May I Have Your Blogs Please? - Part 3

source: doteurovision.com

A few more summaries after reading the rather excellent blogs on offer out there. But don't take our word for it, read the blogs yourself, they're crammed full of gorgeous pics and videos. Plus scroll down to find the 12 Points video links.

Serbia
Yet another country using the red and gold lighting on their stage, this leads to concerns about the show starting to appear visually repetitive.

The Serbian song just sounds like another one off the Balkan conveyor belt. Elegant staging of a simple and slightly dated song. Thankfully there is a lack of flute players or anyone blowing into a pig's belly, just five female dancers who wave their arms around in time to the song, presented by suited a booted Marija.

AKOE mentioned that the flat caps on the dancers gave them a look of Yorkshire miners in need of whippets. There is an instrumental break which looks messy as Marija mingles with the backing dancers who start tapping her on the shoulder and reaching out. It doesn't work, there is time to change.

OnEurope see this as one that will make it through, more on neighbourly support than actual merit. AKOE talked about having goose bumps at the vocals, which they described as faultless. OnEurope did point out that the singer might not be loved by the camera but agreed that this really does seem to be living up to the hype.

Czech
Red and gold AGAIN, though less static than the Serbians.

Kabat look as much like fish out of water as to be in need of Skipjack Tuna to be stamped on their shells. Nice enough performance, but this looks like an interval cat shoe-horned into the contest and nothing like a song that will do much with voters, who on the whole, do tend to know what they like. AKOE were happy to write this off now, pointing out that the lead singer isn't working with the camera and is walking around too much.

Portugal
Red and gold like those before it, but more gold this time. A few dancers waving big fans around and a good deal of general jigging around.

AKOE liked the song and thought Sabrina looked like she was having fun, but worried that like previous Portuguese acts this looked to be under-prepared. There is much work to be done to pull this together thanks to the rather ambitious choreography. The language switch did not work at all well. OnEurope thought that this was the first really enjoyable performance of the day, laid back and carefree, it was like a breath of fresh air after the two previous performances.

Macedonia
A pale blue and purple stage (at last). Like Portugal, there is a couple employed to strut their stuff on stage.

Like in previous years, the Macedonians are displaying a love for chairs, it lead to some really quite awful camera work that needs to be tightened up. Karolina turned in a great vocal, singing the final two choruses in English.

ESCKaz, however were distinctly unimpressed and called the whole thing a bit of a mess, something that Keith from AKOE also stated. It seems that whoever has choreographed this number needs to be taken outside and given a good talking to.

Norway
The stage changes colour from green to blue to red to gold and all the way back again. There is plenty of dancing and everyone is having fun.

Guri Schanke is a seasoned pro and knows what she's doing, to be frank this shows after a few less than assured performers have done their stuff. The big issue here is that the dancers from the national final have been replaced by two much younger ones and it now looks a bit like your nan having a jig and showing off her pins at a family knees-up. Not a good look.

The dress changes put ESCKaz in mind of Marie N, though a somewhat more mature version. It seems that everyone agrees this isn't going through.

Malta
The stage is mostly indigo, which rhymes nicely with vertigo (see what I did there?). There are pulses of white light, but that doesn't rhyme with such nice words.

There are a few half naked men poncing about the stage and an oriental gong. Although it is all incredibly repetitive, it did come across very well. ESCKaz liked it.

Olivia is in great voice though, if she had suffered any problems there, this would have been doomed, because as AKOE and others point out way too much is being crammed onto the stage. This has every sign of going down the tube big style unless someone does something about the way it comes across.

Andorra
A black and white backdrop with the numbers from the chorus flashing.

With the look of the stage and a great performance from the boys, this looks like actually offering Andorra a chance of making the final. It looks like whoever completely arsed up their previous attempts with ill-considered staging has got the push. For more or less everyone watching, this song and the one that followed stood out as being rather different, fresh and less desperate than what had gone before.

Hungary
A dark stage with a moving road projected onto the arc above the stage and pin pricks of light marking the night time sky.

She's on the stage with a suitcase and a bus stop, clearly a bit narked by her two-timing slug of a boyfriend and she blew people away with a heartfelt performance that even converted a few of the nay-sayers of recent weeks. Her performance is very personal and small, which may not carry in the hall, but those watching on monitors liked it. It could make it through just by being so very different from the circus acts that surround it.