Serbia up next. Balkanika take to the stage dressed in very Balkan-esque attire. Very strong vocals for the first time out and visually impressive. The choreography is lovely and symmetrical and the percussionists flank the four vocalists. The flutist shot at the end was a typical Balkan touch. Ten years ago, this would have easily troubled the top four and on the night, it should qualify. Will be interesting to see how the rehearsals progress.

Next is Romania with a surprise at the start already, as we see a blonde woman walking over the stage and you expect her to sing when the intro is over, but then the camera zooms out to reveal Criso tina wearing a purple dress. Next to her are the two guitar players wearing a white mask on the back of their head.

Later on we get to see the stage is actually filled with dolls with white masks. Cristina walks around the stage quite a lot with many emotions but those dolls are rather distracting. After the first run there is still some work to do with the camera shots, but the reaction from the press hall is pretty positive and that might be attributed largely to her excellent vocals.

Romania up next. The stage is littered with mannequins with white masks and they have the full-on band. Interesting opening sequence, with the violinist walking on before the lead singer appears unexpectedly. Solid first rehearsal and will no doubt qualify due to the Romania semi-final effect.

Romania 1st rehearsal. Theatrical commedia dell'arte staging. Many masked mannequins, band members close together. Goodbye? #eurovision

— ESCKAZ Chris (@EsckazChris) May 1, 2018

Alexander Rybak takes to the stage first and a first opportunity to see how 2009's winner fares on his second Eurovision outing, due to his absence from the promo tour circuit. He looked a little off-colour on-stage but went through the first attempt slickly. Joined by the graphics seen at the Norwegian final and four dancers, vocally it was sound.

Alexander Rybak's rehearsal is basically nothing new, it's all what we've seen before. It looks good to go, apart from some obvious sound issues for him - couldn't hear him, but he was fiddling with his ear piece later on in the song.

He's mostly in black apart from a blue jacket that gets thrown off soon. Effective pyro in the last part. It's a love-hate song but will surely get at least a few votes, and maybe a lot more. Good applause here.

2009 Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak is once again trying to win it all for Norway. His charisma and stagecraft are out of question while his entry “That’s how you write a song” leaves a bit to be desired. Nonetheless it’s great to see such an energetic performer to be back on the stage in Lisbon!
The staging is as before in mgp. On-screen graphics, dancers, cheeky family fun.

Day three of rehearsals and a first chance to see Norway and one of the favourites, Australia. We'll also hear from Romania, Serbia, San Marino, Denmark, Russia, Moldova and the Netherlands.