There are another six “sneak previews” online from the JESC YouTube channel, and here are my thoughts based on the very brief snippets the EBU leaked.
Malta
Not a lot can be gleaned on this apart from Chanel is going to be on her own in a red dress – If the vocals on the video are the ones that have been recorded, there seems to have been an improvement from the preview video.
Kazakhstan
The Kazakhs have gone full Eastern European on this one dressing Karakat in a very large white dress thing with wings, apparently going for the angel look and she’s clearly standing on a box – it must weight a ton. The song didn’t need any of this gubbins. Sounds vocally good, and the backdrop looks all ethereal and otherworldly.
Georgia
One of the shortest preview snippets at just a minute long and there doesn’t seem to be that much of the actual singing inside that minute either, literally about 7-8 seconds. What I can glean is that there will be dancers on stage and possibly contortionists.
Russia
From one of the shortest, to one of the longest. Sofia will sing this with no help from dancers and stuff in a lovely blue dress. It looks very pretty and very simple and shows her vocal skills off rather than hiding any weaknesses. This puts a lot of pressure on her, but everything seen and heard doesn’t make me think that this will do anything other than Top Three.
France
I was seemingly out of step with everyone else when I heard this the first time, so it has forced me to evaluate it again. Nope – I still don’t like it. I do, however, have to give props to France 2 for putting Parisian landmarks on the backing screens in the studio so people will know which country it is definitely from and she’s got a raft of help on stage with some dancer kids but I’m clearly not the constituency this is going for, it’s geared towards the younger end of the age spectrum and could do well with them.
Belarus
Just sneaked out before I published the page, well done EBU there, Arina looks like she’s dressed in a plastic mac which looks a little disconcerting. There also seems to be something going on with a globe that represents the world being in her hands – not a lot is revealed but it looks and sounds polished enough.