There are some sore heads around the press area on our fourth and final day here in the EuroClub cinema, with the party having gone on rather late last night. It’s quite strange coming to “work” in a place where one was dancing to “Bombo” just a few hours previously. And while alcohol really was free at the Irish party in the afternoon (and discounted at EuroClub until 11pm – bargain!), it’s now time for us to turn our attention to another offer of free alcohol from a more southernly point on the continent, along with the rest of Thursday’s rehearsals!

GREECE
Koza Mostra and the moustached Agathonas take the stage for several runs through their song. At first this is very much a camera rehearsal – there’s a lot going on, with several bouncy band members to capture, runs out onto the catwalk and back again, and so on. By the second run it’s already sitting quite nicely, though. Red and yellow are the predominant colours on the background, the camerawork is energetic without being too hectic, and there are some neat little touches – like when the stage goes dark during the brief instrumental break and the band’s instruments are outlined in white light (think Stefan Raab’s novelty guitar in 2000). The only less advisable part for me comes right at the very end, a slightly unnecessary back-reference to the video clip as Agathonas growls “Yamas” into the camera before wiping his moustache. But oh well, respect your elders and all that.

The vibe is obviously a bit artificial in places because the band, and the lead singer in particular, are feeding off a non-existent audience at this point – but if this can give a kick up the arse to a tired press horde at 10 in the morning, it’s going to do some serious business once the arena is full and everyone at home is enjoying some alcohol of their own, free or otherwise.

ISRAEL
Much as expected for Israel really, which makes the life of a blogger both easier and more difficult. It’s the same look for Moran as in the national final, unflattering dress, Lynda Woodruff spectacles and all. The backdrop is black and dark blue, with some nice spinny white lights illuminating the standing audience area. And as if that wasn’t ESC 1995 enough already, the camera gets right up the nose of the backing singers on several occasions.

So far, the camera has started pulling away from Moran as she approaches the big “rak bishvilo” before the final chorus, which feels to me like it lessens the impact somewhat. The press area disagrees, greeting each run-through with rapturous applause, but then there are a suspiciously large number of throaty vowels floating around the place this morning. Perfectly solid stuff from Israel, anyway, and if nothing else that ought to be the final nail in the coffin for San Marino (or the first two minutes of San Marino, at any rate).

ARMENIA
This is literally the least popular song in the press area so far this week. There was not the slightest hint of applause or even a positive murmur after Dorians’ first run-through, so much so that I felt the need to loudly clap their second rehearsal if only to break the silence!

What about the performance, though? Well, it’s filmed as a fairly standard-issue stadium rock number, with dry ice, close-ups of the fretboard during the guitar solo, big searchlights zooming off into the sky on the final chorus and all. The band might well already be in their stage costumes – if so, they’re a slightly curious combination of denim, waistcoats and scarves, although they have successfully tarted up the dumpy keyboard player, which is an achievement in itself.

The song is what it is, although Gor adds some (semi-)improvised vocal riffs towards the end that I’m not all that keen on, mainly because they make the backing vocals sound a bit weak. Regardless, I like it a great deal – but most people don’t, and I suspect this could well become a victim of the new voting system, with jury members effectively neutralising any televoting support it receives. Two non-qualifications in a row for Armenia? Nobody would have foreseen that in the days of “Qele qele”…

HUNGARY
As soon as we saw the cartoony video for ByeAlex’s “Kedvesem”, it was pretty obvious they’d be using elements of it on the backdrop of the ESC stage, and so it turned out. The setup here is very much the same as in the Hungarian final, with a guitarist perched on a stool channeling the reserved cool of Randal from Clerks, the most Hungarian woman ever (copyright SamB) looking smiley on backing vocals, and Alex himself in the middle, sporting a baseball cap today (but the trademark hat is sure to return for the main event – it’s right there in the cartoon, after all!).

The vocals are coming over as well as you might expect for a song that’s so deliberately low-key – indeed, the guitarist introduces some interesting vocal harmonies during the chorus, which is a nice touch. Filming-wise, there are fewer head-on shots of Alex than in the national final, and more of him from the side and from a distance. The latter is perhaps understandable for an arena gig, but the personal contact needs to be there too – this is a song that works best when it’s kept small, and the delegation will surely be aware of that.

Alex clearly didn’t feel the need for many rehearsals, checking his watch and chatting away to the guitarist mid-song, trying out some vocal licks that some of the fan-press are sure to think will be part of the final performance, etc. And why not? It’s all looking and sounding nice already. Enough said.

