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Posted by: Ryan. 20th April 2016, 02:55 PM

We are now less than 12 days away from Sandhja taking to the Stockholm stage and getting rehearsals underway! Through various sources including SVT, Eurovision France and ESC Forum I have compiled what should be this year's rehearsal schedule and you can see this below. Worth noting that the automatic qualifiers have both of their rehearsals prior to the dress rehearsals which hasn't been the case in previous years, presumably to cater for their performances in the semi-final dress rehearsals.

For those unfamiliar with the workings of the Eurovision fortnight, each country has a 30-minute first rehearsal followed by a 20-minute press meet & greet. They then return a few days later for their 20-minute second rehearsal which is followed by a 20-minute press conference for each country. In previous years it is during the press conferences for the automatic qualifiers, all on Sunday 8th May this year, where they draw their halves for the final running order. All the times below are in Central European Time, so remember everything happens an hour earlier than the times shown on my little creation in the UK.

ESC Xtra will once again be running a live stream from the press centre during the Eurovision fortnight and will offer live reactions to every single first rehearsal and live audio for every single second rehearsal and all the dress rehearsals, jury finals and so on. This stream can be found http://escxtra.com/live/ from May 2nd onwards. Eurovision.tv will also upload 30 second videos of all first rehearsals and full-length videos of the second rehearsals. The reason for the difference here being that first rehearsals are closed and can only be viewed by press on a TV in the press centre, whereas second rehearsals are open to everyone.

Posted by: Ryan. 20th April 2016, 03:28 PM

Our first major prop?



Not quite sure what it's meant to be though if it is!

Posted by: Ryan. 23rd April 2016, 05:13 PM

The people in charge of the stand-in rehearsals that have been going on for the last couple of days have said there are several Mans-type performances in terms of using lots of technology. They also say the most technological performances are Russia, Australia, Belarus and Malta!

Posted by: AdamAloud 23rd April 2016, 05:19 PM

Ira bringing the Mediterranean with her *.*

Posted by: Ryan. 23rd April 2016, 06:34 PM

You can see part of the televote scoreboard here: https://scontent-cdg2-1.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/e35/12918577_1038017046288664_2106824194_n.jpg

So there is 2494 televoting points up for grabs, can't quite tell at what stage of the reveal that is. Maybe that is the televoting points for 14th to 26th that they are flashing up together and then we'll get the top 13 individually?

Or it could be the full scoreboard with some of the televote points added on, for example the top 3 on the right-hand column have had their televote points revealed and added on?

Posted by: Ryan. 23rd April 2016, 08:39 PM

Full scoreboard here: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CgwQ5GtW4AA6BQp.jpg:large

So yes it seems like the first picture shows all the televote points placed straight onto the scoreboard except for the top 10 which are yet to receive their televote points - one of which is the UK!!!11

Posted by: PaulM1983 24th April 2016, 12:30 PM

Yes to these two

Posted by: ScottyEm 24th April 2016, 01:20 PM

Belarus are intensely adding as much shine to that turd of a "song" as possible then...

Posted by: Ryan. 26th April 2016, 07:56 PM

Updated rehearsal schedule has been edited into the first post, following Romania's removal and confirmation of meet & greet and press conference timings!

Posted by: AdamAloud 2nd May 2016, 08:19 AM

Rehearsals have kicked off with Finland

Posted by: Ryan. 2nd May 2016, 08:30 AM

I assume this isn't her stage costume is it?

Posted by: Ryan. 2nd May 2016, 08:32 AM

Moldova have brought their astronaut!

Posted by: AdamAloud 2nd May 2016, 08:35 AM

I've read Lidia Isac said that her stage perf will be very much similar to her official video.

Posted by: Ryan. 2nd May 2016, 09:28 AM

Posted by: AdamAloud 2nd May 2016, 09:32 AM

Somebody getting fired

Posted by: 💯 2nd May 2016, 09:57 AM

Vodim te na igranku na na na na igranku

Posted by: Iz~ 2nd May 2016, 10:08 AM

*.*

The second time astronauts-on-stage fail to make a song qualify?

Posted by: Vülker 2nd May 2016, 11:17 AM

Posted by: Vülker 2nd May 2016, 11:47 AM

lol Greece, go home you're drunk.

Posted by: Ryan. 2nd May 2016, 11:54 AM

I'll have a watch through those in a moment but Nina has apparently gone with an awful dress and a costume change, Croatia going with unneeded gimmicks yet again - did they not learn from Celebrate? Then again maybe Celebrate was so bad it needs gimmicks, but this certainly doesn't!

Posted by: AdamAloud 2nd May 2016, 11:54 AM

Nina Kraljic's dress is apparently a Barbara Dex contender.

Posted by: Vülker 2nd May 2016, 12:37 PM

Posted by: AdamAloud 2nd May 2016, 12:42 PM

!!

Posted by: Vülker 2nd May 2016, 12:47 PM

oh my days...

