[LMBTO] Eurovision 2016, Day 3 - SF2 gets a go...

The lady who had a storming day on Day 2, Gabriela Gunčíková, looking pleased to be in Stockholm - after the simple and yet stunning performance she gave in her first rehearsal, I am hoping, nay praying, that the Czech Republic make the Final this year.  Gabriela might be quite reserved when it comes to interviews but I am sure that most fans and press will accept that as a trade off for a Final placing...

Today was the start of the SF2 first rehearsals:

A mish mash of possible winners and supposed no-hopers in the first half of SF2 but there is a nice mix of ballads and contemporary pop - the main interest for me will be seeing how the act that could not attend any of the Pre-Parties due to geography (Dami Im) will look on The Globen stage.  Remember that all of these reviews come out of watching the eurovision.tv footage and bits and pieces picked up elsewhere - at least it's all in one place!

Many a girl's (and guy's) pin-up this year, Latvia's blue eyed boy seems to be doing what he has done ever since he sung his first note in Supernova - singing Heartbeat with passion and intensity bordering on OTT.  The main difference between those and this performance is that he appears to have brought a different jacket with him from the 1980s:

It does seem that the staging, as expected, will be all about Justs singing and that is it, no bells, no whistles, not even a Roman Candle!  That will serve him and Latvia well for qualification but will it cut it in the Final, when an outside chance of the win is at stake?  Maybe the second rehearsal will tell us more...

You can tell when someone has an amazing voice by listening to first rehearsals, 10-15 seconds of slightly muffled audio still sounds amazingly clear and powerful.  Michał has that and some, "Color Of Your Life" will be one of the most intense listening experiences this year:

The androgynous look won't harm his chances either, this individuality possibly improving his 'visibility' as far as televoters are concerned.  He will score highly with the jurors around Eurovision and it will be interesting to see if anything in the staging can improve his outside chances of a win.  By the way, watch one of the violinists - I didn't realise that Maraaya had loaned out their 'air violin' lady this year! 

Oh Switzerland, are you going to end up not qualifying yet again?  A blue/green hair do?  A sort of fairy costume?  What appears to be gold feet?  Oh Rykka, why this when you appeared so eclectic, so whacky, so out there when we first saw you at the Swiss Expert Jury stage all those months ago:

Her vocals sound good and she appears to be connecting with the camera but all the focus will be on the hair and her appearance which will not garner many votes.  Maybe the idea is that Rykka is 'the last of her kind' but that kind is not humanity or maybe that humanity evolves to have blue hair and gold feet in thousands of years time.  Maybe we'll see something different in rehearsal two but it doesn't bode well...

According to the Press in Stockholm, Hovi absolutely smashed this and from this brief snippet, that impression looks to be correct.  as I have said previously in this blog, I always had this feeling that if Israel and Hovi concentrated all of the focus on him and his vocals and not distract the eye and ear from that at all (or as little as possible), then we would not just have a certain qualifier but a possible surprise contender for the win.  His voice is pure gold and I hope to see this focus on him in the second rehearsal:

He revealed that his suit, shirt, gloves and mic setup were covered with Swarovski crystals, costing tens of thousands of Euros - it would be a shame to go to that much trouble to not focus all the lighting on him, wouldn't it?  Apparently a golden pyro curtain completes the show - I had faith in this entry after his vocal perfection throughout Pre-Party season, the Press guys now seem to be following suit... 

Apparently IVAN kept his promise - he was naked and there were real wolves.  Admittedly only for a few seconds and only on screen but a promise was kept!  After that, there was a lot of visually pleasing images such as CGI wolves, eagles and even the guy himself in a cloak:

Before shedding that to reveal a lovely cream suit, making him look like a 'country gent'!  The vocals sounded as per normal which unfortunately is great for him but still not really good enough to get Belarus into the Final.  Having seen some of the visuals, there is a slim chance that the staging might pull IVAN up in the rankings in SF2 - whether that is enough to get him into the Final is yet to be determined.  Even he is using a filmed backdrop and he appears to be interacting with it - 'Heroes' has a lot to answer for!

