Iceland

Iceland is aiming to pick up votes from Star Wars fans all across Europe this year. Svala is styled like the blonde twin sister of Princess Leia and the staging looks very much sci fi inspired.
I quite like the song, but presentation is still missing something. Hard to point the finger on it really, since vocals are very good and Svala certainly has the stagecraft and experience.

Just as I expected - and also hoped - for Iceland: a completely different performance compared to the national final, which is about the only thing we got to see so far. She's still dressed in white, but this time in a lot more flattering costume than she was wearing earlier. Not a conventional dress of course. The back has a large cape, the top's black as well and then she's wearing a pair of flowered leggings/pants. She also has the same two buns we have often seen with Ksenia from Belarus (NAVIBAND). Her backings are hidden, as we already knew they would. They could be a bit louder for me to add even more strength to this.

Vocally Svala is excellent, the visuals - mainly blue with lines and dots all over - look great and I should mention the ending of it, resembling Northern lights. A great performance and this entry that was already forgotten before it took part could do a lot better than everyone thinks now!

Yep you cut right through

The press centre was surprisingly quiet when she did her first run - is this a fav that I missed or something? Do people think this will do that well?

She seems lovely though - just met her running through the press centre - without luggage obviously - but this song seems to get a little lost for me :-/

Mike;

Finland No
Greece No
Moldova Maybe
Hungary Yes
Croatia Yes
The Netherlands Yes
Armenia Yes
San Marino No
Russia Yes
Czech Republic Yes
Cyprus Maybe
Austria Yes
Estonia Maybe
Azerbaijan Yes
Montenegro No
Iceland Yes
Bosnia and Herzegovina Yes
Malta Yes

So someone will miss out from my predictions, and sadly I think it will be Austria

From Daniel;

Finland No
Greece No
Moldova Maybe
Hungary Yes
Croatia Yes
The Netherlands Yes
Armenia Yes
San Marino No
Russia Yes
Czech Republic Yes
Cyprus No
Austria Yes
Estonia No
Azerbaijan Maybe
Montenegro No
Iceland Yes
Bosnia and Herzegovina Yes
Malta Yes

Some slight disagreements here, but more or less we agree this year

Anyway what the hell do we know.....though we usually get 7-9 out of 10

Greta felt relieved with the second rehearsal. At the first rehearsal, they had problems finding the center of the stage, to fit the grafics. Greta has worked on the Disney cruiseship for 1½ year. And her favourite is the princess from the movie "Brave".

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!

I decided not to hang around for the qualifier press conference tonight as I have a pretty hectic day tomorrow, but I have now caught up with the halves of the draw that the ten countries will perform in. It really has ended up as a show of two halves with most of the uptempo songs in the first half and the ballads and slower moody songs in the second.

Overall I think tonight's show was far better than Tuesday's. The songs were better, the pacing was sharper and there was less of last year's winner, though still far too much. The camerawork was also improved, but the issue with flags blocking the screen is still a major problem and has to be sorted on Saturday.

As for the seven songs that went out, only Switzerland and Ireland can feel hard done by and Poland qualifying was a bit of a shock. Some are suggesting it was a sympathy vote, but it was also helped by the draw so perhaps not totally unpredictable.

My thoughts on the seven that went home;
IRELAND: I think Molly performed well and for once I liked the Irish staging. However I thought we were probably doomed on the day we were given the awful #2 draw and so it came to be. I may sound like a broken record here but once again can I suggest RTÉ looks at its selection process. The current formula is giving is the worst set of results we've ever had in the contest.

SAN MARINO: Dreadful patchwork of a song and no amount of youthful enthusiasm can replace a lack of stage craft. It was always a no-hoper. It deserved to finish last and being honest, if this is the best that they can come up with, San Marino has no place in the contest.

MALTA: A much better performance by Amber tonight but there was far too much going on to distract you in the presentation.It was as if no lessons were learnt from Olivia Lewis in 2007. The song was always too weak for this semi, but might have had a chance in the first semi. No surprise this lost out.

PORTUGAL: The Portuguese chose the wrong song in the Eurovision selection, it's as simple as that. No matter how good Leonor was tonight (and she was very good), the song was just poor. Like Ireland, Portugal needs to re-think its selection process. There's enough talent there to do very well in the contest but RTP are not tapping into it.

