I’m back! Caught a bit of Tamta’s press conference and enjoyed the sun with friends from other websites and a beer before getting back in for the second part of today’s rehearsals!

SLOVENIA
This really does have the NF staging in terms of the camera work and intimacy. They are both in white with a dark starry galaxies backdrop, and as always it is very intimate and shows a great connection between the two. However, not much happens here and without highs and lows in the light or the camera work it is really easy to lose focus quickly as the song just blends with the background and creates a very relaxed atmosphere, which is not a negative thing generally, but probably not very helpful when people are actually supposed to remember this happened. But it’s also the kind of song that really needs to be tested in sequence if we want to see whether it can stand out.

MONTENEGRO
Say hi to the last place in the semi. It’s not that they are not trying, but you know, it’s THAT song, there was really only so much you could do with it, and they are not even doing that. They move around the stage, first in a circle, then to front of the stage and ending with all kind of complicated moves in which they are reaching out. They don’t really know what they are doing so the crew is constantly guiding them on where to walk and where to stop, and the kids do look quite frustrated at this point. The lack of experience is very much showing.

They are all in white, although three of them wear red scarves for no really good reason except they get to alternate and if one is wearing a scarf, the next one isn’t. There’s a nod to Israeli ballad staging there with blue and white and walking forward, but the stage goes into a purple/yellow light and white stripes pattern on the LED columns during the ethnic bits for absolutely no good reason.

Vocally it is surprisingly alright, but while I generally don’t get too worried when delegations obviously still have work to do, there’s nothing that can save this one.

Edit: the next run through made me take that vocals comment back. Sorry about that.

HUNGARY
Oh, hi there, first real wow moment of the day. If Slovenia was the same all the way through, Joci came on stage and showed how a personal, intimate song can be done in a way that tells a story and hits every possible emotional level. The stage is dark and fiery gold, which swirls across the backdrop and the LED floor and keeps changing and driving the song forward. There is a constant camera movement which drags you into the story of the song as it builds and builds and builds. The right combination of gold explosions and the camera pulling back out gives you a moment of awe (magnified by a the pyro wall which was added in the last run through).

I don’t normally like the usage of faces on the backdrop, but the black and white floating faces work so well here and add something both nostalgic and familiar. There’s also no one like Joci when it comes to expressiveness, so it all comes together extremely well.

All photos from eurovision.tv