FINAL - FIRST DRESS REHEARSAL (Part II)

GREECE
Professional, working all it has. We're not going to Thessaloniki which is a good thing for Greece and NERIT but she's giving it all she has and nailing it.

MONTENEGRO
I find it extremely hard as you know to write anything about this. It works. It's balkan. It passed to the final. It will end up probably bottom left or top right of the table. Everyone will go home and continue their life.

GERMANY
And of course, one more postcard I miss due to not paying attention. Oh well, surprise for tomorrow.

Ann Sophie has a new earring on her left. It's one of those songs which is good for radio but don't think it's doing too much on stage. Don't see it lighting up with points tomorrow night.

POLAND
Well, Poland was my missed country from last night's qualifyers - I obviouly put Malta instead.
 

No idea, it seems to be loved by many a person and I like it too - it was my 11th choice - but although a good song sung well, I don't see it setting the stage alight.

LATVIA
Now this is another story. I am extatic for Aminata and Latvia as a whole. It shows that if you don't give up and you try your best you will get results. Could this be a dark horse? Top 10 likely? Further up?

ROMANIA
And the kid is still there, not yet retuned to Romania. The song is performed well and Călin is charismatic with the camera. Should get mid tables.

SPAIN
Edurne goes sledging with huskies. Again, the huskies must have thanked their stars that this petite artiste was chosen for them.

Amazing! Trick of light so you don't see the first cape being ripped off ... well, you kinda do due to not great timing, but still great effect. Best performance we've seen from Spain to now. Things are working a lot better, camera angles, lighting ... should see this going up the rankings. Don't bet on a win or top 3 though.

HUNGARY
Boogying to Boggie was amazing during SF1. Solid performance again now. Came to be expected now though.

GEORGIA
Without all the make up Nina looks fresh and young. Doesn't help the effect she's trying to go for but she'll be all dolled up later on tonight and tomorrow no doubt.

Great vocals and attitude. It's a great follower to Hungary - brings back the energy to the arena and viewers. Left side of the board for sure.

AZERBAIJAN
Vocally competent but it's a repeat of what we've seen over the past few days. Last year we saw Azerbaijan does not need to be on the left. I think this will be high right.

RUSSIA
Only 8th in the Press Centre voting, Polina is nailing it. This is most likely her contest to lose.
There will be many comments whatever happens on the night, Russia win, look for the media mentioning Russia's rights and equality records, Russia lose, look at the Russian and spere media reporting on how Europe is playing a game which they will end up losing... who said there was no drama at Eurovision?

ALBANIA
Wearing a different black sparkly ensemble for the rehearsal, Elhaida looked to me in the beginning as if she had her bra straps showing - this is not the case, it's the netting of the dress.

Another good performance but not much twitching in the press centre sphere and the arena is not to be judged since they seem to be applauding and cheeing at everything.

ITALY
Another missed post card - talking about which delegations have already gone home and which not.



To be honest, coming after Russia and Albania just makes this lose it's potential. It seems like it's just *there*. Still will get to the top parts of the board but winner - maybe not so sure.

BREAK
Conchita talks to us and then the three other hosts are on stage to open the voting.

RECAP

INTERVAL ACT
A bunch of drums, and drummers for said drums, on stage. Ooh, and trumbones, and trumpets, and many other instruments.

There is a lot of commotion due to a certain angry Italian close to where I am sitting so I am missing some bits. It seems that the acts will be forming hearts. This is very weird. Have no clue what is going on. That is why the commentators have the notes from the broadcaster. There is a massive rainbow though.

Riverdance it is not. Emmelie de Forest it is not. Petra Mede it is not. This is about as memorable as the one from Belgrade. You know, the one with ... hmm... emm... yes, that one.

RECAP 2

Recap over, we have 60 seconds left to vote.

Countdown for the last 10 seconds.

Conchita sings You are Unstoppable. And continues with Firestorm.

We then speak to Conchita and later to Vincenzo who won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest for Italy back in November 2014. We see a clip of his performance and continue talking to him.

