During the last two days, all 16 participants of the first Eurovision 2015 semifinal have rehearsed for the first time. At the end of each day, 34 random journalists in the press room were asked by us to give their opinion and cast their top 3, and awarding 5, 3 and 1 points accordingly. Let’s take a look at the overall image.

If you haven’t done so, you can watch our video reports from the end of each day here (Day 1) or here (Day 2)

The Favorites

We can see that we have five countries which conquered the voting: Russia (101p), Georgia (89p), Belgium (80p), Greece (76p) and Estonia (67p).

The first day had finished with Belgium as the winner, providing a strong performance, continuing the line of the performance in ‘The Voice Belgium’ which made Loïc Nottet to become a dark horse overnight. Greece who provided an excellent rehearsal for a strong and well-produced ballad ends up right afterwards, while Estonia, who currently stands 4th in the odds to win the final, did not manage to impress the press as it should, ending up third.

Today’s rehearsal of Russia was praised by the press, being the number one favourite of 15 out of the 34 voters. No balls thrown into the crowd or a swing – it’s only Polina with a band this time, who manage to deliver the anthemic A million voices in a touching way. Georgia also provided a strong rehearsal, mainly based on the stage appearance of Nina Sublatti and her visual effects.

The Rising Stars

Thanks to a surprising performance, Serbia (32p) and Hungary (23p) might have got more points than they should get otherwise.

Bojana Stamenov has opened the day with an unexpected high-speed rehearsal. “This is exactly what those who watch Eurovision expect for”, told me one of the journalists during the poll voting. A combination of a glittery dress, clothing change, colorful lights and a bit of sign language definitely leave you shocked, but also with a big smile, and it might as well work for the juries and the people at home.

Hungary on the other hand gives us a quiet ballad, however a brilliant videoart (with an unforgettable tree made of weapons) and a good camera work as shown in the rehearsal today, might give Boggie the chance to sing Wars for nothing again in the grand final.

The press is not impressed

Armenia (22p), Albania (16p) and Belarus (3p) might have got less points than expected based on the songs and the hype prior to this week.

It looks like Genealogy has a lot to give us but the things didn’t go well as they should be, and the press voted accordingly. However, the touching story of I’m alive and the time-thrilling adventure of Time as presented in the respective videoclips were missing from the rehearsals today, in favour of pretty generic and simple staging and performances. We should hopefully see an improvement during the second and the dress rehearsals, otherwise the result might be different than expected.

Tomorrow, the first rehearsals of the second semifinal will kick off, so be sure to stay tuned and get all the latest updates and opinions from Vienna!