Opinion

Day one is always a little difficult - we know this from years of attending - but we were really surprised at just how taxing some of the issues could be. First the terrible weather when queuing this morning was a real let down, and they would not open the security tent area even 10 minutes early so that the 60+ press people could at least shelter

Eventually when it was opened there were issues with all the "P" accreditation passes not functioning, which meant manually checking the whole queue and their passes. Not a great start.

That aside we entered the press centre with an open mind and first task of the day was preparing the interview lists. Always a huge drama for us to deal with - and this year was no different. Several hours - or at least it felt like it - later the first lists started to appear....oh well

The press centre itself is a story in itself - the working area, the press conference area and the interview rooms are all separated by some distance....we will see how this plays out later today. Additionally the press working area is probably the smallest I have seen ever. There will be a shortage of desks much later this week. It's already pretty full on day one

On positive notes the on screen rehearsals started on time, we had sound, and we had wifi!!!

More news coming up later when we settle in a little

The English side of the ESCKAZ.com team reviewed all the songs last night in a two part podcast. In a slightly different version from the Russian speakers the team, joined by Andrew Webster from Slovenia and one colleague from the Russian side, Sergej, the team listened to all the songs, with accompanying alcohol, and gave their honest opinions on each in turn.
Clip is split into two parts, there are some things there we know fans will hate, and some we know that fans will love - it's a personal taste thing really. Hope you enjoy and fell free to comment

The Eurovision 2017 is over. Thanks to all team members and contributors who worked hard to provide the most comprehensive coverage of the contest in the web. As usual, we were the only media that has provide throughout coverage of the events not only in the press-center, but in the Euroclub, Eurovillage, national parties and receptions as well as fan zones. And first of all thanks to our readers, without whom we would have been unable to exist.

Despite various difficulties Ukraine managed to pull good organization of the contest, which although can't be compared with the great Stockholm and Vienna has been on par with 2012-2014 years.

A highlight of the event was Eurovillage - we have never yet seen so packed Eurovillage with various activities and concerts, add that 5 hospitality zones made up by Kyiv city - so locals must have enjoyed the contest greatly. A slight downside perhaps has been difficulty to get hour by hour schedule of the Village and Fan zones to follow.

Euroclub, while starting on a low note, eventually was transforming into a nice location. Still, the idea to sell openly passes to the Euroclub (not speaking about loads of people appearing there even without any passes) is definitely not doing any benefits to delegations being interested to be present there and perhaps it is time to return Euroclub to the original concept of a night location of the accredited people only, at the same time offering night-time Euro Fan Cafe or other clubs as venues to non-accredited fans.

Red Carpet has been OKish, even though perhaps very few people from press and delegations understand what is the real need in this event, especially when the access of non-accredited fans to it has been largely limited for the security reasons. The country-zones obviously have not worked at all, and length of the carpet can't be considered a good thing as well.

The events schedule during the week in Kyiv hasn't been extremely exciting, still offering something to everyone, and for example I have visits to Sing, Lola, Sing musical with amazing Oksana Zhdanova, play of my favourite actor Alexey Gorbunov, performance of Ultramarine Girls cover band with Galina Scoda as three event highlights of the week.

Press-center has been very convenient to work and besides few issues which were addressed and solved immediately our home for 2 weeks has been very friendly. I have nothing bad to say about team of volunteers this year, who have been largely unnoticeable - which is the most essential feature for volunteers, they should help when approached and not to interfere in the work. Security has been most friendly and approached everyone with a smile, and considering high security alert during the contest, it ensure a feeling of safety.

Many thanks go to the Ukrainian Eurovision team: Yulia Golovlyova, Olena Gamulya, Svitlana Melnichenko, Ludmila Troyitskaya, Angelina Lazebna, Liliya Yamborak, Tatiana Gosteva. Special thanks to Roman Keryk and Premier team.

Now it is time for us to take a rest after a very long season that has started for us already in summer with coverage of Ukraine's preparations. ESCKAZ will be back to the coverage of Portuguese preparations in winter.

Finally, you can check again our coverage (675 produced videos) in several playlists:

Interviews:

Euroclub:

Eurovillage:

Other events:

Rehearsals:

Press-conferences:

Opinions:

Well it's Bulgaria's to lose really

But still hoping for Italy to win

Romania
Hungary
Netherlands
Denmark
Croatia
Norway
Belarus
Bulgaria
Estonia
Israel

Like basically everyone else I find it very hard to give predictions for semi 2, as there are just too many contenders. Many people think this is the weaker semi-final, I don't think it's that bad actually, especially the first half is really quite strong for me (mainly in terms of possible qualifiers).