SLOVENIA

First to take the stage with their second rehearsal is Hannah from Slovenia who has swapped with Austria. There’s a few technical issues with the video and sound links – the feed is coming on the main screen but there’s no sound, and  but there are smaller TVs dotted around the press centre where we can hear the action from the arena.

The Slovenian performance is looking VERY good on screen, the dancing is effective, the dancers are now wearing sunglasses and I like Hannah’s outfit. Her vocals are a little bit off though on high notes, and I think she will really need to work on this for the live performance. Based on this, I don’t think she is qualifying, which for me is sad, as the song is in my top five! 🙁

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ESTONIA

We’ve finally got sound from the main screens now, thankfully! The Estonian performance is strong – it starts off with Birgit on the satellite stage with a black and white effect on screen which turns to colour as the first chorus kicks in Birgit moves to the main stage to join the three male backing singers. We also have what can only be described as an explosion of dry ice in the second half of the song.  She is wearing a long flowing dress that manages to make her look more pregnant than she actually is! The vocals are very good too. I think this is qualifying, the juries are sure to lap this up.

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AUSTRIA

Natalia is wearing silver leggings and a rather fabulous sparkly belt. WANT. The illuminated lights start on the stage with the backing singers standing between them, before rising up in the middle of the song. They all stand in a circle for the middle 8 as the camera swoops round. Vocally, it’s fine but for some reason, it feels like there’s something missing from this – it’s kind of plodding along. I think this is going to be forgotten in the mix when it comes down to it.

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CROATIA

The Croatian guys are wearing the same interesting costumes as before – it all comes across as very traditional, and maybe just a touch old-fashioned.  Vocally. they’re pretty much perfect. They have a lot of friends in this semi, and it will definitely pick up a lot of Balkan votes but I don’t think they’ll get much from elsewhere. I think this is a borderline qualifier at the moment, I can’t quite make my mind up about it yet.

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Martin taking over for the afternoon session here, so that Danny and I don’t end up writing about the same entries we did a few days ago! Time to have our second encounters with some of the bookmakers’ favourites – starting with…

DENMARK
Not the easiest of songs to film, this, what with men walking all over the place for three minutes brandishing various instruments. That’s one of the elements of the package I still find a bit off-putting, to be honest – I’m all for multi-talented folks, but whistles, drums and timpanis, really? (OK, I realise this getting a bit picky now!) Anyway, how’s it all looking today? Some of the early camera shots are still a bit confused (and confusion is etched on Emmelie’s face too), but that’s made up for by some very effective camerawork towards the end of the song in particular. While the thinness of Emmelie’s voice is very attractive when it’s on point, as soon as it wavers you really tend to notice it, particularly because the backing singers are nice and solid. Still, this is coming across nicely regardless of whether you think its favourite status is justified or not.

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RUSSIA
The stage manager has just informed us that the audience will have illuminated bracelets that they’ll be expected to sway in the air during the Russian entry. Bergendahl much? I suppose it ties in with the cheesy audience “participation” that we saw in the video clip – and it certainly explains a few long shots of the audience/arena that weren’t there before today. Dina still looks like a mini-Kelly Clarkson, very earnest and proper but with a hint of mischief. The stage is full of illuminated balls as previously, and there are some slightly awkward shots near the beginning as Dina attempts to find the camera “through” the balls (for want of a better description), but all in all this is doing exactly what it wants to in terms of the visual effect – it’s cheesy but welcoming. Dina is joined by her backing singers at the start of the second chorus, though they only step into the limelight during the middle eight – and two of them still throw balls into the audience at the key change, for reasons that remain unexplained. Is one piece of audience participation not enough for three minutes?!

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UKRAINE
OK, things are a lot more comfortable for Zlata today, although I suppose they couldn’t have been much worse! The giant is in his costume now, a rustic-looking thing straight out of a Sky Atlantic drama series about Mediaeval warfare. Zlata’s choice of outfit is perhaps less successful, a shiny, metallic number that tapers then expands at the bottom to make her look a bit like a red- and purple-coloured fish. She’s far more assured on her podium, though – flat shoes instead of heels today, maybe? – and the screen even flickers to black-and-white with each “boom” of the giant’s feet. The song is still three minutes of random screaming to my ears, but it’s coming across impressively enough (and far less ridiculously than previously!) – and while I can’t justify its second-favourite status with the bookmakers, I can see it doing pretty well on Saturday night.

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NETHERLANDS
The powers-that-be in the press centre have decided not to bother showing us the first 30 seconds or so of each run-through, so we haven’t actually seen how Anouk’s performance begins yet. The whole thing is much as it was on Monday, though, and that was probably to be expected. The moody background – grey and black clouds during the verses, birds flying on a dirty copper-coloured backdrop during the chorus – works well, and there’s some gentle wind machine action that teases Anouk’s hair rather than properly blowing it. Carola she ain’t. In so many ways, really: she just stands there and sings it, wearing a plain, dowdy-looking output – underperforming it, almost. But I think it works – constant eye contact would seem a bit freaky for this one.

Oo, we finally saw the first 30 seconds! Ah yes: she just stands there and sings it. So there you go.

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Another short break, then Danny will take over again for Montenegro onwards!

MONTENEGRO

Danny back again – thanks to Martin for taking care of the last few rehearsals. Things are running pretty much exactly on time which is not surprising as we’re in Sweden, but it’s very much welcoming as it’s already a long day as it is! Montenegro starts with the guys emerging from a cloud of green smoke which looks great, and there’s a nice touch of a slo-motion effect. The astronaut costumes look good but the star of this performance by FAR is Nina Nina Žižić. She’s dressed in what I think is meant to resemble an alien costume and she really performs the life out of the song, rising from a platform underneath the stage as she starts to sing. I was rather dubious about her vocal abilities, but any doubts I have had have been completely shattered by this run through. It’s a strong, solid performance overall. This is a difficult one for me to judge its qualifying chances, this is another borderline qualifier for me. I’ll need to think about this one a bit more and get back to you.

