Day 3 Afternoon - Belarus, Serbia, Ireland

IRELAND

Before the Rehearsal
The question we are asking ourselves is - will he actually be able to sing it this time? It seems that for someone with his status he should be able to but for his promo his was not able to pull it off live.

Rehearsal
And the fear was well-placed. Unfortunately not the greatest vocal performance we heard tonight. Not sure if Nicky is wearing his Thursday outfit but hopefully not. The stage is quite dark with hints of orange and red which are also on Nicky's jacket - which would lead me to believe that the outfit may actually be THE one but hey ho. The camera angles were quite bad so this distracted a lot from the stage performance. We were not  really to sure what we were supposed to be seeing.

Second run - It appears that our sneaky "let us not post until we see the second run to comment something better above" did not work since Ireland is taking it's sweet sweet time to do the second run. We therefore have to come out and admit it.

And obviously as soon as the "update" button is clicked they decide to start. So now we can report that the stage starts in red/orange and then in the second verse moves to blue tones - returning to red for the chorus. The camera shots we are seeing are still extremely messy and they are not sure what they are looking for. For the last chorus Nicky uses the catwalk. His face says it all however - not good.

Third run - The initial shot is of a red beam directly above Nicky which works well (something positive)! On stage we also have a drummer, a guitarist and a keyboard player. With the competition in this semifinal it will be hard to see this again on Saturday. Question is, will Nicky fly back in order to continue the tradition of points-giving for the Irish Republic? The odds of him being needed in the actual show are not in his favour.


SERBIA

Before the Rehearsal
Myself and J just noticed that we both didn't write any 'Before' for Serbia. Oops.

Rehearsal
Light columns welcome you to the stage. Sanja is centre-staged, bathed in white light while around her, her four female backing dancers are lit in red. After the first chorus, a male dancer comes on stage and brings the message that she doesn't want him there. The harmonies are very in tune - although the staging is becoming a bit too Molitva. Today this has been the second show that commanded attention (and therefore less comments). You want to watch this. It makes you gravitate towards it. It is an easy qualifier and we all know it. Big applause in the room.

Second run - Again, amazing performance! Would not be surprised if this started climbing today.

Third run - Unfortunately I cannot really write much else on this. The team has clearly worked a lot on this, they have read and listened to reviews online and have come to Stockholm with a slick, professional entry. If only other countries were as diligent in listening to what people were saying,


BELARUS

Before the Rehearsal
The question will finally be answered shortly. (Voice a-la Ingvild Bryn, 1996) Will there be wolves on the Eurovision stage this year? Although you can never tell with Eurovision, we do believe that the likely answer will be "No". Hopefully nakedness is not part of the show. Let us wait and see.

Rehearsal
Oh dear lord Jesus. Well, here are wolves and nakedness - however digital. No one needs to be seeing that really. Ivan is dressed all in beige. The iconic three face lines are still there. There are three digital wolves, left, right and center. They seem to not be in sync on purpose (alpha, beta etc) but this just looks wrong. And it is not the only thing that is wrong with this. There is a hologram box which is being used but the holograms are quite distracting if not simply weird. We end with some random baby with Ivan's face lines. Very weird. Vocally Ivan is challenged - but we knew this. The studio version has been worked on a lot in order to make it to a point pleasantly audible.

Second run - Noticed: The three wolves in the hologram box end up becoming dust which then turns into a drummer... and other musicians later on. Still messy. Still vocally challenged. End.

Third run - "Leave all the madness behind, far behind". Couldn't have said it better myself. We managed to find one good shot - the stage floor is made of ice which starts breaking and obvi Ivan is standing on the one piece which can fly. Very nice, but probably not enough.