So just like I did with the first semi...here comes some imaginairy rehearsal notes for the performances in the 2nd semifinal!
Vincent Bueno is first on the stage in the second semifinal and shows off his dancemoves. This is a real energetic start of the semi, with Vincent dressed in a white leather jacket, T-shirt and pants, with dancers and backing singers dressed in red. The background goes from a city skyline in the verses to disco lights in all kinds of colours in the chorus. The Austrian delegation had problems with the camera angles earlier this week, but they seem now fixed for the performance tomorrow.
Natalia is up next with her ”Prison” and starts off literally behind bars. In a red dress, sitting on a chair she is behind lightsaber bars in white which gets removed after the first chorus. Then she walks around a smoky stage where chairs are placed all over. And before the last chorus, her backing singers walk up on stage behind her and gives the performance even more drama. Moldova knows how to make unique performances, but will it be enough to qualify?
With a big S (not too unlike the Superman-icon but with pink instead of yellow) in the backdrop Stefania starts her song. Stefania is dressed in white with having two female dancers dressed in pink. This is energetic and a dancefilled performance which tests the young woman vocally, but it works. A male dancer shows up in the middle of the song, and dances like Stefania is working her magic on him. In the last chorus, Stefania makes some cool dancemoves, which ends in a pyrorain and her turning around, showing off the same pink S that she has behind her. A very strong statement which makes the song even more memorable.
More dance from Benny and the Czech Republic. Who has four dancers with him, two male and two female, all in urban outfits, mixing a way of modern breakdance and african in the moves. Benny dances along and the background goes through different colours, from mostly blue in the verses to purple in the chorus. The the drop everything turns green, and laser shoots out while the dancers shows off their best moves one by one. Party Party from the Czechs, no question about it!
Alicja is up next with her bond-theme ballad and gives us a firery performance. Dressed in a long white dress she sings her heart out alone on stage, with pictures from different catastrophic events from history behind her, both from war and natural disasters. For the 2nd chorus some fire pyrotechnics comes and for the last chorus it feels like the whole stage is on fire. But Alicja stands there, brave and strong and give one of the strongest vocal performances of the night. Really impressive from the young woman.
Time for something completly different, Iceland. Daði og Gagnamagnið didn't need to change much from their NF-performance and they haven't. The dancemoves are there and Daði is taking every camerashot with full intensity. The colourscheme is bascially the same, possibly a little more teal than blue in the background, but their avatar faces is still nodding in the rhythm of the song. This will get a lot of cheers in the arena, question is how well the people at home and the juries will respond to it.
Time for some disco from San Marino. But this is much more sexy than what Valentina Monetta or Serhat would do. Dressed in black with a whip in hand, Senhit works the song with two barechested male dancers and two female singers also dressed in tight outfits. The backdrop goes in pink and purple with the words ”FREAKY!” Showing up in purple in the background when she sings it. This is very energetic and fun, really brings the party to the contest, like San Marino has done lately in the contest.
Dressed in his gray suit, Uku sings his powerballad the best he can. The lighting goes in black and yellow, with the word ”LOVE” glowing brighter and brighter to song goes and get as brightest in the chorus and slowly vanish at the end of the song. Uku really gets every moment to shine when the camera hits him and sings every word believable.
Time for one of the fan faves of the year, Serbia, and the Hurricane doesn't disappoint. Dressed in tight silver dresses, the girls give us dancemoves, attitude and vocal performances from especially Sanja Vucic really brings the perforamance new heights. During the 2nd verse comes a male dancer on stage, where each girl gets to the interact with, basically telling him to ”watch but don't touch” with their movements. And then like an army, they stop out the beat of the song when it ends. The lighting in red and purple fits well and it ends with a big HASTA LA VISTA in the dackdrop in white as they all turn around and walk away in darkness.
Time for one of the big favorites on paper, Bulgaria, where Victoria starts off in a starry sky backdrop sitting on a bench, just like in the music video, dressed in black. She looks straight into the camera and sings the song with immense passion and follows the camera around after the first chorus. The stage is smoky and a few dancers comes up behind her and dances together, as she takes us on a journey around the stage. Before the last chorus, brusies and scars starts to appear on her face which heals up during the high note and the starry sky gets brighter and fireflies starts flying around in the backdrop and around her. A very magical perforamance from Bulgaria.