Posted by: Ryan. 2nd May 2016, 12:48 PM

Finland is nice but very forgettable, very Natalia Kelly from 2013. Greece are looking more and more likely qualifiers, they've thrown everything Greek in as possible and that usually attracts votes. Moldova is too reminiscent of Vilija for me, still don't see that going anywhere. Hungary very strong, only concern is his early draw.

That dress is horrendous, I guess it is a good thing that she gets rid of it after a minute!

Posted by: Ryan. 2nd May 2016, 01:10 PM

I've felt momentum build for Armenia in the past week, I just had a feeling it could do very very well and after her rehearsal the bloggers are saying top 5! Apparently she has Oscar Zia Human-esque camerawork which I've always thought would be perfect for this. Good work Iveta

Posted by: Iz~ 2nd May 2016, 01:14 PM

Nina KEEP THAT. what a twisted genius way of making sure the average viewer remembers an otherwise safe and normal song.

Posted by: LexC 2nd May 2016, 02:01 PM

I've seen people alleging that Iveta is basically rubbing one out on stage during her performance. I cannot wait to see this!

Posted by: Vülker 2nd May 2016, 02:17 PM

Posted by: AdamAloud 2nd May 2016, 02:39 PM

*.*

Posted by: Vülker 2nd May 2016, 02:40 PM

Posted by: Vülker 2nd May 2016, 02:46 PM

Also here's the Russian Delegation rehearsing the vocals backstage. Featuring a non-bothered Alvaro Estrella.


Sounding incredible!

Posted by: Ryan. 2nd May 2016, 02:50 PM

ESC Xtra are saying that the beginning (well quite a lot of it) looks like Hear Them Calling (Greta), then it transforms into something like Heroes and then ends up looking like the music video but he didn't finish the rehearsal as he fell off something. Sounds intriguing!

Posted by: Vülker 2nd May 2016, 02:57 PM

Precisely:

Posted by: AdamAloud 2nd May 2016, 03:01 PM

Russia is one of the few ESC countries that know how to do staging so it's a shame to hear that they've had to go and pinch from Iceland.

Posted by: Ryan. 2nd May 2016, 03:01 PM

I don't think the "backdrop like Iceland" thing will affect Russia, most people won't realise Iceland's version came first and Russia will be the first to show it so it'll harm Iceland more of the two. But if it is very similar to Mans, which I don't think Greta is at all, then they may have an issue.

I wouldn't read into the bloggers' reactions though for now, bound to overreact if the favourite isn't 100% amazing!

Posted by: Vülker 2nd May 2016, 03:19 PM

Posted by: Vülker 2nd May 2016, 03:42 PM

I see what they (kinda) mean:

Posted by: LexC 2nd May 2016, 03:56 PM

https://glavnews.org/articles/Sergei_Lazarev_upal_s_dekoratsyy_na_pervoi_repetytsyy_nomera_k_Evrovydenyiu-1462202230053

Posted by: Ryan. 2nd May 2016, 04:02 PM

I can see why bloggers think they've gone overboard, it doesn't have the beautiful simplicity of Mans or even Greta. But as long as they've got the camera angles right so it doesn't look too busy I'm sure it'll look amazing.

Posted by: gooddelta 2nd May 2016, 04:12 PM

Oopsie. That's ambitious staging, fingers crossed for him he makes it on the night but then he'll have had the chance to try it many more times by then. I can imagine it looking very good on stage if he does manage it though pretty OTT.

Posted by: Vülker 2nd May 2016, 04:13 PM

Ditto. This Belarus 2007 meets Sweden 2015 staging looks incredibly effective if anything, and together with the song it's all very meta.

Meanwhile here's San Marino:

Posted by: Vülker 2nd May 2016, 04:42 PM

Posted by: Ryan. 2nd May 2016, 04:44 PM

A full video of Russia has leaked:



It's extremely hi-tech, really really impressive. But it is going to lack the warmth Heroes had, its very clinical and it does look a bit busy at times. Still screams televoting winner, but juries could punish it for its similarity to Heroes in places, there definitely are similarities here.

Posted by: AdamAloud 2nd May 2016, 04:54 PM

That looks like a winner to me.

Posted by: 💯 2nd May 2016, 04:56 PM

That was pretty incredible! It starts off as Greta but by the middle loses all the similarities. Nothing like Måns as well. Hopefully he doesn't fall over during the perf lmao

Posted by: Ryan. 2nd May 2016, 05:03 PM

After today's rehearsals I'd rate their qualification chances in the following order:

100%
01. Russia
02. Armenia

75%
03. The Netherlands

50%
04. Greece
05. Hungary
06. Croatia

25%
07. Finland

0%
08. Moldova
09. San Marino

That would push Croatia definitely out and Hungary are very borderline as you definitely aren't getting 6 first half qualifiers and 5 is quite unlikely too.

Posted by: Vülker 2nd May 2016, 05:09 PM

f*** me, that was impressive enough in cam phone version, imagine how impressive it'll look during the actual broadcast.

I still maintain Russia is winning this easily.

Posted by: J▲hq 2nd May 2016, 06:56 PM

Celebrate and the gimmick that went with it were both amazing!

