Serbia

The song “New children” has a strong message that speaks about new and modern generations that are able to change the world into a better and more beautiful place, where love and peace leads. The reggae arrangement of the song happened spontaneously during the group’s studio session and they decided to leave it that way.

The author of the English lyrics is Serbian producer, songwriter and artist Luke Black whose song “Demons” was one of the potential representatives for Serbia in 2016.

Sanja Ilic & Balkanika will perform third at the second semi final on May 10th. They will perform the Serbian version of their entry on the Eurovision stage with 6 performers - three female vocalists, one male vocalist, a percussionist and a flute player. They will wear costumes by Serbian fashion designer Nevena Ivanovic (Neodesign) and choreography will be by Milan Gromilić. They will also work with director Gorčin Stojanović, who made the winning Eurovision performance of Marija Šerifović with song “Molitva” in Helsinki.

Video:

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The Serbian representatives, Balkanika, give a short interview and perform an acoustic version of their song at a charity event before heading to Lisbon

Also attending was last year's representative Tijana Bogićević

Oh Serbia, what have you done. Last time I praised them for the clean and contemporary visual approach, now they are throwing esc clichee stuff in. Sorry, but terrible decision on outfit. Last time, Tijana looked like a credible artist, this now just looks needy, dated and distracting.

Very disappointing.

Tijana is still alone on stage during most of the song - towards the end of the song she is joined by a dancer who then runs off and back on for the very last seconds of the performance.

She looks great in her white gown with mostly uncovered legs. The only thing I don't like about it is the necklace that seems very tight. She sounds vocally perfect.

Here's my day 3 review:

The big winners of 1st half 2nd semi for me today were:

- Romania.
This is an easy one. The overall package is much more fun than what we have seen in the Romanian National Final.
What they can improve: More camera focus on Ilinca as Alex takes too much space at the moment.

- Denmark.
Just a superb performer in every run through. I can not believe how well she handles the camera interaction.
What they can improve: Change her outfit so it fits better to the color scheme of the backdrop.

The losers of today:

There weren't any losers today. Serbia did not get a lot of love from the press centre, but it was early morning and I have praised for them for the current and clean look of their staging.

So congratulations to all delegations today! Good job!

Serbia is still a work in progress. Some of the camera angles don't work in the first run through, getting better in the second run through, but still not quite there yet. That's what rehearsals are for.
I like the visually clean approach, Tijana in all white with a deep blue sea backdrop with bubbles rising up, and the LED floor is swirling water. It looks more current than Serbia's staging last year.
Not sure the dance choreography of the male dancer is needed here, as I think Tijana could carry this by herself. My only caveat at the moment: Tijana is giving us a lot of painful facial expressions and I would like to see some joy from her.

Tijana Bogićević starts her rehearsal alone on stage in a white jumpsuit. The backdrop is initially very dark with just a spotlight on her. For the chorus we get many spotlights on the stage, a wind machine like a star filled sky, The backdrop features air and water bubbles. During the instrumental break she's joined by a dancer, similarly to what we have seen in her preview video. Her backing singers are hidden.

She sounds very well, also in the first run. It looks very nice on the screen as well so I think it could do ok.

Mike;

Still calling it for Russia this year, with either Australia or Ukraine in second place

BUT I would love to see Austria do it, that would be simply amazing but unlikely to happen and of course I am totally hoping for a top 10 place for Georgia

Daniel

Think that Russia will still pull this off, with a dark horse as Serbia and France possibly having their best score for years.

Would love to see Russia win this all in the end BUT at the same time Bulgaria should hopefully do well too, good luck to Poli

From Mike;

Latvia Yes
Poland Yes
Switzerland No
Israel Yes
Belarus Maybe
Serbia Yes
Ireland Yes
Macedonia Maybe
Lithuania No
Australia Yes
Slovenia No
Bulgaria Yes
Denmark Yes
Ukraine Yes
Norway No
Georgia No
Albania Maybe
Belgium Yes

I am really unsure about Ireland so may swop that with Macedonia or Belarus

From Daniel;

Latvia Yes
Poland Yes
Switzerland No
Israel Yes
Belarus No
Serbia Yes
Ireland Yes
Macedonia No
Lithuania No
Australia Yes
Slovenia Yes
Bulgaria Yes
Denmark No
Ukraine Yes
Norway No
Georgia No
Albania No
Belgium Yes

Daniel is unsure about Albania and Belarus and might swop those with Slovenia and Latvia

Rolling live blog of Jury Show Second semi

Keep Refreshing this page;

Opening;

Views of Globen and crowd shots and COME TOGETHER. Seem like quite a crowd in the area too which is nice.

Now we have lots of Swedish humour and comedy form the hosts, but this washes over me and leaves me very cold I am afraid. All a bit too much MF for my liking.

Both hosts resplendent in silver jacket for Mans and a dress for Petra....all very sparkly. And now we have a duet from the two of them....very smorgasbord like in Malmo

Latvia

Justs creates this emotional monster on stage as he leaps around and gives everything to the performance. For me it is slightly over doing things. Yes he has a great voice but this is not how to perform an Aminata song. That said the backdrop is just perfect for this. Sure fire qualifier but no winner....
Lots of crowd cheering for this though...
The graphics look amazing too

Poland

Michal always hits the spot for me. Simply effective staging for this seems to work. Nothing none of us have not seen on the promo tour or the rehearsal clips so far. He does seem to come to life on stage with his powerful voice and presence. The real issue is that the song is a bit weak both lyrically and musically. He tries his best but given what he has to work with this is not really doing it for me.
Juries should fall in love with this though.....the emotion in his eyes and connection with the camera is one of the highlights this year.
And words on the backdrop are always a no-no in my world, sorry

Switzerland

Sorry but this is going no where fast. No charism, no charm, nothing at all really. Tonight the blue hair is still there and this time it’s curly, but no amount of whacky clothes, designer hair or anything is saving this from being one of the 8 that go home.
3 minutes I will never get back

Israel

Simply perfection from Hovi, great presence, great voice, perfectly suited to this song…the stage really lifts this too, this could really scoop a lot of votes on final night. Yes qualifying and with a good draw on final night who knows?
The earnest emotion that he's given tonight does make me think that Hovi has a lot more to gibe as an artist in the future....and seeing the acrobats on screen for the first time I now get the the inclusion of them on the stage.
Oh and a pyro waterfall.....always love them.....can we have them in every song please?

Belarus

Amazing staging totally distracts from the weak song here, though IVAN does make good use of all the stage and performs the hell out of it. What would have happened if the guy had been given a half decent song to sing? Oh and the baby is still there. Weirdly.
But it's not all about the staging, it's about the song and this is getting totally lost after Israel and before Serbia
Also we have some missed camera angles tonight with his.....but he bring sit back by hitting all those important notes at the end of the song
And he does look amazingly cool on stage

More Eurovision Taxi moments, with some folks that we know.
While this is quite funny the guest appearances from Lordi really give away that this was totally contrived and constructed, which steal the magic for me

Serbia

Great song and great vocal BUT and it’s a small but, the staging is so dark that it loses something for me here. I feel ditched from the performance and slightly distracted by he dancer. But toward the end it starts to lift and when the backing vocalists gather around her it pulls it back a bit for me.
She is giving her all to this tonight though. however like Belarus we do have a few missed camera moments tonight too.