Storm In A Tea Cup?

Third day of rehearsals began today with the first fourteen semi-finalists going again. Iceland turned up though this time, Eirikur donning a full head of hair sadly. The biggest drama of the day, though, came from Teapacks of Israel who have threatened to disqualify themselves unless someone does something about the way the song’s presented. This is odd as I heard there was lots of crazy camerawork going on making it a manic onscreen performance. Apparently though, Teapacks weren’t happy and expressed so in today’s Israeli press conference. I doubt they’ll pull out at all and suspect it’s for publicity. But they don’t need to worry about presentation ‘cos it’s very popular in Helsinki! Ah well, let’s see what comes of it. In the meantime, here’s what else happened today…

- Bulgaria’s apparently pretty solid and safe now and not much more can be done.
- Cyprus has a good performance, not being helped by Evridiki appearing to have been possessed by someone who makes her do very strange jerky leg and arm movements. Could be distracting.
- Belarus’s wall trick is looking very good I hear and everyone is saying that this will definitely qualify.
- Eirikur’s singing and performing well for Iceland, but the song’s a bit pants.
- Georgia, like Bulgaria, seem to have their performance nailed, but people are still unsure whether this will go through. The swordfighting is getting mixed reactions.
- Montenegro’s still Montenegro. Faddy is now going to go into the audience in his performance, no doubt to drum up some support! Must be a Scottish thing.
- The vampires are still alive, the vocals are still a bit ropy, the jury’s still out on Switzerland. The models are also in a bit of a better position today, less distracting, but the stage does still look rather busy.
- Moldova is still very strong. Apparently Natalia’s vocals are still very strong and this is a real contender.
- Netherlands is getting more and more support but nearly everyone is saying that the song just isn’t good enough! Still, Edsilia’s pleased, she said that she had a beautiful “butt” today at the press conference. It may be her only consolation.
- One website reported that Albania’s backdrop is a ‘river of tears’. How appropriate. Good vocals but this will not qualify at all.
- Denmark have dropped the white fans for now and only have purple ones which means that the stage is coming across as PURPLE PURPLE PURPLE. Camp indeed. He’s looking very nice in his dress too so I hear.

- Croatia is just a big load of rubbish really with a soft effect on stage to make it even more forgettable…
- Poland is supposed to be getting stronger and stronger and is looking rather good with its cage and backdrop of blood red chains. It’s getting to be a borderline qualifier, although many worry that they could be 11th place in the semi-final for the third year in a row which would be rather upsetting…

Serbia-Latvia again tomorrow. Well if they can find bonaparti.lv that is...