1) Pavlo Hrytsak: OGAE has received full requested quota of tickets, in fact number of tickets requested by fan network were returned unsold.
2) Jon Ola Sand: No decision on Russia/Ukraine case until next reference group meeting in June. No decision has been drafted. Decision will be taken based on rules, but also considering special situation. Ukrainian decision to ban entrance to Russian entrant undermines non-political nature of the contest.
3) Second semifinal: Hosts will be playing instruments in the opening act: Vova playing accordion and Alex playing sopilka. Both will play live. Then there is mix of Fairytale/Euphoria/My Number One/ Rise Like a Phoenix rearranged in the Ukrainian style with dance performance
Interval act: Contemporary dance by Apache Crew with 51 dancers.
4) No preliminary dates for 2018 yet, but they will be announced by the end of the week.
5) One minute before the 1st semi show there was broken led element in the floor of the stage, it was replaced with 2 seconds to spare. There were issues with 2 minute loss of connection for Australian commentary.