Eurovision

Ester Peony sits on a red chair, wearing a black dress with white collar. There are two semi-dressed male dancers, two backing vocalists, and a guitar player. The video art features a big blue gate in the middle of the forest. Some pyro fire is being used as well. She sounds good and looks very dramatic. Something in her mimics is very tough and I think she might need to soften it a bit. She interacts with the dancers and the general feeling is of a story being told. The colors in this performance are mainly blue, pink and purple

Anna Odobescu is up now. The performance is much like the one of Ukraine in 2011; it features Kseniya Simonova, a sand animation performance artist, that draws objects, shapes, and faces using sand. These are being screened on the background. On stage nothing much is happening; Anna is standing, in the middle of the stage, and the sand artist is behind her. There's a point where they interact for a brief moment. The camera moves from focusing on the screen and on the board the artist work on. On the board, there's two candlelights and a rose. Vocally Anna's on point, as always. She's wearing a sparkling white and silver strapless dress.

One of the favorites to win this year, Luca Hänni, is taking the stage now! The Swiss performance is spot on. Luca wearing a sleeveless black shirt with 4 backing dancers dresses in red. The video art is mostly red with some nice effects. It's extremely polished, with intense choreography. It reminded me of Sweden 2018 in terms of camera angles and playing with the background. It sounds like a hit and looks very stylish.

It's Latvia's turn, which has replaced places for the rehearsals with Moldova. Carousel is taking the stage. White and bright yellow are the colors for this performance. All the band members are dressed in white and black, with the lead singer wearing a white dress. The video art is of a big wheel on a bright yellow background. This gives vibes of a performance at the American Country Music Awards. It all looks very clean and neat but might be too mellow for qualification. At the last part of the song, the video art changes and looks like a shiny starry night. Lead singer vocals are on point, she has a beautiful soothing voice.

The Irish delegation dropped their original plan of staging. The current concept puts Sarah at an American diner in the fifties, and it works quite well! Sarah looks good in a red dress, standing behind and then in front of a diner bar. She has two dancers in pink matching outfits. The style is low key Amy Winehouse, and the video art shows American comics. It's all very engaging, including marking the number 22 by Sarah doing a V sign twice. At the last part of the song Sarah lays on top of the bar, and the camera shoots her from above, as the video art on the floor is filled with stars.

Srbuk looks good, wearing a sexy black outfit and high boots. She's alone on stage, with dramatic video art of glass, breaking in the c part. The video art gives a cold and sharp feeling, which goes together with the slick production this song has. Srbuk sounds great on the high notes, but still needs to work on the transitioning parts from high to low notes. The backing vocalists sound very good. Visually I got France 2013 vibes, which is unfortunate, cause I need this banger in the final!