.: First Day Of Rehearsals

Morning all!

It seems in the first day of rehearsals most of the first 14 participants have really up-ed their games!

Netherlands were well received in the hall. Im not too surprised about Edsilia; she really can sing, except the song isnt strong enough and won't qualify on the night. Onbeurope.biz agrees and state that the song is boring and the performance isn't all that either! Rehearsal video below:

Bulgaria was generally accepted by many that it is a good starting number, but could be instantly forgettable. It is also important to note that the Bulgarian team seemed lost as for what they should be doing next at times, which doesn't strike professionalism. Rehearsal video below:

Israel are a team that will make it to the final without any doubt, and are using the huge backdrop to include part of their video; see the rehearsal video below.

Cyprus were dissapointing, and this song is starting to move down the betting. Evridiki seemed out of tune throughout and there wasn't a lot of movement on stage either. Rehearsal video below:

Koldrun of Belarus was also unimpressive and out of tune on many of his high notes. I still expect this to qualify and we must not forget it was only a first run through. Rehearsal video below:

Georgia and Montenegro were both OK, and were clearly there to break any nerves for later in the week. There is more hope for Georgia in my opinion though!

Denmark was well received in the hall on its first run through. The song is clearly a fan-fav however. DQ was not top of her game vocally, but with fireworks appearing towards the latter part of the song, this could fly through to the final! Rehearsal video below:

Croatia is not fooling anyone; 3 minutes of pure toilet break!

Poland has really come together, and stands out for being the most modern song in the semi-final. The Jet-setters have strong similarities to the 'black eyed peas', and could grab the few extra votes needed to finally make a eurovision final.

Switzerland has energetic, passionate and firey choreography, and I still think this will be up there with the best come the final night. It is dividing some sections of fans as to whether they think the 'song' is actually good enough, but the performance however, makes all the difference for this!

Oneurope.biz are really bigging up the Moldovan effort; no idea why! Natalie Barbu sings an average rock song well, and her performance really picked up by the fifth run-through. Oneurope has this as a qualifier; we're not convinced! Rehearsal video below:

Finally, Albania performed well with a similar staging format to their song last year. Its all very mean and moody, that come song 29 will have been forgotton. Rehearsal below: