Opinion

Not a fan of Lighthouse X I'm afraid. Second run was much better than the first one, which was stopped three times. The boys are competent singers but the song is just too middle down the road.

The performance here in Stockholm is pretty much the same as the one we saw a few months ago in the national final. Backdrop colour scheme: You guessed it right... Blue and white again... Come on SVT be a bit more adventurous.

I simply can not get excited about Denmark, sorry.

Bulgaria are one of the three countries to return to the Eurovision Song Contest this year and they are doing so with a bang.

They have a great song to start with and a great performer. Poli has such charisma which oozes from the screen. During the intro verse, we have a close up shot from Poli, who then starts singing, before she unveils her gladiator outfit.

For the chorus, she's dancing a routine, which at first looks a little weird, but is in fact pretty cool as well.

The backdrop consists mainly of a silver, blue and gold scheme, with snow effect all the way through the backdrop and LED floor. Two panels however change to silhouettes during the chorus, showing silhouettes doing the same routine as Poli does. For the final chorus, the four backing singers have also joined Poli to the front of the stage.

Vocally it sounds ok, a few shaky points at times, but nothing really to worry about.

Qualifying should be very easy.

Oh dear, Ireland.... Much much much improvement needed I'm afraid.

The red staging is completely wrong, the female backing vocalist should really have been a male vocalist, and Nicky just doesn't seem to show the experience he had from doing all these tours with Westlife.

Back to the drawing board for Ireland.

I was not a huge fan of this song before I started to see it on the promo tour, and how she delivers it so well....

Now finally she is in Stockholm and there is something palpable about this that grabs you from the very first note. Amazing delivery

Hovi simply stands there and delivers this perfectly to be honest. Stage looks amazing for this, literally stars everywhere with some dancers in hula-hoops to the side which is mildly distracting if I am honest....

Still this is sailing through to the final. Well done

First blood to Rykka for the (semi-) effective use of the now classic pyro waterfall

First rehearsal for Rykka, who has dyed her hair for the occasion in blue.

Vocally Rykka is getting really comfortable with her entry. She keeps getting stronger vocally as her rehearsal progresses.

I'm however not completely keen on the outfit she's currently wearing for a variety in reasons. One of them being it's not very flattering this black sequins top, with a smokey grey/purple see through skirt. It's more the material really which looks like the type of material used for ribbons used on wedding chair sachet covers. ( Really sorry Rykka)

Considering there is a blue blackdrop, the dress really does not work here and I do hope Rykka reconsiders the outfit, perhaps going for something more elegant, as she was wearing in the national final. A white outfit, would make the performance look really elegant and stand out in that sea of blue.

I do like the song, and Rykka seems very lovely too. I think styling here is the main issue though.

So ok this is a technical rehearsal....hence vocals are not on point this morning

That said the look at the staging is great, there violinists, a pianist and Michał in the middle delivery as he does, similar to what we have seen on the promo tour.

Not too sure on the sliver waistcoat though

Well I am feeling his heartbeat

Love this song from the very beginning, even though we are to realising anything on stage that is different too much from the National `Final or the promo tour

Nice leather jacket, colours work on stage soooooo much better than the Estonia mess from yesterday. Full use of the stage and delivering the energy of this song perfectly with a mean and mood stare right at the end to finish off the whole thing...

Sailing through this semi....

Greta Salóme has returned to Eurovision and she's doing so with a style that's closer to her heart. (She told us so in our interview at London).

The outfit has been upgraded a little bit and the biggest change really is the act is being played out bigger, than it was in the national final. There's also new camera angles, which are looking pretty good.

Greta's such a professional performer that you can not fault her vocals at any point, she's an absolute expert. I do feel however that at the moment the movements working with the LED are not quite on par yet. Mind you, translating the concept to a bigger stage, does take a little time to adjust.

Keep up the good work Iceland!