Drew & Tam's muses on yesterday's semi 2 second rehearsals plus second helpings of the BIG 5!

Slovenia

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

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

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

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

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

and this has been shown to happen to previous Spanish entries. This is undeserved however as this song is a lovely little song, sung perfectly by Lucia. Drew thinks this will be mid table and Tam hopes this takes Spain into the top 10.