Day 5 | Second Rehearsals | First Semi-Final | 🇲🇰 🇮🇪 🇨🇾 🇳🇴 🇭🇷

This will be a rolling blog, each country in running order, so please refresh to update.

Through some kind of futuristic miracle, I'm able to follow rehearsals from my very own colourful home, and I will attempt to take you through the second run-through of the rest of Semi-Final 1, except Malta, as I refuse to cover boot-malfunctions. After learning what Jordy made out of the first rehearsals, and Yair's fresh eyes on the first segment of second rehearsals, let's see what my (fresh?) fish eyes will make of the rest of today's bunch.

🇭🇷 | Croatia

Albania Albina starts off by pretending to fire off some coloured (pink and blue, of course) light lines around her, similar to Samra's flames in 2016, but sadly (or probably luckily, for Albina's sake), Croatia isn't quite Azerbaijan when it comes to rehearsing these things for months to get it exactly right, so the lines appear on the background a bit below or above her hand or half a second too early or too late. So it doesn't look quite as cool as they probably hoped.

Which generally is how I'd describe this entire entry and performance, really. There's not much wrong with it per se, but when none of the ingredients are quite up to standard, we're just gonna end up with an average cake (or is it a traditional Rachel trifle with peas?), aren't we? The song isn't quite there, the colours are used by several others, the background graphics are a bit non-descript, the dancers have too much clothes, and there's no teddy bears.

The main selling point is Albina herself, but I can't see her saving this singlehandedly. I tried to come up with a comparison for this package, and the best I could come up with was Jestem - that's not great news, is it...

🇳🇴 | Norway

Patriotic hat (or headband, rather) on? Nah, I've been quite ambivalent to this entry all season, really, and nothing in this rehearsal changes that. We also all know what we're getting, since this is the exact same performance as in MGP.

He managed to tell the story behind the act and entry well in the very good music video (alternatively, thought of a nice story afterwards, that he could clonk onto to the act and entry...), but hardly anyone watching will have any clue of that of course, so this will just be a nice ballad with lots of nice keychanges, performed, for no good reason at all, by some guy dressed like a pimp and hiding behind sunglasses. I expect juries to be put off by the unfitting act, or by the nice, but extremely basic, tune (it's essentially a dansband song in that respect, isn't it?), so it's all in the hands of the televoters - will those that find the wings and stuff so Eurovision! add up with those that like the song, or will the mismatch put everyone off?

Vocally I'd say it's perfectly adequate (which may or may not be thanks to some hidden help, no clue), and visually it also works decently - the highlight for me is for the big NOOOOO in the last chorus, when the colour scheme goes from cold, dark and blue to a warmer gold with some added clouds, creating some needed development. I'd say it's a qualifier, but by no means a certain one!

🇨🇾 | Cyprus

I was a bit worried they'd over-egg this, like I felt they did with Tamta two years ago, but I'd say they've kept it relatively simple, and yet with some nice touches. I particularly like the way the dancers, red from head to toe, are mirrored on the backdrop - it somehow makes you slightly doubt if they are real, or if the ones in the mirror are real, or if any of them are real, or if none of them are real. Is Elena real? Am I real?!

One thing I think the performance is missing, is a little visual variation (particularly for the POW as the chorus kicks in!), as it pretty much looks exactly the same throughout - except when Elena decides she's some kind of bug and goes all bendy and backwards on us. When she's the right way, however, she's surprisinlgy likeable and personable, at least compared to how I expected her to be from the video, and she sounds decent too.

Oh lo and behold, just as I was asking for variation, have they introduced a key change for the last chorus? It sounds a little higher and different at least - I approve!

🇮🇪 | Ireland

I've been quite interested to see this, as the descriptions from the first rehearsal sounded potentially interesting if they get it right, plus I've liked the song a lot all along. The whole "set-up" is there for the first half of the song, with various paper "scenes" right in front of the cameras so she's walking around in a supposed paper landscape and every now and then interacting with it in various ways - picking up a piece of paper from right by the camera, extending a hand towards us (and someone else's coming towards hers?!). It looks quite cute, and certainly different from the rest, but I'm not sure she's comfortable enough with it all to make it work - she seems a little stressed, and the singing is... hmm. It's not really bad, but just a bit shouty here and there, disturbing the flow of the song a bit.