Arabella mentions Jan Ola Sand. "Hurry up Jan Ola! I'm coming!" she state! Hmm... be afraid!

And another issue. Seems like something was missed. Conchita runs back on stage to meet Alice and Mirjam who were there with the trophy.

Lots of commotion happening around me at the moment. I think Lys is here for interviews but can't see her - poor thing, she's such an old lady.

We then go through clips of winners past.

Arabella back in view. We see Jan Ola again and there is some awkward chat between the two. "This is where I say we have a result" explains Jan Ola. Ooh!

We're on the voting. For the rehearsals it's always in alphabetical order and usually the 12 get given to the next country in line. We should be going to our second voter, Armenia which just got 12 from Albania, but instead we have confusion and uncertainty.

When we call a country, we see a line, a Chain of Light if you will, from Vienna to the capital of the country which is voting. Apart from Vienna itself where thre is a big red light.

This will take a while so grabbing food.

OK, so food eaten but after 20 votes we seem to have stopped. Latvia was in the lead with Italy and Israel completing the top 3. There was a leaderboard showing you the full ranking at that point so no need to frantically count down to find out where our favourite is.

It seems that this is the end of the rehearsal. Which means we can pack up and get ready for the last night before our most sacred of nights is upon us again, and we find out where we will be flying, training or bussing to next year!

FINAL - FIRST DRESS REHEARSAL (Part I)

We've got 10 minutes before the first dress rehearsal for the final starts. Excitement aplenty!

Te Deum was playing in the background. We didn't have a screen view bbut now we have two guys on stage - the same which were prepping the audience up the last couple of days for the semi finals.

Seems like we're running a bit late, this is not part the of the show - unless we wer in Italy, it seems like something you would be able to see on Italia 1/Canale 5 or RAI1 on a weeknight.

The 'warm up' guys are still there ...

Still haven't started... nearly 10 mins late.

Te deum played by an orchestra in a marquee in the grounds of the Schlossbrun. We then get treated to a classical piece and then the intro to this years' building bridges.

Starting the show with another mix of last years' announcement of the winner - Austria.

We then go on a tour of Austira with the theme being circles - or at least that's the only connection I can see between the clips.

Circles, bubbles, running people, smiling children, all result in one sphere arriving at the Weiner Stadthalle and a real sphere travels down from the ceiling to the stage where it meets a violinist playing Merci Chérie and then flows into Rise like a Phoenix. During this performance the back of the stage opens up to reveal the orchestra.

Conchita rises up from under the stage.She sings the theme song of this year - Building Bridges.
Also joining her are the three other hosts - Arabella, Mirjam and Alice.

Conchita flies up into the airand is suspended over the audience moving from the podium to the main stage. In come the Vienna Boys' Choir. We move into a rap moment and the kids start waving Austrian and Australian flags. Really, this Australia stuff is starting to get to me - and I never really cared about them taking part, I thought it was a nice one off.

The stage is now for the 27 competing countries, however there was no announcement of the countries so the Slovenes were a bit 'do we, don't we' moment. They decide to take a leap and the camera moves on to Serbia, but the music is then stopped. Arabella then says "it seems that you don't need to rehearse but we do!"

"Good evening Europe!" and then music ... at the wrong time... so all three presenters laugh. Conchita looks pissed.

There is no mentioning of indicidual countries this time, just all come down at the same time.

Once all acts, flag bearers, remaining dancers and any other person wanting to go on stage has managed to get there, we continue singing Building Bridges. And the music stops.

"What a fantastic opening [...] thank you to our 265 artists here on stage"

Next we have the building bridges clips wich people were asked to submit. Not a "down down low" in sight.

Informing about the voting and we're about to start.

SLOVENIA
Extremely confident and compitent. Sounds like you're hearing the studio version. For someone who only qualified last night, Marjetka is doing very well. "Danke" and "Hvala".

