we just need to find a friendly usherette to bring me some popcorn and the day’s viewing can begin with Montenegro. Hold tight…

MONTENEGRO
“Igranka” is arguably the most contemporary-sounding song in the entire competition, but it was always going to be one of the most difficult to stage, too. The first run-through here was clearly quite experimental, with Nina in darkness and obscured from view quite a lot of the time and the boys dropping out of the track occasionally. And then things became much clearer on the second run… The rappers emerge from a sea of dry ice wearing spacesuits – bloody SPACESUITS! – before Nina joins them in a kind of slutty Seven Of Nine look. She sings really rather well, even the staccato sections are reproduced without needing all that studio production, and the rappers… well, they do what they do. In spacesuits. Bloody SPACESUITS!

It’s a mess, but it’s the kind of mess that could do very well. And it certainly gives the first semi-final a kick up the arse!

Two points of order, incidentally: Firstly, unlike yesterday, we’re not seeing the re-runs and camera shot tests between each full run-through (which makes sense, given it’s the whole point of the “closed-door rehearsals” – I was a little surprised we had so much access yesterday). And secondly, we’re being told that Lithuania and Belgium have swapped position, so Roberto should be up next. Apparently!

BELGIUM
It is indeed Roberto who’s up next, and I don’t think my feelings have changed so much within one three-minute performance. The first 20 seconds or so are incredibly awkward – slow camera pans across Roberto’s wounded animal face as he stutters his way through the opening lines in that Franglais accent. And yet, by the end… well, the sound is HUGE, almost stadium rock-esque, with backing singers giving the chorus a really effective boost, Roberto’s vocals are really pretty solid, and the whole thing starts to feel like a seriously dangerous contender for qualification. Providing the viewers and jurors can get over the initial moments of awkwardness…

For what it’s worth, it seems we’re quite close to the final staging here, with Roberto dressed in a black jacket and white shirt (open, no tie) as two girls paw him like in the video. The stage is dark blue and the lyrics are projected onto the back of the stage during the chorus, which I reckon works really effectively. Later runs saw Roberto trying to eye the cameras a bit more as they swooped past, and it’ll be interesting to see how this develops into the second set of rehearsals. Good start for Belgium, anyway.

BELARUS
After strong rehearsals from Montenegro and Belgium, the assembled fans are trying to work out which of the up-tempo entries might get squeezed out of qualification. Right now, I’m thinking it could be Belarus. Alyona emerges from a giant disco ball structure before engaging in a routine of steps with her two dancers that feels a little weak and half-hearted when compared with the huge “CHA CHA” sounds of the backing track. Towards the end they’re joined by the three backing singers for some more steps and cha-cha-ing, and there’s some drumming too (inevitably). Alyona certainly sings well enough, and she’s also learned how to smile since the video – although it does come across like a learned smile, if you know what I mean. All in all, there’s a bit too much desperation and not enough conviction in this as a package, and I don’t really see any obvious reason it should qualify – unless people decide the underlying song is a strong enough example of the catch-all Europop genre to forgive the underwhelming performance, which they might.

MOLDOVA
Aliona (these names are getting confusing!) begins her first rehearsal singing in English before quickly switching to Romanian for the rest of the song. Did she just forget? In any case, “O mie” has made a real impact among the fan press here. The staging contains all kinds of elements that could be over-the-top, and yet together they basically work. It all starts with Pasha at the piano, sharing the stool with three guys in a scene reminiscent of when you used to play “Chopsticks” with a friend at primary school. The aforementioned guys then bust some Hungary 2011 moves in the background before joining Aliona for more “Yaz bitti” actions (seems to be a theme this year!). Aliona herself, wearing last year’s Azeri dress with the light projections and all, then starts to be lifted by a podium during the middle eight and the final chorus – except her dress is blooming well infinite, extending below her as she ascends higher and higher. Lightning streaks across the dark background (and her dress) in the process, and gosh, it’s all really very visually effective.

It’s worth bearing in mind that everything about this song and performance is pretty much geared towards the fanboy taste, hence the strong response here in Malmö – but there’s invariably room for an angry shouty Eastern European ballad in the final, and for all this isn’t quite “Suus” in terms of impact or originality (though there are parallels), it really ought to fly through to Saturday night.

