rehearsal

Tamara is a professional, she sounds good and knows how to work the stage.

Sacha Jean Baptiste was hired to rework the staging from NF and she apparently went for a minimalist approach with this entry.
Perhaps less is more, that is always debatable but in its current form the entry might lack a visual anchor.

Tamara starts in a red cape she takes off after 1st verse, there is some dry ice on the floor. Pyros for the climax.

Ok, so we have our first spaceman this year....
Moldova appears on stage with a fluffy spaceman
Ok.....well errrummm

Now we have sound this sounds greta actually, Lidia is in good vocal form, the gimmick is not so bad when the sound is in place.....

But it could be that we just have sound now :-)

Sing it away
Can't really see the screen right now as uploading video, but I can hear the rehearsal going on. Vocally much better than what she delivered in Tel Aviv when I saw her last time

Smattering of applause in the press centre for the first run through

Vocally not there yet....

But visually very very effective

They have a spinning wheel on stage with a gym doing gymnastics there.....she looks great with this as a backdrop....

I smell not only a qualification but a top 4 place for this...

Today Dilara Kazimova, Azerbaijan’s entry for Eurovision 2014, has revealed her stage performance of a soulful ballad Start a Fire.

On the stage Dilara is working with an aerial artist and three backing vocalists on the background. The female aerial artist is acting on 8-meter-high acrobatic trapeze.

Previously Eurovision entries haven't used to work with aerial acts. So it was a challenge for creative team to find the perfect solutions for cameras and rigging. Instead of usual rigging on two points, this trapeze is rigged to one point on stage roof, so it spins 360 degrees all the time.

“Start a Fire” performance is staged by Asa Engman, Swedish director and dancer, in cooperation with Polish-Japanese choreographer Piotr Torazawa Giro.

The aerial artist doesn’t have one same pattern of movements that are repeated with melody. So as with each new rehearsal and performances it will look slightly different.

"During the first rehearsal I would be more worried about the trapeze artists safety rather than for anything else. At some point she’s getting really high up the celling, which is impressive and kind of scary the same time", shares Dilara.

According to the stage director’s idea the aerial artist stands for an imaginary “point of view” from which you can find a new meaning in ordinary life scenes” or, in another way, can also represent “the spiritual concept of a soul.”

“The lyrics of Start a Fire remind a poem or a very personal prayer. The song is not usual and we wanted to create an unusual performance for it. Hopefully we succeed", says Dilara.

The stage is ideal fit for it, and it looks the best way Undo can be shown on the stage. Basically it is updated version of Melodifestivalen performance. People who think this is a favourite, will get their hope strengthened after seeing that one.

Vocally it is perfect, though the backing-vocalists are nowhere to be seen. We're not really keen on MF version of off-stage backing singers, I think they deserve their on-screen moment of fame.

Even if it's a first run, this is quite confident performance. Poor Latvia for being stuck between really great two looking performances.

It's all about Tanja and Argo inside a cage which looks like a gymnastics room, we don't see a hint of experienced backing vocalists hidden somewhere. The routine is almost unchanged from the national final version.

They are wearing white, Tanja's dress is short and pretty sexy, it looks that these might me their final performance outfits. She is totally using her choreographic experience in that, and the impression is very, very positive.

Very casual outfits for Dorians members, all different, mostly jeans/t-shirts in white/light blue colours. Absolutely no movements and nothing is happening on the stage. I'm awaiting for Albania to compare.
Last run is with pyros. A lot of white smoke on the stage in the beginning. Huge amount of pyros towards the end of the song. Looking much better now.

Well, they are using a different arrangement of the song, a techno one - and it sounds totally bad. It made Vlatko singing in a different tune and tone, which he is very uncomfortable with. His part is completely loosing the ballad feeling now. But it now sounds a bit closer to the vocal style of Esma.

This should be the motto of delegation - if it isn't broken, PLEASE don't fix it!!!! I'm in a shock with what they have done again.

Esma is hardly singing her part, she is almost fully covered with backing vocals. She gets significantly better by the end of rehearsals though and is OK.

They perform a three language version in the way announced before.

Valentina is totally different from last year. She starts with a bright ball in her hands as in the video. She is in dark outfit. The dancers are crawling on the floor in black too. Valentina stands up in the 2nd verse and she desperately tries to get rid of her dark cover and goes all red. After that dancers turn red as well. Well, a good thing they haven't overdone it. With just three people and only one ball on stage it feels very empty there. It screams obvious non-qualifier to me, but fans may think differently.