FYR Macedonia changed their stage design, Australia changed the colour of their box and Serbia gave us delicate leather. And that was just three countries out of the eighteen that took to the stage today for their second rehearsals of the second semi final. But who of today’s acts — Albania, Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, FYR Macedonia, Georgia, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Ukraine — had the best rehearsal?
You can watch our reviews of today’s second rehearsals below. Then vote in our poll. You can vote for as many countries as you like, but you can only vote one time, so make it count. Be sure to click the box next to each act you want to support before pressing submit.
SECOND REHEARSALS: MAY 7
Albania: Eneda Tarifa with “Fairytale”
Australia: Dami Im with “Sound Of Silence”
Belarus: IVAN with “Help You Fly”
Belgium: Laura Tesoro with “What’s The Pressure”
Bulgaria: Poli Genova with “If Love Was A Crime”
Denmark: Lighthouse X with “Soldiers Of Love”
FYR Macedonia: Kaliopi with “Dona”
Georgia: Nika Kocharov & Young Georgian Lolitaz with “Midnight Gold”
Ireland: Nicky Byrne with “Sunlight”
Israel: Hovi Star with “Made Of Stars”
Latvia: Justs with “Heartbeat”
Lithuania: Donny Montell with “I’ve Been Waiting For This Night”
Josh is from Australia and has been a huge Eurovision fan since 2010. You can follow him on Twitter @josh_salmon. Keep up with the latest Eurovision news and gossip by liking our Facebook page and by following the team on Twitter @wiwibloggs.
Australia to win with Dami im!! Rhymes beautifully and Dami will sing her heart out for Eurovision glory!!
Ronja
7 years ago
Who is the best? For me are:
* Ukraine with her beautiful song
* Poland with her amazing singer im sorry I love him
* Czech Republic with pretty lady and sweet song
* Norway because she surprised me so much
* Belarus with their second handsome boy with long hair and song is very pleasure too.
Good luck my fav singers
mohi
7 years ago
@Victoria Finally someone who understands real art…Yes Poland is the best this year.And the true winner…Listening to the Polish song makes me cry.I can say it’s simple song but full of emotions sang by a emotional singer…
Poland FLAWLESS
Michal Szpak of Poland is incredible. His live sounds better than in the studio. His vocals are amazing. Yeah, he is one to watch!
Brad boyd
7 years ago
My top 3
China
Bolivia
Argentina
Chile
Wales
Ivan Browdy
7 years ago
Jamala, you’re my fv
Yulia
7 years ago
mary devine…..Ukraine is very beautiful country. It will surprise you with their national culture , food, clothing – vyshyvanka . Kiev is the capital with its charm …. You will not regret visiting us …. where you will meet hospitable and beautiful people 🙂
mary devine
7 years ago
Ukraine~? Belarus?
who would want to go to the Ukraine?
the opinions here are so biased ; the Eurovision destroyed by Russia and its allies.
Russia and Ukraine are in the topp on betting odds. Russia are a homophobic land. And Ukraing who cant sing, she is just screeming in 3 min. Im sceerd of saterday. France and Sweden are the best winner this year
Oxana
7 years ago
anka,
from what I know, our ESC voting and transparent calculation from tele voters provided by branch of pwc.com
would they tamper votes over the whole Europe or will they remain a trusted company with tens of years positive business image?
I would believe in their honest attitude than in conspiracy behind it.
TATU had 3d place and that’s their lucky day. really. with zero vocal and so-so song it haven’t deserved anything higher than 10-12. tho I like their songs.
This year we have great artist..I can say that whole countries deserve tso be in the Final.Israel is really cool which we’ve never expected.Poland is so strong.About Australia im not impressed,I don’t know but after 1 min for me it’s boring. Ukraine-Anyway I don’t like it.Bulgaria for me is a big fave in this semi final.
Bulgaria
Norway
Poland
Israel
Latvia
Australia
Lithuania
Serbia
Ukraine
Belgium
They will qualify but Macedonia is really nice . Jury voting can give a ticket to Kaliopi..
Steffi
7 years ago
1- Poland.
