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Live from Lisbon: Second Rehearsals – Portugal, United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, France & Italy

The Grand Final of the 63rd Eurovision Song Contest will take place on May 12th at the Altice Arena of Lisbon, Portugal. Forty-three artists will take to the stage over three nights to perform their contributions for the contest, fighting to become the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. Over the next week, all of the artists will have the chance to rehearse on stage and make any last-minute changes to their performance before the live broadcasts. Today, six countries will rehearse for the second time.

The rehearsal times for day eight in Lisbon

⭕ LIVE COVERAGE | Live blog has ended


11:00 CET – Portugal – Claudia Pascoal – O Jardim

11:24 CET – Outfit change for Claudia, she is wearing a long brown jacket, striped top and jeans, we’re not convinced that this is the final outfit. Starts off zoomed in and low lighting for Claudia, lots of very intimate camera shots.

11:30 Isaura joins Claudia on stage, there is very limited eye contact with the camera, so you’re not able to make a connection.

11:25 CET – United Kingdom – SuRie – Storm

11:31 CET – The performance begins with a lot more fog around SuRie, it looks a lot better than the first rehearsal session.

They have cut down the camera sequence of coming back through the tunnel a lot which is an improvement as the shot of her mic pack looked a little unpolished the first time round.

10:42 CET – Vocally SuRie is on point every time. As this song is arguably a crowd pleasing song, it’s a shame the catwalk is not used at any point for this performance, she remains a little static but focuses on her vocals.

11:55 CET – Old pyro was on the catwalk, now there is a pyro canon around the stage, which looks mildly better.

12:00 CET – Spain – Amaia y Alfred – Tu cancion

12:06 CET – Alfred is now wearing a navy blue suit and Amaia is wearing a black and gold, long flowing dress. Amaia is really good at showcasing the emotion of the song, there are some genuinely touching moments of the two singers embracing.

Lighting lifts and a golden light goes across the stage on the final chorus. They sing face to face for the rest of the song, camera then pans in from the arena and shows them head to head resting on each other.

11:20 CET – Alfred has a David Bowie badge on his suit. The suit that Alfred is wearing is a considerable improvement over the first rehearsal. The dress has also grown on me since the first rehearsal.

Spain are having issues with one shot where the steadicam operator keeps getting seen running off stage. Another solid performance from Spain, this looks like a left hand side finish and their best result since 2014.

12:30 CET – Germany – Michael Schulte – You Let Me Walk Alone

12:39 CET The performance is virtually identical to the first rehearsal. The vocals begin quite weak, but he does improve into the first chorus. He’s visibly trying to connect to the camera, but the lack of eye contact at points aren’t working well and does leave the viewer a little cold.

12:44 CET In the second run he does connect with the camera much more, and the vocals have improved.

12:53 CET The loudness of the piano does take away a lot of the emotion from his voice, and the red graphics in the last 30 seconds don’t fit the emotion that’s trying to be conveyed. This should still manage a mid-table position.

12:50 CET – France – Madame Monsieur – Mercy

13:00 CET Not much difference from the first rehearsals, except the dry ice hasn’t made an appearance. The vocals suffer a bit when Émilie walks across the bridge, and it maybe seemed like she had to catch her breath a bit for the rest of the song. Crowd shots during the last refrain, when Madame Monsieur do their hand motions, should prove effective if the audience goes along with it.

13:11 CET The shot of Émilie walking across the bridge is tighter this time. They’ve also solidified a few eye contact issues from the first run-through.

13:20 CET Last run-through now for France. They’re doing it with the fog now, but the thing with smoke effects is that they can sometimes be a bit unpredictable. It does give the whole performance a more ethereal feel, but there were a few moments in the beginning where the fog was overwhelming Émilie. Altogether a good production; Jean-Karl looked visibly pleased at the end there.

13:25 CET – Italy – Ermal Meta e Fabrizio Moro – Non Mi Avete Fatto Niente

13:28 CET Ermal seems to be missing his cues, and it looked like he was fiddling with his in-ear monitors. Everything righted itself in the end, though. Not much difference from previous rehearsals.

13:37 CET The words that come onscreen are rather effective. Solid rehearsal.

13:42 CET This is the last rehearsal for the day, but it looks like Ermal’s mic feed didn’t come in on time. Otherwise, another solid rehearsal.


To get the most out of our coverage of this year’s contest in Portugal, make sure to follow us on all of our social media platforms. We’ll be running some special contests to win one-off prizes from some of these artists, so you need to pay close attention.

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