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North Macedonia

North Macedonia - 2nd rehearsal

Eran on Sat, 05/11/2019 - 12:14

Tamara Todevska takes the stage once again. Nothing much has changed from the first rehearsal. It's a solid powerful performance. Tamara's voice takes time to warm up, but once it does it can melt icebergs. She's a powerful performer with a lot of presence. The last image shows her and her little girl.

North Macedonia - First rehearsal

Eran on Tue, 05/07/2019 - 13:52

Tamara Todevska takes the stage to perform her emotional ballad, "Proud". She's wearing a pageant like dress, in turquoise. Behind her are a few mirrors that show her from the back. Yes, just like in the Russian performance. The video art shows mothers and daughters in black and white. Tamara sounds perfect vocally.

Jury final semi 1 - Live Blog - to be updated

Desiree on Mon, 05/07/2018 - 20:11

The jury final has just started. As tonight it is all about the performances, this live blog will focus mostly on that. But of course, if anything special happens we will of course let you know.

1. Azerbaijan
Aisel immediately gets the audience clapping along with her - maybe eager to see the show started as it's the first one. The running before the first chorus looks very panicked now. OK performance but not spectacular, vocally she is struggling in some of the verses. Azerbaijan has a great record but I would not be surprised to see it broken this year.

2. Iceland
Ari has been very solid all week through and again now his performance is good. However, it will most likely not be enough for qualification.

3. Albania
It seemed to me there was an issue with the lighting at the beginning as he was mostly covered in blue until the first chorus starts. Vocally a very good performance though that gets a huge applause in the press hall. However, Eugent seemed a bit nervous to me.

4. Belgium
It took some time before we got a good focus in the opening and vocally Sennek sounds very fragile tonight. She improved as the song progressed though.

Just a general observation, I thought this jury final was sold out, but I see lots of empty chairs everywhere...

5. Czech Republic
Miklas struggles a bit to get his rucksack back on after the tricks in the middle. Otherwise a good performance and he looks relieved after it.

6. Lithuania
A bit breathy but otherwise very good performance vocally with a good reaction in the hall. In the end Ieva has decided to revert to English for the very last line again.

7. Israel
The beginning sounds good today, but for the rest it's not Netta's best performance vocally, however the long high note towards the end goes quite well.

8. Belarus
An otherwise fine song ruined by the staging, it's still all too much. Not convinced about his performance tonight, his vocals seemed off from time to time. No specific issues though.

9. Estonia
I would not say Elina is off, but in the verses she is not as good as she was before. In the higher parts during the chorus she is perfect though, and that is probably what will matter most and stay in people's minds.

10. Bulgaria
Vocally competent but very cold performances. I'm just not really sure if everyone will go for this tonight and tomorrow.

11. Macedonia
Major issues earlier today, but they finally got the camera shot right with her walking to the drummer taking off her dress. During the end she's still out of breath though, and the (great!) backings are not able to hide that at all places.

12. Croatia
Franka's confident performance from earlier this week is back. Some issues with the sound of the stream though that might be only here. Flawless performance, I still think this can surprise everyone.

13. Austria
Sometimes César is just walking in the dark through the end which is not so great to see. He and his backings gave a good performance though.

14. Greece
Yianna is out of tune in the first verse and also struggles during the end. During the second verse we get fireworks now which is just a bit too early really.

15. Finland
A seemingly effortless performance of Saara Aalto who does not miss any note. Based on this alone I would not be surprised if there's a space for Finland in the final after all. Oh, today all three firework fountains worked.

16. Armenia
The Armenian performance also went well, though the high note with the guitar sounds a bit strange from time to time.

Semi-final one - Dress rehearsal 1 - LIVEBLOG (to be updated)

Desiree on Mon, 05/07/2018 - 14:06

Dress rehearsal one for the first semi-final has just started - we start of course with some opening sequence showing, among others, images of Lisboa, Pasteles de nata, water, football... and of course the various logotypes of this year's contest before we move into the hall where our four hosts all come on stage, still a bit giggly at first!

I'm here liveblogging this semi-final from the hall and will most probably be back in the evening for the jury-final when it really matters, so I'm curious to see where my impressions will differ today comparing the 2 rehearsals!

Check back here from time to time to see all the latest updates, as the performances and more pass by!

1 Azerbaijan
Postcard: Aisel in what seems a typical Portuguese village with white houses before taking a balloon tour.
Peformance: Lots of smoke on stage in the beginning, not sure I noticed that earlier. Vocally ok until th esecond verse where she starts to struggle a bit. It's still very artificial, the glitter effect in the bridge seems to have been developed better now.