For the second half she "escapes" all the scenery, and walks out to the satellite stage, with the backdrop suddenly bathing in warm orange as if she's in Lion King, while the entire set-up is still very visible around and behind her. I can understand the choice of showing it all, but it makes it look a bit messy. Her singing and general appearance is much better in the second half, which makes sense as she's probably far more relaxed and at ease.

The main verdict I'm left with is why?

🇲🇰 | North Macedonia

Starts off in darkness with just Vasil's face and some little, growing light shining from his chest - it almost feels like one of those special powers you'd see in a 90s timetravel TV show for tweens. His special power keeps growing (cue Michael Scott) until it explodes, and eventually he reveals his Dotter-like shirt. Did they miss that bit where they're meant to project lights at the Dotter-shirt to make it all reflecty, though...? He seems to mainly just stand there with a proud "Look what I can do!"-attitude, but then isn't doing... anything.

The song is obviously an overblown piece of nothingness, but considering North Macedonia's staging history (or HANG ON, North Macedonia actually got it right 100 % of times, is it FYR Macedonia that's been the problem?!), I'd say this is actually about as good as could be expected for it. The colour scheme (just darkness with orange) makes it a bit different from all the pink and purple, and he's not acting quite as ridiculously over the top as he did in the video. I'd throw in five visible backing singers in a corner to make it feel a bit more proper though.

Question: What is that word he's singing in one of the first few lines?? Crack? GREK? Craic...? Is Ireland his favourite...?

Day 5 | Second Rehearsals | First Semi-Final | 🇱🇹 🇸🇮 🇷🇺 🇸🇪 🇦🇺

This will be a rolling blog, each country in running order, so please refresh to update.

Good morning from the remote press centre! While Jordy is on a photography mission, the rest of the team will fill in with what's happening on screen. So here they are with some fresh eyes.

🇦🇺 | Australia

I guess we won't be seeing anything today, not before the first dress rehearsal (and possibly not even then?). Sild will take over for the next few rehearsals.

🇸🇪 | Sweden

If symmetry is your thing, this is the staging for you. Everyone is positioned in a straight line, and the backdrop is a very centred vertical centre line in the centre. If you took half of the screen and mirrored it onto the other, it would look just the same (except that Tusse would be holding two microphones).

This is really quite effective, especially after the overly busy first three stagings - and while Tusse is far from great vocally, he does have the personality to make up for it. I didn't like it in MF, partly due to a disturbingly horrifying velvet suit - but they took care of that, his new suit looks much better on screen (and even gets a close-up to show us the shiny bits). Thumbs up.

I had to look twice to see if the projected extra backing singers in the last chorus aren't actually there behind the real ones. And I'm still not quite sure, but leaning towards not real. That's how good the backscreen is.

🇷🇺 | Russia

This is a very very busy staging - everywhere you look, there's a highly detailed dress or something happening on the screen - a message, a sophisticated old Russian-style animation, or a modern Russian woman (I think I even spotted a transitioning woman, very cool). My favourite is the horses, think of some kind of animated version of this:

The best thing about this is Manizha herself and her facial expressions, although I can't help thinking it's sometimes a bit overdone and gives me Laka vibes. No, something is different in the last runthrough (other than the flame Pyro during the 'prayer' part) - this is super energetic and I'm loving it

🇸🇮 | Slovenia

To be honest, it was kind of hard to pay attention to Ana (despite the screaming) with all that's going on in the background - a dramatic space film (scary galaxy zooming into Earth) which turns into a National Geographic feature with various climatic landscapes. The one part that did connect with the song was in the explosive bit of the last chorus, with a supernova going right under Ana's feet.

We already know she can belt out, even so early in the day (which: well done), it's always been a question of how many juries are actually into this voice and song. Personally I cringed at the 'sing it!' to the non-present choir.

🇱🇹 | Lithuania

I can see why the producers put this on first, this is a very clever way to reveal the stage, which fully shows itself in the chorus. The routine is mostly familiar, although I think they've added a penguin-style jumping towards the end... was it there before?

Vaidotas is as charismatic as ever, at first pretending that he's confused by where he is and looking for the cameras, later "gaining" confidence. Holding back vocally in the first runthrough but singing just fine in the second, I guess they know that this could be their backup performance? 

The LED floor looks like a still image of the background, something like this:

Overall a solid entry, but (perhaps ironically) really feels like it will need an audience roar to stand out.