Hoping that Russia have thrown too much at the performance (together with the song being dated)

Posted by: Umi 2nd May 2016, 07:06 PM

The performance seems to have just enough interesting stuff in it for me, without going too far. I think outside of being a bit meaningless overall it's hard to criticise anything to do with it and that criticism isn't really a worthwhile one either. Looks hard to beat to me.

Posted by: ScottyEm 2nd May 2016, 08:18 PM

If we were back in the bad old days of pure televote said, is say Russia would be running away with this. However I just can't envisage The jury vote all over it. It's dated and in a very non-retro way. Sort of reminds me of the Greek entry from 2009.

Posted by: Umi 3rd May 2016, 03:05 AM

Have to wonder if people saying the jury won't like this aren't just saying that because they don't want the juries to like it. I really don't think this type of song being out of fashion will count that much against it, nor will comparisons to 'Heroes' (because the screen is used so differently). I mean, there's only been one year where the jury vote changed the winner anyway.

Posted by: J▲hq 3rd May 2016, 06:21 AM

I don't see it topping the jury vote when last year they could only manage 3rd with what I view as a more jury friendly song and I think there still is an element of marking Russia down from some people. I'd like to see Russia coming 2nd with the OGAEs being a negative for him too as I'd have thought that was like, Sergey's prime market. It's true that personally I'm actively hoping it won't win, but the one year of the jury vote changing the winner is quite relevant when it's the most recent year.

Posted by: Umi 3rd May 2016, 07:34 AM

I think you have some decent arguments (OGAE point seems interesting, though I'd argue that if anti-Russia sentiment is gonna show up anywhere, it's probably there). I was gonna say I was unwilling to argue against Russia's jury performance based on one instance (2015) but then I took a look and it turns out that every single year since the juries were introduced, Russia have done worse with the juries than they have with the televote. 'You Are The Only One' probably can assume a comparatively weak jury performance - the question is (of course) if their televote win (if it comes to be) is emphatic enough to negate the jury effect or if the jury are harsh enough to make their televote performance irrelevant.

Posted by: AdamAloud 3rd May 2016, 07:42 AM

Don't forget with the voting change, the juries can't drag down the televote when combined. Even though Italy came 6th with the juries last year, their televote score was high enough to still come 2nd overall if the new voting system was in place.

Posted by: LexC 3rd May 2016, 12:11 PM

So since Ryan is slacking, here's the videos that we have so far from today:

Czech Republic


Cyprus


Austria


The Czechs seem to have brought basically the same kind of graphics from the video, Cyprus are featuring Outrigger style cages and Austria are also bringing basically the music video onstage.

Estonia hasn't seemed to have gone down well and apparently is featuring a magic trick (Why?...Because it's Eurovision.) and Azerbaijan have just been rehearsing and Samra is allegedly way off key.

Posted by: Ryan. 3rd May 2016, 12:15 PM

I had a break while they had a break between Estonia and Azerbaijan and now I have a backlog of videos/meet & greets etc. to catch up on!

Just seen Samra's full rehearsal (last 4 minutes of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6DPrjyZOUk) and she does sound a bit off, but apparently for the last run through they've turned the back vocals up to full volume and have loads of pyros and the golden rain pyro as well so it's all good I hope! *.*

Posted by: Ryan. 3rd May 2016, 02:18 PM

By the sounds of it Ira is going to be going all Wiktoria on us with "cutting edge projection technology".

Posted by: Ryan. 3rd May 2016, 03:18 PM

After all of these high-tech, high-gimmick, high-"fashion" rehearsals, Frans is going to stand out wonderfully!

Posted by: Ryan. 3rd May 2016, 03:23 PM

Posted by: Ryan. 3rd May 2016, 03:35 PM

Posted by: LexC 4th May 2016, 10:15 AM

Israel's performance features a gymnast in a light-up hoop. Because it's Eurovision.

Posted by: LexC 4th May 2016, 11:54 AM

Good News, Belarus's Wolf nudity is confirmed. Bad News, it's all a projection and is generally a giant hot mess.

Posted by: AdamAloud 4th May 2016, 11:58 AM

I think you mistook which was the good news and which was the bad news just then Lex.

Posted by: Ryan. 4th May 2016, 02:09 PM

Israel have been received very very well and odds are tumbling accordingly!

Ireland were pretty poor it seems unsurprisingly.

Posted by: gooddelta 4th May 2016, 02:14 PM

All of these elaborate stageshows and graphics...I guess that was bound to happen as many will feel Heroes win could partly be attributed to that.

But yes, this is all making it very good news for Frans. I always thought the simplicity of If I Were Sorry would stand out and it certainly will now.

Posted by: Ryan. 4th May 2016, 02:17 PM

Quite 'Molitva' but I still think Sanja is being very underrated - she's had a great reaction in the press centre - and is in massive contention for top 5 in the final, get your each way bets on here!

Posted by: LexC 4th May 2016, 02:24 PM

From 9th out of 26 I'm not convinced. If the likes of Russia and Australia come on near the end I think people are more likely to remember the elaborate staging rather than the simplistic staging from when it was still light outside.

