Some quick thoughts on day one...

Armenia looked and sounded great.  Aram all alone on the big stage just worked and the set was nothing short of stunning...

Latvia was fun - lead singer Joran ran out to a satellite stage during the song, which looked a bit daft.  Came over well though.

Estonia looked and sounded strong, and she does really do the lead vocal whilst doing all that dancing.

Sanna - OMG!!!  STUNNING!  OK, so I'm biased, but for me this was by far the performance of the day!  Similar the the MF staging, with everything just oomphed up!  ...and then this happened!

The Icelandic boys were also fantastic.  The song came alive on that stage and I really think they will qualify... Oh yes, and men with beards... (yum).

Albania - nah

Russia - now, you see, I missed this one due to my appointment with Goddess Sanna - but I'm told it involved a see-saw and the fabulous Portuguese Rui Andrade as a backing singer!

The Azeri rehearsal was very good.  She seems to be standing in a chruch with a mad woman dangling about on a trapeeze swing above her head!  Very competent singing, tho. (Just, please, let's not go back to the Baku beyond...)

Ukraine was, for me anyway, a complete mess!  Some random muscle Mary running in a giant hamster wheel whilst Mariya screeched her way painfully through the song.  It looked wrong, it sounded wrong - but it's Ukraine, so it'll qualify!

...and that's your first look at the stage!   It is nothing less than stunning!  It looks massive on screen.  These last three pictures are all ©EBU.

Finally we had lovely little Axel from Belgium -  now I thought he was "over-egging his yolk" somewhat, as he was adding in lots of different vocal flourishes, but this is sailing into the final I think.

So there you have it...

In the evening we ventured out to the opening night of Euroclub, where some of the artists were singing.  First up was the fab András from Hungary...

After he had finished singing we ventured upstairs to the lounge, where we found the fabulous DQ hosting Eurovision Karaoke...and that was it!  Some 4 hours later I staggered home after (once again) having comsumed far too much Danish Beer!  Here's me and Peter (DQ) - FAB!!!