The auto-refresh function is now deactivated, the post resorted into chronological order.

INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone! I am here in the arena ready to blog the first dress rehearsal of the second semi final! Let’s see what today has in store for us! I was in the arena for the show last night and I was shown on screen after the Azeri song! Famous at last! The arena is amazing from inside, and I’m trying to get tickets for the semi tomorrow, to see if I can get on screen again!

We’re due to start at 1500 CET so stay tuned for all the action!

AND WE’RE OFF

We start on schedule at 1500 and we get a recap of yesterday’s show! Then it goes in to a video of a little girl in a car going through Copenhagen – we see one of the yellow buses and the streets have the light boxes from the stage. Then we arrive in the arena with a man in a white box playing the violin. There are also two dancers and then three people come and lift the boxes up, and then we have a bunch of dancers doing a routine dressed in black and white, and the two dancers who were in the box then do their own routine with a backdrop of a tree behind them, and they are then joined by the other dancers to end the routine.

The hosts then are introduced, all wearing simple black outfits. They introduce the show and also introduce Australia and tell us that Australia is now part of the show – we get a shot of people cooking food on a BBQ with a sign saying “Cheers Mate!” We get the caption with the list of all the songs competing and tell us the voting rules. They tell us we cannot vote until the songs are all over and then discuss the postcards. After this, we start with the songs!

MALTA

The Maltese postcard sees the band on a beach and they make the Maltese flag from fireworks! The band are all standing in a line as before. Great performance from Firelight and a nice start to the show. Michelle for me, is still the stand out in the band. I think this has an excellent chance of qualifying and I have a feeling we will be seeing them again on Saturday evening! Nice little applause from the press centre!

ISRAEL

Mei makes the flag from some fabric as she stands in the Dead Sea which makes the white part of the flag. Vocally, she is as usual, on point and the dancing part works really well on screen, and gets an applause from the press centre! They’ve kept the crouch rather than lying down which I think is a good choice. I would love this to qualify but after Estonia failing yesterday I am a little worried. Good applause from the press centre, there are a lot of Israelis here!

NORWAY

The postcard sees Carl in a studio making a box on which he paints the Norwegian flag before taking a photo. The performance is understated as before and is a good contrast after Israel. I don’t think he is at his best vocally but I think this is qualifying with ease but not sure it has enough to go that extra mile to win the whole thing. Again, a nice applause from the press centre.

GEORGIA

The Georgians make their flag in their postcard by placing glasses of red wine on the floor before taking the photo. We still have the man with the parachute, not much else has changed in the performance. It looks like a bunch of random people on stage and I really cannot see anyone voting for this, but then, Eurovision has surprised us in the past, just ask Valentina Monetta! I do think it’s a non-qualifier though, and there’s only a smattering of applause from the press centre.

POLAND

Cleo and Donatan are in the recording studio for their postcard and their flag is made of the sound waves that Cleo sings! There seems to be even more shots of the girls on the side of the stage with their buckets of water which they get the water from the side of the stage! It’s a good performance from Cleo and her girls and this is going to be remembered by people and therefore I think it’s going to make it to Saturday. A small applause from the press centre too!

BREAK

The first break is up next and Nikolaj tells us that the Polish performance came from the bottom of the girls’ – hearts! The Eurovision Records segment is up next and they mention how often hand clapping is used in Eurovision. We have the award of Most Hand Clapping which is won by Austria 1976 with 157 hand claps! After this, Lise and Pilou are on stage and walk down the catwalk telling us there’s nothing like 11,ooo people celebrating the show in the arena and thank the fans for “Coming Out”! They then introduce Austria!

AUSTRIA

Conchita has a line of red and white dresses from which she makes the Austrian flag for her postcard – very nice! Conchita is in her full outfit for this performance and it looks good with the gold lights falling down around her. Vocally, she is fine but makes a couple of mistakes but she gives us some attitude on stage.  By rights, Austria definitely deserve a spot in the final, but the question is will the East go for a man in a dress with a beard? I really hope so! Biggest applause so far from the press centre!