2- Italy
3- Hungary
4- Serbia
5- Ukraine
6- Norway
7- Israel
8- Belarus
9- Russia
10- Belgium
anka
7 years ago
@Oxana I guess you and I have different knowledge regarding how the results of anything (absolutely anything) can be manipulated. Have you been controlling and counting every vote that comes by phone from televoters? Is there any way for us to control that and the technology behind it? I remember once in 2003 when the televote from the UK got completely erased during the live voting. None of the votes from the televoters in that country were accounted for. As a result, the Russian group T.A.T.U. ended up being third in the competition when in reality it should have been… Read more »
anka
7 years ago
@EugeneESCUK
Absolutely SVT and EBU decide the running order. Who decides the winner, do you know? In such huge competitions where it is so easy to tweak the public opinion? If there is a chance to use the contest that is being watched by 200 million people (minimum) for political reasons, I would. 🙂
NOR LAY
7 years ago
Norway, she is deliver again and agian 🙂
Ukrain not my cup of tea, too much shouting. Australia, I like the song but she does’nt sing when she was lifted down from the box, but it sound the same…I think that’s weird, is it the backing singers who are doing the job for her?
Bulgaria, the dress and the dance is soooo bad and onley ok voice (not a hard song to sing).
Oxana
7 years ago
anka,
if there’s a conspiracy behind it, then how they buy/intimidate/fool judges from all countries to be corrupt and how they can cover wrong calculation of tele votes if it’s aired?
have any ideas how they do it? if the do
DJM77
7 years ago
I’m sorry. I get that the Ukraine song is well staged. I also get that it has political sentimentality underpinning it and culturally relevant instrumentality. But I just don’t get why people are raving about this. I’ve listened to it a dozen times now and have played it to others. The response is the same. The melody is poor. The singing is not pleasant to listen to. The German outfit sings about ghosts and the Ukraine singer sounds like one (even if that is meant to be the point). Putting aside staging, you can’t polish a turd, and if the… Read more »
NOR LAY
7 years ago
Look at Clip from Australia. When she’s lifted down from the Box she do not sing but the sound as always. I am just wondering how much she is singing and how much backing vocal do the job.
anka
7 years ago
@EugeneESCUK
I don’t think that Björkman is the one who decides the winner. There are much bigger decision makers than him. Trust me 😉 Some of those people reside outside of Europe. I am a big fan of conspiracy theories though :))
anka
7 years ago
@esc 2016
I don’t believe that openly political songs have any place in the Eurovision Contest. However, this year’s competition coincidently revealed some curious results – we are to witness a duel between Russia and Ukraine for the first place. This happened not because Ukraine brought a political song, but because the Russian and Ukrainian songs are the strongest in the entire contest. You can’t help it to see the duel in the broader context of the real world rivalry though.
Peter
7 years ago
Norway slays the pack ????????
Zebb
7 years ago
@JJ When you’re claiming it splits, you’re kinda vindicator of that atrocities, really. And who else except of russian government was nailed with similar reaction?
My top of acts at semi-2 rehearsals (doesn’t show my overall favourites):
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 – Bulgaria, Ukraine, Latvia, Israel, Australia
My absolute favourites by far are Nika Kocharov and Lollies 🙂
And I know they won’t qualify probably, but anyway, I adore the song.
Others I liked:
-Serbia – the more you listen to it rhe more you like it
-Ukraine – very powerful performance, professional
– Belgium – everybody loves a bit of funk
The rest of the ones I like too are Australia, Ireland, Denmark, Belarus and Latvia..
others I am not really keen on
BZB
7 years ago
esc 2016
EBU allow 2 times Ukraine to have poltical/propaganda songs at Eurovision. First time in 2005 and second time 2016. I don t know why EBU do that, first time maybe because they are host nation, second time only to provocate Russia. Before that only song from Greece 1976 was contraversal .
We have 2 time in row at Eurovision contraversal song last year from Armenia and this year from Ukraine. Why EBU want to bring so hard politics on eurovison stage.
esc 2016
7 years ago
@anka
Why politics should not be part of eurovision?
You would like it more if you listen only love stories?
The worst song this year , are Australia and Ukraine.å
anka
7 years ago
Top 5 in the Grand Final:
1.Russia
2.Ukraine
3. Israel
4.Sweden
5.Spain
anka
7 years ago
We all agree that politics should not be part of Eurovision, and yet time and time again, politics creeps into a seemingly innocent song contest. In some mystical and mysterious way this year’s Eurovision turned out to be a reflection of the real world duel between Russia and Ukraine. The winners of Semifinal 1 and Semifinal 2 – Russia and Ukraine – respectively will be fighting for the trophy in the Grand Final. It’s getting more and more exciting, folks! Europe, brace yourself. We are for some epic drama. We may even come across some prophetic sublime messages disguised in… Read more »
Max
7 years ago
1. Bulgaria <333333333
2. Belarus
3. Poland
George
7 years ago
Israel, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Georgia are the best songs of this semi final in my opinion and they had the best rehearsals!