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LITHUANIA
Martin again – we’d forgotten that Belgium and Lithuania swapped on Tuesday! Do you know what, Andrius seems to be getting rougher with every performance, and I mean that in a good way. His hair is more ruffled today, his shoulders are slacker within his leather jacket, and he’s generally sneering and smiling down the camera and coming across far more charismatically than he did before. The problem remains the song, which is pretty duff, but if people want a straightforward, gimmick-free performance of a straightforward, gimmick-free song, then maybe this will turn out to be the male version of Anouk. (Well, you never know!)

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BELARUS

Danny again! Up next is everyone’s favourite song about an ice cream lolly. Or something like that. This is all kinds of cheesy, but it’s light and fun and quite a contrast from the Lithuanian performance. I think Alyona coming out of the disco ball is a really fun touch. Alyona sings well, but it looks as if she’s really trying to concentrate on the performance, she looks a bit, how can I put this, concerned perhaps? It’s quite a tricky routine  to get her head around as well as remember all the words though. The CHA CHA inverted hand movements are FABULOUS, there were quite a few “journalists” doing the move here in the press centre! For the second chorus the backing singers join Alyona and her backing dancers and then there’s some drumming going on. All in all, it’s a very busy performance.

On the second run through there seemed to be a few issues, first with the dancers, at one point they bumped into each other and one of them walked way for a second and shook his head. Then Alyona seemed to have something wrong with her head mic as she was fiddling with it at one point.  Overall, yeah, not bad. I think it needs a bit more work but it looks quite good. Qualifying is definitely within the realms of possibility.

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MOLDOVA

This is one dark horse we have right here. There’s quite a bit happening here on stage with the dancers, the pianist (Pasha’s not there today sadly), the dramatic lighting, Aliona’s dress, and the rising platform but somehow it doesn’t look overcooked – the dancing in particular is very effective, and Aliona is in fine voice.

Apparently Romania were a bit miffed when they learned what the Moldovan performance was going to involve, and so they should be as the Moldovan one looks SO much better on screen. It’s even better than the similar Azerbaijani dress projection thingy. She still doesn’t have her stage hairstyle though – I imagine it takes quite a long time to prepare so I expect the first time we will see it is the jury rehearsal. This is the one song (along with Azerbaijan) that many people were saying had impressed them a lot from the first rehearsals, and this set of run throughs does nothing to change my mind about this. An EASY qualifier in my eyes and if given the right draw, this could give Moldova their best result since Zdob şi Zdub.

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And it’s back over to Martin for the rest of the day!

IRELAND
Another entry that isn’t hugely easy to film, with the drummers starting on the satellite stage with their bodhrans, moving to the back of the stage for the big drums then joining Ryan at the front of the stage, all while the girls do their Gareth Bale heart shapes with their hands and the Neiokõsõ drummer bashes seven shades of you-know-what out of his various pieces of percussion. At least Ryan stays relatively static in the middle of  it all. I think it’s all starting to come together quite nicely for Ireland, actually – my only concerns relate to underlying issues (song structure, some of the high/long notes), but the staging and backdrop are quite effective, and the work they’ve done here in Malmö should satisfy the delegation on the whole.

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CYPRUS
Oh, this is quite nice actually. Rather like the other day, they’re using split-screen effects and slow camera movements to give the song and performance a certain elegance – an elegance that Despina herself also brings to the table, although I can’t quite work out if she’s playing this as the wounded Desperate Housewives divorcee or the cougar who’s still very much in the game. In any case, she gives a measured, simple performance of this measured, simple song. Even the wind machine on the last chorus and the camera pan to a shot of her hand on the final note aren’t enough to take this into (melo)drama territory. So yep. Very nice. Enough for a shock qualification? Who knows? The borderline area of the first semi-final is looking extremely crowded right now!

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BELGIUM
At any ESC, there’s always at least one song that makes an unexpectedly strong impression during its first rehearsal and starts to gain momentum among the gathered fan press – at the risk of being inflated above its actual value. My concern at the moment is that Belgium is falling into that category. There’s definitely a tangible sense of relief that Roberto’s singing it nicely and finding cameras and all (and obviously it’s a good pop song in the first place, which helps) – but it’s worth tempering that by noting that he still comes across as a bit of an awkward customer, and some of the dance moves by the backing girls are frankly baffling. A colleague here has just described them as more like something out of Junior Eurovision, and I know what he means, it’s a bit like watching little girls playing grow-up. All of that having been said, the fact remains that this is a solid song with otherwise effective staging, drawn very late in the semi-final and being sung well. All of which should add up to a reasonably comfortable route to Saturday night. Unless “press centre blindness” really is taking hold…

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SERBIA
Let’s get the most important thing out of the way first: they’re still wearing those outfits. And the point has just been made to me that their make-up is perhaps even worse! It’s still a ridiculous move, if only insofar as the visuals no longer provide any orientation to the non-Serbian-speaking viewer, whereas at least the angel-and-devil routine gave you a hint as to what all the poking and pushing and bitchfaces were about. It’s probably still qualifying and getting the Milan/Nina result, but it’s such a wasted opportunity really. They’re singing fine, anyway, and the camerawork is quite adept at tracking their moves, whatever their moves are actually supposed to mean – so I guess we’ll call that a successful rehearsal from the delegation’s point of view, since they’re the ones who dressed the girls that way in the first place!

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And that’s all from the press centre for today. Thanks for all your support so far this week – keep reading and retweeting, it’s greatly appreciated!