Another day of first rehearsals took place at the M and S Bank arena in Liverpool today. As stated in this morning’s article , the first week of rehearsals is closed to Press , including fan media . Clips of rehearsals have been available on Tik Tok and here are our thoughts after taking a sneaky peek at them.However, as these are only very small snippets that we see, we will withhold any judgement as to each country’s qualifying chances until we see the full performances.

Estonia -Alika “Bridges”

Blue seemed to be the order of the day with Alika as she was wearing a pale blue dress for her rehearsal, although as her stylist hasn’t arrived in Liverpool yet, this may not be the costume we see on the big night.She’s kept the self -playing piano from the Eesti Laul final. For a lady who is only 20 years old, she looks very confident already.We see blue LED backdrop and Alika walking along the stage.It already looks very refined, it’ll be interesting to see the full performance of this.

Iceland-Dilja “Power”

Dilja is in a silver trouser suit and her hair isn’t in the Princess Lea style we saw in the National Final. She starts the performance knelt down on stage as in the National Final, there’s green/yellow spotlights . LED backdrop of what looks like green vines . She then gets up and struts around the stage as in the National Final. For me , this one of those songs where too many changes aren’t necessary as we want the focus to be on Dilja’s powerful vocals. I am looking forward to seeing more of this.

Greece-Victor Vernicos “What they say”

Victor has gone for a very casual look, beige shorts, jacket , etc but not sure that this will be his actual outfit in the live shows.He starts off sat down at the end of the stage catwalk .Images of himself and letters in the LED backdrop as he performs. No signs of any backing singers anywhere. We have smoke effects too.Let’s wait and see what the whole performance brings.

Poland -Blanka “Solo”

Dressed in a purple/orange short dress, accompanied by male and female dancers,Poland have cleverly copied the hand gestures that Blanka uses throughout the choreography onto the LED screen.The screen then changes to a tropical beach scene , which then changes to a sunset and we get fire and a dance break.Again, will be interesting to see the whole performance.

Slovenia -Joker Out-Carpe Diem

Now this is one I have been looking forward to seeing. The guys are dressed in a variety of colours, casually dressed.Red and purple lights on stage with their song title as the LED backdrop.Their experience of live performing shows as they just own the stage and look to be enjoying themselves , even though it’s only a first rehearsal.Will be able to comment more once the whole performance is available to see.

Georgia-Iru-Echo

Iru is dressed in a long, flowing white dress,which is very see-through ! stood on a black circular platform, which has lights around the bottom, this puts her at the centre of the whole act.I do wonder if there might be a little too much wind from the wind machine coming , could do with being toned down a bit .Blue/yellow LED graphics , depicting a tornado and storm.From what I have seen so far, this staging could potentially increase qualification chances but we need to see the whole performance first .

San Marino -Piqued Jacks -Like an animal

Various , dark outfits on display here but the lead singer has got a spangly jacket at least.LED graphics show giant red lips to begin with .Think of the lips logo used for Stockholm 2000( yes that was 23 years ago, I know!) and you get the picture.This then changes to rather creepy looking sets of eyes.Lighting is red and black.The LED graphics then form a picture of an explosion as the song progresses. So far, this looks an improvement on the staging used in the San Marino National final.

Austria-Teya and Salena “Who the hell is Edgar?“

The one that I think most of us have been waiting to get a glimpse of today. Teya and Salena are dressed differently, one in a large black leather jacket with red top underneath and the other in white, with a red top underneath too.They are joined by four backing dancers in black and red and the LED images show several more backing dancers on screen, which is a clever way of being able to keep your staging effective without breaking the six persons on stage only rule.The LED graphics dancers then form to make up the face of Edgar Alan Poe…very clever !Some of the lyrics of the song are displayed as the song progresses on the LED screens. I am looking forward to seeing the whole of their performance.

Albania -Albina & Familja Kelmendi “Duje”

They are all in black , each has their own LED screen, again red and black seems to be the colour scheme. We have fire and pyros and smoke effects .Traditional Albanian dancing thrown in too.This is an improvement on the National final performance from what I have seen so far.

Lithuania -Monika Linkyte “Stay”

Monika is in an orange frock , which looks like its been through the shredder! Her backing singers are dressed in all black.Monika starts alone on stage .Some orange tones in the lighting. She then walks towards and joins her backing singers. The LED backdrop changes to a sun glow effect,which looks quite effective. This looks like it will be a good performance to watch when we get the full version.

Australia -Voyager “Promise”

The boys from down under seem to have gone to town with their staging .They have brought a sports car prop , which the lead singer climbs in and out of as he sings, onto the stage.it has a number plate with PROMISE on it .The LED backdrop changes throughout the song These guys know how to stage a performance. Although we haven’t yet seen the full package, I wouldn’t bet against Australia qualifying, especially given their position in the running order and the power of the performance.

So there we have it , that’s Day 3 of rehearsals. As already said, the photos and what you see on Tik Tok are just snippets of the rehearsals. Tomorrow the second rehersals begin where the performers of Semi Final 1 will be taking to the stage again.

What do you think ? Are there any acts you feel that their staging may help improve their chances ?Let us know by leaving a comment below and you can find us on our FACEBOOK and TWITTER feeds.

Author: Sarah Rudman

Visual Sources : EBU , Sarah Louise Bennett/Corinne Cumming, Tik Tok