10:59 (Felix)

Good morning from sunny Malmö!

Whereas last week was quite exhausting, with a lot of stuff to work on, the final week has arrived – and we all know that it’s the more relaxed one during the day, and the more party-loaded one in the nights!

Speaking of which:

Last night had the Welcome Party in Euroclub, and I’ll get to that one again further below. Before though, esc-chat.com had the chance to be right at the fence of the red carpet, where all artists except Anouk walked over, to attend the Opening Ceremony in the Opera house.

The event was televised, and very well thought out, and to the ones I can compare it to, it was the best. The press was collected on the right side of the fence, and also people with F accreditation could get close to the red carpet, on the left side of it. The first people on the red carpet were producer Christer Björkman, host Petra Mede and last year’s winner Loreen. After them, around 18:30, the first delegation arrived: Azerbaijan, which came before Albania, because it had a special role as last year’s host. Around 20:30 finally, Italy was the last delegation to walk over the red carpet, and you can tell there were a) some exceptions from the alphabetic order, and b) some delegations being a lot quicker (Hungary, Bulgaria), and others being a lot more willing to pose for photos and videos (Finland).

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All in all it was a fun event, but very chilly towards the end, as the sun was hiding behind clouds. That’s the thing with the weather in Malmö, as soon as the sun is out it’s warm – and other way round. See all photos in our red carpet gallery!

Later we have been to the Welcome Party in Euroclub, which was indeed the busiest ESC party I have ever been to. I haven’t ever seen that many Eurovision artists, not only from this season, (re-)united with the accredited press and fans in one room. We from esc-chat.com and our friends and colleagues from fellow websites had a decent buffet and at least 1 free drink, which we enjoyed indeed. More photos of that will follow later, because the stress returns to Malmö, as I now have to get dressed up appropriately for the reception of the German Ambassador.

Danny (15.45)

Good afternoon from me! I’m here in the press centre ready to cover the first dress rehearsal of the first semi final which begins in an hour or so – but more about that later!

Yesterday was quite a hectic day – not only did we get the first rehearsals of the Big 5 plus Sweden, it was the Official Opening Party which was held in the Opera House. Unlike previous years, press were not allowed into the venue this year but there was also an event in EuroClub where accredited people could watch it on a cinema screen, and there was free food and one drink – though we soon learned that if you went out the side entrance and went back through the main entrance they gave you another free ticket – so we took advantage of that!

We had another set of live performances hosted by Marie Serneholt, and we had the Schlagerfeber cover band again, followed by David Lindgren, Magnus Carlsson and Robin Stjernberg, the venue was packed and the atmosphere was great – the Swedes sure know how to put on a party! I had a lovely chat with Alex Panayi, the Cypriot representative from 1995 and 2000 and we chatted about his experiences at Eurovision. This year he is helping out with the stage perfomances of Azerbaijan and Belarus! I was one of the last to leave as it closed at 4am! Hardcore!

Martin (19:30)
I wasn’t quite as hardcore as Danny last night, but between a slowly developing cold (there’s no Eurovision fortnight without one!) and wanting to go to the arena for the first dress rehearsal of semi-final 1, it’s only now that I’m finally having my first coffee of the day (!) and catching up on yesterday’s events.

As expected, tons of this year’s artists came from the Opera House to Slagthuset for the “Opening Party Afterparty”, if one can call it that. Farid from Azerbaijan seemed to be having his photo taken with just about everybody, the guitarist from Takasa was in similar demand, the Armenian boys were very drunk (but very charming with it), and there were even some past participants in attendance – Glen Vella and Ott Lepland mingled among the masses, the former doing a lovely turn on the dancefloor with an old lady in a wheelchair.

Meanwhile, our editor Felix got his photo taken with one of his musical heroes, Bledar Sejko from Albania. Good times!

The food at the party was excellent, although essentially exactly the same as at the Belarusian event the previous evening. Still, it’s hard to tire of salmon, chicken and gremolata!

Felix (19:58)

Danny already wrote about all kind of artists who attended the Welcome Party, now let the pictures speak for themselves – here are already 2, more are included in our party gallery!

by the way, this day wasn’t sunny at all.

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