Romania

Romania is next to rehearse after the lunch break. Lead singer Cristina is as good vocally as she was on the first rehearsal, but in the hall the sound seems to echo around a lot.
The dolls on stage looks strange from the hall as well..

In just about 15 minutes the first rehearsal of today will start, which is Armenia.
We start the day with the remaining 4 countries of semi final 1 who will each do their second rehearsal which will be blogged live from the arena like yesterday. The same goes for the first five countries of the second semi-final.

After all these we get to see the first 30 minute-rehearsals from the BIG-5 countries + Portugal. These rehearsals will go on well into the evening, so loads happening today, stay tuned!

Next is Romania with a surprise at the start already, as we see a blonde woman walking over the stage and you expect her to sing when the intro is over, but then the camera zooms out to reveal Criso tina wearing a purple dress. Next to her are the two guitar players wearing a white mask on the back of their head.

Later on we get to see the stage is actually filled with dolls with white masks. Cristina walks around the stage quite a lot with many emotions but those dolls are rather distracting. After the first run there is still some work to do with the camera shots, but the reaction from the press hall is pretty positive and that might be attributed largely to her excellent vocals.

Romania up next. The stage is littered with mannequins with white masks and they have the full-on band. Interesting opening sequence, with the violinist walking on before the lead singer appears unexpectedly. Solid first rehearsal and will no doubt qualify due to the Romania semi-final effect.

Romania 1st rehearsal. Theatrical commedia dell'arte staging. Many masked mannequins, band members close together. Goodbye? #eurovision

— ESCKAZ Chris (@EsckazChris) May 1, 2018

Day three of rehearsals and a first chance to see Norway and one of the favourites, Australia. We'll also hear from Romania, Serbia, San Marino, Denmark, Russia, Moldova and the Netherlands.

Coming on right after Malta gives a huge boost to Romania. Not that they were in need of it to be honest.
A few fixes with Romania's staging were applied, the camera could still focus a bit more on Ilinca since she is only in the picture with Alex together and hardly gets any close up shots until her solo.

No pyros were allowed for Romania so we still don't know what the cannons will be shooting, but if I was a betting person I'd go with confetti.

Romania is next on stage. Even before we've seen Ilinca and Alex Florea perform we know that the canons are still there - despite the problems Alex had with it during the first rehearsal. The first run shows it's still hard for him to keep his balance on it while he brings it to the centre of the stage, affecting his vocals as well.

In the three runs different positions for the canons are tried out. In the first and last run, the canons are situated in the corners of the stage each of them facing a different corner. The second run has the canons further back on stage but in the direction of the audience. The last time Alex has no problem keeping his balance but seems to move the canon a bit less which means that in the last minute or so the duo is not right in the centre. Due to this, some camera shots are not what they should be.

Ilinca is wearing a simple, short red dress but has some in-ear problems (can't hear) during the first tun so it is cut off and restarted. Alex is dressed mostly in black, with a beige/grey t-shirt with short sleeves under his top. The full first run shows largely the same graphics as we saw before. The graphics are all very bright and colourful but still too childish for me, the flowers (shown as if they're drawings by children) don't make it any better.

Generally, vocally it's still ok but the canons are still an issue. Hopefully it will be sorted out in time.

Here's my day 3 review:

The big winners of 1st half 2nd semi for me today were:

- Romania.
This is an easy one. The overall package is much more fun than what we have seen in the Romanian National Final.
What they can improve: More camera focus on Ilinca as Alex takes too much space at the moment.

- Denmark.
Just a superb performer in every run through. I can not believe how well she handles the camera interaction.
What they can improve: Change her outfit so it fits better to the color scheme of the backdrop.

The losers of today:

There weren't any losers today. Serbia did not get a lot of love from the press centre, but it was early morning and I have praised for them for the current and clean look of their staging.

So congratulations to all delegations today! Good job!

Romania, oh boy, where to start?
Maybe instead of listing what's there I should list what isn't there?

Ok, let's try this...
Here's my impression:
The backdrop looks at times like a computer learning programme for 5-7 year olds. there are butterflies, sheet music notes, letters, random geometry stuff, a wormhole?
For the climax they are bringing out the big guns. Literally. Alex rides on top of a cannon directed at audience.
We don't know what they will shoot, as it wasn't revealed today.