Bulgaria

Last time around I was very skeptical with Bulgaria, the staging leaving me rather cold and disappointed, partly because of the huge expectations the delegation created and being less authentic, raw and original than what the official video clip promised. Kristian also felt distant and not really relatable in which was a modern looking but ultimately underwhelming concept with video effects that are not really adding anything to the performance.

A lot of these issues remain and the overall impression of the act feels very staged and artificial.
But they did rework some aspects for the better today.
Kristian was styled differently which helped a lot with connection. He also dropped most of the ghostly faces into the camera he had in the 1st rehearsal, so he was improved overall. His falsettos he visibly has to put a lot of effort in and it doesn't always sound great, but solid enough.
The backdrop has some new elements and they have some much stronger camera angles now to create the illusion of space more efficiently, same can be said for the camera during the rain. It is a visual masterpiece of nonsense.

Not everyone will 'feel' this entry, but it doesn't have to convince everybody to do well in the contest.

Now that I've seen the staging from Bulgaria from the hall, I like it even less than the first time. The stage looks very empty and dark and some of the visuals make it look only bigger (and emptier), thinking mostly about the 'box' that appears on the large led screen after the panels around and above him rise into the air. On a positive note, these panels don't interview with the view of the audience.

What I think has improved is the way Kristian looks. He is now all dressed in black, which looks better than the black and white from a few days ago. Vocally he is excellent and the song is very accessible. So,all in all, mixed feelings on this for me as well.

Just catching up on Bulgaria.
Desiree already summed this up perfectly and there's not a lot for me to add.
I'm a fan of the song and think Kristian is a very passionate performer.
But the staging, while being modern and cool, left me a bit cold, but I'm sure the juries will reward this contemporary performance.

One of the most anticipated rehearsals of today has to be Bulgaria as they are second in the odds to win the contest. It took us a long time to get to see anything from this rehearsal, and it was less than a minute.

Luckily we got to see it in full as well. He starts standing on a dark stage with some hand choreography. Lots of flashes and sparkling lines / holograms that seem to come from where he stands. They have some interesting visual effects but there are also some visuals that don't come across so well to me, like the fasting moving screens where the image of Kristian kind of 'jumps' from one corner to another, and later the rushed images that seem like fast forward. What I don't know if those visuals are actually there or just the way we see it in the press centre.

Vocally Kristian did well, but I think there's still a lot of work to do for him to live up to the high expectations.

Mike;

Still calling it for Russia this year, with either Australia or Ukraine in second place

BUT I would love to see Austria do it, that would be simply amazing but unlikely to happen and of course I am totally hoping for a top 10 place for Georgia

Daniel

Think that Russia will still pull this off, with a dark horse as Serbia and France possibly having their best score for years.

Would love to see Russia win this all in the end BUT at the same time Bulgaria should hopefully do well too, good luck to Poli

From Mike;

Latvia Yes
Poland Yes
Switzerland No
Israel Yes
Belarus Maybe
Serbia Yes
Ireland Yes
Macedonia Maybe
Lithuania No
Australia Yes
Slovenia No
Bulgaria Yes
Denmark Yes
Ukraine Yes
Norway No
Georgia No
Albania Maybe
Belgium Yes

I am really unsure about Ireland so may swop that with Macedonia or Belarus

From Daniel;

Latvia Yes
Poland Yes
Switzerland No
Israel Yes
Belarus No
Serbia Yes
Ireland Yes
Macedonia No
Lithuania No
Australia Yes
Slovenia Yes
Bulgaria Yes
Denmark No
Ukraine Yes
Norway No
Georgia No
Albania No
Belgium Yes

Daniel is unsure about Albania and Belarus and might swop those with Slovenia and Latvia

Rolling live blog of Jury Show Second semi

Keep Refreshing this page;

Opening;

Views of Globen and crowd shots and COME TOGETHER. Seem like quite a crowd in the area too which is nice.

