Today, the second set of rehearsals started at the M and S Bank arena in Liverpool . The acts performing in Semi Final 1 took to the stage again , the aim of this set of rehearsals is mainly to see if any changes made have made a difference from the first set of rehearsals . As stated in this morning’s article , the first week of rehearsals is closed to Press , including fan media . Clips of first rehearsals have been available on Tik Tok , unfortunately today they have been proving hard to come by . Therefore I have based today’s round up on the first set of rehearsals and pictures of the second rehearsals made available on the main Eurovision website.

Norway-Alessandra “Queen of Kings”

Alessandra has largely kept the National final performance , but with a slight variation to the colour of her outfit, which is green/black with gold trimmings. She is opening Semi Final 1 but I don’t think that will cause too much of a problem for her in getting one of those spots to the Grand Final.

Malta -The Busker( Dance our own Party)

As the song title suggests, The Busker have brought the party to Liverpool. There’s a saxophone, a car on stage ,drums , street props ,party hats and cardboard cut outs of previous Maltese entries. It’s an upgrade from the National Final performance but performing second in the running order, I fear it may get lost in what is the stronger semi final.

Serbia-Luke Black “Samo mi se spava”

Luke starts off as he did in the Serbian National Final, lying down but in a giant orchid. There’s lots of red colouring on stage , fire background LED’s and backing dancers dressed like something out of Armageddon .Lots of strobe lighting and strutting around the stage. This could qualify based on the sheer weirdness of it all.

Latvia -Sudden Lights “Aija”

The guys are now in what looks as if it will be their live performance costumes.They have gone for a simple staging of black and gold colours. This reminds me a bit of a cross between Anti Social Media ( Denmark 2015) and Lighthouse X ( Denmark 2016) . Hopefully Sudden Lights won’t share the same fate as they did and not qualify for the final.

Portugal-MimiCat “Ai Coração”

Mimicat is all in red. Eurovision Ireland had the pleasure of interviewing her and what a lovely lady she is ( you can see the interview HERE ).It’s lively, fun , very cabaret,the only thing I wish is that she had kept the sofa from the National Final as it seemed to add a bit of extra something to the performance. Looking forward to seeing the full performance next week.

Ireland-Wild Youth “We are one”

It seems that the boys have changed their outfits slightly. Connor, lead singer, is still wearing an all in one suit but this time it’s a sparkly gold and a little more flattering than the jumpsuit he wore in the first rehearsal, even though it still looks very like something a lot of the glam rock stars wore int he 70’s. I would like to see Ireland qualify but in a strong semi final it’s going to be tough.

Croatia -Let3 “Mama SC!”.

Well, what can I say ? This has had everything but the kitchen sink thrown at it staging wise. Not sure what the more conservative viewers watching on Tuesday night will make of the band stripping down to their underwear though ! The Full Monty springs to mind here.It’s totally bonkers but bear in mind the semi finals are being decided purely by televote this year and those viewers throughout Europe, who have had a bit to drink or just love the sheer craziness of it , may just push it through into the final.

Switzerland-Remo Forrer “Watergun”

This is interesting staging and not what how I imagined it would be. Remo seems to have borrowed Turkey’s Sertab Erener’s long ribbons from 2003 . As with Turkey’s 2003 act, the ribbons are initially connected up to the backing dancers. Dark staging with spotlights lights in the backdrop. It quite suits the melancholy of the song. Need to see the full performance before deciding if this is a qualifier or not.

Israel-Noa Kirel “Unicorn”

Noa has brought the whole package with her to Liverpool. It’s very Fuego meets Slo Mo,from what we have seen so far.

Moldova-Pasha Parfeni “Soarele şi”

Moldova never fail to disappoint when it comes to staging and this year is no exception.Red lighting withh what looks like a solar eclipse on the LED backdrop. Pasha and his backing singers wearing much the same costumes as they did in the Moldovan National Final..

Sweden-Loreen “Tattoo”

Loreen has had to downsize her sandwich toaster prop somewhat and while the performance still comes across very effective, I feel that it may have lost a bit of the dramatic effect that it had with the larger prop in Melodifestivalen . Still one of the ones to beat nevertheless.

Azerbaijan-TuralTuranX “Tell me more”

The boys are stood on a podium at the end of the stage catwalk wearing identical shirts but different coloured suits. They may just get the votes from people who prefer simple performances rather than a lot of gimmicks.

Czechia -Vesna “My sister’s Crown”

As in the first rehearsal, the girls are dressed in their pink oversize trouser suits and have long hair braids making them look a bit like Rapunzel.Pink staging to match the clothes. This will be an interesting one to see when we get to see the whole version next week .

Netherlands -Mia & Dion “Burning Daylights”

Much as in the first rehearsal, by the looks of it, Mia and Dion on a revolving podium with smoke effects. This song has had a mixed reception in the run up to Liverpool ,as to whether it will qualify or not, with critics saying they lack chemistry needed to make the performance effective It’s got a good draw in the running order, though being sandwiched between Czechia and Finland, may not help .However, if Mia and Dion can display some chemistry and emotion in the performancne , they may qualify .We do need to see the whole performance though to assess their chances.

Finland – Käärijä ” Cha, Cha,Cha”

What more can we say? Finland are clearly wanting the win and with a performance as indicated in the short clip we have seen, they are certainly in with a very good chance of taking us back to Finland in 2024 !

Author: Sarah Rudman

Visual Sources : Tik Tok , EBU , Sarah Louise Bennett, Chloe Hashemi