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INTRODUCTION

Hello peoples! I’m here in the press centre ready to blog the first dress rehearsal of semi final one! Stay tuned for all the happenings! We are due to kick off at 1500 CET, we will keep you posted if we’re running on time or not!

So 1500 comes and nothing’s happening as yet. As soon as it does, you will be the first to know!

And we’re off! 3 minutes late! We get a recap of last years show with a recap of all of Denmark’s 12 points! We cut to Emmelie watching it on a huge screen then walking through a field, through a wedding and then on a bus, walking through streets, on the metro and more and then she turns in to a Lego character! Then we cut to to a map of Euripoe and there are shots of people from all around Europe “aching” along to “Only Teardrops” – there are hundreds of them, all with their country of origin in the bottom left hand corner and then they sing “Come and Join Us” and then this makes the #Join Us logo before were see inside the arena! On stage Emmelie singing a reprise of her winning song flanked by a huge choir, with the pictures of people behind them. There are bubbles flying around the screen too. Emmelie isn’t in the finest of voices today but she’s likely saving her voice for the live show. As the song ends, Emmelie walks off stage and the announcer welcomes us to Copenhagen and the hosts are introduced, but they don’t appear on stage! There’s then a long gap – where are they? 🙂

We then get the Emmlie video starting from the end and we are treated to the people all around Europe again! Are we going to get another run-through of Emmelie’s live performance? The song starts, and yes! Emmelie is there! They must have wanted to give her another rehearsal! All in all, this is a nice introduction to the semi final.

The hosts Nikolaj Lise and Pilou are introduced on stage and they finally appear shouting “Good Evening Europe” and thank Sweden for last year’s contest and say they’re not going to make fun of Sweden but mention that they came 14th last year, and also mention the European Championships but then they say “Give it up for the world’s best neighbour – Sweden!”

Then they give us the rules of the televoting and show us the caption with all the songs in this semi-final, and tell us the voting will not start until the last song has been performed. The official website also gets a plug and they mention the concept of the postcards, and then we’re off with the songs!

ARMENIA

First up is Armenia and Aram mp3 makes a badge of the Armenian flag to put on his jacket. All the postcards consist of the artist taking a photo of what they have made. There’s a huge caption of the Armenian flag in the shape of a diamond appearing on screen as a little jingle plays before moving to the bottom left of the screen, I really like this. This run through for Armenia is good, starts off very quiet and builds gradually. LOTS of fire pyros as the beat kicks in. I think overall thins looks very good on screen and based on this, an easy qualifier but still not sure if it deserves to be the favourite. A smattering of applause from the press centre.

LATVIA

The Latvians, unsurprisingly, for their postcard, bake a cake in the colours of the Latvian flag! As usual, the Latvians are very jolly and there’s not a lot different in this performance from previous run throughs. Joran is in better voice and I think they should be happy for this, but I am still on the fence with their qualification chances – it’s on far too early for the “drunk” vote and not sure the juries will go for it, but you know what, I’d like to see this in the final. The applause from the press centre is more than Armenia!

ESTONIA

Tanja’s controlling a crane in her postcard and makes the flag from shipping containers! The performance is the same as before – intricate choreography with some great camera shots. Tanja’s vocals are fine for this, better than the second technical rehearsal a few days ago. I would still say this has a great chance of qualification due to the fact there’s nothing much like this in the semi and the juries are sure to reward Tanja’s vocals. Next to no applause from the press centre though.

SWEDEN

Sanna postcard is her is next to a swimming pool and blows up some yellow lilies before climbing a diving board to make the shape of the flag. Cute postcard! Slight little delay before the song starts. Performance, this is exactly the same as the rehearsals, Sanna gives it her all as usual. Qualifying with absolute ease but as a winner? I really don’t know. Definitely the strongest performance so far though and the audience in the press centre give it a decent round of applause.

ICELAND

Pollaponk are next to a waterfall for their postcard and they make a hologram of the Icelandic flag from coloured lights. They’re still in their coloured suits and have fun on stage as usual. I am not convinced of their qualifying chances though because I think that this is aiming for the same voter set as Latvia is, and I’d much rather the Latvians made it, but then Iceland have a much better qualification record, so….though I think they have a minimal chance of making it through. Not a single person in the press centre applauded it.

BREAK

There’s then a short break as Nikolaj comes on stage showing us the captions again and then we get the Eurovision Records – where a video comes on choosing the Highest Hair – but they tell us just how different Eurovision is these days with the audience! The award of Highest Hair goes to Jedward with 18.2cm! And Jedward are in the audience! Lise and Pilou then walk down the catwalk and introduce the audience before introducing Albania!

