That brings our coverage of today’s rehearsals to a close! Once you’ve checked out the official clips, do stop by and let us know the ones you thought were best and worst. We’ll be gathering again tomorrow, when we get the first run-throughs of some of the biggest favourites for the ESC 2015 title. Should be an exciting day!

CZECH REPUBLIC
Black clothes! Blue stage! Honestly, if Israel don’t go for a bright and golden staging, they’re fools…

Marta plays with her shoulder in the first shot each time and looks like she’s adjusting her dress. At the key change she actually does adjust her high heels, insofar as she rips them off and throws them across the stage. You wouldn’t think this was actually part of the performance, but she’s done it twice now, so it does appear to be. I’m not quite sure what to make of it, although it does add a bit of personality to a song that’s musically a little short on it.

Václav and Marta are in good voice here. My main concern, both in studio and in the live performances we’d seen prior to today, is that their vocals don’t necessarily blend particularly well. I still think that’s the case, although the structure of the song is such that they’re mostly just shouting isolated lines at each other anyway. Still, it’s an issue, for me: what could be powerful ends up sounding a bit lumpy and inorganic.

There are lots of camera shots of them looking moody (well, it was hardly going to be a barrel of laughs, was it?). Separately at first, then together by the end. Their interaction feels quite real, it’s just whether the vocals sit right. Also, and let’s be clear about this, the Czechs and the Norwegians are not served well by the running order. They are far too close together, with only the underwhelming Portuguese album track to separate them (no pun intended). It remains to be seen whose chances are damaged more greatly by the inevitable comparisons.

Marta really looks like Anke Engelke, doesn’t she? And I suspect she’ll be just as much fun down the pub.

image copyright: Elena Volotova (EBU)

PORTUGAL

Oh, it’s a girl wearing black on a blue stage, just for change.

The way her hair is styled today, Leonor reminds me of none other than Silje Vige, though I doubt Silje ever got her fringe in her eyes after pulling one too many wannabe rockstar dance moves. Supported by a four-person backing group in AWESOME HATS, who are sadly (but probably sensibly) in shadow throughout the song, Leonor stands at the front of the stage with a mic stand that she doesn’t seem to quite know what to do with. The jerky, shoulder-shrugging moves from the national final are still there – it’s obviously her “thing”.

There’s a nice kind of blue neon cityscape on the back wall of the stage, but otherwise not much on the visual side of things to complement/distract from the song. Leonor is in good voice, though, including the previously tricky key change, and the backing vocals deliver an “ethnic chanting” call-and-response thing that’s quite effective.

They ditch the AWESOME HATS for the second run-through. This is a disappointment. But then they’re back for the later performances. Hurrah!

The stage switches to black-and-white after the key change, but the ending with Leonor singing on her own is still a damp squib and feels a bit silly, something that she acknowledges with a smile and a giggle afterwards.

image copyright: Elena Volotova (EBU)

NORWAY
Good news ahead of the first Norwegian run-through, as the selection of free crisps in the press centre expands to include Pom-Bär for the first time. Excitement!

Anyway, what about the slightly more important matter of Mørland and Debrah Scarlett? They’re both dressed in white, he in Didrik’s dinner jacket, she in an outfit whose crop-top-esque upper half has about as much shape and movement as an enamel sink. Coupled with her big hair and goth lipstick, it’s an odd effect – think Magenta in the Rocky Horror Picture Show – but one that I think works well enough once the initial shock wears off.

Staging-wise, it’s not dissimilar to the Norwegian final, with a bit of moody wandering in the middle section before they face the front for the big climax. It’s odd to see them singing it to the (as yet non-existent) crowd rather than at each other, as if the audience were the “you” in the narrative, but I’ve been told repeatedly that nobody really cares about lyrics at Eurovision so maybe it’s fine.

The tubes that make up the stage “eye” are lit in gold for this, and we assume dry ice will flood the stage for the last run-through – no need to spend valuable NOKs on that every time round, especially with oil prices having plummeted. Although some countries obviously have a more generous budget for such things; Finland, for example, surrounded the PKN boys with the stuff every time.

Vocally no real issues here, and that includes with Debrah, whom some have seen as the weak link in the package. We’re getting to see a lot of the random camera shots between takes here, and the two of them seem pretty relaxed about things.

image copyright: Elena Volotova (EBU)

MALTA
First thought: please god, not another blue stage? Fortunately it doesn’t stay blue for too long, but it’s unfortunate to have this straight after San Marino and Montenegro with their overdose of blue-tinged 1990s ESC-ness.

Anyway, despite the speculation in the introduction to this post, the backdrop is by no means the same as the Georgian one (no eyes crying tears of mercury/ants here, sadly) – but the “warrior” imagery is visualised in similar and altogether predictable ways. The blue soon gives way to dramatic, fiery yellows and oranges that remind you of none other than Conchita, and indeed there are some wing-like motifs on the video wall too. The last run-through adds some quite effective pyrotechnics during the last 30 seconds.

Amber, dressed in a black number with lacey overtones much like Molly from Ireland earlier today, is vocally strong. By which I mean good, but also shouty. It’s the kind of song that needs to be shouted, though. No longer does her voice threaten to crack on the big notes in the (pre-)chorus, which leaves the whole thing sounding a lot smoother. It’s just her alone on stage, and the question is whether she quite has the personality to carry it off – she finds the cameras but gives them some slightly awkward looks along the way, and it’ll take some clever camerawork to keep this entirely interesting for three minutes. The song does some of the work, though; the orchestral reworking of the backing track certainly isn’t lacking in light and shade. Or loud and more loud.

We’ve all been handed a Maltese press release informing us that Amber will be glad to take a selfie with us later. The press release also talks about how “Warrior” is all about overcoming the challenges in her life. I’d say taking selfies with 100 rabid fanboys counts as a challenge.

image copyright: Elena Volotova (EBU)

Introduction
We’re back from a pleasant lunch break, in which we speculated with Nick from OnEurope about how awesome it would be if the producers trolled Georgia and Malta by giving them exactly the same backdrop. We’ll soon find out…