First rehearsals - the Semi 2 winners and losers

The big winners of yesterday weren’t any of the acts in Rotterdam; rather it was the meme creators. Whether it was Senhit’s, um, headdress (?), or Natalia Gordienko sitting silent on Filip Kirkorov’s lap in a webchat with wiwibloggs, the internet had a field day.

 

Back on stage, the first real winners of the day were Austria, with a simple, effective staging and a strong vocal performance by Vincent Bueno. In contrast, there weren’t any huge losers, but we’d hoped that either or both of Poland and Czech Republic would bring something remarkable to their staging that would boost their songs’ chances. Unfortunately it seems like both have gone for the kind of standard performance we were expecting, and they’ll likely both struggle because of it.

One country doing something different from what we expected was Serbia. Gone are the trashy, multi-coloured outfits of the preview video, in are classy, sparkly numbers, and the presentation is all the stronger for it. They’re giving a strong vocal performance too (arguably one of the biggest beneficiaries of this year’s new rule allowing vocals on the backing track), and have definitely moved up in many fans’ estimations.

While vocals are permitted on the backing track, all the lead vocals have to be live. And without the doubling of the lead vocalist’s vocals on the track that was present in the Finnish final, ‘Dark Side’ was sounding worryingly thin today. Coupled with visuals that were somewhat less than we were presented with in UMK, Finland didn’t have the impact that some had hoped for.

Much of Switzerland’s appeal will still rest on whether you like falsetto vocals and Gjon’s scrunched-up facial expressions, but at least the Swiss have won on one thing. He’s not sat at a piano. Immediately all the inevitable comparisons to ‘Arcade’ disappear, and the chances of ‘Tout l’univers’ are all the stronger for it.

Tomorrow we’ll be getting the second rehearsals of most of the acts from Semi 1 – all except Malta. And the big question on our lips is – what will Ireland do next? Is it the much vaunted augmented reality? Join us here tomorrow to find out.

Day 4 | First Rehearsals | Second Semi-Final | Second Half | 🇬🇪 🇦🇱 🇵🇹 🇧🇬 🇫🇮 🇱🇻 🇨🇭 🇩🇰

This will be a rolling blog, each country in running order, so please refresh to update.

Good morning to you all! I'm sure you're awaiting the news whether there were any QUEUES or SAMMARINESE rappers at the security check today. Unfortunately none of that, but we do have eight brand new rehearsals ahead of us today as we continue with the first rehearsals of the second half of the second semi-final. I'm ready! I hope you are too!

Early predictions:
🇸🇲 San Marino
🇪🇪 Estonia
🇨🇿 Czech Republic
🇬🇷 Greece
🇦🇹 Austria
🇵🇱 Poland
🇲🇩 Moldova
🇮🇸 Iceland
🇷🇸 Serbia
🇬🇪 Georgia
🇦🇱 Albania
🇵🇹 Portugal
🇧🇬 Bulgaria
🇫🇮 Finland
🇱🇻 Latvia
🇨🇭 Switzerland
🇩🇰 Denmark

🇩🇰 | Denmark
Jesper standing on a circled stage with white LED strips all around it and so is his guitar-wearing partner who's standing on one a bit more towards the back. On the side there are three backing singers behind microphone stands. We're back towards blue/pink staging, because there's a grid full of pink and blue squared with some yellow squared in between here and there. The graphics sometimes change, giving the graphics more depth. The general atmosphere reflects a discotheque (no shocker there). Jesper is wearing a pink blazer with silver-colored pants. He's playfully performing on his own little stage and at one point he grabs his microphone stand to run towards the extra stage to be a little silly and play around a bit more with funny dance movements, being the weird little fellow he is. At the end he runs back to his own tiny stage, the guitar guy joins him, there's some fireworks and that's that. Vocally this is alright. It's fun, but I'm not terribly excited.