ALBANIA

Hersi’s postcard consists of her getting the black eagle of the Albanian flag tattooed on her back! This looks real, but who knows! Hersi’s performance is again, similar to her rehearsals, and is in fine voice. This one has actually grown on me quite a bit since the rehearsals started but I still don’t think it is in the mix to qualify though and is likely to go home early. Yet again no applause from the press centre. Have they stopped caring?

RUSSIA

The twins are in a maze for their postcard made up of lights and have their phones and are looking for each other, they find each other and then take a photo of lights made of their flag! They are not wearing their hats anymore but otherwise the costumes are much the same. The lighting for this looks good with huge spotlights, I think this is brand new! It looks really effective. We also have wind machines now! By far their best rehearsal they’ve done and this is a definite qualifier.

AZERBAIJAN

Dilara makes up her flag from some coloured lights standing on a balcony with Baku in the background for her postcard. The trapeze artists is there and Dilara’s wearing her same dress. The background for this is beautiful. For Azerbaijan, this is a very understated performance. Not quite sure her vocals are as good as before, but overall a very competent performance and Azerbaijan definitely do not have a thing to worry about qualifying. Some applause for them after this.

UKRAINE

Mariya’s postcard consists of her makes up her flag using yellow post its at the edge of a train platform and writes her name on the bottom right one before a blue train stops at the platform as she takes the photo! She’s in a dark PVC dress and has her hair up in a bun. Decent performance from her here and there seems to be more interaction with the dancer in the hamster wheel and her ad-libs are fine. The ending is better than before, they seem to have ironed that out. Qualifying? Hell yes!

BELGIUM

Axel is in a laundrette and knits the Belgian flag for his postcard, before washing it and then taking the photo. Vocally, he’s as good as always but there’s a few titters from the press centre for this, I don’t think many people can take this seriously. However I do think that this is a qualifier because a lot of the audience will probably not understand the words that seem to put most people off. For me though the lyrics along with the creepy dancer really put me off, but I think that I could be in a minority.

MOLDOVA

Cristina is in a pottery studio for her postcard and makes three pots which she then paints to make the Moldovan flag. The performance for this is much the same as before, we still get her ripping off some of her wig! I think though that this isn’t going to qualify. There’s just too many others fighting for spaces that come across stronger and this, while not bad, is just not good enough.

SAN MARINO

Vale is up next and for her postcard she paints a picture of the San Marinese flag herself! Ralph Siegel is apparently on the piano but I missed this. Vocally she is very good, and it looks nice on stage, some really nice floor effects with the white and blue lighting which changes to gold for the second half of the song. I am willing for plucky little San Marino to qualify but I really think they are going to have a tough job in this semi final. If only they had been in the second semi they’d have a much better chance.

BREAK 

Break time again and Lise is in the green room and show us the trophy. We are back with the Eurovision Records segment and they discuss the different types of outfits that we have on the Eurovision stage! It’s time for the award of Biggest Shoulder Pads and YET AGAIN this goes to Jedward for 2011. UGH. Is this the Jedward show? Not impressed. The 2 guys are on stage and introduce Portugal!

PORTUGAL

Suzy is in a room for her postcard and she is doing some painting too on the wall and she also fully paints herself to be part of the flag, this gets an actual applause from the press centre! Suzy is all smiles and hand claps and this really does get the audience going after the break. Many people have written this one off, but I do think it has a chance of qualifying, the staging is great and it looks great on screen and this type of song definitely has an audience. Good applause from the press centre for this!

NETHERLANDS

The Dutchies buy a bunch of different coloured tulips and put them on a barge before standing on a bridge and taking a photo as it sails by. Quite appropriate! The staging for this is nice and simple and is a good contrast from Portugal’s burst of fun. This is going to do very well with the juries, and I think that this will be enough to see them through to the final again. Nice little applause from the press centre too.

MONTENEGRO

Sergej is there with two young boys, possibly his kids, for his postcard and they complete a jigsaw of the Montenegrin flag before taking their photo. No changes from the staging from the technical rehearsals, a decent performance but I do still think that the skater detracts from the song a little bit, but will the audience care about this? Still on the fence with their qualification chances basically because of who else is in this semi final. It’s not a definite but it’s not a no-hoper either and I it could sneak through.

