Day 5 - 2nd Run Through : POL / MDA / ISL / CZE / CYP

CYPRUS
There is only one question we have - will he be able to keep his balance this time? Did he practice at all?

The answer is yes! And he actually walks on the lines which he did not do before either. He seems to be more confident in himself and the camera angles are helping him in the sections which could go terribly wrong. All in all it seems like the delegation really looked at the footage and possibly even the comments and have worked on it. Hovig stumbles a little bit on the last chorus but if that is the only one it's a lot better than the first rehearsal where he could not hold himself at all.

2nd run - In the instrumental bridge just before the second chorus Hovig gets tossed around from side to side by the backing dancers. Quite a decent effect! Also visually appealing is when Hovig is on the ground in the last chorus. It does give you a bit of a Sergey-inspired vibe but if it works why not? Comments have been made that this should be the reprise take.

3rd run - The sound in the press room (at least where we are sitting) is really bad and the audio cuts constantly. Performance is getting better and Hovig is looking more and more confident. Don't discount this me thinks!

And there we have it. End of day, now off to go and grab food, and drink (plenty of drink) and back to do it all tomorrow! Hurrah!


CZECH REPUBLIC

Martina is wearing the same outfit she did in the first rehearsal. We though (read: hoped) that it was just a joke and her real dress will be revealed later on, it seems we were wrong. Staging (purple and gold) - meh, song - meh, vocals - meh/good, qualifying - no. That is all.

2nd run - If you thought I was going to be able to come up with anything brilliantly funny or informative, you were wrong.

We thought we were getting another go at this song since the first run through was stopped but it seems we are not. Oh well, bye Felicia!

Oops, we were fooled! FOOLED I TELL YA!

3rd run - Ooh! Actually they changed a few camera angles in the first part and it works a bit better. Don't worry, it's still not qualifying but it's working better. We also have the backing singers of Hey Mama (Moldova) singing their chorus in the press rehearsal which is completely drowning out what we are seeing on screen. Now it is over. For real this time.


ICELAND

Jeezus christ I stand corrected. Iceland this year beats Poland in the tits department. Wearing white latex, Svala's figure-hugging attire leaves not much to the imagination. Her huge platforms would also put Dihaj to shame. She also shows Tamara from Georgia how to work a cape.

Svala sounded a lot better than she did in the first rehearsal but it is still a bit 'out there'. Coming after Moldova doesn't help her either. The performance in itself needs a bit of interpretation - which I am not really getting - and cannot really put my finger on it.

2nd run - Better camera shot at the beginning of the song, me likey! When Svala sings about the paper cutting 'right through' she uses hand genstures in her cleavage. Yes dear, give the audience what it wants! Another decent vocal rendition - quite likely going through to Saturday me thinks.

3rd run - Much the same as the other two. One thing that I've been noticing however today is that there are so many acts which seem to just have the single artist on stage and they look SO tiny on it. Svala at least seems to avoid most (not all) of these shots however you can still tell.


MOLDOVA

Flawless! Absolutely flawless! The three backing singers have all become brides now that the switch between black short skirt to white long worked for all three of them. The song has energy, fun, and connects well with the audience. The choreography is down to a tee, the backdrop works extremely well with the song and the guys make you want more. There is absolutely no way that this will not be in the top 10 come Tuesday.

2nd run  - Another great performance however one of the backing singers' changes didn't work. Also, this time they throw their bouquet's in the audience - I hope they have spares since they know they ain't getting those things back, unless they buy them off ebay where they undoubtedly will end up.

3rd run  - Yet again, great performance. The skirt change worked for all three again *good times* however the bouquet throwing techniques have deteriorated at a phenomenal rate. Only one managed to actually throw off stage, the other two just, well, had a bit of a girly throw which fell short of the audience. Now, cue hungry aggressive fans trying to grab that bitch of a bouquet at all costs!


POLAND

It exists. That is as excited as I can get about this song. Poland seems to go for the 'when in doubt, show tits and legs' method. Vocally Kasia is fine, but the backdrop of that stage just does not make any sense what-so-ever. Then again, when did that ever trouble the Eurovision gods?

2nd run  - Trying to pay a bit more attention to what is going on. In fairness, until the random animals and the pointless "FREEDOM" appear in the backdrop the song does pretty good. The entry didn't need any silly gimmicks (or whatever one might call them) to get noticed. One thing that does get noticed however in this run is that Kasia is not standing where she should be when the doves start flying out from behind her, she is too much to the right (facing the stage). She will need to work on this.

3rd run  - Well, she found her spot again this time. Vocally quite adequate but not filling the room with energy. Would still be on the fence with this one when it comes to qualification or not.