🇨🇭 | Switzerland
The rehearsal starts with a face close-up of Gjon standing on some sort of construction that can probably be best described as the very early foundation (like pillars) of a house/building with textured white paint. He's wearing a rather unflattering outfit (a very loose shirt with silver-glitter stripes and wide pants). Gjon starts with some very intimate camera shots and does some hand movements while there are graphics displayed behind him on the backdrop that resembles something like a substance in motion. At one point the camera shots pace up and he starts doing these really weird arm movements. Although the set-up of the staging and staging itself are rather beautiful and interesting, the staging during the first chorus is rather underwhelming. Something which is corrected later on when there are flashy lights during the chorus. Somewhat towards the end he's standing in pink'ish lights and continues doing the weird arm movements on a stage that is now filled with smoke. The camera shots are still a little messy, but it's something that can be corrected in upcoming rehearsals. Vocally Gjon is very strong. I must say it doesn't instantly scream winner, but if they sort it out in the upcoming rehearsals it'll probably do very well. Personally I think it's a bit of a miss though.

🇱🇻 | Latvia
Samanta's wearing a long poison green dress with a cut for one of her legs. She's wearing some shoulder-padded-like item on top. Her backing dancers wear the same-colored outfits, including a skirt and a plastic face-mask that only the most Covid-fearing people would wear. The edges of the backdrop are lighted up by purple lights. The golden-black graphics on the backdrop and floor seem like optical illusions and are almost hypnotizing, but really quite stunning. The only problem is they hardly change throughout the performance, making it all a little boring. On the backdrop there's also a golden crown depicted that's made out of three hands similar to the hand movements Samanta and her dancers occasionally make during their routine. The choreography Samanta and her dancers do on stage is pretty boring as well. The most interesting part is when Samanta's doing a rather wild dance move, the camera is spinning around her, followed by a camera shot from above displaying the graphics. I'm afraid this isn't going to be enough to qualify. The vocals were muted for us during the first tun, but I'm going to assume they were fine. If not, I'll update this bit later.

Update: screechy as always, but indeed fine

🇫🇮 | Finland
There's instant energy coming from this performance as the guys go wild from the very start accompanied by fire and smoke flares, which return more often throughout the performance. The backdrop depicts two flipped band members. All of them are wearing black outfits. The stage is generally lighted blue-white and there are drums and a keyboard on stage. There are shots of band members flipping their hair and guitars and at a later point more band members are also shown on the backdrop. The camera shots change very rapidly and the lighting is very unepilepsy-proof. During the bridge there's a wide shot of the stage after which white lights start flashing like crazy. The middle of the back drop is also opened, which one hardly notices, until there are bright white lights shining out of it. All of it reminds very much like the performance they gave in the NF, although the stage is a lot less dark. I must confess I preferred the NF staging better. Vocally no critique. Visually sufficient and something one would expect from an entry like this.

🌮 Lunch break, I knew Portugal would have its press conference during lunch today and I'm not having *that* for lunch, so I brought enchiladas with me *nomnomnom* 🌮

🇧🇬 | Bulgaria
The first camera shot we get to see is an intimate camera shot of Victoria with stars depicted behind her on the backdrop. She's sitting on a brown'ish object which later turns out to be either a ship or the edge of a cliff in a Lion King kind of way. See pic below. If it's neither of the two I'm clueless.

 

Underneath this boat/cliff there is water being displayed on the LED floors. The entire atmosphere is moody and next to this prop there's a sandfall. The entire performance is basically a sequence of wide camera shots of the stage and close shots of Victoria being sad, incl. a camera shot of Victoria looking at a photograph of (I think) her parents. At one point Victoria touches the sandfall with her hand and the prop starts spinning/sailing. Towards the end the scenery of darkness and stars, that is now joined by actual fog, is broken by what appears to be sun rays. After this a yellow/orange glow remains on the horizon. Visually this looks rather beautiful although you don't always consciously realize because you're wondering what the hell is going on at the same time. Vocally this is a strong performance as well. I'm not quite sure yet what this is going to do, but I wouldn't be surprised if it goes up in the odds.

🇵🇹 | Portugal
The performance starts in black/white like in the NF. Pedro is surrounded on stage by someone on the drums, someone on the piano and two guys playing a guitar. The camera work is rather slow and easy, but I suppose it works for this entry. At one point the color shots kick in and there are lights from above direct onto the stage and we see a blue'ish backdrop with rain. Later on the graphics become a little warmer with orange/red shades and a woman being depicted on the backdrop, followed by hearts. This woman then walks from the backdrop to the extra transparent LED screen, which looks very impressive. This is also the first time we've seen a country use the two LED walls to interact with one another like this. The woman walks through a city with orange street lights being prominently visible in the graphics. Pedro then walks towards a microphone stand on the extra stage to play around with his guitar a little while the backdrop depicts golden graphics and animated graphics of a string section in silhouette shadow, complete with conductor flanked by an art deco style line. Vocals are alright and although I'm not blown away, visually this look nice. The biggest problem with this is he still sounds terribly annoying The staging isn't going to be the problem here.

