The semi was opened by three presenters, two ladies and, of course, Stefan Raab. Introductions were made and an explanation of how the semi's are divided up and a little about the Big 5 with a special welcome to Italy's return....

And so the semi 1 dress rehearsal begins with ....

After the Polish post card which seems to be about a love letter, we go to Jestem, sung by Magdalena Tul for Poland. She is dressed in white jewelled mini frock and is joined on stage by four backing dancers. Magdalena comes across well and her vocals seem good and the performance overall was well done. A good opener.

Norway's post card is about a climber reaching the top of a mountain.... Stella looks stunning in her gold dress and is joined on stage by 5 dancers/ backing singers... Stella imediately sets the stage alight with her lively performance. Colourful back drop to the whole performance. She uses a wind machine. Vocals still a little weak in places but the bounciness of the song carries it... Stella then tries to get the crowd to join in which will inevitably happen .... A great performance

Albania's post card seems to be about two lovers taking a stroll along a beach. Aurela is dressed all in white with a flowing dress which is caught by a wind machine.... her hair is bright red..... stunning LED backdrop... very effective and suits the song... it's a wave movement against a red back ground... very good strong vocals and Aurela works the camera well. A very confident performer and performance for Albania.

Emmy for Armenia is up next against a back drop of blue vibrating stars on the huge LED screens... She is sitting in a big boxing glove and her backing dancers have boxing dressing gowns on.... Her vocals have improved from the rehearsals but the sound mix sometimes did not come across at times on the tv.... Emmy is dressed in a white rara type skirt with jewels on and she and her dancers give an energetic performance... the dancers surround Emmy with white ribbons to represent a boxing ring and she walks around it singing ....

The post cards semm to be projected on the LED screens for the audience in the hall while the stage gets ready.....

Yuksek Sedakat sings for Turkey and the lead singer is wearing green trousers and a black shirt and is on stage with his band. There is a contortionist in the spherical globe. This is a good strong performance of this rock song, good vocals. The lead singer sings to the girl in the cage. This is a very good performance by the Turkish performers and the whole band works the tv cameras well. The globe ends up being covered up and the lead singer releases her as an angel.

Now there is a break showing footage of the welcome party at the Tonnehalle on Saturday night. Stefan Raab interviews various contestants and getting the artists to sing a german folk song.

Nina now sings for Serbia.... There is a very psychedelic back drop reminiscent of the 70s... Nina is wearing a 60s style black short dress and the three backing girls are wearing similar more colourful outfits.... Nina's vocals are excellent and she comes across as very confident... the three backing dancers/singers join Nina in the centre of the stage and it all looks very well done, well rehearsed and polished performance.... Nina and her backers all work the stage and tv very well .. this is a fun perfomance ..... Very good for Serbia... good cheer from the press...

At the city centre in Dussekdorf a huge stage was erected for the local public to enjoy Eurovision artists and get a small taste if this musical extravaganza.

Amongst artists the group from Moldova entertained the crowd to music anonymous to their country.

Zdob si Zdub make use of various instruments to create a very unique sound which leaves you tapping away and dancing to the vibe.

They are hugely talented and you notice immediately that they gel very well together. Their energy is contagious and their show for the public a huge success.

Slovenia

From Slovenia 2nd rehearsal

Maja has a lovely voice and she performed well at her second run through. This is a strong ballad and even though we think it will qualify we don't think it has winning potential!

Romania

From Romania 2nd rehearsal

We have always loved this song and having seen his rehearsals, we are now even more completely in love with it! David's voice is flawless and he is a confident performer. This is a happy, catchy, sing-along number which we will guarantee you will end up either clapping your hands to or tapping your feet to... or both!!! Definite qualifier and deserves to be on the left hand of the score board in the final.

Estonia

From Estonia 2nd Rehearsal

Again, always liked this song but unfortunately we felt her vocals were a bit shaky and there seemed to be an awful lot going on on the stage which was a bit distracting. However, we are sure this will qualify as essentially it is a very good song.

Belarus

From Belarus 2nd rehearsal

Drew has always loved this song from the very beginning. Tam had initial reservations but is now a total convert! Anastasiya gave a very strong performance and her vocals were excellent. This is another song that is very difficult not to get up and dance to. This will sail through to the final and deservedly so.

Latvia

From Latvia 2nd rehearsal

Musiqq gave a strong and confident performance in their second rehearsal. We like this song, especially the catchy chorus. We would love this to qualify and hopefully it will.

Denmark

From Denmark 2nd, 8th May

Having first thought this song was your usual run of the mill eurovision song, we watched the rehearsal yesterday and ... wow!!! The band A Friend In London gave a confident and strong performance, the lead singer's vocals were good and he uses the cat walk to good camera effect in the build up to the finale. It was good to hear that Danes in the press area are really supporting their song and we overheard some of them say that for the first time in a while they think their song could win. Don't rule this out. Definite qualifier.