Posted by: Ryan. 4th May 2016, 02:29 PM

I have to agree, if Frans was on 19th out of 26 I think I'd be putting him favourite to win but the running order he has got is still leaning me towards Russia. If Russia draw the first half and then the likes of Malta or Iceland or Australia or Belarus or Armenia or whoever else has high-tech projection or hologram stage shows are in the second half then that could negate Sergey's staging advantage.

Posted by: gooddelta 4th May 2016, 02:32 PM

Please don't let Belarus through to the final

I'd be more than happy to see Sergey land the #2 performance slot, Russia pretty much always seem to bag a favourable draw of some sort.

Posted by: Ryan. 4th May 2016, 02:36 PM

It'd be amazing if so, but I guess in the days of producer decided running orders now it isn't ever going to happen - we'll never get a Safura drawing the #1 spot moment otherwise there would be outrage. With Sweden drawing 9th, if Sergey did get first half I'll be intrigued to see if SVT think it is going to be advantageous having Sergey on just before Frans or just afterwards as I guess he'll be between 7th and 13th - if I were SVT I'd be putting Sergey 7th or 8th as I think Frans would benefit from coming after the craziness of Russia. If Sergey gets second half I think it's going to be all over unless the juries really do mark him down.

Posted by: Ryan. 4th May 2016, 02:45 PM

Interesting Hovi has revealed they were planning to have drones on stage, but after seeing the high-tech rehearsals elsewhere they've abandoned them at the last minute. Also there are rumblings from Malta that they are considering dropping their projection mapping after it didn't work properly yesterday, we shall wait and see!

Posted by: LexC 4th May 2016, 02:52 PM

Did somebody say...manic pixie space age dream girl?

Posted by: ScottyEm 4th May 2016, 04:23 PM

Belarus qualifying is something I'm not emotionally prepared for. Awful Nickleback pastiche is not the one.

Posted by: Ryan. 4th May 2016, 04:44 PM

I can't see Belarus qualifying (I only mentioned them as I was reeling off a list of high-tech performances that came to my head), no more than 5 will qualify from the first half based on history and I see Latvia, Serbia, Lithuania as definites and I'm pretty confident Poland and Macedonia will be going through too - I'd probably rate Israel's chances higher than Belarus too unless IVAN's stage show really is incredible. (This means Ireland join Switzerland as the most chanceless of the half, poor Nicky but it's so average)!

Posted by: ScottyEm 4th May 2016, 05:45 PM

The odds suggest Ivan might as well book a return flight back to Minsk. Good stuff!

While I'm at it, I'd happily see Ireland out. So woeful and the lyrics are banal as.

Posted by: 💯 4th May 2016, 08:53 PM

I like Ivan's song. It's rather catchy although admittedly pretty dated

Posted by: Ryan. 4th May 2016, 10:18 PM

Kaliopi gave out donuts in her meet & greet after some journalists in past weeks (Wiwibloggs) commented that they thought she was singing donut rather than Dona, incredible! Sanja was absolutely hilarious in hers too, and she sung Oro at the end for the perfect ending.

I want to mention how amazing Nicky's attitude was as well, and he mentioned that any coutnries that do regularly vote for each other do so because of similar cultures and used Ireland/UK as an example rather than just reeling off Eastern coutnries. He was so positive about Eurovision throughout the whole meet & greet mentioning the stigma it has in the UK and Ireland and how the snobbery by most should not exist, he even said how he spoke to Simon Cowell a few years ago who would love to select a UK act one day according to Nicky (so that media story a few years back was true!). I hope if he doesn't qualify which I don't think he will, it doesn't leave a bad taste for him as he's a fantastic ambassador despite his average entry. Joe and Jake have been the same so far as well, I'll look forward to seeing what they have to say on Friday.

Also bonus points to Frans who said Joe and Jake were his favourite people who he met in London!

Posted by: 💯 5th May 2016, 05:08 AM

As if it matters what Frans thinks LOL

Posted by: AdamAloud 5th May 2016, 09:22 AM

Posted by: ScottyEm 5th May 2016, 10:32 AM

Poli should win based on attire alone.

Posted by: AdamAloud 5th May 2016, 11:11 AM

Ukraine's staging sounds bloody amazing, can't wait to see it.

Posted by: Ryan. 5th May 2016, 11:15 AM

I'm thrilled by the presence of endless dancers on Poli's LED screens, I was desperate for some good old choreography and while it's a shame they aren't real people dancing it should have a great effect. Apparently her backing singers become visible in the final chorus, hopefully on Saturday they decide to join the choreography too for added effect. Bookies seem to have responded very badly to Poli's rehearsal, out to 33/1 and some bloggers weren't fans at all but ESC Xtra say it was good.

Posted by: Ryan. 5th May 2016, 01:50 PM

Peter30 on ESC Xtra: "[Laura] is absolutely sailing into the final" *.*

Posted by: AdamAloud 6th May 2016, 07:23 AM

Time for the second rehearsals!

