Moldova

Next up are Finland who are doing exactly what they are supposed to do. They deliver their punk track with ease.

Nothing much has changed since they won the national final in Finland. They are consistent performers, but overall their entry and their performance lacks that little something to really win over the audiences in my opinion.

I had them down as qualifiers, but after today's rehearsals, I think Finland might actually struggle to qualify.

All very tight and works so well now that this is sure fire qualifier. Super sexy show to open the whole contest with and vocally has improved vastly since we saw Eduard at the National final many months ago

No pyros which is a little disappointing but we do have a shirt ripping moment now so that's a huge bonus....

Eduard from Moldova, who's actually from Ukraine, gets to open today's long day of rehearsals.

And he does so with all the energy he has. There haven't been any changes in the act itself or the backdrop.

As I said in the first rehearsal, Eduard is an all round entertainer and he proves that; it is so difficult having to dance and sing at the same time and Eduard makes it look so so easy. I think we have a great show opener here.

Two tiny mistakes, Eduard shirt not being ripped properly and he tripped first time around too.

Seeing Moldova more and more as a definite qualifier.

What a nice evening we spent with Samira at Eurowies’n Night today at Belvedere Palace. The Belvedere is a historic building complex in Vienna, consisting of two Baroque palaces, the Orangery, and the Palace Stables. The buildings are set in a Baroque park landscape and it houses the Belvedere museum now.

How did we get to know about it? We received invitations from our press bags stating that we need to be dressed up “beautiful, colourful, traditional”. Unfortunately we were not aware of this beforehand to bring at least some traditional accessories with ourselves from our countries. We thought that everyone will follow our thoughts so there will be no one wearing national costumes. But we were surprised, people took a lot of care and attention about this night. Most of the invited were dressed up “properly”.

By the way, at the entrance we were given two vouchers for free drinks each and a flute of proseco. We realized that they were giving a lot of drinks for free until they finish with them. After that we could use our vouchers for soft drinks and spirits.

It all started with the speech of the organizers of the event and the management of the Belvedere complex. The views of the area are amazingly beautiful. After a while, we met Bojana (Serbia), she was very open to public, taking picture and explaining the meaning of her traditional dress. The dress is a fusion of the southern and northern part of Serbia, but the shoes she’s wearing are very traditional in each part of the country.

From EuroParty, May 14

All of a sudden girls and boys started serving food to everyone. They served traditional food from each country (40 different dishes – starters, mains and deserts). We had Salmon cake from Norway, Prawns with egg from Denmark, Melon yoghurt salad from Cyprus, Chocolate kiss from Slovenia, Banana cake from Australia and many many many more! I don’t have that much time to describe the variety of foods that was offered.

At the same time music started. Traditional Austrian music. No, wait! It’s the Eurovision songs of this year sang the Austrian way with an ascent. Powerkryner was very energetic, very enthusiastic and full of life. The dancers – 6 girls are just awesome, they could dance and entertain public till morning I think. We found out that this band won an award in traditional Austrian contest as the best traditional band in Vienna last year.

Later on we met with some other participants from Moldova (Eduard Romanyta) and from Romania (Voltaj). They all were wearing their national costumes, and we received a gift from Eduard (a CD with Eurovision song + remix and 6 other songs).

From EuroParty, May 14

I think we are very lucky to visit such an event. We spent the time the best way ever with even some practical use – we got to know and taste a lot of traditional dishes. And you have to! Here’s the menu of today’s evening!

From EuroParty, May 14

Thank you very much wienerwiesnfest.at for this event!

Moldova this year has the honour to open the semi finals, so they've grabbed every possible opportunity to make a huge show.

Their singer, Eduard, is flanked by three dancers, 2 male and 1 female, who are wearing leather police uniform albeit, short trousers. Eduard spends most of his time on a prop on stage, which lets him walk onto it, together with the female police officer. Beside the prop, the backing vocals are also present onto the stage, a technique which wasn't really used last year so glad to see these people, also dressed as police officers, being given their time in the spotlight; there's two of them.

It's high energy throughout for Eduard. He has a difficult routine, which he just brushes off with ease and he's not compensating his vocals either. So a very impressive start for Moldova, for which the backdrop is mainly Red in the chorus. Sex sells, as last year showed when Poland provided us with plenty of boob, so in my opinion a good old shot of a bum cheek and Eduard losing his shirt towards the end couldn't really be left out from the performance. I like it!

So, a very solid first rehearsal, which our Ukrainian-Moldovan friends should be very very very happy with, and should also easily see them qualify.

Huit Points!

Well, we finally got the picture of the first rehearsal of Eduard Romanyuta (I Want Your Love) in the press centre. Only the picture with the performance as the sound was very pour in our area, so I cannot judge on his vocals.

The performance is very impressive with girls in short leather shorts producing sexy movements. The camera work was not set up yet very well but I think they will fix it eventually. There is a big construction (platform) in the middle of the stage which is used by the "police women" mostly. And the performers are using the whole stage which is a big plus for them.

Well there seem to be lots of police uniforms on stage, with some very very sexy girls and boys all over the place!

But as yet we have no live feed in the press centre

All this sex going on first thing in the morning, vocally fine, but this staging....OMG.....just dripping sex all over the place.....nice way to open the 2015 contest

Soooooooo much leather everywhere and full use of thew whole stage.....is Moldova the new Ukraine....oh wait :-)

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