Eleni Foureira for Cyprus and she brings the electric personality to the stage which you can expect for a song called “Fuego”. The staging delivers ethno-vibes in a modern look and offers entertaining three minutes as a show closer. It won’t be easy to get out of this strong first semifinal, but Eleni seems to be up for the task and she has brought the fire.

So on to Cyprus...slick and shiny as you like. Eleni sparkles in a head to toe sequined dress of blue and gold and has four backing dancers surrounding her. The choreography is the most exciting we've seen so far and certainly the most polished. Some of the moves led to the odd gasp from the more sheltered souls in the Press Centre. She's pulling out all the stops with flames emanating all over the place at times and on the basis of the first rehearsal, a definite qualifier.

Ryan does a very good job here, but the staging has let him down.
The dancing couple from the video made it to the Lisbon stage and takes all the attention away from what is essential, Ryan and his vocals.
Sometimes less is more.

Ireland have just finished their first run-through for their first rehearsal. Ryan was in fine vocal form and the stage presentation consisted of a lamppost and two male dancers acting out relationship scenarios - much a similar thing as the video. Ryan often looked to his right to the piano that occupied that side of the stage. Low-key for one of the lower key songs of this year.

Ryan is wearing a black suit and stands in front of a blue background with a street lantern behind him.
As the first bridge appears, we see the female backing singer on a piano, but can't really hear her yet. There are also two backing singers further in the back. The second verse introduces the gay couple dancers, first on the bridge and later on the main stage. Their choreography is largely the same as in the video.

Vocally Ryan is as solid as we have seen in his earlier performancees, a good start for Ireland!

As the rehearsal continues, the performances continue to be pretty much what we already saw in the first run. The fake snow falling is not really needed though, and there are some shots of the dancers from the back that need improvement as well.