Our first look at Semi Final One – Finally some content

Today (at whatever day it is), sees the first tantalising glimpse of songs from Europe’s Favourite contest. Let’s see what the EBU has given us, shall we?, Alonh with a little comment from me!

Iceland

They seem to have changed a little bit of something from their national final performance but, sadly, not their Larynx. There is a heavy use of the recorded backing vocals here making the pair sound better than they actually are. I still love the song through.

Poland

Slovenia 

Well this was up – but they decided to pull it down cos you couldn’t actually embed the damn thing – then they put it up again and you STILL can’t embed it.

Estonia

I didn’t realise 34 seconds could make me hate someone or something MORE than I already do – Tommy, you’ve proved me wrong!

Ukraine

Don’t know what to make of this – I mean it’s a decent song but towards the end of the clip there are some dodgy harmonics that can just about be picked up. Also the fashion is definitely “a choice” – you certainly won’t forget them in a hurry, but they seem to look very amateurish to me, something I suspect they were not aiming for.

Sweden

Is it me or has this lost a little bit of *something*. Mind you it is a rehearsal in a closed environment and no audience to play off. A larger sauna, as requested, and they’ve lost one of the backing dancer people, but otherwise, there’s nothing you’ve not seen before.

Portugal

At least they have changed out of their PJs for the Semi Final. They’ve no need to get dressed up anymore, cos they aren’t going anywhere!

Norway

Nothing seems to have changed much from the national final performance, but the clip that NRK has released doesn’t give that much away.

Belgium

It’s red – with extra RED and some more red … JUST if you didn’t know he was called Red Sebastian!

Azerbaijan

Now, this is how you engage with a camera and an audience!

San Marino

For me there are too many wide shots, and too much of a reliance on the background for this to do anything – also the DJ Box never has done well at Eurovision.

Albania

Netherlands

Difficult to gauge from this 30 seconds, but it seems to have lost its sparkle for me.

Croatia

Cyprus

Which you can’t embed but can access here

So there you have it. A full day of videos at the speed of Eurovision coming to you! – Back to ours again tomorrow?