Serbia 24
Lithuania 4
Greece 9
Azerbaijan 19
Georgia 25
Switzerland 13
Hungary 5
Finland 1
Russia 10
Iceland 21

I'm wearing the scarf of delegation who brings it first to me :)
Just a reminder, there are scarfs for all countries at Eurovision memorabilia shop in a press-center!

Has started and I'm eager to answer any of yours qustions now.
Я готов ответить на ваши вопросы пока идет прогон.
Костюмов конкурсных сейчас почти ни на ком нет. Не практически - ни на ком. В стирку что ли отдали ))
Заставки вот мне нравятся, еще вчера хотел отметить. И ролик продолжающих их в интервале.
Эмми поет только полпесни, остальное время только танцует. Видимо все еще не совсем здорова.
Интервал акт я вижу в первый раз, какие-то странные барабанщики. Жуткая психоделика.

Объявляют так: показывают в центре флажок страны, справа список, слева ведущую. Потом показывают артиста.

Эфир закончен - всем спасибо.

Today it is D-Day.... it is finally here, what we have all been waiting on tenterhooks for! .. Semi-Final 1 of the Eurovision Song Contest 2011! Yaaaay .....

So ... this morning, Tam and I thought we'd take a wonder up to the old town where eurovision central, aka Eurocafe/club is situated.... we wanted to soak up the atmosphere of eurocafe/club during the day and share some photos and thoughts with you on this glorious day!!

From Drew & tam, Semi 1 Day 10th May

From Drew & tam, Semi 1 Day 10th May

From Drew & tam, Semi 1 Day 10th May

As you can see, we arrived at the old town early in the day but eurocafe quickly began to fill with fans and delegations and artists from around Europe. Just to note for those of you who haven't been to a live eurovision, fan central is called Eurocafe during the day right up to 10pm and then it turns into Euroclub. Anyone can go to Eurocafe but usually only those with some form of accreditation, for example Press or Fan, can get into Euroclub where a number of delegations have held their parties.

As you can see, eurocafe/club is quite a large venue... the club actually is behind the eurocafe but is joined by huge partition doors which are opened at 10pm when eurocafe becomes euroclub!

It is a fantastic atmosphere at any time of the day. You can have a nice meal or snack at eurocafe with a drinky or two of your choice whilst listening to constant eurovision songs past and new! A eurovision fans dream!!

Today, as it is semi final 1.... the place was full of fans, people from OGAE Germany and assorted national network TV crews with great big mic booms and enormous tv cameras etc... At one point we noticed a queue forming and a lot of excited squeals from fans... so Drew mosied over to see the score and also squealed when discovering it was Dino Merlin from Bosnia Herzegovina signing his CD. Drew and Tam promptly joined the queue and as you can see Drew got his picture taken with the lovely Dino. Drew commented to Dino about how nice his suit was and Dino replied thank you and gave a huge smile... he said he liked the UK song and wished the UK good luck at eurovision and Drew likewise wished the lovely Dino all the best for semi-final 2 on Thursday.

See Drew and Tam's excellent review of the party from last night......

http://www.esckaz.com/new/en/blog/israeli-party

Just to add to that that this was probably the first real party that we attended so far this year, apart from the excellent Georgian party that other day.......

Great night out and there were some surprise guests at the party too.....

From Israeli Party for Independance day

Dana International sang live and was actually very very good, singing 4 songs in total and generally looking the Diva that she is;-)))

From Israeli Party for Independance day

Another highlight for us was seeing Blue (United Kingdom) there and sadly there was a mix up with the music so they sang acapella.....

Dana's performance is here.....only Ding Dong I'm afraid......

Rest of the photos are here......

Having found out that the Israeli party was just around the corner from our hotel, we decided that we ought to go. It started at 9,30pm and we were there prompt but the queue to get in was already huge! Even standing in the queue was interesting as we watched various delegation and artists arrive for the Party.

The Israel Party was timed quite well for it was Israel Independence Day and also 13 years since Dana last won Eurovision in Birmingham.

Eventually in, the place was packed. It seemed to be in a night club which was hired out by the Israel delegation but it was filled to capacity. We found ourselves a little spot where we could take photos and video, got some drinks as we daren't move and settled in for the evening!

