![ESC2016_-_United_Kingdom_01 Joe and Jake in Stockholm for Eurovision](https://oneurope.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/ESC2016_-_United_Kingdom_01-2-696x465.jpg)
I went into the arena for Italy & the UK. Both are among my absolute favourites this year, both highly improved by lovely staging. Italy’s garden theme is still charming, and they’ve had a few changes to the oddments placed around Francesca. They appear to have got rid of something that looked like a dead pigeon. It’s absolutely delightful and the bit where it switches to English is hugely powerful.
UK is nice, it’s doing us proud, at least in the staging. I just think they’ve done a simple but lovely job with it. Nice pyros too, which today didn’t seem to splash into Jake’s eye as they did at the end of the first rehearsal. Good for about 15th? I hope so, that would be a win for us at the moment.
That’s the rehearsals done for the day. I’m going to catch the Italian and UK press conferences, and see what I can wangle for this evening. Wish me luck!
Monty x