Rehearsal 2 - Finalists (Italy & Spain)

Italy

First run - big reaction here for the outfit. Gleaming white cape and a gold/white sequenced dress with a stage floor in matching color. As a bonus she's wearing a Caeser style tiara with leaves covered in gold sequences. Epic! Never mind that the song goes nowhere and she's breathless when she moves , it's a fun show to watch.

Second run - she's now holding her throat as if forcing the vocal chords to play ball. The gold white Roman style floor design is gorgeous! Yes, very shallow of me to notice but there's a ton of cellulite peeking from her very short skirt, which keeps getting scrunched up due to her constant manic dance moves.

Spain 

First run - just Ruth on stage in a beautiful flowing diamond gown with strange cut out black tape around the breasts, which looks like the formation of eyes when it pans out - weird. The high notes are shreaky and it doesn't seem to be coming together as I hoped since I love this song. Let's hope the next run improves on this.

Second run - different camera angles, much better! They're also playing filter games to create some kind of effect I'm not clear about. Ruth's vocals are spot on and stunning! The camera pans out when she starts belting out the big notes which of course creates a great effect. Ruth is covered by a halo of light throughout the last part, some very effective staging here. I hope this is what they go for on Saturday.

Third run - they reverted back to the first run camera effects. It still looks great, but much less "oomph" imho. Girl has some wicked neck veins popping during those high notes. Great rehearsal.

And that's a wrap for today's rehearsals. Apologies for crunching these into 3 posts - due to some Russian virus on the press center laptop that defaults me all the time to Russian sites, I'm forced to use a backup iPad and it restricts the length of text I can utilize. Next blog is the Semi 2 run-through mañana.