They played eurovision songs, old and new, mostly of Israeli songs of course and lots of past Greek entries. Those israeli dancer boys from euroclub were there dancing on stage which provided much fun entertainment! As a crowd warmer, two girls from Abba-lite sang abba songs, always a crowd pleaser!!

Mika for the Ukraine came on and sang her song, as did Maja for slovenia, Anastasiya for Belarus (who was fab btw), Vlatko for Fyrom (without guitar) and we think the Dutch entrants sang after we had left!

However special mention must go to Dana International.... obviously she got a huuuugggeeee cheer from the crowd and was met with lots of wooops and claps... she came on and sang Ding Dong first of all which went down well and everyone danced. Then she introduced the writer of Diva and then sang Diva... much to the shrieks of delight to the crowd. Then Dana treated the audience to another song from her repertoire and she was joined by the little israeli lads on the stage who danced around her. Dana International was fantastic and definitely knows how to woo the audience.

Nadine for Austria came on after Dana and she and her backers sang Hallelujah in accapella style and she brought the house down. her voice is magnificent and she is just stunning. As we said in an earlier blog, watch out for Austria.... this girl CAN sing!! Then Nadine sang her eurovision entry The Secret Is Love and the crowd adored her....

Fate's funny you know... Tam and I were only saying in the looonnngg queue that Blue weren't doing any parties, we thought, and how strange that was! Shortly before Dana came on, the compare lady came on stage and just said .. "they're in the building.." and the crowd screamed and cheered and wooped and we wondered for a moment who she was talking about.... then it dawned on us that she was talking about Blue!!! So, on Blue came to much cheers and then sang a bit of I Can in accapella and merged it into another of their songs to give the crowd a teaser ... the crowd loved them, as did the female compare who seemed to like Duncan James.

It was a great night and we came home in the early hours quite tired, slightly worse the wear for German beer, but we had had an excellent night!

Photos to follow ....

On the eve of the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Dusseldorf, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein has presented the world premiere of the "Grand Prix de l'Opera". Сlassical music fans from across Europe were able to vote for the most popular opera hits on www.grandprixopera.de or over the phone and top 12 most voted pieces have been performed at Düsseldorf's opera house by the International Soloist Ensemble of Deutsche Oper am Rhein and the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, conducted by General Director of Music Axel Kober. Versatile entertainer Barbara Schöneberger has hosted the event.

Soloists: Sami Luttinen (Finland), Tanja Ariane Baumgartner (Germany), Ks.Stefan Heidemann (Germany), Laiumonas Pautienius (Lithuania), Adrian Sampertrean (Romania), Nataliya Kovalova (Ukraine), Stefan Pop (Romania), Jacklyn Bermudez (USA), Corby Welch (USA), Anett Fritsch (Germany), Michail Agafonov (Russia), Carmen Giannattasio (Italy)

Overall, this was very enjoyable evening, though of course I didn't understand any of jokes of the hostess, the arias have been performed extremely well and the show was almost sold out.

Watch WDR video report here
http://www.wdr.de/mediathek/html/regional/rueckschau/2011/05/09/lokalze…

And the top 3 are...

After having watched the first full dress rehearsal of semi 1, here are a few of our thoughts and our top 10 predictions ...

Performances which stood out for us, even though they may not be our personal favourites were Norway, Albania, Turkey, Serbia and Georgia.

Ones which we thought were okay but didn't wow us were Russia, Finland, Iceland, Hungary and Azerbaijan.

Our predictions of who will qualify from this semi and these are not necessarily our favourites are, in no order;

Norway
Albania
Turkey
Serbia
Russia
Georgia
Finland
Hungary
Azerbaijan
Greece

Must dash as off to try and catch a glimpse of Dana International at the Israeli party....

Ding Dong to you all .... xxx

Passing to the final and joining the BIG FIVE are (in our opinion of course).....

From Semi one 1st rehearsal pictures

Just some random thoughts.
Georgia or Russia are winning the semi.
(Russia had Kishti on backings fyi)
Portugal is qualifying.
None of ex Yugoslavia do.

We will sadly miss in finals
Lithuania, Malta, San´Marino, Serbia, Croatia, Norway, Poland, Switzerland, Iceland