Posted by: AdamAloud 6th May 2016, 08:31 AM

Moldova now includes the 2nd verse in French!

Posted by: Umi 6th May 2016, 12:47 PM

Greece looked kind of good and kind of bad. The staging is better than I expected but the choreo is pretty tired and they don't seem particularly practiced. I feel slightly more like calling it a qualifier overall.

'LoveWave' looks like it'll be a moment.

Posted by: AdamAloud 6th May 2016, 12:58 PM

The Netherlands have 10 seconds of silence towards the end of the perf, I assume so people can 'slow down', but it just looks and feels really awkward and unnecessary.

Posted by: Vülker 6th May 2016, 02:38 PM

Armenia had my least favourite song but after that performance they really turned it around.

Also, I've asked Gabriela a question in the Press Conference! Such a journo now

Posted by: Vülker 6th May 2016, 03:17 PM

Bosnia is a hot mess on stage. The girls are oversized candy paper and Deen is dressed like a member of Gestapo. I CAN'T at this mess!

Posted by: LexC 6th May 2016, 03:26 PM

The weirdest thing is that somehow, despite itself, it all still works.

Posted by: Ryan. 6th May 2016, 04:51 PM

I think Malta have made a potential mistake here by scrapping the "never seen before" projection technology, despite us all saying everyone is too high-tech. It'll still qualify fine thanks to its draw, but I think it could get very forgotten in the final now as the stage looks a bit empty whereas this technology could have been a risk that paid off with a top 10 finish.

Of course I never saw this technology in action so it could've been awful, but it seems strange that they've gone as far as getting this expensive technology and haven't used it once considering it didn't work on Tuesday and it was ditched completely today.

Posted by: Ryan. 6th May 2016, 04:54 PM

On the positive side it seems like Greta has completely perfected her staging after a messy first rehearsal, the video looked amazing!

Posted by: Vülker 6th May 2016, 05:02 PM

Iceland looked amazing at the Arena.

France was just on. Shaky start with missed angles and a shaky vocal but the staging is super simple and charming. Reminded me of Alexander Rybak and gave me winner chills. Put a tenner on it!

Posted by: Ryan. 6th May 2016, 05:06 PM

The blogs seem to be quite negative about Amir, I don't know if it is because they are comparing a first rehearsal to everyone else today who are on second rehearsals or if it just isn't any good but your review seems positive!

But I've never seen Amir as a potential winner, but I would love him to be in contention! From everything I've seen I can't see past Russia, I can't see a scenario as to how they can be beaten.

Posted by: Vülker 6th May 2016, 05:10 PM

Yeah the reaction here was very muted. I think that was the problem, they've seen all of the other rehearsals twice and everything is so impressive, I don't think they were expecting Amir to stand there alone but I think that's a genius move.
I'm actually tired of all the gimmicks this year, everyone has projections and video walls and holograms, to see him just there singing and letting his charm take over is a genius move and it'll contrast greatly with everything else. Kinda like Frans but without the smug face.
I couldn't see past a Russian win but France reallt turned it to their favour IMO.

Posted by: Vülker 6th May 2016, 05:24 PM

There's something really wrong about his voice at the moment, second run through and he struggles so much with the high notes he completely and awfully botches it.
I'm hoping it's down to a cold or maybe he doesn't want to strain his voice but he's not sounding very good at the moment.
The staging is stellar though. I expect France to fall down the odds but I'm pegging it to the win out of everything I've seen so far.

Posted by: Ryan. 6th May 2016, 05:27 PM

Amir has struggled with the high notes in the final third in the song every single time he performs them live, I think he's done them well once in like 6 or 7 performances I've seen and this is why I've not been able to see him as a favourite so I doubt it is going to improve and it's a shame they put in these high notes if he can't sing them, especially as they weren't present in the original 3:30 version of the song.

Posted by: Vülker 6th May 2016, 05:32 PM

Oh I didn't know he always struggled with them. Colour me worried then.
Such a shame because everything else is coming together for them, it'll be such a big embarrassment if he struggles on the live broadcast.

Posted by: Ryan. 6th May 2016, 05:39 PM

Hopefully they'll tell him to sing them in a lower key, or turn the backing vocalists up - surely they won't leave him exposed as he has been in the pre-party performances as obviously this is a much more important performance!

Posted by: Vülker 6th May 2016, 06:21 PM

Spain just had a very good rehearsal, she has a bit when the music stops and she falls to the floor for dramatic effect but it works very well.

Also you can see me asking Gabriela a question at 12m53s here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij6gDKowUzg

I should've probably said "Hi I'm Walter for Buzzjack forums" but nevermind

Posted by: LUKΞ 6th May 2016, 07:05 PM

So cool Walter!
"Chovej se slušně"

Posted by: PaulM1983 7th May 2016, 10:27 AM

Seems like the UK rehearsal went down well. The vocals sounded excellent. Even though we'll clearly end up near the bottom, the boys will at least perform it well and the song's miles from being anywhere near bottom of the pack.