JJ
7 years ago
Ukraine good song, but to political for eurovision stage. I don t know why EBU allow this king of song. Eurovision projects is to connect the nations and countries toghether, not to split them and provocate some nations with song.
esc 2016
7 years ago
Sebia and Israel the best then Ukraine and Georgia
Paul
7 years ago
Belarus! It was just incredible staging, bravo!
Nick
7 years ago
I am amazed. I would never have thought I would pick Belgium as my favorite, but her energy is so contagious! However, I think she will end at the right end of the leader board in the finals. Poli will be top 5! Good luck everyone 🙂
Miss Uncongeniality
7 years ago
Bulgaria is definitely the winner… the winner of Barbara Dex Award
Fenistil
7 years ago
Serbia and Belgium have already been among my favourites in this semi and now, with this powerful staging, definitely also in a whole contest. I’m not sure what to think about the other two – Israel and Bulgaria – they’re still good, but I’m not really feeling their staging yet.
Mig
7 years ago
In wiwivision by Portugal has to participate this song ..
Serbia and Ukraine.
Probably my overall favorites to win at the moment. They were wow.
gal
7 years ago
Israel Serbia Australia Bulgaria Poland are the best songs at this semi.
Ukraine awful – really dont know what the hype is all about.. a bunch of screaming like someone is dying … its not a current song that u can listen in the radio or something like that and not feat to the eurovision !!
Mark
7 years ago
I think Serbia is the best in SEMI 2.. This is strong song, good voice, good performance, good costumes.. I dont like Ukraine.. Jamala has a good voice but to much screaming in song, get volume to plus and play Ukarine song, its not good for ears, we want to enjoy, or not?! Australia in 1st was cool but now in 2nd was pff, little bad.. Israel is made of stars, but its not to good to win.. Bulgaria – good song, bad performace.. BAD DANCE.. (was my winner) My top 5 in Sem 2 are: Serbia, Israel, Bulgaria, Australia,… Read more »
Kreuzbergfan
7 years ago
Georgia was the best. Top 10 in the final
mocosuburbian
7 years ago
ukraine’s rehearsal made me ugly cry when the tree lit up
i don’t like israel’s song but their staging is amazing
macedonia’s is simple in the best way ever and I also appreciate her rehearsal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDEbVwrnuH4 (full version of jamala’s performance)
OR
7 years ago
@Erik
if your mom love adam lambert you must show her hovi star song.. i’m sure she will put him in the hot list 🙂
Erik
7 years ago
Hello! Today I’ve had some sorta experiment and the object was my mum. So here’s the deal: I played top ten songs for her (top ten according to the odds) randomly on YouTube and asked her two simple questions when we were done, the first one what’s hot and the second what’s not? FYI – my mum loves Adam Lambert and Sia, she’s forty something 🙂 1. What’s hot? A guy with clap along song (France) Asian girl (Aussie) A boy with visuals (Russia) A girl with a song that your father will clearly understand (I’m half Italian) 2. What’s… Read more »
Belgium!
People here it is not syaing who has the best song but the best voice….For God
Australia to win with Dami im!! Rhymes beautifully and Dami will sing her heart out for Eurovision glory!!
Who is the best? For me are:
* Ukraine with her beautiful song
* Poland with her amazing singer im sorry I love him
* Czech Republic with pretty lady and sweet song
* Norway because she surprised me so much
* Belarus with their second handsome boy with long hair and song is very pleasure too.
Good luck my fav singers
@Victoria Finally someone who understands real art…Yes Poland is the best this year.And the true winner…Listening to the Polish song makes me cry.I can say it’s simple song but full of emotions sang by a emotional singer…
Poland FLAWLESS
#Australia… can’t silence Dami anymore… #dami4euro #DamiArmy #SOS
Michal Szpak of Poland is incredible. His live sounds better than in the studio. His vocals are amazing. Yeah, he is one to watch!
