And I’m back for the next five songs! Much like me, the press feed had a hard time getting motivated to start again after the sunny break – those sun chairs outside are equally genius and evil – but thankfully the weather is nice so the quick jog to the arena was enough for me to catch the last run of…

Czech Republic
This was exactly as it was in the first run throughs – which basically means colorful, playful and fronted by an extremely likable and charismatic lead. Nothing new to report here.

Hungary
Keeping in line with what we expect from most second run throughs, Hungary is pretty much as it always was minus one shot that we really liked, but as I said about Cyprus: if you never knew it was there, you can’t miss it. Otherwise, Joci is as impressive as always and has the uncanny ability to transmit an insane amount of emotion without ever trying too hard or overdoing it. At this point I’m going to stick to my initial “this can reach the same result range as Origo” prediction.

Belarus

Impressively enough, it’s not even the same ugly stage from the first run through, which takes even more talent! Other than that, it’s pretty pointless despite her being pretty good, especially for that age.

Serbia
Serbia is vocally perfect, but the team and crew was still struggling to properly time the on-screen swirling snow effect in the first run through. They got it right the second time around and Elsa was back in business. Then, of course, I jinxed it and the effect didn’t work correctly at some point in the third run through – but honestly, if that’s your only concern, you’re doing just fine.

Belgium
As is usually the case for countries that were a bit behind the curve in the first run throughs, things came together a little better today. Eliot and the drummers looked a lot more at ease, which made a big difference, and the blocking of the song with sections of movements in different rhythms works well in developing a story arc. I only wish the stage colors were a little brighter and used more to highlight the different blocks.