Little clip of the end of the song: https://twitter.com/chris_maccc/status/728892205759401984

Posted by: Ryan. 7th May 2016, 10:53 AM

Love the fact the UK odds are being slashed just because their rehearsal was not awful!

But it sounds promising anyway, although I wish the BBC would stop this obsession with having bands on stage recently like with Molly and with Bonnie instead of something more unique - but at least they only have drummers this time so it's an improvement.

Posted by: J▲hq 7th May 2016, 11:46 AM

I hope the selfie pictures look better on the night because the rehearsal clip on the Eurovision channel isn't selling me.

I'm resigned to another (undeserved, imo, as I think it's a great song) poor result, my one hope now is that the boys really enjoy the entire experience and aren't too disheartened if they finish bottom 5 next Saturday.

Posted by: Vülker 7th May 2016, 12:00 PM

Haha I couldn't resist! I thought I'd make her laugh

Posted by: Vülker 7th May 2016, 02:34 PM

Lithuania has a horrid styling and the staging is quite on the meh side. Also the trampoline jump is just awkward. Definite DNQ for me.

Posted by: Ryan. 7th May 2016, 02:47 PM

I'd be surprised if Lithuania DNQed, they are in the absolute perfect semi for their diaspora (whose impact will increase this year with new voting system) with Latvia, UK, Ireland, Poland and Belarus (and Georgia who they have a strangely loving relationship with) and I'd expect a good 50 televote points or so from those 6 countries. The song is good enough to pick up a few little points from elsewhere and his vocals are decent enough to get some decent jury support too so I do think he will be fine, the staging while a bit average at least isn't horrible and Donny does have stage presence from what I've seen.

The main downside is that Denmark and Ireland will split his votes, but Lithuania only seem to DNQ with horrendous songs (Attention) so I'm optimistic as it is one of my favourites! That said, I'm not convinced it is a certain qualifier as I was prior to rehearsals, it will be more like 8th-10th if it does get through. If it does DNQ then it'll be a very very close miss and it'd be a shame for Lithuania's best ever song.

I did see he fluffed the trampoline jump in his first run through today though, hopefully that doesn't happen again!

Posted by: Vülker 7th May 2016, 04:05 PM

It's a borderline qualifier if they sort out his styling. His hair and all three of his jackets were all very off putting. And the jump is cheesy as. It's not a good performance at all.

Posted by: Ryan. 7th May 2016, 04:10 PM

It's such a shame, Lithuania could've been on for a really good result if they'd got things right!

Loving the look of Poli's rehearsal, from what I can see the police/soldier dancers on the LEDs multiply as we get to each chorus which is fab and I like that the backing singers come out at the end for a big finish - I just wish we could have a big pyro finish but I guess Bulgaria can't afford to spend money on that.

Posted by: Vülker 7th May 2016, 04:51 PM

It works reallt well for Bulgaria. It's an unusual and simple performance but it works brilliantly. It reminded me a bit of Cheryl's FFTL X Factor performance, which can only be a good thing.

Posted by: ScottyEm 7th May 2016, 05:07 PM

I'm hearing good things from the press about Bulgaria.

But why does she keep drifting in the odds?! Almost makes me nervous she won't qualify (might be paranoia because I'm going to the jury final on Friday and I HAVE to see her live!).

Posted by: PaulM1983 7th May 2016, 05:10 PM

We can't see the tech she's using in this video, but Dami's vocal is perfection.



EDIT: Full rehearsal video:



It looks awful in that video as we can see her getting helped off that stupid box, and I'm not fond of the way she changed the big note and adlibs at the end. It loses some impact. They said in the press conference afterwards that they're being very clever to make sure that we don't see any of that stuff on the night though, so I guess the camera angles will hide her moving from the box.

Posted by: 💯 7th May 2016, 05:59 PM

I think it's ridiculously obvious none of that helping off the box will be shown to the world, only the audience will see it.

Posted by: AdamAloud 7th May 2016, 06:06 PM

This is going to be a real MOMENT!

Posted by: PaulM1983 7th May 2016, 08:03 PM

Yeah but it'll look awful to the audience though. It's so unnecessary and it'd look infinitely better with her standing behind the screens and then just moving forward when they move away.

Posted by: Robot 7th May 2016, 11:37 PM

Dami's staging looks very effective, with what is being described as an incredible vocal, that could stand out very well against all the big staging.

Posted by: 💯 8th May 2016, 05:31 AM

Lol who the hell cares how it looks like to the audience. You will make up for like 0.0000000000001% of all the viewing figures :')

Posted by: PaulM1983 8th May 2016, 08:12 AM

Yeah I know that's true, I just don't see the point in having her perched on some stupid box, limiting her movements. They're just creating problems when there needn't be any.

Posted by: 💯 8th May 2016, 08:17 AM

You should ask the director and whoever choreographed the number. I guess it was their vision. We won't know how it is supposed to look like until it's performed during the actual event so it's far too early to judge.

Posted by: gooddelta 8th May 2016, 09:25 AM

That does look great...reminds me of Ray Of Light era Madonna.

