Qualifier? Czech! Eurovision 2nd rehearsals, day 3 review

The remaining participants from semi-final 2 rehearsed today, though the overall quality was a step down from yesterday’s high, bar two standouts.

Australia opened the day, delivering exactly what was expected. Sheldon Riley performed well and should probably get a good jury result, but Australia’s televote potential remains an issue. Both in terms of song and staging, Australia will invite comparisons to Azerbaijan, and it feels instinctively like there might only be room for one of them in the final. Australia wins that head-to-head for me.

Cyprus came next and was the day’s biggest disappointment compared to what I was expecting from the first rehearsal pictures. Andromache struggled throughout and there was no sense of purpose to the camera shots used. Cyprus understandably drifted from 1.38 to 1.73 in the qualification market afterwards — if this rehearsal was the actual Eurovision performance, they would be heading for their first NQ since 2013.

Ireland’s Brooke Scullion provided the press with a total contrast to Cyprus. She was in fine form, with her charisma shining through. The first 30 seconds of the show were undoubtedly the best with some great LED graphics and cleverly-timed choreography, and while this standard didn’t hold throughout the full three-minutes, Brooke showed exactly why she shouldn’t be written off for a qualification spot just yet.

North Macedonia was the first obvious non-qualifier of the day. Andrea does an okay job with the material she has, but ultimately there’s just not enough here for North Macedonia to take one of the ten spots in the final.

Estonia was a pleasant surprise given how bare the stage looked from the first rehearsal pictures. Like Brooke, Stefan’s personality really comes through on camera and he looks like he’s having a great time. The black sun was, however, very noticeable throughout the performance, blocking a huge part of the landscapes on the LED screens, which the Estonian delegation haven’t managed to work around. This should still be a crowd-pleasing three minutes in the semi-final and was one of the strongest rehearsals of the day.

Romania looked like a slight step back on their national final performance. WRS is a charming performer and he handles the vocals very well given the amount of choreography in the song, but ‘Llamamé’ still feels borderline.

Poland came next with the most overhyped rehearsal of the day. There were some positives to take from this: notably Ochman’s vocals, some strong LED effects on the floor and a good narrative, but we can’t ignore the elephant in the room. There are a number of visual effects used in this performance in the form of rain and thunder overlays and a shaky/vibrating camera effect which, in all honesty, look cheap. The rain overlay is used much too prominently in the second verse and the graphics are akin to something you’d get built in with Windows Movie Maker. Visual effects at Eurovision can work very well (see Armenia 2016), but these seem unnecessary and take the audience out of the overall performance. Predictably, some of the press went wild for this (as they did for Azerbaijan’s unpolished visuals in 2019).

Montenegro felt like another easy NQ for me. Following Poland, they used the exact same black and blue colours in their performance and Vladana’s vocals weren’t as strong as they needed to be. Like North Macedonia, this will likely end up towards the bottom of the televote pile.

Belgium was the third country in a row to use blue lighting, which may cause them to blend into the preceding two performances in voters’ minds. There’s no overarching staging concept here, either — the whole thing felt lacklustre and unmemorable. Belgium subsequently drifted a bit in the qualification market. I’m glad to have laid this to qualify at such short odds, but there’s still some value available in laying them at 1.56.

Sweden were beset with technical difficulties throughout most of their 20-minute rehearsal slot, with a broken microphone, a faulty earpiece and a camera operator tripping over Cornelia Jakobs' microphone wire just a few of the issues that occurred. Cornelia only managed to get one unencumbered run through, but it was worth the wait. The staging was very similar to her Melodifestivalen performance, with the welcome addition of a light show and some pyro in the final chorus for extra oomph. She didn’t go for the big ‘just give me the night’ delivery as she did in pre-parties and her Melfest winner’s reprise, which I hope is only because she’s choosing to rest her voice ahead of the performances that actually matter. More eye contact at the beginning of the song is needed to connect with the audience and the camera work needs tightening up a bit, but ‘Hold Me Closer’ remains a contender.

Czech Republic ended the day and delivered from the first take. We Are Domi lead singer Dominika looked more relaxed and sounded better than I’ve ever seen her, admittedly with the help of some backing vocals during the chorus. The stage show is excellent and will really pop with a crowd in the arena, though I'd still make some minor tweaks. As one of my favourite studio entries this year, I was worried about Czech Republic’s qualification chances following some of their pre-party performances, but I’m worried no longer. 'Lights Off' is sailing through to Saturday’s final and is in with a decent shout of ending up in the top three in the semi if everything goes right.

Most impressive of the day
Czech Republic

Most disappointing of the day
Cyprus

By the end of tomorrow, the accredited press will have seen the stage shows for all 40 acts. My final previews and predictions for the semi-finals will come on Tuesday and Thursday, with a look ahead to the grand final on Friday. Stay tuned!

Photo of We Are Domi by EBU / Corinne Cumming