Poli should win based on attire alone.

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

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.

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

Time for the second rehearsals!

 

 

Moldova now includes the 2nd verse in French!

 

 

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.

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.

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 :lol:

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!

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!

 

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

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!