Posted by: Ryan. 9th May 2016, 05:31 PM

We've seen the graphics for the first time and the hashtags have stayed which I'm very pleased about as I loved them in the end, so I guess we'll get the hashflags made active on Twitter from tomorrow. Also a very different set of graphics than usual for the song info:



Looks good!

Posted by: Vülker 9th May 2016, 05:58 PM

They look really good. They use those same graphics for the qualifiers announcement, my favourite so far is Iceland's

Posted by: AdamAloud 9th May 2016, 06:48 PM

Pretty

Posted by: Ryan. 9th May 2016, 08:35 PM

Saw a very LQ video (see below) of the first minute of Armenia's performance on screen and that "sonic boom" as it is being called looks extraordinary. If the rest of the performance matches up to the first minute I'm not ruling out the victory for Iveta!

Posted by: Vülker 9th May 2016, 08:50 PM

I said time and time again that LoveWave was my least favourite Eurovision entry of the past 5 years but this performance is extraordinary and it's now well within my favourites.

Russia had the biggest cheer of the night, also big cheers when he starts climbing the wall and when he twirls in the stars...

Posted by: Ryan. 9th May 2016, 08:57 PM

I think when I see Iveta's performance, LoveWave will finally click with me properly too!

So it is 9.55 and they are up to the stage where they talk to 3 automatic qualifiers in the green room which leaves 5 minutes to show the clips of their songs (they are doing them live in this dress rehearsal of course so they are filmed ready for tomorrow so we can't know exactly if they were going to finish on time) and reveal the qualifiers - but I think they'll need to speed up a little bit tomorrow!

Posted by: 💯 9th May 2016, 08:59 PM

Oh god Armenia. Goosebumps everywhere. Amazing. I loved the song from the beginning but the performance should elevate it even further

Posted by: Ryan. 9th May 2016, 09:07 PM

The Russian jury have perhaps broken every rule in the book by doing this but they've Periscoped live from their jury room and you can see most of The Netherlands and Armenia here!

https://www.periscope.tv/100tskaya/1eaJbBgjnnoJX

Posted by: AdamAloud 9th May 2016, 09:13 PM

They don't seem to be paying much attention to the songs, getting up and walking about, talking over them like I would at home with family/friends.

Posted by: Ryan. 9th May 2016, 09:23 PM

People on ESC Nation have picked up that she had a + for Greece on her scoresheet and minuses for the others, but I can't say that I spotted that myself. So scandalous though even showing an empty scoresheet!

Posted by: 💯 9th May 2016, 09:26 PM

At least they had more or less relevant conversations throughout!

The whole walking in front of the screen is so crappy though. Ugh

Posted by: 💯 9th May 2016, 09:28 PM

What a dumb bitch though. I hope she gets disqualified now. What the hell.

Posted by: Ryan. 9th May 2016, 09:28 PM

Oh I'm glad that they were actually talking about the performances rather than the weather or whatever, although I'm not sure they are allowed to even do that are they? If this is common practice in quite a few juries, it is no wonder quite a few have such similar rankings when they get revealed after the show.

Posted by: LexC 9th May 2016, 09:41 PM

I don't think there's anything in the rules that the juries have to watch in complete silence so I don't think they've technically broken a rule but yes, it's a bit iffy.

Posted by: Liаm 9th May 2016, 09:50 PM

IVETA'S PERF OMGGGG

It's really really grown on me anyway but I think with the performance tomorrow it will fully slay me. It's definitely in my top 5 now regardless. Very excited for Jamala too, I had a feeling from pretty much the start it would end up being one of the more striking performances.

Posted by: 💯 9th May 2016, 10:08 PM

Forgot to say that one of the women there announced she was married to an Armenian guy so she's "for them" during the first seconds of Iveta's performance.

Posted by: Robot 10th May 2016, 02:02 PM

A lot clearer view of Joe & Jake's second rehearsal the other day, complete with pyros:



Looks spot on for the type of song it is to me!

Posted by: AdamAloud 10th May 2016, 03:30 PM

Leaky leak



Looks amazing *.* Be afraid Frans.

Posted by: Ryan. 10th May 2016, 03:41 PM

Very good, still can't see this being beaten! But I think there are easy improvements they could've made to this, there are lots of camera shots that show the whole screen but then with space around the screen which I think lessens/cheapens the effect - they should've zoomed it a little more so that the screen is all you can see at those points. Or towards the end the main LED screens match colour perfectly with the screen so it isn't noticeable and that is much better than the beginning when the white mini-screen contrasts with the darker main LED screens. Also when he's holding on to the top of the screen it looks very messy and strange.

That said, people seeing this the first time will be amazed and I am still amazed myself so this little issues won't be noticed. It's just that it could've been even better!

(Moved this to this topic as spoilers are contained!)

