On Thursday May 14 acts from nine countries — Israel, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland, Cyprus, Slovenia and Poland — took to the stage for their first rehearsals. Inside the press center, our team took note of the highs and lows, the thrills and spills. You can watch our recap of the winners and losers below, followed by our instant reactions filmed immediately after each rehearsal. Click on the country to read our rehearsal review.
Who was your winner today? Let us know in our Day 4 rehearsal poll.
First rehearsals: The Winners and Losers on Day 4
Israel: Nadav Guedj with “Golden Boy”
Latvia: Aminata Savadogo with “Love Injected”
Azerbaijan: Elnur Hüseynov with “Hour of the Wolf”
Iceland: Maria Olafs with “Unbroken”
Sweden: Måns Zelmerlöw with “Heroes”
Switzerland: Mélanie René with “Time to Shine”
Cyprus: John Karayiannis with “One Thing I Should’ve Done”
Slovenia: Maraaya with “Here for You”
Poland: Monika Kuszy?ska with “In the Name of Love”
Who had the best rehearsal on Day 4?
[polldaddy poll=”8867390″]Photo: Thomas Hanses (EBU)
…she can NOT singing…
I cant understand why Slovenia is so popular. She can sing, and look like a jerk whit the stupid things on her head. Slovenia 0 points
Where is the Poland?
I find it a little strange that so many acts have that same circular pattern on the background with the lights – Greece, Israel, etc. – it’s not particularly visually appealing and it’s strange that they’re so similar with just different colours I guess…
I voted for Switzerland.
Even though I really didn’t like the song, the perfromance is just wow. I love the lighting forest in the background and the drums (Which I totally didn’t expect). And I like the change of dress-style.
Latvia sounds like Euphoria. But nots so good like original
MARAAYA <3
Switz is looking great too, love her cape!
Winners for me were only two today:
1 Switzerland, good visuals and I like the drums but backing vocals too loud
2 Israel, I want those sneakers! cool and fun performance
we the common fans only saw a 30 sec clip of the rehersal, which means nothing.i feel that the media wants to spoon feed us and brainwash us to vote for what they actually like. i will decide on my vote when i hear and watch all the respective songs.. whether it will be on the semi finals or finals
Sweden and Cyprus for me. 🙂
Poland is a snoozefest. Will never qualify. Mark my words. And people, please chill out!
What do people see in that horrific song of Latvia???
Screeming O O O. Very painful to my ears.
For me one of the worst songs ever…
All these polls and predictions are utterly baloney. the votes will be cast on the respective nights, together with the votes of the qualified juries.. we might have an unpredictable winner.
dear Wiwibloggs. why is my comment awaiting moderation? i did not write anything offensive. i have a right to express my opinion.
arguably there’s a tiny bit of bias in the jury based on how the singers (especially the male ones) look
but no, you can’t discredit them for that I guess
Correction: .. how I reacted when seeing if for the first time. Newer..
mocosuburbian – not inaccurate, but that justifies neither the discrediting of this blog because of its glut of LGBT writers nor any surprise when a Eurovision fan blog features LGBT people.
@Adam just because the LGBT community has become attached to the contest through the past two decades doesn’t mean that that’s all it can be
there are just as many straight fans as there who aren’t
it’s not exclusive to one orientation or another
I think Sweden do the right thing not to change a successful staging. But it’s very hard for those who have seen the performance from Melodifestivalen a million times to get impressed. It’s only human to get bored after some time. However, the average voter, not living in a eurovision bubble it will be successful ones again I think when thinking about how I reacted when seeing it for the newer performances and stagings becomes more interesting. Like new fresh blood. But Georgia.. winner? I don’t think dracula- woman will do that good with the juries. And her voice is not… Read more »
Poland has done the best performance today. Monika winner of this semi.
