And so it begins! Day 1 of rehearsals kick off today at the 2016 Eurovision host venue, the Globe Arena, and we here at ESCToday are ready to bring you the latest news live from the arena itself.

Starting this morning from 10:00 CEST, a total of 9 acts will take to the Eurovision stage today for their first official rehearsal at the Globe Arena.

Today sees the participants from the first half of the first semi-final embark on their rehearsals, each receiving a total of 30 minutes rehearsal time on the stage itself. The first rehearsal is followed by a 20 minute press meet and greets, with the first session kicking off at 12:10 CEST.

Day 1 of rehearsals: The schedule

All times listed below are in CEST.

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This morning sees the first set of rehearsals from Finland, Greece, Moldova and Hungary followed by Croatia, in which a short first impression video of each performance will be uploaded via the official Eurovision YouTube channel.

01 Finland: Sandhja – Sing it away

Wearing a plain turquoise jumpsuit made of reindeer suede and leather, Sandhja performs alongside 5 backing vocalists on the stage, all of whom are wearing black. A colourful performance with the stage appearing in yellow and purple shades, Finland’s dance choreography focuses mainly on the microphone stands in the background with a lot of energy being brought to the performance.

When I go on stage and I’m worried or afraid, I just listen to the words of the song that I wrote myself and let it go.

02 Greece: Argo – Utopian land

Warm colours open Greece’s performance on the Eurovision stage in connection with Argo‘s song lyrics, “the rising sun”. Each band member wears a white outfit on-stage today, white being the main colour of the performance. Also featuring in the country’s performance is traditional Greek dancing from 4 of the Argo members.

03 Moldova: Lidia Isac – Falling stars

Lidia Isac is next to take to the Eurovision stage this morning, wearing a tan-coloured dress. The staging colours, consisting of multiple shades of blue, represents the sky in connection with the title of the Moldovan song, “falling stars”. Bring that extra bit of energy to the performance in a male solo dancer, dressed as an astronaut, who performs around Lidia throughout.

04 Hungary: Freddie – Pioneer

With red being a predominant colour throughout the performance, Freddie takes to the stage appearing on a fully “cracked” floor. Making a return is the drummer who previously performed alongside Freddie during the Hungarian national selection, accompanied by a further 3 backing vocalists. Freddie is smooth and casual throughout his performance.

Speaking of today’s rehearsal, Freddie revealed:

You should know that the stage is multiple times bigger than our national final stage, it is so much different, so we had to create something bigger visually which is still in progress and it’s not ready yet. what you have seen is in the mist of the progress, we are working on that, it goes fine and we are getting there, but the point was basically to do the same stuff that we did as this is a good starting point. as the visualisation is going more and more ready to go, according to the visual stuff we will change the movements, gestures and so.

05 Croatia: Nina Kraljić – Lighthouse

Performing in front of a backdrop featuring the ocean, Nina Kraljić is next to take to the Eurovision stage today. With the stage slowly changing into a night theme, Nina performs on stage wearing a grey and black dress, which, on the night, will later transform into an elegant white dress featuring feathers with the help of her backing vocalists.

The second half of today’s rehearsals from the remaining 4 countries, the Netherlands, Armenia, San Marino and Russia will take place this afternoon from 14:20 CEST.