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Continued...

Andy on Sun, 05/11/2008 - 15:56

I'm watching Norway from screen. The performance is absolutely similar to the one at preselection. Dressed in blue singer and backs move on the stage, and I've no idea why they need guitarists. I've missed Slovenia.

Press-conference of Azerbaijan was pretty non-informative as are most of the press-conferences. We've got only the basic information about participation of Azerbaijan, selection, song and performance of it's part.

And something from Belgium press-conference

Azerbaijan

Andy on Sun, 05/11/2008 - 14:16

I've missed San-Marino completely, but hopefully someone will cover it from our Russian team.
Belgium was awful. Singer looks completely off. It sounds good but makes no impression at all.
Watching Azerbaijan from screen I think it is perfect. However, everyone surrounding me claim to feel headache after it. Three winged angels and the lead angel wings are spreading wide. A lot of smoke and pyros, sometimes too much and out of place. Sound here on screen is bad, so I can not speak about vocal.

Автор Azerbaijan

First day

Andy on Sun, 05/11/2008 - 13:31

Things are pretty chaotic so far. Arena is really far located, so only screens in press-center can save things.

We've seen 6 entries and I'm afraid we're yet to see a finalist!

Montenegro. It lookes as good as it sounds to you. So if you like the song, which I doubt, you probably will find presentation nice. Stefan is pretty awkward on stage, which comes as no surprise as he is caressed by 4 girls in red gloves. Vocally he is good.

Israel. Same as Montenegro there are backing vocalists, who start at the corner of very small stage. This is the only thing similar between them. Sometimes it look like that there was no home rehearsals for Israel as things on stage are pretty disorganized, both choreographically and vocally. Boaz enters stage from it's far side and then backing singers ramble around him.

Estonia is absolutely same as we've seen at the national final. So, nothing more to add there.

Moldova is very good. They've opted for minimalist, intimate performance featuring Geta and trumpet player and big coach. It looks good and from all these has the best chances to get through.

Hello from Belgrade

Andy on Sun, 05/11/2008 - 07:09

First of all I have to admit that you should not expect comprehensive coverage from English site of the blog, as, unfortunately, from 7 correspondents on field we're going to have, only myself is able to write in English. So, it will be sort of best of, and if you understand Russian, you're welcome on Russian part of the blog.

First part of ESCKaz arrived pretty well. Moscow flight included with us Marija Serifovic, who was returning from concert in small Russian town of Cherepovtsy. In airport we managed to meet OGAE Rest of the World president Roy and San-Marinese band Miodio on their way from Milan and you can see the latter ones here.
http://picasaweb.google.ru/esckaz.com/srBrMI

In press-center we met Miroslav, Sasa and other OGAE Serbia members as well as Umut and Giannis. Again thanks to Miroslav for making my visa possible. Thanks also to delegations of Moldova, Georgia, Belarus and Ukraine for providing our team with accreditations.

Then we had a short city trip, as probably we won't have much of free time during this week. We walked around some shopping streets, I've bought number of metal CDs - and highly recommend Alogia and Expedition:Delta for you. Quite unexpectedly we've met Leontina Vukomanovic, famous Serbian composer and lyricist, including Lane Moje.

and more pictures of trip around the city with our hosts Aleksandar and Nemanja
http://picasaweb.google.ru/esckaz.com/TbaMDL