The second day at the Altice Arena is over, and it’s time for another short review from Berlin two days before I arrive in Lisbon myself.

While I praised the artworks and motion graphics yesterday, now it’s time to express some disappointment: The stage. It just isn’t very good, is it? I do approve of the lack of LED, don’t get me wrong. LED is fine in small doses, but it has been overused and abused in recent years. If we could go back to the LED levels of Stockholm 2000 or Riga 2003, well, perfect. Even without any LED walls, you can create an awesome stage – just look at older contests (1978, 1979, 1986, 1990, 1997, etc). But… this stage in Lisbon? Way. Too. Dark. And it doesn’t look very nice either. I get why they chose the concept behind it, but the end result leaves me cold. Maybe the proper camera views will get me more excited, though. We’ll soon find out!

Anyway, what excited me in today’s rehearsals? First of all, Croatia. I never had this one on my radar, but this performance and staging gets everything out of a song where there was no song before. Getting something amazing out of nearly nothing? That is crazy! Then, Austria, which is one of my favourites, though I’m not yet convinced that this kind of hands-free performance suits the song and the vibe well. He could do with a hand-held microphone, maybe even a mic stand, whereas this… just doesn’t feel right? However, the staging is promising in every other aspect.

All alone in the danger zone: Austria (photo: Andres Putting, eurovision.tv)

What else did we have? Well, there was a rather underwhelming Greece (what a pity), a messy Macedonia, and a romantic but boring Ireland.

Everything else was as expected – including Finland. I already felt that this could be a second “Vampires Are Alive”, and in that respect I wasn’t disappointed. Saara’s rehearsal hurt my ears quite a lot, and my eyes didn’t get much compensation either.

Oh, and I forgot: The biggest surprise of all for me was Cyprus. I actually had it in my personal bottom 3, but I found this performance quite entertaining and fun. That’s some classy mid-00s-style Eurovision there, and I … erm… I like it. And now I can finally see and understand what the producers have created with this running order: A damn nice framework around semi-final 1, with Azerbaijan opening and Cyprus closing – both performances and stagings that are “Eurovision” at its core.

Oh, it’s Eurovision: Cyprus. (photo: Andres Putting, eurovision.tv)

Featured image photo: Andres Putting, eurovision.tv