Day 3 - SRB-AUT-MKD-MLT

MALTA

Most things would have sounded vocally good after Macedonia, Claudia sounds amazing. The strong voice means you almost don't notice it's another woman in white with a blue backdrop.

Another one using images of her self on the backdrop. Including a very off-putting close up of her chest, it looks like she's standing in her own cleavage.

Unlike all the other singers alone on stage, Claudia doesn't look lost.

This feels very much like a potential qualifier. But they need to rethink the backdrop and maybe do something at the end. It just stops.


MACEDONIA

She does, indeed, dance alone.

To quote Paul - "it's okayish". In fairness, that's more than we were expecting.

Vocally she's getting worse each time, but is adequate.

The dance moves are as cheap has hell though. Looks likes she's auditioning for a job at one of the gentelemen's clubs nearby.

You have to hand it to Jana though - giving hope to amateurs everywhere.


AUSTRIA

Very few of this year's singers can work the camera like Nathan. Some excellent close-ups to start this when he is sitting on a crescent moon, with lovely purple storm cloud type backdrop.

After the first chorus he jumps off the moon and moves around a bit being cute and smiley.

Backing singers appear (YAY!) towards the end with Nathan back on the moon and then *gasp* runs on the air!

It's all very cute, maybe too cute? Nathan doesn't look very elegant when he mounts his moon, so need to work a bit on the camera angles.


SERBIA

She's in white and the stage is blue. On her own for a lot of the song, then open-shirted male dancer appears and flounces around.

Awkward moment at the start of the final chorus when Tijana manages to sing without even opening her mouth due to the unseen backing vocals.

This staging is very generic and unexciting, although there are a couple of nice overhead shots with swirling watery images on the floor. Tijana is singing as well as anyone can at 10 in the morning.

Feels like a very long three minutes. She's on her own on the stage for too long and when the dancer arrives he doesn't bring very much. On the positive side, Tijana does comes across as quite likeable/votable (despite some unflattering face contortions).


****
Good morning.

It's day 3 of rehearsals, and we'll get to see the first half of semi two. For the occasion the air conditioning in the press centre has been set to "Austrian mountain".