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San Marino
San Marino - 2nd rehearsal
Serhat takes the stage for his 2nd rehearsal. Maybe this grew up on me, but it looked and sounded more endearing. The team with Serhat on stage is very professional, both the dancers and the backing singers. The video art is upgraded with more elements being added to it, including on the LED floor. Letters are flowing in pink and the video art really makes the stage looks huge. When Serhat counting down in Turkish, the words in Turkish appear on the screen. It's nice to see it since Turkey has a long Eurovision heritage, and we all miss it. With all that being said, I don't see a lot of chances of this qualifying to the final.
San Marino - First rehearsal
San Marino's performance is as colorful as one would expect! Serhat wears a stylish white suit with a gold chain. He stands on a small platform, that lights up in different colors. With him, there are 3 backing singers and 2 dancers that starts the performance from center stage. The vocalists move to back, while the dancers dance around Serhat. The video art shows the song's lyrics in different forms. It's light, fun, and the performance is somewhat bubbly. However, I don't think this will work for either the viewers or the jury (especially not for the jury).
Dress rehearsal 1 - Semi-final 2
No time to keep thinking of what happened yesterday as the first dress rehearsal for tomorrow's semi-final is already in full swing! Later on we will fill you in on what happens on the postcards as well..
01 Norway
This is becoming a solid favourite for the win, the performance is slick and it's a cheerful opener. But the question remains how much juries will take this song seriously. Alexander seemed to be saving his voice.
02 Romania
Vocally this is very strong again, but the performance is too theatrical, too kitsch for this song. I will not be surprised if this will be the end of Romania's perfect streak.
03 Serbia
Good performance in this rehearsal, it keeps getting better and better. After Romania I think this has a chance.
04 San Marino
The robots and Jessika and Jenifer as well are back! Size doesn't matter was one of the messages on the cards held by the robot. It may distract from the sometimes weak vocals at the end.
05 Denmark
Another good and solid performance from Rasmussen, really not much to say about this, it looks and sounds very well, no issues at all here.
06 Russia
The vocal arrangements in the chorus seems to have been altered a bit, it sounds a lot more shouty now especially during the long notes. Really hard to predict what will happen here.
Time for a little break now in the greenroom, with a little game with Alexander Rybak among other things..
07 Moldova
Not sounding that great today in the hall, could be that they are saving themselves for tonight. It's still a fun performance though.
08 The Netherlands
Putting Waylon's stage together apparently takes a bit more than the time of the postcards, as just after the postcard we got switched to one of the hosts in the audience for a very awkward conversation that went completely wrong. Let's say "It's just a rehearsal" as San Marino reminded us a few days ago.
Now, to the actual performance. Vocally it sounds really good and it is not completely my genre but I feel we're back to real music after a few weaker songs. There are far less shots of the crumping dance right now, so it looks better. I think there's still a chance for the Netherlands.
09 Australia.
Back to the greenroom again! That's how they fill three extra minutes it seems being this the semi with one song less.
Very strong vocal performance from Jessica. It's one of the few straightforward pop songs and still think this could really have an instant appeal. I do think however that the shots during the bridge where Jessica is dancing are not that great.
10. Georgia
There seemed to be some issues with the sound at the beginning as it started a bit weak. Iriao soon got back on full strength though. With a few of the ethnical entries out from the first semi-final gone it could really stand out in the final if it qualifies, which I hope, as the last part was absolutely beautiful.
11. Poland
Vocally not the best performance. The many pyro fountains and the catchy song might distract from it.
12. Malta
Lots of flames at the beginning of this performance, very strange, likely to be a technical mistake. There seems to have been done a lot of work on the lighting of this song as there are now many laser effects. The light show could get the audience to go for this more than we expect now.
After these 6 songs it's time for another break in the greenroom.
13 Hungary
Those were three very intense minutes - very energetic performance as always and it does stand out.
14. Latvia
Still a very theatrical performance as well even though Laura seems to have toned the hair swinging down a bit and that's only for the better. In the bridge she struggles vocally.
15 Sweden.. or maybe not as we switch to the greenroom and then go to:
A very special guest in the press centre today!
Earlier today, just before the start of today's first dress rehearsal the press centre was honoured by a very special guest - one of San Marino's robots! Apart from dancing as you can see below, the robot can also speak ánd has a will of its own as first he was a bit shy and wouldn't move, but in the end the gathered press convinced him to give away a special performance.
San Marino Second Rehearsal
San Marino 2nd rehearsal. Robot said "this is just a rehearsal" and "justice for Valentina" this time. One for meta comedy connoisseurs. Love it. #Eurovision
— ESCKAZ Chris (@EsckazChris) May 4, 2018
San Marino second rehearsal
Jessika and Jenifer are now wearing what are most likely their stage outfits. Jessika's red as her hair - and Jenifer wears a white jumpsuit with a red thin cardigan over it. The vocals are not on point everywhere, especially in the last chorus. Apart from that, San Marino are doing their best to make us laugh again with the texts on the cards the robots heard - now 'this is just a rehearsal' and 'justice for valentina'. What else will we get?!