My top 3
China
Bolivia
Argentina
Chile
Wales
Jamala, you’re my fv
mary devine…..Ukraine is very beautiful country. It will surprise you with their national culture , food, clothing – vyshyvanka . Kiev is the capital with its charm …. You will not regret visiting us …. where you will meet hospitable and beautiful people 🙂
Ukraine~? Belarus?
who would want to go to the Ukraine?
the opinions here are so biased ; the Eurovision destroyed by Russia and its allies.
Only Serbia, Poland, France. Thanks
Russia and Ukraine are in the topp on betting odds. Russia are a homophobic land. And Ukraing who cant sing, she is just screeming in 3 min. Im sceerd of saterday. France and Sweden are the best winner this year
anka,
from what I know, our ESC voting and transparent calculation from tele voters provided by branch of pwc.com
would they tamper votes over the whole Europe or will they remain a trusted company with tens of years positive business image?
I would believe in their honest attitude than in conspiracy behind it.
TATU had 3d place and that’s their lucky day. really. with zero vocal and so-so song it haven’t deserved anything higher than 10-12. tho I like their songs.
This year we have great artist..I can say that whole countries deserve tso be in the Final.Israel is really cool which we’ve never expected.Poland is so strong.About Australia im not impressed,I don’t know but after 1 min for me it’s boring. Ukraine-Anyway I don’t like it.Bulgaria for me is a big fave in this semi final.
Bulgaria
Norway
Poland
Israel
Latvia
Australia
Lithuania
Serbia
Ukraine
Belgium
They will qualify but Macedonia is really nice . Jury voting can give a ticket to Kaliopi..
1- Poland.
2- Italy
3- Hungary
4- Serbia
5- Ukraine
6- Norway
7- Israel
8- Belarus
9- Russia
10- Belgium
@Oxana I guess you and I have different knowledge regarding how the results of anything (absolutely anything) can be manipulated. Have you been controlling and counting every vote that comes by phone from televoters? Is there any way for us to control that and the technology behind it? I remember once in 2003 when the televote from the UK got completely erased during the live voting. None of the votes from the televoters in that country were accounted for. As a result, the Russian group T.A.T.U. ended up being third in the competition when in reality it should have been… Read more »
@EugeneESCUK
Absolutely SVT and EBU decide the running order. Who decides the winner, do you know? In such huge competitions where it is so easy to tweak the public opinion? If there is a chance to use the contest that is being watched by 200 million people (minimum) for political reasons, I would. 🙂
Norway, she is deliver again and agian 🙂
Ukrain not my cup of tea, too much shouting. Australia, I like the song but she does’nt sing when she was lifted down from the box, but it sound the same…I think that’s weird, is it the backing singers who are doing the job for her?
Bulgaria, the dress and the dance is soooo bad and onley ok voice (not a hard song to sing).
anka,
if there’s a conspiracy behind it, then how they buy/intimidate/fool judges from all countries to be corrupt and how they can cover wrong calculation of tele votes if it’s aired?
have any ideas how they do it? if the do
I’m sorry. I get that the Ukraine song is well staged. I also get that it has political sentimentality underpinning it and culturally relevant instrumentality. But I just don’t get why people are raving about this. I’ve listened to it a dozen times now and have played it to others. The response is the same. The melody is poor. The singing is not pleasant to listen to. The German outfit sings about ghosts and the Ukraine singer sounds like one (even if that is meant to be the point). Putting aside staging, you can’t polish a turd, and if the… Read more »
Look at Clip from Australia. When she’s lifted down from the Box she do not sing but the sound as always. I am just wondering how much she is singing and how much backing vocal do the job.
@EugeneESCUK
I don’t think that Björkman is the one who decides the winner. There are much bigger decision makers than him. Trust me 😉 Some of those people reside outside of Europe. I am a big fan of conspiracy theories though :))
@esc 2016
I don’t believe that openly political songs have any place in the Eurovision Contest. However, this year’s competition coincidently revealed some curious results – we are to witness a duel between Russia and Ukraine for the first place. This happened not because Ukraine brought a political song, but because the Russian and Ukrainian songs are the strongest in the entire contest. You can’t help it to see the duel in the broader context of the real world rivalry though.
Norway slays the pack ????????
@JJ When you’re claiming it splits, you’re kinda vindicator of that atrocities, really. And who else except of russian government was nailed with similar reaction?
My top of acts at semi-2 rehearsals (doesn’t show my overall favourites):
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 – Bulgaria, Ukraine, Latvia, Israel, Australia
My absolute favourites by far are Nika Kocharov and Lollies 🙂
And I know they won’t qualify probably, but anyway, I adore the song.