Posted by: LexC 10th May 2016, 04:19 PM

Spain/France/Sweden's performances that'll get montaged in tonight's show are also out there on Dailymotion. Spain I think is maybe struggling to translate onto the stage as opposed to the studio version which is a bit disappointing. France on the other hand I think is now back more into contention than people were saying it would be after the first rehearsals as the vocals did not seem anywhere near as bad as they've been made out to be. Still think it's going to struggle to win, especially from the first half but I'm expecting at least a Patricia Kaas type result. No real need for me to elaborate on Sweden given it's basically identical to the MF performance.

Posted by: Umi 10th May 2016, 05:20 PM

The backing singer France have gotten is hoooooooooorrible. The way they mesh with Amir's voice for the first two minutes or so (becomes a bit irrelevant towards the end) is just woeful and it ends up sounding like some horrible robotic filter is on his voice. Really hope that's sorted out. Staging is gorgeous and very clever in parts though and his vocals weren't at their worst.

Still can't figure out why 'Say Yay!' has such dark staging. Largely I thought it was good but the production sounds really weak.

Posted by: Ryan. 11th May 2016, 07:58 PM

Dami's vocals are absolutely phenomenal and she lifts quite an average song and makes it amazing. I'm calling jury winner in the final, never mind the semi-final!

Posted by: AdamAloud 11th May 2016, 08:14 PM

Not if Jamala has anything to do with it!

Posted by: Ryan. 11th May 2016, 08:18 PM

Jamala can be a close 2nd! But seriously I think Dami has a bit more universal appeal than Jamala which will give her a little more jury support, but I have no doubt Jamala will do much much better on the televote.

Posted by: AdamAloud 11th May 2016, 08:29 PM

Georgia have been allowed to perf again in the jury final because of technical issues the first time round.

Posted by: Ryan. 12th May 2016, 12:33 AM

Just seen the leaked UK performance from tonight and I have to say I was very underwhelmed, it's all very nice but nothing more as well as some very poor camera angles (yet again for the UK). It does make me think that the great reaction was because of the very low expectations before-hand so the fact that we have managed a competent performance has shocked everyone. But I'm reverting back to my bottom 6 prediction and it will contend with Germany for lowest of the big 5, but will probably beat Germany thanks to the draw.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x49xx4k_joe-jake-you-re-not-alone_fun (Italy and Germany are also on that channel but they may be deleted very quickly so bear that in mind)

And Italy is so so charming, they are contending for another top 10 I think - I'd be certain if it wasn't for their draw.

Posted by: J▲hq 12th May 2016, 07:11 AM

Poor juries

Posted by: Ryan. 13th May 2016, 04:10 PM

UK have just been announced as the winner of the televote in the fake voting (!), but do they have enough points to beat current leaders Armenia?

EDIT: It isn't enough, Armenia win and UK finish 4th!

Posted by: Silas 13th May 2016, 08:09 PM

Dami was just up and I think she somehow managed to be better than the semis. That was a winners performance

Posted by: Ryan. 13th May 2016, 09:11 PM

If anyone wants to see the new voting system in action, here is what happened in the dress rehearsal this afternoon:

Posted by: LexC 13th May 2016, 09:30 PM

The tension building is really brilliant in that clip. Also noticed the MF style split-screen when it gets down to the last four in the televote results. Oh for the drama of a potential Russia-Ukraine top 2 in that situation!

Posted by: Silas 13th May 2016, 10:02 PM

I'm currently watching how it unfolds in the jury final to see how it works. Amazing how crap the satellite links are in 2016

Belgium are currently smashing it

Posted by: Ryan. 13th May 2016, 10:20 PM

Keep going Belgium! *.*

Here's Barbara giving the German votes a few minutes ago: http://fs5.directupload.net/images/160514/jvh37zzm.jpg

Posted by: gooddelta 13th May 2016, 10:29 PM

Interesting! Tomorrow could be very interesting indeed if some of the favourites get lower than expected jury scores. (Imagine Russia coming 14th with the juries or something - I can pray - and the big wait to see if that would be enough to negate the huge televote!).

Posted by: Silas 13th May 2016, 10:38 PM

Belgium won the jury final! Russia and Australia under performed and Sweden did quite well. Think there was some wishful thinking by Jon Ola there!

Posted by: PaulM1983 13th May 2016, 11:52 PM

I'm confused, how do we know the jury scores? I thought they were revealed on the main show tomorrow?

Posted by: Ryan. 14th May 2016, 12:35 AM

They just use made up scores so they can test out the entire voting process in the dress rehearsals, but the only real scores will be on tomorrow night's live broadcast.

Posted by: LexC 14th May 2016, 12:38 AM

Nah, they just use fake results in the jury final as a test run through for the voting to make sure everything is working and can run to time.

Posted by: ScottyEm 14th May 2016, 09:08 AM

I was there last night. We didn't stay for the votes as we were knackered. I will say though that it was a blindin show, best one for a long while!

Posted by: BillyH 14th May 2016, 02:15 PM

Felt really sorry for poor Iveta at today's rehearsal, she suffered a major technical failure and couldn't hear anything which obviously was causing her distress, but shrugged and finished the song - note perfect - to a rapturous supportive reception. She apologised to the audience afterwards but there was no need as she was still brilliant.

Good job it didn't happen last night!