LITHUANIA

Vilija is up next and is standing in a square for her postcard and has a bunch of people with yellow, green and red umbrellas to make the flag. She is still wearing the black tutu but her hair is down today, but that is all that has changed from the performance. I had this down as a qualifier, but now I am not so sure at all. I just think it’s a bit too messy and despite having the UK and Ireland voting in this semi, who historically give Lithuania good points, I think it’s not going to be enough. Small applause from the press centre for this.

FINLAND

Softengine are standing on a sheet of ice on a boat in their postcard from which they make the Finnish flag. Performance wise, this is much the same as before, decent enough and the spotlights in this are great and look good on the screen and I see this as a qualifier as it currently stands, so I think that Scandinavia will have a full set in the final this year!

IRELAND

Kasey and two friends who I think are the backing singers make the Irish flag from some coloured balloons, one of the gold ones is in the white section before Kasey gets a ladder to fix it. Nice, fun, postcard! She is still in the same dress which I think doesn’t do her justice. Vocally she sounds a little strained but passable but I still think she is a bit detached from the camera. Ireland have had a good little run of qualifying and I think that this year they are in serious danger of breaking that.

BELARUS

Teo is on an ice hockey rink for his postcard and makes the flag from some coloured ice hockey pucks. The guys are all wearing simple black suits and perform the song well. I think this has moved from a potential non-qualifier to one we will be seeing again on Saturday now, not sure why, but I just have a feeling, but then this is such an open semifinal that pretty much anyone could make it. The press centre aren’t impressed though – no applause at all!

MACEDONIA

Tijana is in a studio playing a cello and hooks it up to a sound machine and the vibration makes the Macedonian flag for her video. She is wearing the same black suit with white piping and it is an ok performance from the Macedonian team, but they have been better. I’m still unsure of their qualifying chances though, I think the song gets a bit lost in this line up. One I would like to see qualifying but at the moment I think it’s more of a no for me.

SWITZERLAND

SEBalter makes his postcard from a bunch of red dominos which he sets off and they magically make the swiss flag! The press centre like this one too! A good little performance from the Swiss team today with no changes from before, it still starts with him on the main stage before moving down the catwalk towards the end and while it’s not one of my favourites, I think this is a qualifier. Not much of a reaction from the press centre though, who seem a bit blasé about this one.

BREAK

Lise is back on stage and gives the official Eurovision app a quick promo and shows us the trophy before we get another Eurovision Records video with Most Licks which god to Johnny Logan who apparently licked his lips 29 times in 1987! Oh wait, no, 30 times! The boys are back on the small stage and introduce Greece!

GREECE

The Greeks are on a boat and then on a beach and they make the flag out of a piece of blue fabric and some white seashells, there’s a small mistake as the postcard then cuts to the arena for a second. Oops! I think this isn’t their best performance as Nikolaos sounds a little bit off key in parts but I have to admit that it looks good on screen. He needs to improve drastically though but I still think it’s a guaranteed qualifier. Interestingly, not a single bit of applause from the press centre!

SLOVENIA

Tinkara is in a library and makes the Slovenian flag from a bunch of white blue and red books for her postcard! She is still wearing her indigo dress and it seems they have finally decided to have her using the microphone stand and she takes the microphone in her hand towards the end of the song. I think this is one of the better performances we have had from Tinkara but this is the one I am most unsure about for it’s qualifying chances. No applause from the press centre, they have definitely given up!

ROMANIA

There’s then a bit of a pause as we get a shot of the stage instead of the Romanian postcard and then the song starts – however there seems to be an issue with the backing track, which we can hear but there’s no singing. We also get the Paula hologram and Ovi is on stage but then the screen goes blank! Let’s hope this doesn’t happen tomorrow evening! A rather long gap now, we still haven’t had the Romanian song!

