Kate's bringing her Electro-Pop number on stage, with a performance completely different from the one we saw at the national final. She's wearing a silver regal dress and wearing a crown, which seems to be another motive in this year's contest. The video art shows space, while on the floor a video art of Earth. Kate and her two backing dancers, who are wearing black dresses, are basically floating on air! It looks like they're flying above the planet. It has a nice effect. At the C part, the Earth is vanishing in the back, which creates a sense of movement. If you liked the song, you'd love this performance.

Oto goes on stage in a black outfit. The atmosphere is dark and dramatic. The video art starts with snowy mountains and towards the end of the song changes to a burning fire. The floor has a video art of a big river with a narrow bridge oto is walking on. At the last chorus the backing singers march in and Oto looks at them and sings his lungs out. This is a song of pain, struggle and passion, and the live performance designed to transfer those exact feelings. He is an insanely good performer and vocalist. Wish to see him in the finals, but what are the odds?

Ester Peony
At the age of 25, Ester Alexandra Cretu, known as Ester Peony, is a Romanian singer and songwriter who has discovered her passion for music since childhood when she lived with her family in Montreal, Canada. She started to study Jazz singing at the age of 8, and four years later, when she returned in Romania, Ester started Dinu Lipatti School in Pitesti, piano section. At the age of 13 she transferred to classic guitar section until the ninth grade, when she continued her studies at the classic singing section.

In 2013 she enrolled at the Music Interpretation Faculty in Bucharest where she studied Jazz. A year later, Ester begins composing music for artists such as DJ Rynno, Sylvia, Tamy and Pepe, both in the mainstream and underground. In the winter of the same year, Ester released alongside Ana Baniciu, Puya, Doddy, Vescan and Mahia "Cuminte de Craciun".

She released covers such as "Derniere Danse" (Indila), "My Heart Is Refusing Me" (Loreen), and in 2015, her first single, "Sub aripa ta" (Vescan), that conquered the music charts and gathered over 16 million views on YouTube. Also, in 2015 the artist continued to collaborate with Vescan and launched with him, Alan and Kepa the track “Oameni". In 2016, she collaborated with Phelipe and released "1000 de motive", track and video that generated nearly 3 million views on YouTube.

In the summer of 2016, Ester went in her first tour, "Noi sa fim sanatosi!”, alongside Puya, Vescan, Doddy and Anastasia, organized in the big cities of Romania. In 2017, Ester had dedicated her time to music and she has written pieces for different artists, but also for her. At the beginning of 2018, she released "Dig it," an EP containing four tracks: “On My Way”, “So Fine”, “Leaving Tomorrow” and “Dig It”, and a few months later, Ester alongside Alexandru Serbu and Ioana Victoria Badea have written "On a Sunday", the submitted song in the grand competition of the Eurovision National Selection 2019. The single combines the guitar sound with the fresh lyrics that complement the dark mood with a message: Love becomes dangerous when it’s given to the wrong person.

Further, Ester has won the big race and she is set to represent Romania at Tel Aviv in May 2019. Currently Ester continues her singing classes and she’s working on her first album that will be released in 2019.

Alexandru Șerbu
The guitar is Alex „Bolero” Serbu’s great passion. He has studied the quitar at Dinu Lipatti Music Highschool from Bucharest and continued at the Music University from Bucharest . In paralell, Alex is also involved in the musical production, having his debut in 2013 with the song "Two Fools", interpreted by Simona Nae. Meanwhile, he is a producer and collaborated with big names from the Romanian musical industry, such as: Ester, Dj Rynno, Sylvia, Claudia Pavel, Phelipe, Tamy, Pepe, Cristina Vasiu, Gipsy Casual, Starchild, Annely Cole, Alexandra Stan, JerryCo, Roberta, Francisca, Ionica Morosanu. Alex is the musical producer of the song "On a Sunday", which will represent Romania at the Eurovision 2019 in Tel Aviv. Alex will play a double role on the Eurovision stage: musical producer and guitarist.

This year's UK Eurovision contestant, Michael Rice, is 65.8% Irish, Scottish and Welsh, 30.3% North and West European, 2.8% Scandinavian, and 1.1% Finnish! He's from Hartlepool, a lovely seaside town in northeastern England not far from Scotland, which may explain why his UK heritage is Irish, Scottish and Welsh rather than English. We found 4,256 relatives of Michael's from 30 countries all over the world in our records, many of them from Anglophone countries such as the US, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Ireland, but also from places as far-flung as Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. The closest match we found is Louise Dent from Ireland, who shares 0.9% of his DNA, making her a 3rd, 4th, or 5th cousin of Michael's. Louise's family tree comprises 983 people.

Eliot's now on stage. He's wearing a blue and red outfit. With him on stage are two drummers hitting on 3 big drums. Later they join in the simple choreography with Eliot. The stage is lit with a red light. Eliot looks good and engaging as a performer. He's an effective live performer, but the performance as a whole doesn't leave that much of an impression.

Well the most important thing we learned today is that everything, bar a hitch with sound for Cyprus at the start, worked more or less pretty smoothy

The press centre, while slightly disconnected again this year, like in Lisbon last year, seem to work really quite well. Wifi was perfect, the volunteers are my new BFFs - especially Roy at the interview rooms, and the air con was sorted pretty quick when - how shall I put this - it started to get rather warm and cozy in the press working area

We could maybe have done with a few more TV screens around - as the massive wall screen is not easy to see from all areas, but it was workable. I might bring a cushion for the chairs tomorrow though

As for the countries on today, well Poland were the total stand out for me, Cyprus - which we could not hear - disappointed me, but maybe that will change on the 2nd run through, Czech Republic again were doing what they do best, jumping around the stage and being too kool for school, missed Hungary, Slovenia, Belarus and Serbia, LOVE DMoll and Heaven - guilty pleasure - and sadly Finland, of those I saw, were the ones with most work to do....

Oh and there is food in the press centre - bit on the pricey side, but at least you can get something to eat - and coffee is good too, always a plus

Day two beckons and bed now....but not as exhausted as on previous first days