And so onto my current #2.  You know how I said during my Polish review that you can tell how good a singer is by listening to a first rehearsal - Sanja does it yet again!  Live vocals are always spot on from this lady and I have no issues on that score for Serbia:

The staging wasn't incredibly clear from the brief footage here - apparently the male dancer plays the 'villain of the peace', with all the women on stage pulling together to resist him, which will match the actual message of the song perfectly.  Whether this appears to be another 'Running' as far as choreography is concerned, we will only find out during the second rehearsal - what is certain is that Sanja will still provide the best vocal gymnastics of any act in Stockholm...

'Captain Scarlet' is how Nicky's outfit has been described already - if that was the case, where's his hat?  Now of all the rehearsals today, his vocals were the weakest - even during this footage, it was obvious that some of his notes were a bit ropey.  That might not bode well for the actual shows in that he is a bit hit or miss with his singing and my continued faith in keeping him in my top ten at the moment might be wavering:

Oh and RTE/SVT...sunlight is normally depicted as yellow - what you have there is more of the light emitted from a 'red giant'!  Try changing Ireland's background - and maybe turn Nicky's mic down a bit (sorry, that's not fair).  I hope that Nicky's second rehearsal is a lot better than this otherwise I cannot see Ireland making the Final for yet another year...

And so the cycle is complete - yet another returnee to the Eurovision Song Contest is going to have a worse result in their second event than on their debut.  "Crno i belo", one of my favourite vocal performances from recent times, took Kaliopi out of the SF in 2012 and to 13th place in the Final.  Unlucky for some?  Not in Baku but I have to say that she's more likely to finish that placing in SF2 this year and therefore not qualify.  Her vocals are still superb but 'Dona' has never convinced me that it was a strong enough song on its own to qualify:

Only in Moscow did I think that Kaliopi might drag Macedonia into the Final through her onstage charisma and personality alone.  Since then, I have not been convinced and the staging we have here is not helping matters - I assume that she is just in her civvies, as what she is wearing would not look out of place if she was going out for a nice meal or out with her friends 'on the town'.  To be honest, I cannot think what staging she could employ now to change things - I believe that this will be one of the non-qualifiers this year...

Donny talks a big game here, saying that he's in Stockholm to win the whole thing - there's not any issues with his voice at all, as this sounds as good as it always has done over the weeks and weeks of Lithuanian NF shows.  The main point of contention as to his dreams of conquering the ESC appears to be, at least to me, the staging of this entry - 

I am wondering if what he was doing in Lithuania will scale up well here in the much bigger environs of The Globen - have we yet another Mei or Tanja on our hands?  The second rehearsal will tell us more although there is some suggestion that the camera will almost always be on Donny - let's hope that cameraman is very, very fit...

Australia topped off day 3 of rehearsals with Dami Im belting out 'Sound Of SIlence' like a good 'un.  Lots of pictures and flashing lights in the background but the main staging focus is on her dress - some sort of saucy futuristic wedding dress perhaps?  Her outfit is as glittery as Hovi's...wonder whose has got the most sparkles:

I always find it odd to stick an artist on top of a box (unless it's Ani Lorak) but Dami is going to be sailing through to the Final anyway - the staging will determine where Australia finish on Final night...

And yet another day done - the now regular backstage material was posted by eurovision.tv:


Nice to hear a song called 'Miracle' sung in tune...

In a way, day 3 was a far more predictable affair - those artists who I thought were going to do the business did so, whilst those that I think will not make it out of SF2 did not do a lot to convince me otherwise.  Out of these ten, I would still have Latvia, Poland, Israel, Serbia and Australia going through as certain qualifiers and Belarus, FYR Macedonia and Switzerland as those definitely going home (oh Rykka, what might have been).  Ireland and Lithuania have issues that mean they could go one way or another (although I fear greatly for Nicky Byrne now).  The big winner today?  This guy, in as much as his overall package has propelled him into 'dark horse' status:
A golden pyro curtain is so much classier than confetti, don't you think?