Manel and his band are still wearing their hawaii-shirts of course and try to get us all in a summer mood. Vocally in the hall it seems ok, but what I noticed a lot during the first run is that we don't get to see Manel singing until well ahead during the first chorus. He and the guitarists start in the back of the stage facing the screen that is still quite dark.

Just as they turn around for the chorus we also get the colourful beach backdrop.
Even though the drummer and the guistarists have a microphone and sing from time to time, it seems most is done by hidden backings that could just as well have joined them on stage.

My issue with Spain's staging is that Manel is in the dark for the first verse, making it impossible for viewers connect with him.
The colour explosion beach party therefore almost comes as an irritating surprise afterwards.
The surfboard LED effect is entertaining, but makes it difficult to take this entry serious as a summer pop song.

The hall has never been as full as during this rehearsal but that is nothing to be surprised about of course. It all seems to come together a lot more for Italy this second time that they're on stage. Vocally he didn't make much of an effort the first time, but with the second run it sounded a lot better.

The camera work has also been sorted out so Italy is definitely still a favourite...

Traditionally one of the highlights of the season in the host city is the Nordic party. Including the delegation from Estonia this year the event unfolded at the rather impressive hotel very close to Eurovilliage, where they had all performed earlier this evening.

The reception, as always, began with complimentary food and drink, and developed into a pleasant chance to meet with the delegations and chat to them on camera, clips can be found here;

A huge highlight of the evening was a jam session by the representatives of Norway, Sweden and Denmark - just sitting on the stage with a guitar and doing what comes naturally. Clips can be found here;

A small gallery of the photos from the event can be found here; A great evening was had by everyone who mixed and chatted until it was time for that famous call out at the end “TAXI!!!!! take me home”

With huge thanks to the Delegation of Estonia for the invite, especially Liam Clark.

The camera angles are better for Italy today. And it's a very colourful visual treat.
Francesco is vocally a little bit all over the place today, but we know he can sing, so one shouldn't read too much into this rehearsal.
He is moving a lot around the stage, the gorilla appears and the song and staging provides real party atmosphere. I'm not quite sure yet, if he is winning it all.

We only saw a glimpse of the second run for Ukraine, but saw the first and third run in full.
This looks very good on screens. The production is expensive and polished.
The highlight probably being the part of the instrumental, with a lot of dynamic camera shots.
It is also the strongest rock song of the year, which doesn't say much as it is the only rock song of the year.

I would not be surprised if the Ukraine somehow manage to sneak into the top10 once again.

Yesterday the delegation from The Netherlands held their reception at the sophisticated Premier Palace hotel in a nice atmospheric restaurant at the roof. The splendid weather and the attending delegations added all that was needed to make it a great evening. OG3NE really took their time to speak to all the press, both national and international as the sunset made the view from the rooftop even more stunning than it already was.

We also met with Slavko from Montenegro, Brendan Murray from Ireland and Martina Bárta from the Czech Republic and spotted Lindita from Albania who joined Slavko to sing for the birthday of Itai Eithan Shamir.

All in all a wonderful evening and we'd like to thank the Netherlands delegation for inviting us.

Check all our photos here!

The Embassy of Australia in the host city now have somewhat of a tradition to invites their delegation, local VIPs, other delegations and selected members of the press to a function during Eurovision week. This continued this year - last night was the occasion and ESCKAZ.com were very grateful for the invite to attend

The evening began with complimentary food and drink and some introductions by the Embassy staff and the Head Of Delegation Paul Clark, the clips from this can be seen below. There was a lot of humorous banter between the Australians and the UK and Irish representatives present. Great fun!!

Events continued with a short interview with Isiash and the host of the evening and then two performances from Isaiah….a short edit of this can be found here….we only include a short segment of his Eurovision song as the sound quality was not great and our cameras were knocked during that performance. Apologies for this.

Quite a few delegations attended the event, and some photos may be found on this album here;

With huge thanks to the Delegation from Australia and the Embassy of Australia in Kyiv.