Good morning from the press center! We have an exciting day ahead with nine countries and some big names ahead. We only have a morning and an afternoon session, as the day will wrap earlier to observe the beginning of Memorial Day tonight.

Croatia
I just made my desk partners laugh as I started making crying noises out loud, which means at least someone enjoyed something about this. Going with the notion of supersizing everything, we now have additional angels on stage with golden wings, as well as LED floor wings which Roko shows off as the song starts and actual wings for the last section.

The stage for this looks amazing, with all the fire and skies and clouds that change throughout the song, and Roko is in good voice, but the problem still remains the song.

Malta
Malta was the perfect example of the mechanism of first rehearsals. They have a pretty complex setup which essentially includes a room (walls and all, but no ceiling) set up in the middle of the stage, and lots of intricate choreography and exact camera work. To make things even more complicated, Michela’s in-ear monitor didn’t work well in the first run through and she was painfully offkey for about half of it. Add in her age and general first run-through nervousness and it ended with me just needing to see it again.

But that’s why we have rehearsals. Things just improved massively between run throughs. She was still a bit stiff through most of the second run, but it was a joyful and creative display, using smart wall projection tricks without overdoing it, as well as colorful backgrounds which were bright but not too much. The choreography specifically is delightful and very tongue-in-cheek. While for the most part you only see their prop (à la Sweden last year), the shots open up to show the stage and the hall in the last section, which matches the structure of the song and adds development to the staging.

By the third run through Michela was way more relaxed and looked like she was having fun, and it was working as a package.

Unlike Belarus, they managed to make the staging fitting for the singer’s age and are cleverly aiming at the younger audience, while at the same time still very much targeting the jury vote as well. Visually, it has a unique character which suits the song and sets it apart from other uptempo songs like Switzerland and Cyprus, which are slick but more clinical and generic visually.

Lithuania
I actually forgot to blog this initially, which tells you all you need to know about this. The staging is essentially the same one as in the national final, which considering how impressive and versatile the stage is and how good the camerawork is, should tell you something about the amount of effort the Lithuanians have put into this. Zero.

Basically, the only people who will vote for this are the ones who will vote for the Lithuanian flag. No one else will ever have an idea this existed.

Russia
The problem with Russia (and Sergey) is that if you are in the press center, it’s impossible to come into this without a whole bucket of expectations, so it was always going to be divisive. I’ve never been a fan of his previous entry, and it was to my surprise that I did like the song, but while I was curious about the staging was also cautious about my expectations as Russia was never one for subtlety.

But this was as subtle as they can be, as subtle as you can be while using lots of props and effects. It’s very dark with a lot of focus on Sergey. While the gimmicks are very impressive they are used sparingly, to highlight certain peak moments of the song. So if you’re waiting for constant exciting thunder and lightning all the way through, you’d be disappointed (despite actually using a lightning backdrop at some point).

For what it’s worth, though, the ones who are disappointed seem to have had it as a possible winner but now look at this as a top five entry, while I always had Russia as a lower top 10 with this song and I now have it in the top five as well. And of course the audience will not come into it with the same degree of expectations we have, so there’s that.

Albania
One day Albania will actually find out that it’s possible to use things that are not black, red or eagles in your staging. Or, you know, effects, camerawork, anything. They have been slightly adventurous by using the giant 4 triangles in a very distinctively different position than anyone else (and it’s actually using yellow light), but that overall setup of the stage, with the dark background and Jonida just standing in the middle wearing a black and gold long ethnic dress, make it look like an entry from the early 90s. The poorly rendered eagle that is randomly flying into the screen is not helping matters.

While she sings this well and with passion, the staging does nothing in telling us what this is about and why we should care.

All images from eurovision.tv