Norway first rehearsal
Desiree on Tue, 05/01/2018 - 10:26
Alexander Rybak's rehearsal is basically nothing new, it's all what we've seen before. It looks good to go, apart from some obvious sound issues for him - couldn't hear him, but he was fiddling with his ear piece later on in the song.
He's mostly in black apart from a blue jacket that gets thrown off soon. Effective pyro in the last part. It's a love-hate song but will surely get at least a few votes, and maybe a lot more. Good applause here.
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ChrisB on Tue, 05/01/2018 - 10:26
2009 Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak is once again trying to win it all for Norway. His charisma and stagecraft are out of question while his entry "That's how you write a song" leaves a bit to be desired. Nonetheless it's great to see such an energetic performer to be back on the stage in Lisbon!
The staging is as before in mgp. On-screen graphics, dancers, cheeky family fun.
Rehearsals Day Three
Andrew W on Tue, 05/01/2018 - 10:25
Day three of rehearsals and a first chance to see Norway and one of the favourites, Australia. We'll also hear from Romania, Serbia, San Marino, Denmark, Russia, Moldova and the Netherlands.
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Miss and Mister ESCKAZ 2017 Award ceremony
Andy on Mon, 05/08/2017 - 08:45
As usual, during the Red Carpet event ESCKAZ has announced winners of it's top prize. For the first time award was given back in 2005 in Kyiv and interestingly to Omar Naber's backing vocalist Teja Saksida.
Miss ESCKAZ 2017 Viktorija Ivanovskaja, Fusedmarc, Lithuania
Mister ESCKAZ 2017 Aleksander Walmann, JOWST, Norway
Special mention: Best Red Carpet outfit - Kseniya Zhuk, NAVIBAND, Belarus
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Norway second rehearsal
Desiree on Sat, 05/06/2017 - 11:59
JOWST
Another good rehearsal for Norway. JOWST's singer Aleksander sounds very good and it looks nice on screen. It still has a very relaxed mood. We are a little behind schedule as the song gets performed once again.
On stage itself not so much really happens, but there are some holograms that are not visible in the hall (except on the led-screens of course, when they're not off..)
I still find it hard to say anything about its chances. The song is modern, well performed and looks great on stage, but might not stand out enough.
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ChrisB on Sat, 05/06/2017 - 11:51
Norway's second rehearsal shows that all the previous technical issues have been fixed. The voice effects and the scrambled video effects are working too now. The camera is more dynamic and it's very similar or even slightly better than what we have seen in Norwegian MGP.
Day 4 review
So all semi-finalists have rehearsed once now. Today we got to see the second half of the second semi-final, starting off with some of the songs that are not viewed as the biggest candidates for the top positions this year. San Marino comes across professional, both singers are good performers but the song is still a big question mark. Croatia was completely over the top, in my opinion it looks great but it's still a very cheesy song, might do better than we all think (and maybe hope?) but it could also be disregarded for being just too much.
When it comes to Norway, Estonia and Lithuania - they gave similar performances to the national final, solid for what it is but maybe not enough to stand out. Disappointments for me were Bulgaria which feels a bit cold but has some really nice graphics and Israel where a lot more can be done with the choreography, as long as the vocals are kept into account as well.
I can't say too much about Switzerland as we have hardly seen it, it's colourful and bright but maybe a bit too much. Then finally to my highlight of today, Belarus. Songwise it stands out for me being sincere, happy, upbeat, warm and it was so much better on stage than I had imagined it would be.
So from tomorrow I will spend a lot of time in the hall as the second rehearsals begin and we can see and hear what it sounds like from there. I'm excited, can't wait so stay tuned for tomorrow!
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Norway is a very cool and relaxed performance.
The scrambling video effect known from MGP seems to be a work in progress, not sure what went wrong there, but we even lost the signal once.
All in all I believe Norway played a little too safe here, by just replicating their NF staging. But it should qualify because the song is credible and modern.
With the third rehearsal of the day we move away from hilarity. Norway - JOWST and Aleksander Walmann - have further developed their national final staging. Apart from JOWST (with mask of course) there's another person behind the DJ table and there's also a second table now, both with spotlights above it.
Whether all vocals were 100% live (including the effects) I am not quite sure about yet, but I think they are as it did sound quite different from what we heard earlier. For me that's a plus as I personally don't like electronic voice effects.
Vocally the lead singer is solid as usual. I have a bit of mixed feelings about this coming after San Marino and Croatia. In one way I think we are back to serious music, on the other hand it might come across as a bit boring after these two songs.
The second run also reveals some hologram images during the bridge.
Semi two predictions from us two.....
From Mike;
Latvia Yes
Poland Yes
Switzerland No
Israel Yes
Belarus Maybe
Serbia Yes
Ireland Yes
Macedonia Maybe
Lithuania No
Australia Yes
Slovenia No
Bulgaria Yes
Denmark Yes
Ukraine Yes
Georgia No
Albania Maybe
Belgium Yes
I am really unsure about Ireland so may swop that with Macedonia or Belarus
From Daniel;
Belarus No
Macedonia No
Slovenia Yes
Denmark No
Albania No
Daniel is unsure about Albania and Belarus and might swop those with Slovenia and Latvia
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