First rehearsal: Italy and France

France

Pre-opinion: I got hooked on the snippet, the last times it happened were with Molitva and Heroes. This is as promising as it gets when it comes to winning chances, but there's still plenty of ways this can go wrong (including the stale NF staging).

First run-through: Black stage, black tight suits, red guitar, red shoes (that only reveal when the dry ice fades). I think it's a different backing track to what we've heard so far. For the Mercy Mercy bit the stage turns red and they go to the catwalk and do the hand thing, picturing this with an audience that does the same this could work really well.

Second run without fog. A much better staging than the NF, Madame actually looks at the camera for a start. Not sure it's enough to win this, but I'm hopeful.

I've had enough of black and red though. Seriously.

Last run through, this time the fog is back and blue light is projected on it (the sea?). Hurrah, another colour. They may win now.


Italy

Pre-opinion: This is one of the more powerful songs, keeping in mind that the magic from Sanremo can easily be lost with the wrong staging.

First run: We have lyrics on screen. Lots of them, in translation (but in more colours and overlaying than the preview video - some letters are made of images). Very very red stage.

Second run: They each walk a different bridge (during the "col sorriso di un bambino" bit) and meet for the ending in the middle of the catwalk. They're both great performers (as we knew) but the lyrics keep distracting me (which language is this? And this? And this? Was that Danish or Norwegian? Arabic or Persian? Hey I know this one, it's my language. Oh, Ermal is going waaaaaaahhh)