Opinion

Get ready to play cards with Jüri Pootsmann, from Estonia!

In true old school Vegas style, Jüri's elegantly playing out his cards during his first Eurovision rehearsal here in Globen. I just love his deep vocals, though they seem a little bit off as his performance progresses. Perhaps the nerves. Not really worried about that at this stage, as he's proven to nail them before.

Staging includes a lot of hearts and aces, and cards, with black and gold colours being predominant. All the actions actually takes place on the smaller Eurovision stage, which connects the main stage through the catwalk.

Shaken not stirred, the Bond of Eurovision is in the house.

Always a pleasure to be transported to a country far far away in the presence of Austria's pop princess Zoe.

The Austrian team have remained close to the concept used in the national final, but they have decided to reduce the vibrant Barbie pink we saw before. This is much closer to the video concept, featuring the butterflies during the backdrop.

The floor also shows a cobblestoned path, which Zoe uses on the catwalk. It feels like we're being transported to the wonderful world of Oz. The treadmill from the national performance has however been ditched.

She looks stunning in her peach coloured dress, and sounds so sweet. You can tell she's absolutely loving every minute of being on that stage.

Eurovision does love a fairytale/Disney connection, and it would be so lovely to see Austria benefit from this love relationship.

Time to get your rock on!

Minus One from Cyprus, have been working together with Sascha Jean Baptiste, who's directed Nina Sublatti's entry for Georgia last year (she's also doing the work for the Georgian entrant this year).

Apart from the lead singer, all other members are standing in cages on the staging, so there's not a lot movement going on the stage. Flashing lights are also part of the visual presentation. Francois as lead singer is of course the main focus and he's put on his best poker face, giving a lot of stern looks.

Vocally, he started off pretty well, but then in the chorus he seemed to be getting ahead of himself a little bit, which gave me the impression he was grasping for air. Relax, Francois, keep it controlled. During the second run through, he sounded vocally much better.

But this year is all about the wolf, because the animal used in the Cypriotic video is also making an appearance, albeit not a real one. I'm not sure if the wolf really works in this concept. It doesn't really seem to fit within the concept. Perhaps, if the LED backdrop had featured the wolf throughout the performance, it would make more sense, but otherwise.

A bit of rethinking that needs to be done here, I think, but overall a pretty good performance.

Gabriela is the first to kick things off and she's proving to be in top form already.

Vocally this lady's sounding absolutely perfect. Not a single note is sounding out of place. The camera slowly zooms in during the first verse, while Gabriela walks down the stage. Apart from that it's a pretty static performance, but her song I stand lends itself for that.

The backdrop and LED floor has been filled with the colours and patterns used in the official video with main colours being purple, blue and magenta. That's perhaps the only criticism there is on the staging for the moment. Vocally you can't fault Gabriela, she is standing right there with her song.

The camera work however at times is a little sloppy, so I hope they manage to sort that out. Not sure using different angles really works for the ballad. The other minus point, is that perhaps the overall colours are a little bit too overpowering. So I hope they play around with the lights a little.

But what a voice! Sincerely hope, Europe votes en masse for the Czech Republic!

Well that just blew everything else off the stage

Ok, so we have our first spaceman this year....
Moldova appears on stage with a fluffy spaceman
Ok.....well errrummm

Now we have sound this sounds greta actually, Lidia is in good vocal form, the gimmick is not so bad when the sound is in place.....

But it could be that we just have sound now :-)

My first morning duties are done :-)

Bloggers do your worst, I'm going for Fika

Sing it away
Can't really see the screen right now as uploading video, but I can hear the rehearsal going on. Vocally much better than what she delivered in Tel Aviv when I saw her last time

Smattering of applause in the press centre for the first run through

Well time to say Goodbye to Vienna for the last time....

And Hello to Sweden

See you all in 12 months