FRANCE
Lisa is dressed in old Imperial robes and is having high tea. A picture is taken for her to keep.

The cameras failed right at the beginning. Director needs to be careful, rookie mistake. Still going on though, doesn't seem important enough to stop the show.

Lisa is not singing at her strongest, but we already know her philosophy - they need two good rounds, the one tonight and the one tomorrow. This is just a rehearsal.

ISRAEL
Nadav is not wearing his Golden Boy outfit - unless he wants to overly promote Nike t-shirts.

Some cameraman from NRK is blocking my view. But people seem to be clapping. It's good but maybe he's saving himself, maybe he partied too much last night ... maybe it's just getting a bit 'we've seen this already'? What am I saying? It's still fun!

ESTONIA
Something happened - so instead of listening to Estonia, we have facts about Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest read to us by Arabella. I am not sure if this is a rehearsal for 'should anything go wrong' or if it is actually just going wrong.

It seems it is going wrong. There is a technical (camera) issue. The three presenters are trying their best, but stand up comics they are not. Feel sorry for them. But oh well, it will be fine on the night.

Estonian postcard again - let's see if it works this time.

This time we get going.

Good performance, she doesn't cry but maybe it's not worth her while in this one.

UNITED KINGDOM
Bianca and Alex go flying drones at night with magical sticks - or at least that's whatt they want us to believe.

The pack has been covered by the fur throwover. Song is really not going anywhere. Need to grab that coffee? Why not use this as your break? Wouldn't be surprised if this came last. I think it will still receive points from Australia and Ireland but not many from anywhere else.

ARMENIA
Coming after the UK can only help Armenia. Another good performance and the circle is being nailed now. Should do decently well.

LITHUANIA
Harmless enough. Not going to do exceedingly well but not going to be really low in rankings either.

The more amazing thing I saw during this performance was that some delusional being has voted that the UK would win. I want whatever they're having please, and the suppliers' address. Danke. 

SERBIA
Bojana is lovely, you can see she's enjoying every minute of that stage. And so are her backing. I do hope she does really well on Saturday. 

NORWAY
Well, Debrah is trying on the Princess Merida look from the film Brave (2012). Good on ya girl! Why bother doing hair and make up for this... not like anyone is watching!

BREAK(Y)?
Not sure if this was a break or another issue. But we have a reminder of the voting numbers for the songs. And then we go to Måns. Is it just to build up suspence or is it to get the props on stage?

SWEDEN
Måns is also not worrying about costume. He's wearing a simple grey t which isn't as body hugging as his ensemble from yesterday but we get to see his arms which we enjoy.

He's not doing all the notes but that's could be for the usual two factors - tired from last night and saving for tonight. It's not an easy job doing this you know!

CYPRUS
Can Cyprus do another Lisa Andreas? This year probably not, but I can see this being top 10. Many artists are probably asking themselves the same question since thy didn't qualify last night or from Tuesday.

AUSTRALIA
Guy goes surfing in a freezing mountain river. He managed to get a cold because of it. But apparently recovered.

"This is one tough act to follow" until the EBU decide to bend all their rules when it suits them once more. I am not one for fairness and equality in the world but I am against two-faceism. If you have a rule, stick to it. Why don't we let the guys from FIFA manage - it seems they have the same ethos.

Having said that, this will do well, and if it wins so be it. But let us please keep it a one off.

BELGIUM
Again, this guy is amazing. He basically did the whole thing himself - song to choreography. And he is closing in on Italy in the betting odds. Expect good things fom this guy shortly. Could he be as big as Stromae?

AUSTRIA
Austrian postcard just shows us around Vienna. Nothing exceptional for the host country. Preferred some of the others.

The piano is on fire once more. Big cheer in the hall and press room - as can be imagined. Many 'mainstream' media representatives are now here and they are mainly Austrian.

BREAK
Arabella talks to Conchita - and congratulates her on a great job at the green room during the previous days. But, we also find out that she was at Eurovision previously - as part of the backing vocals for France 2008. We all laugh - not.