Now we have lots of Swedish humour and comedy form the hosts, but this washes over me and leaves me very cold I am afraid. All a bit too much MF for my liking.

Both hosts resplendent in silver jacket for Mans and a dress for Petra....all very sparkly. And now we have a duet from the two of them....very smorgasbord like in Malmo

Latvia

Justs creates this emotional monster on stage as he leaps around and gives everything to the performance. For me it is slightly over doing things. Yes he has a great voice but this is not how to perform an Aminata song. That said the backdrop is just perfect for this. Sure fire qualifier but no winner....
Lots of crowd cheering for this though...
The graphics look amazing too

Poland

Michal always hits the spot for me. Simply effective staging for this seems to work. Nothing none of us have not seen on the promo tour or the rehearsal clips so far. He does seem to come to life on stage with his powerful voice and presence. The real issue is that the song is a bit weak both lyrically and musically. He tries his best but given what he has to work with this is not really doing it for me.
Juries should fall in love with this though.....the emotion in his eyes and connection with the camera is one of the highlights this year.
And words on the backdrop are always a no-no in my world, sorry

Switzerland

Sorry but this is going no where fast. No charism, no charm, nothing at all really. Tonight the blue hair is still there and this time it’s curly, but no amount of whacky clothes, designer hair or anything is saving this from being one of the 8 that go home.
3 minutes I will never get back

Israel

Simply perfection from Hovi, great presence, great voice, perfectly suited to this song…the stage really lifts this too, this could really scoop a lot of votes on final night. Yes qualifying and with a good draw on final night who knows?
The earnest emotion that he's given tonight does make me think that Hovi has a lot more to gibe as an artist in the future....and seeing the acrobats on screen for the first time I now get the the inclusion of them on the stage.
Oh and a pyro waterfall.....always love them.....can we have them in every song please?

Belarus

Amazing staging totally distracts from the weak song here, though IVAN does make good use of all the stage and performs the hell out of it. What would have happened if the guy had been given a half decent song to sing? Oh and the baby is still there. Weirdly.
But it's not all about the staging, it's about the song and this is getting totally lost after Israel and before Serbia
Also we have some missed camera angles tonight with his.....but he bring sit back by hitting all those important notes at the end of the song
And he does look amazingly cool on stage

More Eurovision Taxi moments, with some folks that we know.
While this is quite funny the guest appearances from Lordi really give away that this was totally contrived and constructed, which steal the magic for me

Serbia

Great song and great vocal BUT and it’s a small but, the staging is so dark that it loses something for me here. I feel ditched from the performance and slightly distracted by he dancer. But toward the end it starts to lift and when the backing vocalists gather around her it pulls it back a bit for me.
She is giving her all to this tonight though. however like Belarus we do have a few missed camera moments tonight too.

Poli wanted the same composer as in 2011, so she called 3 days before the deadline and asked if they could make a song in 3 days. Poli wants to bring people together. Unite them. And she is so happy to be back in Eurovision. Poli sings better in English than in Bulgarian, so that is one of the reasons, why her entry is in English this year.

Poli talked about the difference from 2011 and now. How she hopes that she has become a bit wiser. This resulted in a laughing "No" from one of her backing singers. Poli also gave a voice test of her doing the voice of the female Smurf.

Bulgaria are one of the three countries to return to the Eurovision Song Contest this year and they are doing so with a bang.

They have a great song to start with and a great performer. Poli has such charisma which oozes from the screen. During the intro verse, we have a close up shot from Poli, who then starts singing, before she unveils her gladiator outfit.

For the chorus, she's dancing a routine, which at first looks a little weird, but is in fact pretty cool as well.

The backdrop consists mainly of a silver, blue and gold scheme, with snow effect all the way through the backdrop and LED floor. Two panels however change to silhouettes during the chorus, showing silhouettes doing the same routine as Poli does. For the final chorus, the four backing singers have also joined Poli to the front of the stage.

Vocally it sounds ok, a few shaky points at times, but nothing really to worry about.

Qualifying should be very easy.