🇦🇱 | Albania
Anxhela looks gorgeous while wearing her beautiful silver-glittered dress. She starts her performance in front of a backdrop that's depicting a red smoke flare that is then followed by several other flares. It's instant impressiveness. Throughout the entire performance she's interacting with this smoke that's changing from red to blue at times. There's a lot of pyro in the form of smoke on stage as well. There are several wide shots of the entire stage which look impressive. At one point she's doing a fierce sensual dance routine on stage that instantly reminds of Iveta's divaness. There are several sensual camera shots in which she's playing with her hair and looking straight into the camera. Later on there are many spots directed at her and she's literally and figurally shining on stage. The performance ends with grey clouds on the backdrop and flashy lights directed from the ceiling of the stage. Visually this looks stunning and vocally Anxhela is killing it as well. This is a qualifier, people. Very effective.

🇬🇪 | Georgia
Tornike is wearing a simple white shirt and black pants. He starts standing before the opened middle part of the backdrop with lights shining behind him as he's walking out of these lights. He's standing in front of his microphone stand with a blue'ish spot on him. The backdrop depicts blue'ish clouds/skies and at one point we see one of the crew members rolling in a box/stage with LEDs on it. When the beat kicks in the backdrop lights up a bit. Later on he's sitting on this box and the backdrop displays stars and the surface of this box is lighted up with the LEDs too, which looks quite beautiful. At that point there are lyrics projected on him like ''you're everywhere'' and ''my love''. The backdrop then depicts lyrics as well, like ''with you'' and something (probably the same) in Georgian letters. Throughout the performance there's a red'ish glow coming from underneath these dark clouds depicted on the backdrop and lights break through. The camera is spinning around Tornike while he's standing behind his microphone stand. There are also many camera shots of his face and shoulders keeping it intimate. The performance ends with again lyrics being displayed on the background and a last centered camera shot of him while there's a spot shining on him. Visually there's nothing to really dislike here. Vocally it's fine too. The only problem here is it's all as energetic as Destiny's dancing (meaning not at all) and it's the same sleeping pill it always was. The second run was absolute MADNESS. Tornike was singing extremely low and at some parts extremely high, which caused huge WTF-moments in the press centre. It's almost as if he's intentionally messing around with us.

Day 3 | First Rehearsals | Second Semi-Final | First Half | 🇸🇲 🇪🇪 🇨🇿 🇬🇷 🇦🇹 🇵🇱 🇲🇩 🇮🇸 🇷🇸

This will be a rolling blog, each country in running order, so please refresh to update.

The organization seemed to have learned from yesterday's queues as there were hardly any this morning. That's why I'm able to say good morning and hello to you all this early today. Something interesting happened at the security gate. I spotted someone wearing a ''SENHIT ADRENALINA'' sweater who might very well be the rapper for San Marino's rehearsal today. AND IT WASN'T FLO RIDA! Was it a hardcore Senhit fan? Was it another member of the Sammarinese delegation? Or will Flo Rida indeed not be showing up today for rehearsals, because perhaps he's not coming at all? We're about to find out right away as we start with San Marino's rehearsal! Stay tuned!

🇷🇸 | Serbia
The ladies start standing quite far apart from each other in front of a black backdrop with a white square behind each one of them, doing sexy poses. After that they start doing their dance routines while smoke flares appear behind them. They are wearing a black dress with glitter all over it. The staging is mostly squares/stripes of black and white in different variations throughout the entire performance. Much of the performance includes the lyrics being shown on the backdrop with words like ''hurricane'', ''baby'' and ''loco''. At one point there's a red glow over the stage and the stage turns into a disco as a huge discoball comes down. Before the ladies dance towards the smaller stage for one last fierce dance routine, there's a camera shot from above showing graphics underneath each one of them..Although the choreo isn't spectacular it's fun and keeps the energy alive throughout the performance. Vocally it's a little shaky at times and you can clearly hear which ones of them have to do all the vocal work. They are supported by backing vocals though. All in all this is a fun performance to look at, the press centre loved it and I'm fairly sure this will qualify now.