CZECH REPUBLIC: Whoever decided to add the ridiculous shoe throwing to the act should never be allowed near the contest again. Until that point the performance was solid, even if the song was always a little dull. I fear that we may never see the Czechs back in the contest.

ICELAND: Not only the worst vocal performance of the night, one of the worst of this century. It was always a big heap of nothing of a song, with basically a repeated chorus and no verses but everything about this was absolutely dreadful from he staging to the costume, but especially the off-key performance.

SWITZERLAND: I really feel sorry for Melanie, because this was a terrific performance and hugely improved on the national final. Switzerland just doesn't have friendly neighbours or a diaspora, but if Austria can win, so can they. Really disappointed not to see this in the final.

The following countries are in the first half;
 Armenia
 Australia
 Belgium
 Cyprus
 Estonia
 France
 Israel
 Lithuania
 Norway
 Serbia
 Slovenia
 Sweden
 United Kingdom

That's a lot of up-tempo and mid-tempo songs. Personally I'd probably open with United Kingdom, then go with Armenia and Sweden, for contrast. I would have Israel at #13

At #14 it's Austria

In the second half you have the following countries;
 Albania
 Azerbaijan
 Georgia
 Germany
 Greece
 Hungary
 Italy
 Latvia
 Montenegro
 Poland
 Romania
 Russia
 Spain

There's no up-tempo song in there at all, but Georgia, Germany and Montenegro are at least mid-tempo. Hungary, Greece, Russia and Spain need to be kept apart. The director will certainly earn his money tonight.

Tomorrow I will review the running order, as I fly back to Dublin.

Israel through up a magnificent party at Euroclub tonight. I heard about it a lot and was expecting a lot as well. Many rumours say that it's one of the most interesting parties held in Euroclub, so I decided to join it with Samira. It all started at about 10 pm. So, we arrived and we were offered fresh orange juice at the entrance. That was a good start! The disappointing thing was that a lot of non-accredited people were let in as well, so there was not enough air to breeze. Because of that I literary wanted to die.

Participants from Israel (of cause), Malta, Azerbaijan, Montenegro, Switzerland and Iceland were entertaining public which was very happy to see the contestants. Many nice foods were served - couscous, veggies, fruits, pastry and sweets up to everyone's taste. And again - there were loads of people queuing up for food so it was impossible to try anything. And that was the only and the biggest minus of the party.

In general, I have very positive emotions and impressions but I wouldn't have liked to repeat it again. Soon after 2 am Samira and I left home to relax at long last as tomorrow we have some spare time and no need to get up early.

There really is something unspectacular about this performance, just like the song actually. Even though the backdrop is pretty dark at the beginning of the song, it turns yellow, green and pink and changes the mood completely.Maria isn't doing a bad job with the vocals but after many better singers one can really see that she's not experienced. There are some nice moments with the floor lighting,just like the Montenegrin performance last year. Overall things aren't looking as good as they did a week ago for Iceland but i wouldn't write them off yet.

Iceland’s Eurovision 2015 contestant, María Ólafs, has arrived in Austria and already taken her first steps on the big stage. The Icelandic delegation left from RÚV, The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service's headquarters, on Wednesday, May 13th, and 24 hours later María and her backing vocals entered the stage in Wiener Stadthalle for their first rehearsal.

The rehearsal was good. María was wearing her champagne rose coloured dress designed by Icelandic designer Sunna Dögg Ásgeirsdóttir. Next up on María’s calendar is her second rehearsal and press conference tomorrow, Saturday, May 16th. María performs the Icelandic entry, Unbroken, in the second semi-final, Thursday, May 21st.

Before María and the Icelandic delegation left Iceland, María visited the Blue Lagoon Geothermal Spa to relax, gather strength for the busy days ahead, and record a little message to the Eurovision fans.

María’s butterfly (Maríufiðrildi) necklace and bracelet now available online

Designer Sunna Dögg Ásgeirsdóttir, who designed María's dress and jewellery, and the goldsmiths at Jón & Óskar jewellery have joined María in her support for Hugarafl, an organisation that helps people with mental disorders get back on their feet in the society.

The necklace and bracelet to support Hugarafl are now available for order online at Jón & Óskar’s web page.
Click here to order María’s butterfly necklace and bracelet: http://jonogoskar.is/vorur/skartgripir/eurovision