Ireland

From Denmark 2nd, 8th May

From Ireland 2nd rehearsal

We've never really been Jedward fans but ..... after watching this performance we believe that Ireland could be troubling the top 10 spots in the final!!! Unbelievably we wouldn't rule this out now! The twins gave a confident and 'energetic' (to say the least) performance and it was very well staged. The LED back drops are very clever and actually depict the Grimes twins dancing to the music AND with their hair down which seems much nicer ... are we showing our ages?? However, we feel that the four backing singers do carry the twins' vocals a lot which is no surprise at its quite difficult to belt out a song while doing a cart wheel! This will qualify without doubt and will do well.

France

From France 2nd rehearsal

From France 2nd rehearsal

Well, what can we really say here?? Amaury gave a stunning vocal rendition of Sognu yet again, but he is a trained opera singer so this will be no surprise. Again the back drop was meaningful to the song and fits really well to the atmosphere and the build up of this bolero. There is no doubt that this could win for France and Drew's only reservation is that it may not be televote friendly enough but we shall see.

Italy

From Italy 2nd rehearsal

We are not too sure whether Rafael really wants to be in Dusseldorf or is he just very shy? We say this because on the red carpet at the welcoming party he hardly glanced up from the floor and didn't give any interviews to the press. Again he gave a competent and professional performance and the boy can sing. However, we continue to believe that this song will not have wide enough appeal to be a serious contender but we could be wrong!

United Kingdom

From United kingdom 2nd rehearsal

From United kingdom 2nd rehearsal

From United kingdom 2nd rehearsal

From United kingdom 2nd rehearsal

From United kingdom 2nd rehearsal

From United kingdom 2nd rehearsal

From United kingdom 2nd rehearsal

Oh My God, where do we start!! Well, first an apology... sorry for all the pics on Blue BUT for the first time in a while we have a song and group that we and the UK can be utterly proud of at eurovision and we wanted to share our excitement with you, our lovely readers and friends! This was Blue's second rehearsal and they did not wear their lovely outfits this time round as they only wore them last time for the camera to get the lighting right. Interestingly Blue say they had to change their footwear because their original shoes were too slippery!! Good job there are rehearsals to discover these little details!! Again, the boys in Blue gave an even better vocal performance than their first rehearsal. They were evidently more confident and worked well together and harmonised well. Their vocal coach has trained them well and boy did it show. Even Lee, who some say can't quite reach the high notes, nailed it this time. The LED effects of the guys are wonderful and compliment the different parts of the song as we are taken through it by the boys! There were no pyro's in this rehearsal but we can tell you that on the night of the final, Blue's performance will be stunning, dramatic with the pyro's which go off in time to the final bouts of I Can! We just love the surprise hook at the beginning when you think that the song has gone wrong and stops then suddenly the audience attention is hooked and grabbed by a loud pyro effect and then we are all hooked in for the rest of their performance. We do think that they might be holding a surprise or two back for the night and that we haven't seen everything yet. The general gossip at the arena is that it is the UK's to lose.... and that it is between the UK and France.

Germany

From Germany 2nd, 8th May

From Germany 2nd rehearsal

From Germany 2nd rehearsal

Drew has liked this from the very first time he heard it. The song is mysterious, brooding and haunting and the dancers in their asexual sparkly lycra all in one catsuits are fantastic. The backdrop LED also reflects and compliments the backing dancers as it is a huge image of one of the sparkly all in one cat suit girls! Wonderfully at the end the whole LED screen 'shatters' and crumbles to the floor..... prompting one of our fellow Irish blogging friends to say.. "now, that's how you break glass!!" Can't think who he was getting at?? Lets just say they live north of the Baltic sea in a cold country! ;) Tam has grown to appreciate this song much more now that he has seen Lena's wonderful performance but would still be surprised if we were all returning to Germany next year. However, we both feel that Germany will be right up there, maybe in the top 10.

Spain

From Spain 2nd rehearsal

From Spain 2nd rehearsal

From Spain 2nd rehearsal

Lucia was cheered on by a very enthusiastic Spanish press pack with lots of 'anda guapa' being shouted to Lucia. Tam absolutely loves this fiesta style song and has been very impressed by Lucia's confident performance and vocals. This is another song that you simply want to get up and dance to as was witnessed in the Euroclub last night when this came on. Drew also likes this inoffensive typically Spanish style song. He agrees with Tam but does however think that Spain is the weakest of the Big 5 only because of the narrow audience that this type of song appeals to

So no interviews from them today......;-DD

From Ireland 2nd rehearsal