HUNGARY

Last up today, phew, are Hungary and Andras for his postcard has a wall of Rubik’s Cubes which he makes the Hungarian flag from! He wears a simple black T-shirt and trousers. It seems like they want the focus of this song to be on the dancers. Said dancers are great, and this is a very memorable performance, and has an excellent draw. Easy qualifier and I think even has a chance to win the semi-final, if the dark message of the song doesn’t put off some viewers.

BREAK

And that’s it! All the songs have been performed! We get a plug of the official App from Lise and then the guys show us the list of songs we can vote for and tell us the voting will start in one minute. We get shots of the green room, but there are a bunch of volunteers sitting on the sofas instead of the artists. Then comes the snabberepris! Latvia’s isn’t probably the best and they could have chosen a better one. Sweden’s is good. As are most of the others, in particular Russia who choose the end of their song, as do Ukraine. Moldova’s has the wig ripping bit in theirs! Portugal’s shows off how fun the song is. Overall I’d only change Latvia’s.

INTERVAL ACT

Lise is now in the green room introducing the artists, and tells us everyone is welcome just the way they are! She introduces the interval act which is called “The Ugly Duckling” which is an interpretative dance performance – there’s a lady and two female dancers and a young boy dressed in different outfits from them, he seems to be the duckling. More dancers then appear. Overall I do quite like this but it’s not my favourite interval act I’ve ever seen, but then I guess most people probably won’t be watching this anyway, even if their own broadcaster decides to show it.

BREAK

The boys come back on stage to tell us that we only have 5 minutes left to vote and we get the snabberepris again. This time they are shorter and have a little clip of the artists walking off stage after their performance! I like this!

I really like the postcards this year, they are quite cute, the Portuguese one was my favourite from this first semi as it was a little bit different from the others. I am looking forward to seeing what the others are like!

As for qualifiers, well in performance order I would say Armenia, Estonia, Sweden, Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Belgium, Portugal, The Netherlands and Hungary. At the moment. That MAY change!

VOTING IS OVER

After the last snapperepris we get the boys back on stage giving a five second countdown to the end of the voting and then Nikolaj starts introducing someone, but we don’t get to see who it is, seems there’s another slight technical hitch!

We then get them doing the 5 second countdown again. And this time we get a video of Copenhagen, the guy was introduced but I missed who he is as there are loads of people running around the press centre! Nice cute video with the “Queen of Denmark” – obviously it’s not her but it’s a good likeness! Then we see the statue of the Mermaid but it’s bigger than actual size, and we have people on a boat singing “Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen”

After this we are back with Lise in the green room who is interviewing the Latvians, except it’s not really them! Next she speaks to “Axel” and “Sanna” where she mentions Sanna’s seven participations in Melodifestivalen! Hah!

Now we get “Most Silver” for the Eurovision Records book. Surely it can’t be Jedward again? Has to be Verka? We have a “Silverscope” to measure the amount of silver in the costumes and YES INDEED – Verka wins! A man stands with a sign saying Verka  so it seems like she is coming!

We then are told about the Pre-qualified finalists and we get a short video of all the qualifiers beginning with a nice little clip of them  smiling with their flag in the background and then we get a clip of their preview video. The order is United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, France, Italy and Denmark. These must have been filmed yesterday because Emma is wearing the same jacket she wore for the first rehearsal!

Lise is back with Jon Ola Sand, she asks if they are ready with the results but he says they need a little more time! She asks Jon Ola a few questions and then he says they need even MORE time. Eh? So we get another Eurovision Book Of Records clip. This time it’s the longest note! Suus is 10 seconds, Amaury is 7 seconds but the winner is Mary Spiteri in 1992 with a 13 second note! Tom from ESC Nation is happy about this! And finally Jon Ola tells us the results are in!

RESULTS – FINALLY

The boys are on stage and now it’s results time – the fake results are: Portugal, The Netherlands, Moldova, Belgium, Albania, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Montenegro and Ukraine! The screens behind the boys show the list of the songs and also a huge flag when they make it through. We also get a reprise of the qualified songs, like last year! The hosts are back on stage with the winning “performers” all waving their flags as they bring the show to the end!

And that’s it! Overall, a nice semi final, the hosts are decent if not the most exciting ever, but I think it’s a good start and they are likely to improve over the next few rehearsals.

Hope you enjoyed the coverage of this first semi-final, and I will be back for the second semi-final first rehearsal on Thursday! Now it’s off to get ready for the Israeli party this evening! See you soon!