🇮🇸 | Iceland
Dadi (I'm not going to bother with these weird Icelandic letters) and his five companions start in front of a (again) pink/blue'ish backdrop while standing in the dark. It looks pretty beautiful and after that it only gets better. The backdrop displays beautiful graphics of the universe in which there are these pixelled animated characters wearing fish bowls (like Sandy in Spongebob) floating around here and there. Dadi and the others walk towards microphone stands that are positioned somewhat more towards the front of the stage and start doing the routine that we know from them. The backdrop then depicts yellow and pink cubes. Dadi and his crew are wearing the same pullovers that we've seen before, but they've added some extra black layers over some parts, such as for example the shoulder area. Three of them have these curved half circled pianos and at one point they come together and make a whole circled piano, which looks pretty slick. The transparent LED screen at one point displays lots of these oldschool pixelled video game characters and it looks absolutely fantastic. It's probably the best usage of the transparent LED-screen so far. Towards the end there's a camera shot that zooms out and displays all of the stage while spots are directed on all of them. There's then some more of the dance routine and they all end doing a pose. They have a lot of fun doing this and it clearly shows. All in all this is a fantastic rehearsal that looks really good on screen. Vocally this is really strong as well.

But I still hate them all.

🇲🇩 | Moldova
Natalia seems to have borrowed Senhit's spinning platform as she's standing on a similar squared stage with her four dancers. She's wearing a silver glitter dress and her dancers wear black outfits. The backdrop and floor LEDs depict a three dimensional pink/white grid. Natalia and her dancers are performing a rather slick and sensual choreo that is similar to the one in the music video and is fun to watch (and very clean/tight!). At one point there's a camera shot from above on this platform while it is spinning. The floor graphics show several squares around this stage at that point, but 90 degrees turned. At the end there's a shot from above, the dancers fall with their backs on this platform and there's one last shot on Natalia while she's whispering ''sugar''. Vocally sufficient although Natalia is (obviously) holding back for these rehearsals as they're focusing on the choreography and camera work. It's all very fun to watch and looks good on camera. This will sail through easily and probably do well in the final as well.

🇵🇱 | Poland
Rafal is wearing a black suit and is accompanied by four dancers in white suits who have lights in their hands. In the beginning Rafal is grabbing the camera as if it's a selfie camera and moving it with his hands. The graphics on the backdrop and floor LEDs depict blue/pink neon grids and this neon theme is something that is reflected in almost all of the staging. At one point we see ''Warshaw'' in the backdrop, but then in Polish (remembering how to write the English name is hard enough already for me). Rafal and his dancers start on the main stage and dance their way to the smaller one. He plays around by taking his glasses off and putting it back on at a later point. It all looks a bit cheap, old-fashioned and vocally this is shaky too. Rafal looks like a middle-aged man having a good night in a karaoke bar. In the last run we find out there's quite a bit of pyro as well. Before the rehearsals started I thought it might qualify, but I'm going to say it's not for now.

🇦🇹 | Austria
We start with a gentle shot of Vincent on a dark stage standing in front of a heavy spot directed at him. He's wearing a long glittery black blazer and is standing on some kind of platform that has the shape of a runway, but it could also be that the floor's techniques allow it to be lifted a little. Lights are shining into two directions from the bottom to the top of the part the backdrop that's able to open up. Somewhat in the middle of the performance there's a side shot of Vincent walking on this platform with rays of light shining from the side of the arena. The camera shots are simple, but effective, although they're still trying to find the right angles. There's hardly any backdrop there. It's mainly Vincent with lighting. But forget about the staging, as it works, but isn't spectacular. *Vocally* this is very impressive, especially when the backing singers join Vincent. So impressive that I'm starting to believe he might just sneak into the final.

🤪 Lunch break, going to Benny's press conference and having him for lunch *nomnomnom* 🤪

🇬🇷  | Greece
Stefania's wearing a black glittered catsuit-like outfit with a sexy opening on her belly and just above her brests. She looks absolutely gorgeous. She's standing in the centre of the stage with a backdrop behind her that depicts pink/turquoise's clouds. The camera loves her and she's trying to play with it too as she gives a cheeky wink. At one point she's using a green screen and we're getting Sergey 2016 vibes. The green screen performance then continues as we're roaming through a city with tall buildings with Stefania and two faceless white hoodie wearing dancers, of whom I thought were projected but on second hand now look real, interacting with one another. Before these dancers, together with two others, then later later join her on stage for an actual real live performance with a fun choreo, there's a shot of Stefania with her back towards the audience and Arcade kind of lights all over the arena. Stefania's vocals are spot on. All in all this looks really good, although it's a combination of parts fun and parts silly (the latter mainly being the green screen part). Stefania does seem a bit nervous and tight however, but I suspect that she'll loosen up soon as it seems to be getting better with each run already.

