Tuesday saw ten more countries rehearsing for the first time on Stockholm's Eurovision Song Contest stage.
The second half of the first semi final got its turn to rehearse on the stage in Stockholm on Tuesday. Host country Sweden also got to rehearse at the end of the day. As usual, mini clips of each session were posted on the Eurovision YouTube channel.
Here are first impressions from Tuesday's rehearsals:
Czech Republic
Well, yes, Gabriela Guncikova is just standing there, which will probably be happening a lot among the contestants of the semi-finals. It doesn't look like there will be a lot of distractions on stage or in the backdrop.
Cyprus
The cage motif is a bit of a surprise. It will be interesting to see how that looks on TV — especially with the steadicam having to navigate an obstacle course.
Austria
Another stand-and-sing. The colorful backdrop looks pretty, but I wonder how much will be able to translate to television in closeup shots of Zoe.
Estonia
Has this song always had a Vegas motif? The backdrop is a little bland, but from photos on the Eurovision site, it looks like there will be a lot of floor graphics in use.
Azerbaijan
I wonder if this clip was from the first runthrough, because those vocals were not great. I could understand if there was an audio issue or getting kicked off wrong, but things were pitchy. The second rehearsal will be important for Azerbaijan.
Montenegro
Props to Montenegro for doing its own thing, even if it has historically led to abysmal results at Eurovision. The clip doesn't show it, but there will be a dancer on stage amidst the noise, so there's that.
Iceland
Much like Hungary, Iceland has done zero alterations to their performance since the national final.
Bosnia & Herzegovina
The barbed wire wall looks interesting, but there still appears to be a separation between the singers, the musician, and the rapper. Perhaps the full version will appear to be cohesive.
Malta
Based on where the dancer is located, the performance seems to be blocked for an angle opposite of the one the above clip uses. In other words, not much of a first impression because we can't see what we should be seeing.
Sweden
I still do not understand why Sweden is sitting in fourth with the bookies right now. I'll be curious how the stage transition will work because what we saw above was not all that telegenic.
Wednesday the second semi-final participants begin to take the stage for their first round of rehearsals. Latvia will kick things off and Australia will wrap up the day.