And that’s all from me for the morning session – one lunch break later, Danny will be joining you for the afternoon’s rehearsals!

IRELAND
Welcome back to the rest of today’s rehearsals, Danny here taking over the afternoon shift. After a rather extended lunch break, we’re back with Ireland – we’re now running slightly behind schedule.

Ryan is wearing a rather shiny black/grey suit and is blinged to the max with a set of sparkly earrings!. There are HOT tattoed dancers prancing around behind him – though I’m not sure if the tattoos are real or not. Leeanne Moore is back on backing vocals duty too with another blonde girl, and they do the infamous “heart” thingy with their hands.

This starts off with a shot of previously mentioned dancers drumming away, and the stage is all flashing blue and Celtic crosses, aptly enough. My problem with this song is that it doesn’t really go anywhere after the first minute – after that you’ve pretty much heard it all, and it gets a bit boring. On the last run through we get PYROS but I don’t think the song really needs it, they need to be careful not to overcook it. Vocally it’s good in places but in other parts it sounds quite strained. The backing vocalists sing well but I think they sound a bit jarring to the main vocal. This song definitely has its fans, but I’m not really one of them. I do think it has an excellent shot of qualification though, but then I’ve said that about pretty much everyone in this semi so far!

CYPRUS
Despoina is on stage next starting off her song acapella – that’s definitely not an easy thing to do, so well done to her on that front. She’s on stage on her own and the lighting is a dark blue. She’s wearing a black lacy dress and her hair is long and flowing – the reason which becomes apparent when at the key change we have a WIND MACHINE! This got a round of applause from the fans in the viewing room – we’re an easily pleased bunch! Her vocals are good and the whole performance is simple and plain, and this contrasts with the last few performances, all of which have had quite a lot going on. This has the staging of a typical Melodifestivalen ballad, and at one point we have TWO Despoina’s on screen on the left and right side with a long shot of the stage in the middle. She also ends the song with her fist in the air. I do like this but perhaps it’s just TOO simple to get enough votes to qualify. However I don’t think Cyprus should be ashamed by that performance at all.

LITHUANIA
Andrius is the penultimate performer on stage today – for some reason he and Belgium have swapped places. He’s wearing a black leather jacket and stands centre stage with 4 backing singers off to his right. There’s not really a lot I can say about this to be honest. It’s performed well enough but the song itself is very weak, and it’s not helped by his dreadful English. There’s also not enough eyebrow action for my liking either! For me it’s the most likely non-qualifier we have had over the past few days. I’d be SHOCKED if this qualified.

Felix and I wnt off to interview Alyona sorry, Aliona from Moldova (Martin was right, these names ARE rather confusing), so look out for that on the site later. I came back to the viewing room just as Lithuania were finishing another run through – this time Andrius was sporting a pear of sunglasses – the whole thing just looks ridiculous. It’s also the first song we have had that has had next to no reaction at all from the fans in the viewing room, if they had a betting market for last place in the semi final, I’d stick a tenner on this!

SERBIA
Up last today we have Moje 3 in what can only be described as rather INTERESTING costumes. They’re VERY colourful, striped leggings, love hearts on their chests and NEON stilletos! Funnily enough they seem to match the colours of the butterfly logo. I think we definitely have a front runner for the Barbra Dex Award. I am LOVING their stilettos though, I WANT the yellow ones! I’m sure there will be calls for their stylist to be sacked!

It sounds decent enough vocally if a bit shouty at times. Sara (the one who was the devil in the National Final) is giving us great facial expressions again. They’re not too bad vocally though. Even though it’s all a bit of a HOT MESS, I kinda love it, it’s Eurovision through and through! Can it qualify? It couldn’t have asked for a better draw and it’s bound to get votes from all the other Balkans so I think they should be fine.

And that’s it for today – for me, it wasn’t as strong a day as yesterday, but overall it wasn’t too bad. Moldova were the best by FAR today. I still think this is the semi final of death. I’m beginning to form opinons of who I think will qualify but I’ll need to ponder over it a bit more. So far I’ve ruled three countries out of it, the names of which I’ll reveal closer to the semi final when we do our usual predictions article. Thanks for sticking with us, and we’ll see you again tomorrow when it all begins again with semi final 2!