Today contained a mixture of the last three acts in the first heat, the first five acts of the second one, and the first rehearsals of the automatic qualifiers. We got off to a very strong start with Armenia’s Artsvik. She’s in a mesh black trouser suit, sounding great, and there’s a very coherent look and feel to the performance.

Slovenia’s Omar Naber was in fine voice today, and the staging was doing everything it can for the predictable ‘On My Way’. The LED panels that surround him give a sense of intimacy that plenty of others lack. He kneeled for the second verse, and the panels rose during the bridge.

Latvia’s Triana Park sounded better in their second rehearsal, because they have increased the volume of the backing singer in the chorus. Agnese, now in full 90s club gear with her gold boots, still struggles in the verses. This is a genre that hasn’t traditionally found favour with jurors or televoters, but they are one of the few upbeat songs, and do have the pimp slot.

Continue reading Eurovision 2017: May 5 rehearsals

It was guilty pleasures morning in the Eurovision press centre. San Marino offered a stage with stripes and shapes in rainbow colours. Jimmie and Valentina were both in black for ‘Spirit of the Night’; he removed his jacket near the finale, though Valentina didn’t do the same with the handbag she was wearing. There was nothing wrong with the vocals or chemistry here.

Croatia’s Jacques Houdek was also in black, in front of a utopian landscape that included sunflowers and rainbows towards the end. He had two men on strings join him for the middle eight. There were also three backing singers who grouped around in a friendly manner at the end. Jacques turned from one side to the other depending on which of the two voices he was singing, and he had no problem pulling the “duet” off.

Continue reading Eurovision 2017: May 3 rehearsals

Like Sweden yesterday, today’s first rehearsal from Greece had some early-morning vocals. The rainy dark-blue backdrop was nicely dramatic, and Demy looked amazing in beige as she walked onto a platform which lifted her for the first chorus. She was then joined by two topless male swan dancers. For the middle eight a screen projected a waterfall between her and the audience, before she walked in front of it for the climax. The camera angles needed a similar amount of polish as the vocals, but that’s what rehearsals are for.

Continue reading Eurovision 2017: May 1 rehearsals

Eurovision rehearsals begin this Sunday in Kiev – the full timetable is here. I’ll be tweeting from the press centre throughout, and providing an end-of-day summary on Sofabet as usual.

As before, there will only be short, official video clips of first rehearsals on Eurovision.tv. For second rehearsals onwards, many other sites, among the best of them esckaz.com and wiwibloggs, will be allowed into the arena to film the performances in full.

Over the last few days, delegations have seen the results of preliminary stage rehearsals. The general feeling is that preparations are less forward than at the same point in recent years. This suggests that first rehearsals will be more rough than ready, especially the high-concept ones, so we may need to be even more cautious about jumping to conclusions.

Continue reading Eurovision 2017: Latest on upcoming rehearsals