Rehearsals1 SF2 (Part 2)

And would you believe it! Day 3 has come upon us and we are back in the press centre to blog about the final acts competing in Semi 2. This is a good feat considering that yours truly was at the Euroclub until quite late last night singing to a bunch of Eurovision greats such as Todas as ruas do amor, Quedaté Conmigo and many more which I don't remember. The Eurocafé which was supposed to be our stop for the night was closed early since it didn't have enough patrons by midnight. Euroclub was not fairing much better with a total of around 10 people on the dance floor when our group of four arrived. Thankfully the upstairs was open for the annual murdering of songs by wannabe starlets. The below picture was taking during a rendition of Hallelujah with Toby Carmel, Assistant Head of Press for the San Marino delegation and DQ of Denmark 2007 fame.

But back to the job at hand, the songs of this morning:

Austria
Simple and effective staging, starting dark and moving to red and orange tones in first chorus. Conchita dressed in her traditional black today but will this change later on? She is on a white podium and has dry ice enveloping the floor of the stage. Vocally totally working - even the high notes at such an early hour. Backdrop seems to play with the idea of Conchita having firey wings. No gimmick to the song, which is a good thing since it doesn't need any. Ask yourself "Would Victoria Beckham do it?" If the answer is no, then don't expect Conchita to! No backing singers to the song - not that they are required and Conchita does a great job standing on spot throughout the song.

Run two and three are quite similar to one, still great vocally and receiving a big applause from the gathered press. We expect her to have a wind machine since the song is clearly needing one but apart from that hurra!

Fierce! 

Lithuania

This was one I was waiting for this morning - not because I have any major feeling about the song but just because the last two years I got 9/10 in the Lithuanian semi final, and Lithuania was always the one who made me miss the perfect score. Not much more enlightened after the first run - the song is messy, the dancing is messy, the vocals are messy - but it's Lithuania so I am not sure I can just say no. Need to see it more times in order to get a better opinion.

Run two took a while to happen but we have it now. Just Vilija and her dancer on stage but they do move around quite a lot on it, using most of the space. First time I see smoke columns coming from the stage this year. There is lots of me saying this won't make it but then my head just doesn't want to commit. I say a definite maybe.

Finland
A hint of the music video here. Much playing with lighting on stage but everything seems to complement the song nicely. Vocals are a bit low but sound good - it is just that the guy in charge of the sound board that needs to find the right mix. The boys seem to be comfortable on stage and even though they don't move around, they own the stage in the camera shots. In general the song is working well and will not find it too hard to go through to Saturday. Could do with a bit of pyro - just because which song could do without!?

One thing I did not notice in the first run (unless it's a new thing) is that the guy playing the piano is facing stage right, while all the others are facing stage front. I guess it's fine, but it does seem he is not connected as much as the others. And the drummer is going mental, bashing his instrument like there's no tomorrow! I guess it's just youthful excitement and he will calm down the more rehearsals he does.

Run three done and it seems that the lead singer is getting a bit tired already - someone should tell him there is quite a lot more of this for him to expect. Not sure if this was the last run or not but not much more to say about the song. Qualifying me thinks.

Smiling is not allowed in Finland. EVER!

Now for a break. Will check the Austrian Meet and Greet later on and then back for the continuation of the Semi 2 hopefuls.