Finland

The Finnish stage show is basically the same as in the national final, so there's not really much to say about it. Some camera shots need a bit of work and also the sound mix wasn't perfect during the first run, but otherwise great. It's one of my personal favourites this year so I'm glad it seems to go well this year. The only thing I'm afraid of is that it might be too big a contrast after Montenegro. It's two completely different worlds.

Not really much to add from the next runs. Still sound issues but it's hard to say whether that's just in the press centre or if it'd transfer on screen as well.

Mike;

Finland No
Greece No
Moldova Maybe
Hungary Yes
Croatia Yes
The Netherlands Yes
Armenia Yes
San Marino No
Russia Yes
Czech Republic Yes
Cyprus Maybe
Austria Yes
Estonia Maybe
Azerbaijan Yes
Montenegro No
Iceland Yes
Bosnia and Herzegovina Yes
Malta Yes

So someone will miss out from my predictions, and sadly I think it will be Austria

From Daniel;

Finland No
Greece No
Moldova Maybe
Hungary Yes
Croatia Yes
The Netherlands Yes
Armenia Yes
San Marino No
Russia Yes
Czech Republic Yes
Cyprus No
Austria Yes
Estonia No
Azerbaijan Maybe
Montenegro No
Iceland Yes
Bosnia and Herzegovina Yes
Malta Yes

Some slight disagreements here, but more or less we agree this year

Anyway what the hell do we know.....though we usually get 7-9 out of 10

Finland
Ok so this is kinda competent but that's all really. Nothing much else to say, the vocal could do with some work really, but in the arena it looks nice as an opener to the show. Still in the cat suit, still using the whole of the stage hope this works out for them

Greece
The big surprise for me so far, was never going to give this much hope tbh, but it looks really cool not he stage, and we have short ripping off moments so early in the show which is always a good thing

Moldova
Starting to come together for Lidia now, vast improvement on her first run through. Well done.

So Finland gets to start off the rehearsals.

Sandjha's wearing a blue cat suit, she's flanked by five backing vocals who are all wearing black catsuit outfits too. The song in itself is adequately sung, but it misses a bit of an impact at the moment. The overall colours of the backdrop for the verses in the beginning are blue and purple, but once the chorus kicks in we get a yellow and orange vibe.

Sandjha's starting off her song by herself, and is only joined by the backing vocalists during the first chorus. They are walking towards her from the back of the stage to the microphone statives, which you can see Sandjha's dancing around during the first verse.

There's a bit of dancing, a bit of posing and a some slow moving twerking, something fans will know from the official video. Sing it Away is adequately sung, but at this moment the staging needs a bit more excitement and something visual to keep the viewers entertained coming next Tuesday.

Sing it away
Can't really see the screen right now as uploading video, but I can hear the rehearsal going on. Vocally much better than what she delivered in Tel Aviv when I saw her last time

Smattering of applause in the press centre for the first run through

We had a chance today to see the opening ceremony of the Eurovision Village at the City Hall Square with a unique show idea FASHION FOR EUROPE. The idea is about designers and brands from many different participating countries building bridges through fashion.

In total it took 1.5 hours to present 14 brand: Agnesa Vuyhaj (Albania), Sinoian (Armenia), Lena Hoschek (Austria), Fakhriya Khalafova (Azerbaijan), Bernard Depoorrter (Belgium), Ivana Helsinki (Finland), Atelier Michalsky (Germany), Galia Lahav (Israel), Calzedonia (Italy), Daili (Lithuania), Sanja Matijevic (Montenegro), Blessus by Michael Hekmat (Poland), Adelina Ivan (Romania), Julian Zigerli (Switzerland).

PKN from Finland are doing exactly what's on the tin, they are bringing us a decent piece of punk.

Yes it's a bit short, and it unfortunately stops right at the time that I'm getting quite into it , but never the less the Finns will be the talk of the town during semi final 1.

Not much has changed from the performance in the national final. We're getting golden light beams and an a brick wall backdrop.

What works in their favour is their stadium feel punk track and PKN are certainly professionals when it comes to bringing the music.

Finland, Sept Points!

We all have different music preferences. And this is my case. This type of music is not my cup of tea for sure.

The performance starts with bright lights projected to the audience and fog all over the stage. You can see that all members of the band are enjoying their time on the stage. And I don't think they are stressed at all, they look very confident.

I've no idea whether they go to final, really no thoughts about it.

Well, you get what you expect here. Even the promised increase of share of smoke on stage. The band apart from Tony look like they are really enjoying it on the stage, Tony is a bit of adapting still.

I can't see it missing the final, it will get enough of votes and this is the most important entry to have in final this year to generate better viewing rates, so I'm more in the camp of "doing very well", rather than "relegated in the semi".

Finally that moment in 2015 arrives when the first countries grace the 2015 Eurovision stage for the very first time, we kick off this morning with Moldova, Armenia, Belgium and The Netherlands and then skip into the afternoon with Finland, Greece, Estonia and finishing the day but no means least Macedonia

We come at the rehearsals with some preconceptions as to what will be good, bad and indifferent as we have already seen performances from many of the delegates on the promo tour.....but forget all that WE WILL clear our small brains of all this and open a totally open mind and be as objective as we can

Just a few more hours and clips from www.eurovision.tv should be online plus opinions from the 5 million other bloggers about to unfurl their (sometimes brutal) honesty on the world