people freaking out over Poland being left out like chill out people…first of all its just a fan poll and not some official decider on who will qualify, its not like anything more or less will happen to Poland because of it. It’s a simple mistake! Jeez, the readers on here are so critical of wiwibloggs 90% of the time, yall act as if youre forced to read this blog. If you hate this site so much and how “gay” and “unprofessional” it is then either go to another site or realize that mistakes happen, and that this tv show… Read more »
All these songs deserve to qualify it’s such a hard semi indeed
1 latvia
2 slovenia
3 iceland
4 israel
5 azerbaijan
6 poland
7 sweden
8 switzerland
9 cyprus
From the other half i atleast want ireland,norway and czech republic to qualify
Sweden and actually Switzerland was the top performers today
My two favorite songs are actually in the lead – even ahead of Sweden! 😀
It’s incredibly difficult to judge the songs given the fact it’s a single camera, the sound (including the fact the the microphones all seem to be on the same level), and that we only get to see 30 seconds of the song, but here it goes:
1.Latvia
2.Slovenia
3.Sweden
4.Switzerland
5.Israel
6.Azerbaijan
7.Iceland
8.Poland
9.Cyprus
Just remembered another point I didn’t like when Azerbaijan’s dancers were right in front of him, he was practically tripping over them. I’m hoping with camera angles it won’t look so odd
Totally agree with you guys re Sweden and Slovenia – v similar staging to their national finals, both were great today but not wow because of that. I loved Aminatas performance too, so dramatic but not over the top. I actually don’t mind that Slovenia haven’t used the LED screen. They’re wanting the song and lighting to speak for itself and I think it does work. I just watched an interview where they said they feel like the screen is like having windows media on behind you (a critique I’ve also read elsewhere) and in some acts it does look… Read more »
Wow!! Why is everyone being so overreactive?? It was just a mistake!! How would you feel if you got shouted at for a simple mistake? ????. It’s just a poll anyway, nothing to do on the final outcome.
I hope Norway and Slovenia not going to the final
No one was actually bad today. But here is how I rank today’s rehearsals: 1. Cyprus: Simplicity is making it really stand out. I really think this will qualify. 2. Latvia: Really nice, well done. 3. Sweden: It still works perfectly, even though anyone that has seen Melodifestivalen has gotten bored of the presentation. 4. Switzerland: Great backdrop, she has improved so much. 5. Israel: Also quite nice, nothing remarkable. 6. Poland: Really nice, but nothing to die for. 7. Azerbaijan: I didn’t get really moved and the dancers being in front of the singer irritated me. 8. Slovenia: It… Read more »
Jesus Christ it was just a mistake im sure! As if it has anything to do with the final outcome in the first place, which im pretty sure Poland will qualify!
My top 17 in second semi-final (although I admit I like all the songs and 1. Norway
2. Poland
3. Israel
4. Czech Republic
5. Azerbaijan
6. Slovenia
7. Sweden
8. Ireland
9. Portugal
10. Latvia
—-
11. Lithuania
12. Iceland
13. Malta
14. Cyprus
15. Switzerland
16. Montenegro
17. San Marino
This is BRILLIANT: http://youtu.be/c-2Hj62dies
it’s not fair to the Poland right now, other countries were in the poll longer
I agree with Darren, this is going to be one tough semi.
I see Montenegro, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Slovenia and perhaps Norway as the certain qualifiers. San Marino and Cyprus are the definite non-qualifiers. For everyone else it will be a bloodbath.
yeeeees poland is now in the poll
poland is really underrated by wiwi this year, and now this…
This is such an open semi. I think Sweden, Norway, Israel and Latvia are definite qualifiers. Slovenia and Azerbaijan didn’t seem to have great rehearsals but I still expect them to reach the final. The other four places are up for grabs.
After the first rehearsals my top 10 at the moment would be: Sweden, Azerbaijan, Slovenia, Norway, Latvia, Israel, Ireland, Czech Republic, Malta and Switzerland
i want to vote for poland!!!
300 votes have now been casted, still no Poland. Full professionalism, I see. And please don’t try to explain how “you forgot” – there are only 9 very unique songs to be memorized. And to a ESC-lover it isn’t that hard, really.
How on earth did Maria from Poland deserve to get bullied by wiwi? Only negative reviews for a reasonable beautiful and uncontrived ballad and now she is not even part of the poll…. 🙁
My god stop spamming about poland guys!!! I’m sure they will add it once they see the article again acting like a 5 year old insulting them because of a mistake won’t help,
These are who I hope will qualify from semi final 2:
1) Sweden
2) Norway
3) Ireland
4) Iceland
5) Azerbaijan
6) Slovenia
7) Latvia
8) Lithuania
9) Switzerland
10) Czech Republic
Where is Monika? 😮 I didn’t see her in this rank 😮
I liked Sweden Slovenia Azebaijan Latvia a LOT!! But I LOOOOOVED ICELAND and SWITZERLAND!!!<3<3<3<3<3
Monika from Poland was the best today… Where is she? I want to vote for her, but I can’t. Shame on you
Where is Poland? 😮
Poland? Poland was the best…
We want Poland in this rank! Shame on you wiwiblogs!
Where is Poland? ????