Sweden

After a very good first rehearsal, the expectations from John Lundvik are high. I'm getting more and more convinced the arrangement was mixed for the performance, to give it an extra oomph. Camera work focuses a lot on John's face, and rightfully so. I think this wasn't as strong as the first rehearsal. There was a problem in the backing vocalists' balance and John seems distracted.
The 2nd attempt was better. There was a point where smoke covers the stage, and the LED projector makes it look like John drowning in a golden sandstorm.

John Lundvik brings his soulful tune to Tel-Aviv and brings the house down. The performance is quite similar to the one in Melodifestivalen. There's a LED structure that shines in gold above him and looks like a small version of the screen that was used at the Melodifestivalen. The stage starts off dark and is filled with lights towards the end of the song, with the 4 backing female singers stepping in, wearing shiny silver outfits. There's an additional male backing vocalist, which is hidden. Jon wears a black shirt and black leather pants.

Robin Bengtsson is the first one up to rehearse for Sweden.

I can't go on won Melodifestivalen with a slick choreography on treadmills. Sweden, as they usually do, did not change a lot with the presentation other than a few technical details. When Robin enters the stage there are no stairs, a new backdrop, flashing images of neon pink, the backdrop reminds me at times of the movie TRON. It's a slick package with some retro

We did not have sound for the first two run-throughs, the third run-through revealed that Sweden will have to work out the soundmixing a bit to recreate how it sounded in Melfest.

So we have now officially started!

As already mentioned the first runthrough was without sound from the press centre. However, as we are next to the hall we can hear *a bit* - and notice that the stream is not in sync with the sound from the hall. I hope this will be fixed or it could cause some confusion!

The second time it is unfortunately still the same. What I like is that it's not all dark. The background is a mix of blue and pink/purple and looks like a nice opener. Haven't heard anything worth mentioning yet but looks like a solid opener and Robin clearly knows what he's doing.

Third time - we have sound! It sounds really good I must say and will probably do very well. It's just not really my cup of tea. Also, now it's exactly 10.30 am here so in a few minutes we move on to country nr. 2!

Last year's host Sweden has given 7-fold Melodifestivalen veteran Sanna Nielsen finally the ticket to Eurovision. Will she be crowned the Eurovision winner of 2014? Here's how she did in her second rehearsal.

The stage is ideal fit for it, and it looks the best way Undo can be shown on the stage. Basically it is updated version of Melodifestivalen performance. People who think this is a favourite, will get their hope strengthened after seeing that one.

Vocally it is perfect, though the backing-vocalists are nowhere to be seen. We're not really keen on MF version of off-stage backing singers, I think they deserve their on-screen moment of fame.

After a well deserved lunch break (No food selfies though), Sanna Nielsen undoes her sad on the big Eurovision stage for the very first time. Sanna is another hot favourite to lift the trophy on May 10. Let's run you through her first rehearsal.

was the first contestant to visit press-center today. She talked with some online media. For your interview with Lova please check:
http://www.esckaz.com/new/en/blog/interview-lova-sweden

Альбом: 29 nov 2012

Meanwhile, we have talked with HoD of Sweden Tine Matulessy