Rehearsal 2 - Finalists (Italy & Spain)

Italy

First run - big reaction here for the outfit. Gleaming white cape and a gold/white sequenced dress with a stage floor in matching color. As a bonus she's wearing a Caeser style tiara with leaves covered in gold sequences. Epic! Never mind that the song goes nowhere and she's breathless when she moves , it's a fun show to watch.

Second run - she's now holding her throat as if forcing the vocal chords to play ball. The gold white Roman style floor design is gorgeous! Yes, very shallow of me to notice but there's a ton of cellulite peeking from her very short skirt, which keeps getting scrunched up due to her constant manic dance moves.

Spain 

First run - just Ruth on stage in a beautiful flowing diamond gown with strange cut out black tape around the breasts, which looks like the formation of eyes when it pans out - weird. The high notes are shreaky and it doesn't seem to be coming together as I hoped since I love this song. Let's hope the next run improves on this.

Second run - different camera angles, much better! They're also playing filter games to create some kind of effect I'm not clear about. Ruth's vocals are spot on and stunning! The camera pans out when she starts belting out the big notes which of course creates a great effect. Ruth is covered by a halo of light throughout the last part, some very effective staging here. I hope this is what they go for on Saturday.

Third run - they reverted back to the first run camera effects. It still looks great, but much less "oomph" imho. Girl has some wicked neck veins popping during those high notes. Great rehearsal.

And that's a wrap for today's rehearsals. Apologies for crunching these into 3 posts - due to some Russian virus on the press center laptop that defaults me all the time to Russian sites, I'm forced to use a backup iPad and it restricts the length of text I can utilize. Next blog is the Semi 2 run-through mañana.

The Ruth! The Ruth! Rolling! (and a few more)

Just to show you what kind of treats we get on the stage in Euroclub, here's a few videos

And a bonus. (It *was* an Irish party after all, so what else can you expect than very Irish performances) :)

Rehearsal 2 - Finalists (France & Denmark)

France

The lead is in a tight checkered short sleeve shirt and a yellow tie. Another one is shirtless and in colorful tights and the third is wearing a teeshirt and shorts. All very colorful and fun, but a bit manic.

Second run is the same, lots of running around. The backdrop features a moustache in various flag colors - cute gimmick.

Third run - big sweat stains under the lead's arms. Nothing else to notice here, and I don't see this lighting up the scoreboard.

Denmark

First run - Basim is in a black tux with a loose red bow tie, white socks and shiny dark red shoes. Ah youth, you can see his acne on the close-ups. Very simple backdrop, just a naked lit wall with the focus on the act itself. This will light the hall on fire on Saturday.

Second run - The backing dancers aren't dancing in synch but I guess it's intentional. The camera work for this is a bit strange, too many close ups on Basim and not enough wide shots of the great backers. Something about this seems somewhat disjointed.

Third run - different dance routine, I guess they're testing a new version. This one involves the catwalk, and different (much better) camera shots. During the bridge it's just Basim and the backers in a huddle staring at him. The stage is exploding in light and they just dropped a huge Basim banner with the last verse. ::gasps of displeasure in the press center:: This was a weird rehearsal and I'm not sure what they'll go with.

Rehearsal 2 - Finalists (Germany & UK)

Germany 

Good vocals on the first run, not a lot of movement on stage and the backdrop is simple and shows the band name at various spots on the screen. Cutsies. Ela is wearing a bargain basement jacket and sensible black dress - perfect for a good hike. Not too much excitement for this in the press center, but that's probs more due to the Israeli party hangover.

The third run features party streamers at the beginning which I imagine is what we'll see on Saturday. This is perfectly competent.

UK

First run. Mols is wearing a strange feathery top, great vocals! She's not making too much eye contact and looking around nervously and not smiling. The stage goes dark for the last bridge and there's a beautiful lava lamp kind of backdrop. There are overshots of the gorgeous floor in a paisley design. I'm loving this!

Second run. Now she's smiling, good girl. Missed a note there for a bit and she's miming now. Not sure what's going on. I guess she's saving her voice. And btw, the backing vocalists are wearing black feather shoulder pads to match her gold. They're so good on every run, pitch perfect.

Third run. She's back in form, but not sounding as good as the first run. She seems a bit nervous and is missing eye contact and camera cues. I hope we see first run Molly on Saturday but either way it comes across great on tv.

Tuesday morning. This means semi 1 day!

Attended the rehearsals at the arena yesterday afternoon and after that we grabbed a quick dinner at the apartment just to be able to rush off to the Irish party at the ever so lovely Shamrock Inn irish pub here in Copenhagen. It was supposed to start at 19.30 (Yes I use 24h time, so sue me) and we were ACTUALLY a little early, wich happens to me very rarely. The place was almost full when we got there!? It's obvious the irish are appreciated for atleast their parties. We got to see some nice performances by Carl Espen and Kasey Smith among others.
After partying irish style we were ready for Euroclub and decided to take the bus there and went to the busstop close by. The phone app that predicts busarrivals was sadly mistaken about the 5 minutes it should take for the bus to arrive so after waiting for 45 minutes we got to Vega by other means. I am really starting to question the Danish bussystem after yesterday.

Vega was hosting the Israeli party. Apparantly Israel celebrated their independence day and that means party. Loads and loads of different performances on stage and a buffet of food that made my chefs heart pound a little harder. All in all a very nice night where Mei Finegolds performance really left an impression on me. Pure performance joy! :)

Well, I am off to hang out with my coffeemug some more and then off to the arena for all kinds of shenanigans. See you there!