<!— Text ads —>
Chingiz is closing today's rehearsals. I'm trying to understand what I missed in the first rehearsal that made everybody in the press room feel it. The rehearsal went the same as it was last time. Chingiz changes his hairstyle and looks better in my opinion. I think there were some sound problems, cause he entered after the music throughout the entire song.
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.
KEiiNO takes the stage for a 2nd rehearsal, The trio gives another good vocal performance and are supported by a video backdrop that goes from the snowy mountains to space. The spirit can be seen as an amorphic colorful image in space. While Fred is Jojking, there are tribal patterns forming in the backdrop, as well as on the LED floor. Towards the end, the flight in the backdrop accelerate and the cold colors of the mountains and space are combined with the spirits to create warmer colors.
Jonida Maliqi's rehearsal is good vocally as always. She now has her hair tied back. The camera shows us the backing singers, who now moved a bit forwards. They got rid of the black eagle in the graphics. Her see-through black dress gives her a nice silhouette. Camera work has improved, and there is a video of flames in the background. On the LED floor there's a video of a nest, where people gathers, as a metaphor to Jonida's cry for immigrants to come back to Albania.
Another strong rehearsal for Sergey Lazarev. The illusion of the mirrors is being created by an actual mirror Sergey is looking at in the beginning. Then he moves to center stage where mirror-like LED screens awaits him. The effect is very strong and is complemented by Sergey perfect vocals.
Jurij's rehearsal is the same as his first rehearsal was. The performance relays on his charisma, which he has in large amounts. He's basically carrying the entire performance on his back. He tries one rehearsal with a simple look of a black t-shirt. Jurij gives good vocals, but unlike many performances in this semi-final, the Lithuanian once doesn't have any attention grabbers factors. Admirable, but might be risky.
Michela's second rehearsal seems to be not as strong as the first one. She wears her hair down and it seems even some of the choreography has changed. She's not focused throughout the entire rehearsal. In the 2nd and 3rd attempt, it seems to get better and better, and Michela delivers the vocals as she knows. We see the on-screen graphics they're gonna use, like small fishes when the video art shows the underwater and virtual rain when Michela sings she can "change like the weather".
Roko is opening the 7th day of rehearsals. I've just noticed that the staging tells a story of rising from the depth of earth (Hell?) to Heaven. The camera shakes to resemble an earthquake as Roko arises and accent from the fiery hell to the sky, where he meets the two angels/dancers who give him wing. This has a very strong Christian motive, and I'm sure televoters will have it in their top 10 in the semi-final.
I was so impressed with PÆNDA's vocal and visual performance on her first rehearsal. She once again opens the performance sitting down, wearing black strapless and black pants. The LED pillars are lightning up one by one and give the stage a very special appearance. It also looks like she's sitting on air. The game with the lights and the dark stage makes it hard to say where the stage begins and ends. They didn't use the black and white effect this time. Her vocals once again gave me goosebumps. Very good rehearsal.
After a very good first rehearsal, the expectations from John Lundvik are high. I'm getting more and more convinced the arrangement was mixed for the performance, to give it an extra oomph. Camera work focuses a lot on John's face, and rightfully so. I think this wasn't as strong as the first rehearsal. There was a problem in the backing vocalists' balance and John seems distracted.
The 2nd attempt was better. There was a point where smoke covers the stage, and the LED projector makes it look like John drowning in a golden sandstorm.