One point of interest for caption nerds: This is very much being credited as “Kedvesem (Zoohacker Remix)”. We reckon this makes it the first time the word “remix” has been used in an official Eurovision song title!

And that completes the morning rehearsal session! Danny will be here later to cover the second half of the day.

NORWAY
I’m here again taking over from Martin for the last half of today’s rehearsals, and first up is one of the big fan faves Margaret Berger. The fans in the viewing room are really anticipating this one and the room is busier than any other rehearsal so far. Margaret is wearing the same white dress as the one she wore in Melodi Grand Prix with a few slight alterations and it looks better. The staging of the song is very similar to MGP, except with the addition of 3 female backing singers to the left. The screens to the back look really effective and the whole theme is very electronic, with white lightning effects and the stage bathed in a sapphire blue colour. Her vocals are slightly strained though on the first run through, and a little better on the second one, but she gets a huge applause from the viewing room anyway. Subsequent run throughs don’t seem to improve her vocals, and she sounds like she is struggling a bit with some of the high notes. On the final run through she is vocally better, so perhaps a bit of more practise is all she needs. I think they’re going to have to work on this one a bit if they are going to be a contender to win, but if she improves her vocals, it’s an easy top tenner.

ALBANIA
I’m not going to pretend that this is one of my favourite entries this year, in fact it’s rock bottom along with Armenia. It’s not a BAD song per se, but it’s just not my cup of tea. The staging of this is very orange. There’s a few sound issues at first as we don’t get to hear the first few lines from Bledar, but this is soon sorted out. Vocally, it sounds ok, but this style of vocals are an acquired taste, and unfortunately, it’s definitely not mine. Towards the end of the song Bledar moves to the satellite stage for the guitar solo, and we have pyros coming out of his guitar for the last run through, it looks really good! This is quite different from anything else in the semi so it could pick up some votes, but I’m not sure it’s got enough wide appeal to get enough votes to see it through.

GEORGIA
I just got a total goosebumps moment to this. Vocally it’s bloody well OUTSTANDING in the last minute of the song, slightly wobbly at the beginning but nothing too bad. The stage is in total darkness as the song begins – Nodi starts to the right of the stage while Sophie is on the left, and they come together for the second verse. The staging is simple, so far we’ve not had any dry ice or pyros yet, here’s hoping that we have them in later run throughs. It’s not my favourite song by any stretch but this just really works. If Azerbaijan can win with a song that’s not as good then I think Georgia could well be in with a shot, it’s definitely going to get a lot of jury votes and has a perfect draw in the semi final being surrounded by a bunch of weaker songs. This is getting quite mixed reviews from the fans in the press centre – everyone says the vocals are great but quite a few are saying it leaves them cold.

After a wait of around 15 minutes we have a second run through, and it’s vocally better at the beginning, and Sophie REALLY nails the glory note towards the end, and we also have a wind machine! There’s another LONG wait for the third run through, and this time we have dry ice! AND we have the pyro curtain at the key change, as expected. The whole thing comes off as a cross between Running Scared and Quedate Conmigo. Overall, I think they should be happy with that rehearsal, as I think this will definitely give them their best result in the contest ever.

SWITZERLAND
A slight technical hitch as we miss the first part of the Swiss song – the 6 performers are standing in a line with their instruments and are wearing white shirts with “Together We’re One” stitched on to them. It’s all quite static. There are shots of all the members and I’m sure there will be a few “awww” moments when there are close ups of the old guy playing the double bass. It kind of looks as if they’re all one big family getting up on stage at a party and it’s all sweet and nice, if maybe a bit TOO saccharine. It’s fine vocally though, especially from Sarah. This is quite a harmless entry, it’s difficult to find anything bad to say about it, really. It gets bonus points for the lovely Jonas on guitar, such a handsome fellow! 🙂

ROMANIA
The staging for this is very red and black, Cezar is wearing an interesting black sparkly costume showing off his hairy chest and a blingy crucifix. This got a bit of a laugh from the folk in the viewing room. There’s a long red flowing curtain from which dancers emerge – the routine seems a bit messy though and I’m not really sure what it adds to the performance. Vocally it sounds fine – this is a VERY divisive entry but it has a really good draw and is sure to be remembered. Towards the end of the song, he rises up EXACTLY like the Moldovan song, but it’s nowhere near as effective. I bet the Romanians were NOT happy when they found out what Moldova had planned! Not much applause from people in the viewing room for this one either.

I have NO IDEA how this one could go – Romania have managed to qualify every year, and even though I think the song is diabolical, in my head, I think it’s qualifying. Undeservedly.