2 Iceland
Postcard: More Portuguese villages but Ári gets inside a building where he makes a puppet-on-a-string - Now is that a Eurovision reference or not?!
Performance: Missed camera shots in the beginning where we see cameras through the screen while we should only see Ari. This better not happen tonight or tomorrow night. Otherwise great performance again from Ari who once again shows how good a singer he is.

3 Albania
Postcard: Eugent is taking a boat tour what looks like through the Venice of Portugal.
Performance: In the last part of the song the backings can be heard a lot more now. Vocally this is great once again and I can not see any fault to this performance but I immediately admit I'm biased as this is by far my favourite.

4 Belgium
Postcard: Also Sennek went on a boat trip but this time closer to Lisboa, in fact it seems very close to where we had the blue carpet event yesterday.
Performance: They finally seem to get the opening right, even though I wonder if it's the right opening to this song. After Albania this is really quite relaxing without getting boring. Not completely sure the vocals in the chorus were as perfect as in the last rehearsal.

5. Czech Republic
Postcard: Mikolas finds himself with some very strangely dressed creatures with carnaval masks from the Tras-Os-Montes region of Portugal.
Performance: Mikolas seems more comfortable on stage than in his last rehearsal, he's moving around a lot more, but of course leaves out the backflips that caused him lots of trouble one week ago. Still a lot running and a normal jump on stage though.

6. Lithuania
Postcard: Ieva is taking a trip in the mountains in her now quite trademark comfortable wide pullovers, very similar to what she wore in the second rehearsal.
Performance: On stage she is now wearing a very princessy pink dress. Vocally it is very good and the song is so relaxing and smoothing that it is over before I know it! And, small detail - 2 lines in Lithuanian are back today!

After this performances we get to the greenroom where the host is already asking how Lithuania is doing, I wonder if she'll be back at all at that moment! Will be fun to watch tomorrow.

7 Israel
Postcard: Netta performing at an outside party.
Performance: The beginning now sounds better in the hall than it did during the second rehearsal. However, we get to start over again as apparently there were issues..
Thought the first time sounded better, but it's probably more noticeable in the press area that it didn't go well the first time. As if Netta may have thought she had something to prove after the issues in the beginning, she gave it all at this rehearsal, to send up a bit out of breath by the end.

Macedonia second rehearsal

Desiree on Thu, 05/03/2018 - 16:01

The last block of rehearsals is starting where we get to see Macedonia, Croatia, Austria, Greece and Finland.

Marija starts with some strong vocals. The first part on the bridge is pre-recorded as she actually stands on the mainstage with the rest of the group.

The flashy intervals work really well on screen and Marija now has a dress change to reveal a very special outfit - a mainly grey top with purple/red accents and an open back and hotpants in the same colours.

Vocally it sounds great but I think it would be better to keep the pink dress on from beginning to start.
Also - if there is going to to be a dress change, the timing would need a little work as now we can just see her start taking it off. One second later - or the camera away one second earlier - and it's completely unvisible.

Macedonia First Rehearsal

Macedonia kick us off today (even if slightly delayed) and Marija looks and sounds the part. Her and Bojan and joined on-stage by three backing singers and the drummer and the overall effect is very promising. Dressed in pink (but a different outfit from the second half of the video), she sounds and looks good and as first rehearsals go, it was impressive. The bouncy, joyous element of the reggae-tinged part of the song translates well on the stage and she moves freely across it. A performance similar on the night will see them trouble the qualifying places.

First rehearsal from Macedonia - Lost and Found, finally.

Desiree on Mon, 04/30/2018 - 10:28

With only 4 minutes left on schedule for the Macedonian rehearsal, we are still waiting for footage from the hall. Earlier we only heard a few seconds when they were about to do the first run, but then the screens showed again promotional images of the Tourist board of Portugal.

So for now the rehearsal from Macedonia seems to be lost, let's see if it will be found!

Just as I wrote that we got the stream, and after a few minutes we were just in time to see their last run, so first and only impressions for now:

We start with a shot of Marija in closeup with Bojan in the background, seconds later she is next to him, don't know yet how it's done but it looks really good. It's not the only effect here, we also have multiple shots of the screen going all white or black.

Marija is wearing a short red dress, Bojan has a suit and there are also 3 backing vocals and a drummer on stage. They are all included in the performance.
Vocally it sounded pretty good to me, however during the chorus (or the last song if you prefer) Marija is hardly heard at all.

Day Two of the First Rehearsals

So, here we are for day two of the first rehearsals. A first opportunity to see Croatia, Greece and Cyprus, none of whom took part in the promo parties in the last month. We'll also be seeing how Macedonia, Austria, Finland, Armenia, Switzerland and Ireland have adapted their songs for presentation on the Eurovision stage. Stay tuned for updates throughout the day from the team.