In a red backdrop, showing the words ”I guess you don't love me” starts Tornike his song and belts out his song. Dressed in black, with a guitarist and a drummer and three backing singers, all dressed in black as well. Even if Tornike just stands behind his microphonestand, he sings the song perfectly and the harmoni with the backing singers makes this song very epic. The song ends in the backdrop changing to ”I Love You” in the end. Can be seen as cheesy, but Tornike himself makes it believable.
Time for Armenia, which with a backdrop filled with diamonds starts off with Athena sitting on her throne, which is put on a giant diamond shaped plateau. With male dancers which helps her up and come back down on stage, she really shows who is the real queen this Eurovision-season. The dancemoves are energetic and strobelight effects in white and red filles the stage. Dressed in white, and the dancers in black, Athena is determined to make an impact on us as she towards the end of the song walks up the stairs on her giant diamond, sits on the throne again and everything goes black except for the diamond itself that brights up in white.
Time for Finland and Aksel gives us a perforamance that reminds a lot of the one in UMK, but much improved. Aksel looks in the cameras a lot more and the effect with the shadows behind him feels like it happens infront and around him instead. Dressed in a blue suit, Aksel sings his song perfectly and the red light effect works really well on the stage.
Time for Portugal, which has a backdrop that goes from a firefly effect to more of a starry sky one as the song progresses. Elisa is dressed in her pink and red outfit she had in the NF and has her pianist which she sings the first chorus together with. She sings the song like it means everything and hits the high note easily. A very classic performance that doesn't need all the extra stuff.
Time for Latvia, and well, if Portugal had gone minimalistic, it isn't what Latvia did. In her shortcut bob, is Samanta Tina singing this firecracker higher and higher and higher, to a point that she can't go higher, but she just does it once more! Dressed in dark red, she dances like a mad woman in the instrumental parts while her artsy cleaning ladies as backing singers are doing the same movements as in the NF. The stage goes in red and black and strobelight effects during the instrumental parts and the rapping makes this even more energetic, despite noone really moves. But the camerashots are shaking and makes it very chaotic, which is the point of the perfomance after all. A performance hard to forget is what Latvia brings us this year.
Time for Albania, which with a lightblue sky backdrop starts their song. Dressed in black, in an outfit not too unlike the one in FIK, Arilena gives on hell of a vocal performance. Every word comes from the soul and she hits the notes with an ease that not many come close of. The backdrop goes to gray skies and thunder as the song progresses and makes it even more dramatic but everything goes back to bright blue and with an eagle flying as Arilena stopping to sing her ”destined to fly”.
An another dramatic ballad comes from Switzerland, where Gjon's Tears sings his song with perfect pitch. Dressed in black and with everything starting off in black and white, Gjon stands still for the most part, but the cameramovement and the backdrop asking the question he asks in the verses in different languages is really touching. And in the last chorus the backing singers shows up and the stage lights up in red as he belts out notes that hasn't been heard in Eurovision in a long time. A strong performance from the swiss.
Last in the running order is Denmark, where Ben and Tan stands away from each other to begin with, singing the song to each other. The performance goes in yellow, orange and black and with the singers are in white and black. The singers meet up just before the 2nd chorus and sings it together well with the big ”YES” in the background as they sing it. This is a nice and happy way to end the semifinal with and Ben & Tan makes us all in a good move as we go to the voting.
AUSTRIA | 02 
MOLDOVA | 03 
GREECE | 04 
CZECH REPUBLIC 
POLAND | 06 
ICELAND | 07 
SAN MARINO | 08 
ESTONIA
SERBIA | 10 
BULGARIA | 11 
GEORGIA | 12 
ARMENIA
FINLAND | 14 
PORTUGAL | 15 
LATVIA | 16 
ALBANIA
SWITZERLAND | 18 
DENMARK 