Finally we get the postcard where Paula and Ovi set off some fireworks before Paula takes a photo of the lights reflecting off the river. The song starts and Ovi misses the first line! Oh no! But then he gets it back on track. No changes here from the second run through, we still have the hologram and the circular keyboard which Ovi stands inside. The shots of Paula singing her high note have changed a bit and it looks more flattering. Big applause from the arena but the press centre is rather more reserved.

BREAK 

Lise is back and tells us about supporting the show on social media using some hashtags, and then the boys give us a recap of how to vote before showing us the “artists” in the green room which again is made up of volunteers looking excited! The snabberepris is up next, pretty much all of them choose a good bit of their song, except Georgia, which doesn’t haves a good bit! Sorry Felix! Austria and Israel both choose the key change moment!

So who do I think is qualifying? It’s tough, but I think it’s easier to choose the non-qualifiers, which I think are Georgia, Lithuania, Ireland, Macedonia and Slovenia, though you never know with Lithuania. This means my qualifiers are: Malta, Israel, Norway, Poland, Austria, Finland, Belarus, Switzerland, Greece and Romania!

INTERVAL ACT

Lise then introduces the first ever Australian entry, we get a video of some Aussies saying they love Eurovision but Jon Ola Sand says in the video that Australia cannot take part because Australia is not in Europe, so they decide to pick up Australia and move it to Europe! We then get a dance troupe singing a song about Australia and then Jessica Mauboy gets an introduction and takes to the Eurovision stage! Welcome Australia! Jessica is wearing a silver dress with a long train and there’s wind machines too! Not sure what the song is called – perhaps “Sea of Light” but it’s really good, and is better than a lot of the competing songs this year and there are images of all the competing nations on the wall behind her. She then walks down the catwalk before going back to the stage! After this there’s a little weird moment with Lise standing on stage with a video behind her, but not quite sure what that’s all about! The boys are back and introduce the second recap of songs which again is shorter and has a little clip of the artists as they walk off the stage!

After the recap, the boys are back on stage telling us that there are only five minutes left to vote and also tell us about the Eurovision tagline this year #Join Us, and there are 26 dancers who have been invited to perform on the Eurovision stage, which are a bunch of people body popping away, each of them gets their moment in the spotlight! We even have an old granny doing the splits! Only at Eurovision!

RESULTS TIME

The boys come back on stage and tell us the voting lines are about to close – and give us the five second countdown before telling us “Europe, Stop Voting Now!” Lise is then in the green room with the “artists” speaking to Lithuania, talking about Greece and chatting to “Tijana” from Macedonia, and then a chat with the Finnish boys.

The Eurovision Book of records is up next with the Longest Note – didn’t we have this yesterday? It was definitely in the rehearsal but I guess they switched it round, though I didn’t notice. Just as this finishes we have a complete downpour outside as the heavens open! Lise is back chatting to “Kasey” from Ireland and she gives “Cleo” the phone number of one of the Greek guys! Lise mentions the Eurovision Matchmaker and says that she is matched with Conchita Wurst and has a gossip with her talking about them going on a night out together!

Nikolaj is back on stage and introduces the Pre Qualified Finalists again with the same video as in the first semi final. Lise then talks with Jon Ola Sand and he tells us the results are ready! The boys then tell us that they are about to announce the results! The fake qualifiers are Ireland, Macedonia, Greece, Austria, Romania, Norway, Lithuania, Malta, Poland and Finland! Don’t think these will be the actual results though! We get a recap of all 10 qualifiers and the video fails during Romania again, they seem to be jinxed! The recap starts agin on Greece but says Romania on screen! The winners join the hosts on stage as the show ends and the hosts tell us they will se us on Saturday!

Overall, another decent show, I think the interval act is stronger than the first semi final and the hosts have really settled in, so I think you’re in for a treat tomorrow evening! Thanks for following the liveblog and we will be back on Friday to cover the first dress rehearsal of the FINAL! It’s almost upon us!