Saturday afternoon rehearsals (part 2)

GREECE
The outfits are a bit surprisingly muted in terms of colour, and do come across as kinda... boring? Why all the black and white? The stage is also quite pale and colourless, up until the last part of the song when it goes kinda peachy.

But apart from the colouring of it, it seems quite effective and basically doing what it should. They're charismatic and energetic and have shaved their upper arms (maybe they can teach Dina a thing or two?).

There doesn't seem to be any reason to believe that this should not do well in this semifinal. Those who are hoping that Greece will fail will surely be disappointed.

One thing I noticed now though, is that it often looks like Agatonas is the lead singer, rather than a feature. Because they film him A LOT, even when both him and the rest of the band are all singing together, then the filming still makes it look like it's Agatonas singing. Making Koza Mostra a bit of his backup band. Not sure that's what they wanted?


ISRAEL
Moran HAS changed a lot about the dress. It's still the same basic design with the white stripes, the big cleavage and the bumpy hips. But they've added a lot of sparkle and rhinestones on it, including a rhinestone strategically placed right in between her boobs. It also has some fluff at the bottom and a white train that's layed out in a circular shape on the floor. And when they film her from behind you see a big white zipper at the back.

Vocally she doesn't seem to have any problems, and the backing singers sing really great as well. (A little disappointed that we won't be getting any Olé Olé moment from the Israeli backings this year).

The colours of the costumes and the stage are once again mostly black and white, but in my opinion it works for this. I'm often of the opinion that colours help people remember entries better, but there's enough visual input to make one's brain remember this song anyway. And a dark stage is quite logical to this kind of song.


ARMENIA
They're really selling the song the best they can, I suppose. The song is always gonna be what it is, love it or hate it. But the singer comes across as quite charismatic and genuine, and the fact that the outfits aren't very flashy and "stage-y" but rather casual, works well with what they're trying to achieve. And there's some smoke and things, but nothing extreme.

He had a bit of a Corinna May-moment and held the last note for waaaay much longer than he should. That's about it.

Take two: I need to make an addition to the above statement about the outfits.

Light brown leather loafer shoes ought to be almost as illegal as CROCS!

That's all.


HUNGARY
The video backdrop that we've already seen as the preview video and a similar positioning of the three people as in the NF. But it works really well on the big stage. Alex of course looking as cute as he always does. Everything comes together to create quite a "cosy" atmosphere. Hard to say if it will grab votes or not, but it does stand out... Especially considering it's all very green and bright colours, after a bunch of songs that were all more or less grey.

HiByeAlex!