Liveblog: Semi-final 1 – first dress rehearsal

Hello from St. Jakobshalle! I will be live updating you of the proceedings of the first dress rehearsal of semi-final 1 from 15.30 CET.

We are watching the 15 performances from the acts, and then we will be escorted out before interval acts.

Ah, Eurovision theme music plays. Let’s do this!

Opening act

Opening act is Swiss themed – of course. Bit of yodeling and contemporary dancing. Plus Alpenhorn and other traditional Swiss instruments.

They played The Code in a greater setting. And now the three hosts are entering the stage.

Well, only two actually. It’s Hazel Brugger and Sandra Studer greeting everyone. They are showing a short clip of Sandra performing at Eurovision in 1991.

The initial info is of course repeated in English, French and some German. We are after all in a multi-speaking country.

1. Iceland: VÆB – “RÓA”

Here comes the opening entry! Our Icelandic sailor boys Hálfdán and Mátthi are ready to take the stage.

There is a boat on stage!

Great energy from all of them, the dancers having imaginary violins to play the theme on. They end out on the front stage dancing their way to the end and of course with some steam pumping.

2. Poland: Justyna Steczkowska – “GAJA”

Our Polish mother is portrayed with a big globe on the LED behind her while her dancers take her to the middle of the stage.

Pyro already in the first chorus. We’re heating things up!

More pyro as the dancers move to front stage.

A large dragon appears behing Justyna as she is being lifted up.

She joins the dancers on the front stage as more pyro shoots up and the fire theme continues behind her.

3. Slovenia: Klemen – “How Much Time Do We Have Left”

Next up is Klemen, who has visited the Alps in his postcard.

Big glittery LED while a picture of his wife appears behind him, while she was ill.

In the first chorus some private footage of Klemen and his family is shown.

Two dancers are accompanying him while he is turned upside down singing the second chorus.

Warm orange/golden lights surrounds him, as his wife enters the stage standing back to back with him at the end.

4. Estonia: Tommy Cash – “Espresso Macchiato”

Tommy begins mid stage in his signature pose while a picture of a “Winners Cafe” is shown in the background.

Winners Cafe fills out the full LED while Tommy is getting frisk searched by his security officers in the second chorus.

An airplane named “Tommy Cash” appears and that plane also has bird wings to fly with!

Now we have moved to “Tommywood”. You know, like the Hollywood sign.

An “intruder” enters the stage and is being removed by security. We think it’s staged…

They all end up in a victory pose near the front. 

Interval 1

Now we’re getting treated to some Swiss hits, first from DJ Bobo and a bit of “Chihuahua”.

Next is another famous Swiss song (that no-one knows is Swiss): Yello – “The Race”.

And now it gets even funnier: It’s the Chicken Dance! Yes, that also originates from Switzerland.

# Spain: Melody – “Esa diva”

Here comes the first of the automatic qualifiers. We are diva’ing up in here, because Melody is about to enter the stage.

Beginning in black and reflected on a big white LED in the background we slowly get Melody’s insanely long dress revealed.

She enters the stage towards her dancers through a red/purple curtain (hard to tell the colour from far away!)

Zooming out to reveal Swiss mountains and columns, when Melody walks up onto a podium.

Pyro curtain! The last chorus had to have it, of course. And she ends on her last note in the arms of one of her male dancers.

5. Ukraine: Ziferblat – “Bird of Pray”

Here comes the Ukrainian trio. They are treated to some cheese fondue in their postcard.

A female backing singer begins the song with the high notes before Daniel takes over.

Daniel is standing mid-stage with the backing singers behind him forming a triangle.

Stage pyro blasting off in the bridge, while the band forms two triangles.

Last shot is Daniel showing off an ornament in his hand and also showing the female backing singer. Then the overhead lights takes the form of wings slowly basking.

6. Sweden: KAJ – “Bara bada bastu”

Here comes the bookies favourites, our Swedish sauna boys.

Beginning in a Nordic sauna setting in the woods with plenty of logs behind them to heat things up. Plus a big fire place.

We have deer passing by in the LED background during the chorus.

Now the sauna itself is in place, much like the Melfest staging. And the sausage is big!

Pyro goes off left and right in the bridge while a heating thermometer is shown on the front portal.

The performance ends with the trio plus their three dancers at the front stage mimicking their up-and-down sitting and then ending off in their final signature pose.

7. Portugal: Napa – “Deslocado”

Jõao gets us going (don’t ask me which Jõao it is) while the drummer and pianist sits in the middle of the back end of the stage.

There is an actual grand piano on stage. Looks good even if the sound doesn’t come from there.

We see the band getting together on the back end of the stage while the colours shift to a warm and bright horizon and an island on the LED (probably Madeira) fading into the closing shot.

8. Norway: Kyle Alessandro – “Lighter”

Kyle begins sitting down between two columns before getting up and walking a bit forward while the floor and background changes to a lava-esque formation.

Moving forward to the front stage for the second verse, and then fire emerges in front of them.

Dance break with that extra second after the lighter ignites.