Others I liked:
-Serbia – the more you listen to it rhe more you like it
-Ukraine – very powerful performance, professional
– Belgium – everybody loves a bit of funk
The rest of the ones I like too are Australia, Ireland, Denmark, Belarus and Latvia..
others I am not really keen on
esc 2016
EBU allow 2 times Ukraine to have poltical/propaganda songs at Eurovision. First time in 2005 and second time 2016. I don t know why EBU do that, first time maybe because they are host nation, second time only to provocate Russia. Before that only song from Greece 1976 was contraversal .
We have 2 time in row at Eurovision contraversal song last year from Armenia and this year from Ukraine. Why EBU want to bring so hard politics on eurovison stage.
@anka
Why politics should not be part of eurovision?
You would like it more if you listen only love stories?
The worst song this year , are Australia and Ukraine.å
Top 5 in the Grand Final:
1.Russia
2.Ukraine
3. Israel
4.Sweden
5.Spain
We all agree that politics should not be part of Eurovision, and yet time and time again, politics creeps into a seemingly innocent song contest. In some mystical and mysterious way this year’s Eurovision turned out to be a reflection of the real world duel between Russia and Ukraine. The winners of Semifinal 1 and Semifinal 2 – Russia and Ukraine – respectively will be fighting for the trophy in the Grand Final. It’s getting more and more exciting, folks! Europe, brace yourself. We are for some epic drama. We may even come across some prophetic sublime messages disguised in… Read more »
1. Bulgaria <333333333
2. Belarus
3. Poland
Israel, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Georgia are the best songs of this semi final in my opinion and they had the best rehearsals!
Ukraine good song, but to political for eurovision stage. I don t know why EBU allow this king of song. Eurovision projects is to connect the nations and countries toghether, not to split them and provocate some nations with song.
Sebia and Israel the best then Ukraine and Georgia
Belarus! It was just incredible staging, bravo!
I am amazed. I would never have thought I would pick Belgium as my favorite, but her energy is so contagious! However, I think she will end at the right end of the leader board in the finals. Poli will be top 5! Good luck everyone 🙂
Bulgaria is definitely the winner… the winner of Barbara Dex Award
Serbia and Belgium have already been among my favourites in this semi and now, with this powerful staging, definitely also in a whole contest. I’m not sure what to think about the other two – Israel and Bulgaria – they’re still good, but I’m not really feeling their staging yet.
In wiwivision by Portugal has to participate this song ..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe0iRvQixQc
Israel and Serbia the real winners!!!
Serbia and Ukraine.
Probably my overall favorites to win at the moment. They were wow.
Israel Serbia Australia Bulgaria Poland are the best songs at this semi.
Ukraine awful – really dont know what the hype is all about.. a bunch of screaming like someone is dying … its not a current song that u can listen in the radio or something like that and not feat to the eurovision !!
I think Serbia is the best in SEMI 2.. This is strong song, good voice, good performance, good costumes.. I dont like Ukraine.. Jamala has a good voice but to much screaming in song, get volume to plus and play Ukarine song, its not good for ears, we want to enjoy, or not?! Australia in 1st was cool but now in 2nd was pff, little bad.. Israel is made of stars, but its not to good to win.. Bulgaria – good song, bad performace.. BAD DANCE.. (was my winner) My top 5 in Sem 2 are: Serbia, Israel, Bulgaria, Australia,… Read more »
Georgia was the best. Top 10 in the final
ukraine’s rehearsal made me ugly cry when the tree lit up
i don’t like israel’s song but their staging is amazing
macedonia’s is simple in the best way ever and I also appreciate her rehearsal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDEbVwrnuH4 (full version of jamala’s performance)
@Erik
if your mom love adam lambert you must show her hovi star song.. i’m sure she will put him in the hot list 🙂
Hello! Today I’ve had some sorta experiment and the object was my mum. So here’s the deal: I played top ten songs for her (top ten according to the odds) randomly on YouTube and asked her two simple questions when we were done, the first one what’s hot and the second what’s not? FYI – my mum loves Adam Lambert and Sia, she’s forty something 🙂 1. What’s hot? A guy with clap along song (France) Asian girl (Aussie) A boy with visuals (Russia) A girl with a song that your father will clearly understand (I’m half Italian) 2. What’s… Read more »
I love Poland, Ukraine, Australia