S1 Dress Rehearsal

Following on the Press Center feed, will try to keep up with what's going on, b/c it's all very fast :-p

 Azerbaijan - she's as flat as a pancake in the verses (nerves?), not the best camera shots but it comes together nicely in the chorus

Iceland - he's sweet and earnest and giving it his all. Nice wides hots shots when the last part comes on

Albania - amazing! Fantastic vocals, great camera work and he's owning every second of it. That little self clap he has going during the song is very effective.

Belgium - ugh..not good at all. Vocally competent but she's not connecting to anything really. Weird camera work for this one.

Czech - wowzies! This is amazing, he's such a pro at this but something's lacking in the post-accident static staging. And the backpack is back. Towards the end he gets more athletic and it comes across fantastically. Best camera work so far.

Lithuania - she's on the floor, looking gorgeous and connecting to the camera. Lots of close ups on her and very little wide shots until she gets up and stats walking on the bridge. Looks beautiful on the screen. As cheesy as the end is with him and her, it so works.

Commercial break before Israel. Green room banter: the crazy lady is talking to the white sofas, small talk with the audience and they have props they share with the artists. The home audience will be pleased they're not seeing this.
Now the two hosts are on the bridge and are promoting the app and hashtag.

Israel - the intro is REALLY weird, not very effective imo.Shit. They stopped her mid rehearsal :-( Starting over.  Netta is a pro, though so she should be fine with it. Starting fresh with postcard.

Israel pt 2 -lots of close ups on her face, much better intro now! Her expressions are so effective and great camera work on them all the time. The dancers are so good, interacting a lot with Netta and more great camera work. Not really hearing the backing vocalists tho. Loads of pyro, crazy lights, bubbles wide shots at the end. This is working! (but not everyone here agrees...)

Belarus - a love song to a rose. Those teeth should be a Disney ride. Little red hearts fluttering on the screen towards the last chorus, and you see a bed of roses in a gushing flesh wound on his back. Hide the kiddies, for a multitude of reasons.

Estonia - no dress till the first "La forza". Vocally perfect and it looks absolutely magical on screen. More effective camera work and the dress does all the work during the boring verses. We may be looking at the winner here imho.

Bulgaria - a lot of beards and manic camera shots, can't really tell them apart. i think they're introducing themselves to each other with these ABBA-esque shots. The Sia is just standing there till they ask her to join in. Comes across a bit amateruristic to me, trying to invent the wheel with the ever changing camera shots. Messy vocals in the last bit, and a big meh in the press center.

FYR Macedonia - god, she's so beautiful! They're making her go over the beginning, so that makes it 4 songs instead of 3. World record! And they've stopped her for a second time, they're pre-recording the beginning for some reason. Oh wait, she's backstage for that part #GotIt
Proper try - lots and lots of circular shots of her with the usual boring blue stage lighting. Nice spiraling lights just before song #2 kicks in. She switched outfits for that part mid song and she's wearing short shorts for the last bit. She's not even bothering with singing the last bit, and it's obv not going to go anywhere but it's fun to watch.

Croatia - disclaimer: this is the first time I'm hearing the full song. Another stunning beauty and she's connecting very well with the camera. It gives me Israel-Rita vibes with her movements with her hand gestures and being alone on stage. Oooo..wind machine too.Very competent delivery over all.

Another commercial break and we're back to the Green Room..."we're here with the Czech Republicans...can I call you Mick? What's inside the backpack?". If you could see the collective eyebrow raise in the PC...

Austria - opens with a reeeeal close up on his lovely face, then the shot goes down to show him on up on the platform. Lots of shots from under him that way, not sure how effective it is (I'm guessing it is). Same outfit as before and when the lights flicker on his pants it looks as if he's happy to see us...I doubt it's intentional and that anyone but me will notice. This is done so well, not sure why people were down on it. The outfit isn't great for sure, but he's such a good performer.

Greece - let's see if the worries were warranted. They stopped her and she's just standing there all alone, I hope none of this nonsense goes on tonight, it must be unsettling for the artists. :-(
Here we go: no blue hand yet (does it show up later?) and lots of wind, very good backing vocals. She looks stunning in that while dress on a dark stage. It seems very static during the second half of the song but lots of smoke on the floor with yellow lights. Now there are lots of pyros and it looks a bit awkward and out of place for a ballad. Still no blue hand. Solid rehearsal all in all but no one other than the Greeks here are applauding this, so make of it as you will.

Finland - nice camera work, showing her spiraling like a Dervish at the first verse. Vocally perfect, and she looks fierce in those knee-high boots. The crystal structure adds absolutely nothing and looks like a cheap Legoland steal. Not enough closeups of Saara during the song but comes together nicely at the end with shooting pyros from the lego thing and ceiling.

Armenia - he's a very somber and serious man, and he lives every emotion of this song on his face. He needs some concealer for the dark circles under his eyes (you don't learn nothing from having an office next to the Mac HQ ). Vocally perfection and the stage goes from blue to red midway, then to white for the crazy last high notes. The backing singers are taking over this too much for my taste but an excellent rehearsal.

Switzerland - loving the Stevie Nicks (spelling?) hat and mic-handkerchief combo. She goes quickly to the bridge, which btw looks really cool on camera as an interesting stage prop. She's now waving one of those emergency flares and it's another cool effect, but overall this isn't going anywhere, at least not in this wonderful lineup.

Ireland - first shots are just on him, and it looks great because he's selling this.  Then it pans out to him, the pianist and lamp post. Now we see the two guys on bridge holding hands (Russians, this is where you look away). His voice is so beautiful, and as we near the end the dancers come on again sitting on the bench while the snow falls. This is magical, and please God let it qualify because it deserves to!

Cyprus - huge applause all over the press center, there's clearly a buzz here before the first note.This is so slick and well done. Every camera shot sells this, it doesn't waste shots on the audience or panorama. The on-screen smoke effects (twice) are great and it matches the red/pink/purple lighting beautifully. We close it with pyros and this performance is everything! Can't be anything but an overall  top 3 in this semi.

Some overall thoughts:
The hosts are a mess, lots of usual screaming and silly banter that no one will volunteer a chuckle at.
Best overall imo were Estonia, Albania, Cyprus, Israel, Czech, Ireland, Austria, Lithuania. Finland also deserve a mention but it wasn't as good as the others above, and same goes for Armenia.
Impossible to predict who will qualify, but there will be several who deserve to and won't. Not sure that can be said about the next semi.

Warning: during intermission they'll be showing a medley of ESC 2017 artists singing Amar pelos dois...even Manel.

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