Will Vincent Bueno, RAFAŁ or Natalia Gordienko have what it takes to secure themselves a place in the final? This afternoon, we got the first clues as they took the Eurovision stage in Ahoy arena for the first time.
This morning, we saw the first rehearsals from the first acts in the second semi-final. This was Senhit from San Marino, Uku Suviste from Estonia, Benny Cristo from the Czech Republic and finally Dutch born and living Stefania who represents Greece. After a lunch break, it was time to look at the acts from Austria, Poland and Moldova.
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Let’s check out the rehearsals from these three countries. The article is being updated during each rehearsal so remember to come back or refresh to catch the latest news.
Contrary to other years, this time, the first run through of each rehearsal was closed. This is the one where they test vocals. After that, each country had two rounds which were available for the press to watch.
Austria: Vincent Bueno – Amen
Vincent was all in black and sang the opening verse perfectly without any music. When the music started, Vincent didn’t miss a beat. Here was an exercise in simplicity and it won. Apart from lots of spot lights shining from the ceiling, Vincent didn’t need anything else – it was a bit like Sanna Nielson and Sweden’s Undo from 2014. When the tune broke out towards the end, fire colours appeared on the stage. Simple and effective, that was it.
You can see pictures of Austria’s rehearsals at eurovision.tv. You can watch some of Vincent’s rehearsal below.
Poland: RAFAŁ – The Ride
RAFAŁ certainly did his best to recreate the video for his entry, The Ride. Dressed in an all black suit, a grid of neon lights opened the performance. He was accompanied by four male dancers all in white, which made them stand out in contrast to the singer.
Neon displays could be seen overhead, with words like, Warsaw, displayed above. RAFAŁ was wearing his trade mark sun glasses and used most of the stage, as he moved around. The vocals though were quite dodgy and seeing him rehearse, you can tell how many words he actually has to get through in the song. Not quite a car crash, but certainly not a smooth ride to begin with.
Buckling up for the second run through, RAFAŁ and his dancers are holding flashlights at the start of the performance. RAFAŁ gives a shout out to the audience, that’s generally a no-no. Fire burst pyros surround the stage for quite a long time. Colourful but some more practising will be required to get this totally polished.
You can see photos of RAFAŁ’s performance at eurovision.tv and watch RAFAŁ’s rehearsal video below.
You can watch our exclusive interview with RAFAŁ at this link.
Moldova: Natalia Gordienko – Sugar
Natalia was wearing a silver body suit, and was standing on a spinning platform, that Senhit would kill to get her hands on. The dancers from the video join Natalia to a background of colourful, mainly pink, strobe lights, but no icecreams were in sight.
She started the performance sitting on one of the dancer’s backs as he lay in a chair position.
The four male dancers, danced around Natalia as the platform spun, and Natalia has been left out on her own to cover all the vocals, some of which she sadly struggled with, which means not so much dancing from Natalia here.
You can see photo’s of Moldova’s rehearsal at eurovision.tv You can watch part of Natalia’s rehearsals in the video below.
You can watch our exclusive interview with Natalia at this link.