More pyro in the final chorus and we get some breakdancing from one of the dancers and pyro galore ending it all.

9. Belgium: Red Sebastian – “Strobe Lights”

From red fire to red strobe lights, we begin in a dark close-up of Red Sebastian.

As the beat hits we’re getting hit with lots of red light (what else, dare I say).

Several Red Sebastians appear on the back LED kind of motion captured and kind of distorted.

Three more Red Sebastians appear on the front stage while arrows point them in the direction of walking, interchanging with bright white.

Dance break and we’re pumping up the moves!

He ends on the front of the back end with a wide shot.

# Italy: Lucio Corsi – “Volevo essere un duro”

Lucio is boarding an old Basel tram in his postcard, so we’re getting to see a little bit of the city we’ve become familiar with in the last few days.

Lucio sits behind a grand piano (and I mean XXXXXL grand piano) with two gigantic amplifiers at the back of the stage.

Stage is bathed in some smoke and soft, tender colours.

He leaves the piano behind to walk over to another mic stand with his guitar in the second chorus.

The whole performance is subtitled, so we get the meaning of everything.

Lucio then walks to the front stage with his guitarist and playing the harmonica acoustically. So we have an actual instrument playing on stage!

Interval 2

Hazel and Sandra tells us about different props and we then see some of the funnier props being used in Eurovision past.

We’re talking Francesco Gabbani, Subwoolfer, Achille Lauro, Dustin the Turkey, Mariya Yaremchuk, Mélovin, Chingiz, Windows95man, Kate Miller-Heidke – and of course double Eurovision winner Loreen’s panini toaster!

10. Azerbaijan: Mamagama – “Run With U”

The band begins in a half circle in orange/yellow tones. They are then joined by three dancers.

The dancers are using the elevated half circle to get in formation (hello Beyoncé!).

On the back LED are more dancers being shown in the first chorus.

An overhead circle is being lowered before the second verse, before the dim the lights (literally in the lyrics).

We get some vocal rolls from Asaf in the last chorus before the performance ends.

11. San Marino: Gabry Ponte – “Tutta l’Italia”

Allora, it’s time to greet San Marino’s big neighbour, as Gabry Ponte takes the stage behind his DJ booth.

In the first verse two dancers are at the front stage with an accordion and a drum.

Lots of pyro and stage bombs while we see Roman statues on the LED screens chewing gum and dancing (yes, it’s a thing).

We see the Trevi Fountain and Colosseum in Rome during the second chorus.

Gabry has two singers with him on stage. One on his left side and one on the front stage.

12. Albania: Shkodra Elektronike – “Zjerm”

Speaking of fire, we now cross the Adriatic Sea to have Beatrice and Kolë onto the stage.

Stage floor showing geometric figures in red and black while Beatrice moves from the front stage to the back end.

White boxes in different sizes are spread on the back end where Kolë stands behind one of them. He moves over to the right side to do his spoken word part.

Last chorus gives us the zjerm we are waiting for while Beatrice gives us shndrit vogueing.

13. Netherlands: Claude – “C’est la vie”

The life of Claude takes him on a scenic train ride through the Swiss alps in his postcard.

He begins the performance in a close-up on the front stage. We have an extra two seconds that sound like a heavy inhale before the piano intro.

Claude walks to the back end to join his dancers in the second verse, while his dancers form a circla around him.

In the bridge we see blooming flowers filling first the back LED then the whole stage floor.

He looks into a mirror seeing himself as a child before ending the song with a smile to all of us.

14. Croatia: Marko Bosnjak – “Poison Cake”

Marko begins at the back end standing in a sea of smoke and red/green colours.

We get some “dizzy” camera shots during the first chorus as his four dancers join him.

In the nursery rhyme the tones shift to pink/purple and then back to green/red when the chorus comes on.

He is wearing a cape which comes off before the last chorus, and now all of them are at the front stage ending the performance in formation.

# Switzerland: Zoë Më – “Voyage”

Zoë is on home ground in more than one sense, so of course her postcard is from her home city Basel showing us the shipping yards and docks of the Rhein River.

Looking a bit like Mona Lisa from the side we begin in a close-up of Zoë’s face.

The camera and a light operator moves slowly around her, while she is sitting still.

A bit of dramatic lights and shifting camera angles in the faster part, but then we get back to the calm and warm light again in the end part.

15. Cyprus: Theo Evan – “Shh”

We’re already at the last performer, and Willi… sorry Theo’s postcard shows him going through a nightclub while looking a bit suspiciously around.

Opening with the Vitruvian Man position we see Theo together with his dancers.

The scaffolding is then moved around both with and without Theo on it.

He then stands in front of the scaffoldings while the lights turn red and white.

In the last chorus we have the scaffolding shaping two angles, Theo crawls back onto it before ending in formation with his dancers.

The end

That’s it! We are not allowed to watch anything other than the performances this afternoon, but #JoinUs tonight after dress rehearsal 2 where we give our opinion on what we have seen in semi-final 1.

Hope you have enjoyed it, and I will see you guys later. Bye!