🇨🇿  | Czech Republic
Benny starts off standing in the middle of about eight lighted poles. He is wearing a yellow glittered jacket with black sweatpants. He's dyed his hair blond and he lost his long hair. He looks rather yum. These poles are actually placed behind the backdrop because - since the backdrop is opened in the middle - Benny walks towards the actual stage when two of his dancers join his sides. They then continue to perform, lacking a real choreo. It's mostly about Benny walking back and forth a bit being swaggy. At a later point they are joined by two extra dancers. They then dance their way to the extra stage were they continue swagging around together. It ends with a camera shot of Benny bending down looking into the camera while looking lush. The backdrop and floor LEDs depict colorful graphics, but really nothing too impressive. Benny hardly ever looks into the camera and performs as if it's a live concert. It's all a bit underwhelming and I feel like they really could've gotten a lot more out of this. Although this may come across a little lacklustre to some, I think it's part of the swaggy careless act that really does suit him. Benny seemed to spare his voice, but at the parts where he did give it a go it sounded fine. We've seen nothing we're impressed by, but it's still fun to look at it and Benny is adorable. If he manages to interact with the cameras more in the upcoming rehearsals he might be able to save a lot from what was missing today.

🇪🇪  | Estonia
Uku starts off on his knees (a sight some of us will like), with a white circle/moon being depicted behind him on the backdrop covered in actual smoke/fog. The general atmosphere of the stage is very dark with flashes of lightning. Uku is lighted up in dark/blue'ish lights which adds to the moody vibe. At one point there's water displayed on the floor LEDs and the backdrop depicts splashes of large amounts of water. In between his performance there are camera shots of Uku falling inside water and going under which look like shots from a music video. These are probably shown on the backdrop and filmed live. Uku is wearing a white shirt and dark trousers, which looks basic, but works fine for him. The camera work is pretty well thought out and seems to work as well. Uku has no trouble finding the camera and there are several side shots of him. At one point there's a camera shot from above as he touches the water that is displayed on the floor LEDs and at that point the water gets a red glow. This red glow then is reflected in more parts of the staging such as in the backdrop. The performance ends with the backdrop displaying red/dark'ish skies/clouds and heavy lightning. In the very end we see the white circle/moon again. Like with Senhit most of Uku's vocals are alright, although there are some high parts where he struggles a bit. Adequate rehearsal, but a bit dull.

🇸🇲  | San Marino
I WAS RIGHT! I'm truly your eyes and ears over here. (as you can see I sneakily made a picture too).

Senhit is wearing a ridiculously (but fabulous) golden crown that is huge and has pictures of Christian(?) saints embedded into it. She's wearing a trouser suit, but thankfully not in a Trijntje way. She's accompanied on stage by four dancers who wear something that I can only describe as luxury linnen pyjamas. Next to that they're also wearing masks (not face masks, actual masks). Their entire outfits are covered with red stars here and there. The backdrop and floor LEDs are graphically hysterical and are similar to the colorful artwork we saw in her music video. San Marino is also making use of the extra transparent LED-screen. On stage Senhit is standing on the transparent spinning platform that we also recognize from her music video. Most of the beginning of the performance takes place on this platform with Senhit and her dancers performing their choreo. Although the entire performance is rather fun to watch it's nothing extremely interesting to look at. The rap part (which isn't done by Flo Rida) is done on the connecting part between the two stages. At the end Senhit, the no Flo Rida rapper and the four dancers end on the extra stage. The LED-screens sometimes feature part of the lyrics of the song and images of Senhit. San Marino is also making use of pyro in the form of puffs of fire and a larger firework spectacle at the very end of the performance. The performance ends with ''SENHIT ADRENALINA'' being depicted on the backdrop. Vocally this is alright as she gets helped by a precorded backing track as well, but Senhit does struggle with some of the higher parts. Winner? No. Will this do well? Probably, yes.