[LMBTO] Eurovision 2016, Day 2 - The Rest of SF1 and Sweden appear...

Very Devo-ish in my eyes...who are Devo, you say?  Aren't they just men?  We are Devo!  I'll get me coat...

And I'm back in the room - Day 1 saw a huge dress, a 'supermodel' wearing a black leotard and cape, together with the guy above on the left performing THE most intricate interaction with a backdrop ever seen at the Contest.  Armenia had arguably the best day but that was yesterday - what about day 2?  The rest of the SF1 artists plus Frans from Sweden to come - as for yesterday, I am not in Stockholm so any comments are based on these clips and a bit on any comments I have picked up throughout the day...

One of the better sung ballads to kick us off today, Gabriela provided one of the simplest stage shows so far this year.  All it seemingly comprised of was her singing this powerful love song in a pure white dress, with a backdrop of flowers and the geometric shapes that appeared in her official video:

Before you ask, she will be appearing in Eurovision Beauty at some point after May!  There is no question that Gabriela will sing this perfectly every time and ironically this simplicity of staging may work wonderfully for the Czech Republic - Russia have 'thrown the kitchen sink' at their entry and as you will see next, Cyprus have gone all in with CGI and cages!  Having their lady stand there and sing her song might be the best idea that Gabriela's delegation could have had - it bodes well for the rest of this process at least and we might see this nation make the Final yet...

And so we move from the very picture of simple staging to something that might have appeared in Spinal Tap!  A rock band playing instruments, cages all around them, with CGI wolves?  Derek Smalls in 'Rock N Roll Creation' sprung to mind:

Okay, the cages have open sides so there is no risk of being trapped but this is only one level down from that on the 'hot mess' scale.  The vocals seemed okay but not as good as they were in London, but it is a traditional gig performance so Minus One should be happy with that - I am sure this will have a lot more to come when we see the second rehearsal later in the week...there has to be pyros, surely?

Now this was a bit of a surprise - not the vocals, which ZOË now regularly 'knocks out of the park' every time that I see her sing this live but the staging...where was the treadmill?

No sign of it, despite the lady herself saying that she had been practicing on a wider model AND after seeing the 'practice rehearsals' last week with her 'stand-in' on one.  Has it been ditched?  Was it just not working today?  Did ZOË want a dry run without it?  The second rehearsal will make matters a lot clearer but as far as vocals and her getting a taste of what singing in this Arena is like, mission accomplished.  She even had the time to 'walk like an Egyptian'...

And now onto Neil Hannon Jüri Pootsmann, Estonia's 'card sharp', by the looks of it.  Some fine projections onto the flooring in the same vein plus a card trick brings something different to Estonia's entry:

It all sounds competently sung as in Eesti Laul but judging from the brief rehearsal footage provided, having him on his own might be a real issue as far as 'being lost on the stage' is concerned.  Are Estonia going to fall victim to yet another 'Amazing'?  It might become clearer in the second rehearsal but I fear for Jüri, having a very nice, slick performance that is totally unmemorable when it comes to voting time...

By all accounts in the Press pit, this wasn't one of the day's highlights.  Samra had vocal issues during the whole of rehearsals and from the brief snippet here, it all looked rather sedate, as though everyone was going through the steps and just ensuring they hit their marks:

If that was the case, that is what these initial sessions are for - it is also obvious that Samra will NOT be wearing this very casual ensemble on the night, even though she looks good in whatever she wears.  A bit of a write-off as far as getting a realistic review of Azerbaijan is concerned, not much of anything evidenced apart from some pyros...

After watching them at the Pre-Parties and now here, I fully expect Montenegro to return to native language Balkan ballads next year.  Why?  I cannot see this getting out of the SF, not looking like this:

They have provided one of the best pictures already at this Eurovision though - the sight of the lead singer through the backing singer/dancer's legs!  The lady is not the one in the official video but she does appear to have the same aggressive attitude and unfortunately for the band, from what I have seen and heard, she is the highlight of this entry at the moment.  Highway are still trying the band format but they don't look the best when doing it, unlike Minus One earlier in their SF.  Unless they pull the proverbial 'rabbit out of the hat', this will be one of the eight from May 10th not being heard on May 14th...

Oh Gretá, how dare Russia steal your thunder!  You've now got the outfit (which to be fair looks much like the one in the Icelandic NF, maybe with shorter shorts) and the vocals sounded as good now as then.  Apparently the staging was slightly off at times and the size of the screen made the shadows appear a bit smaller but that can be sorted (hopefully) - nice view here though, they are VERY short shorts:

Performing second as far as 'backdrop shows' are concerned in this Semi-Final might be an issue but 'Hear Them Caqlling' is as far removed from Sergey's as can be - the artistry here links far better with the emotion and lyrical content of the song and it is tried and tested, with nothing to fall off of!  The second rehearsals will tell us how well both these entries appear in their entirety - I am still keeping the faith with my #1 this year... 

Okay, maybe this has a chance, only a small one mind, of making it out of this SF.  The vocals of this one have always been excellent and the imagery created by a barbed wire fence looks absolutely amazing.  I'm not sure though why Ana is wearing tin foil at the start or why she hasn't been given the chance to clout Jala over the head with her cello before he begins his rap, but this looks very promising: 

They are all clearly very passionate about this entry, giving it 100% and if the Balkan vote gets behind them (they are guaranteed 24 points from Croatia at least), this could still keep their nation's perfect qualification record going.  Another to watch during the second rehearsals to see if any extra 'bells and whistles are added...

There was a spoiler in an earlier eurovision.tv interview with Ira, where she revealed that the outfit she would be wearing for part of her performance was technologically advanced.  My heart sank - hopefully that wouldn't be advanced in a 'Electro Velvet' sort of way!  The jury is still out on that, judging by the Press response today - no video footage of the 'GPS dress' which allows '360 degree projection mapping' is available to watch so this is yet another entry where I will only know if Malta's staging hits the spot by watching the second rehearsal:

Ira's vocals sounded as good as ever though and her connection with the cameraman looked to have the level of competence that a performer of her experience should have...

And so all the first rehearsals for SF1 were complete but not the actual rehearsals for the day.  I cannot remember this happening last year (I could be wrong, my memory for such trivia is non-existent) but one of the direct finalists has rehearsed on day 2!  Enter Frans...

Now this looks like 'business as usual' for Sweden - get the song and performance sorted at Melodifestivalen, tidy it up  a bit and there you go!  From the tiny clip of today's footage, it looks as though nothing has changed, apart from him wearing a beanie hat and dressing down a tad:

Still on course for either a storming win as it connects with a younger audience or it finishes disappointingly as it doesn't connect with Eurovision's core audience - this year's Marmite song won't need a lot more tweaking before we get to see the full ESC version later on...

Again, eurovision.tv were kind enough to provide some backstage footage of the artists today, with one of my favourite tracks from last year playing in the background:

Nina Sublatti coming across as fierce as ever a year later!

So who had the best day today?  Of the Semi-Finalists, Gabriela for the Czech Republic was the star with her simple and somewhat understated performance - sometimes just going out on stage and actually SINGING is the way to go.  A lot of the pundits now think (or hope) that this will be the year that her nation gets to the Final - I do too.  Frans also seemed to do the business today too but will repeating his MF winning staging be the way to go?