News - Live: Dress rehearsal for the final in Oslo | Eurovision Song Contest News - Germany 2011 

The first dress rehearsal for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest final in Oslo is about to start at the Telenor Arena. Two semi-finals have been held to find 20 songs to join the direct qualifiers from the so called Big 4 countries and the host country, Norway.

The rehearsal will start at 14.30 CET and esctoday.com will be following it on the TV screen in the press centre.

The show has now started and we get a very fast moving video montage of images from previous host countries after going into the Eurovision fanfare again. Then we get televised greetings on TV screen from all over Europe giving a start to the overall theme Share the moment. Then we get a new version of Fairytale, last year’s Norwegian winner Alexander Rybak. A red drape is then drawn from in front of the stage to reveal several dancers on the stage.

There are then the usual greetings and reading of the rules and the host announce that the voting lines have been opened. We go directly to song number one.

Song one – Azerbaijan

Safura qualified from the second semi-final with Drip drop, one of the four songs with Swedish songwriters’ involvement, after Sweden itself was knocked out last night. Azerbaijan has done everything to promote their entry, but today Safura does not manage to give her best vocal performance.

Song two - Spain

Spain is a direct qualifier with Daniel Digas’ Algo pequenito. Daniel sings confidently about little things, maybe like the toys that his dancers are dressed as?

Song three - Norway

The host country brings out the Swedish written song My heart is yours. The singer, Didrik Solli-Tangen is maybe slightly insecure in some parts of the vocal, and is emphasizing the t’s in the word heart after his pronunciation led to loads of in-jokes in Norway and even a range of T-shirts with the slogan My hard is yours.

Song four – Moldova

The Moldovans qualified from the first semi-final with this clubby number with loads of dancing from the young lads of Sunstroke Project and good vocals from Moldovan Eurovision veteran Olia Tira.

Song five – Cyprus

Cyprus went through from the second semi-final last night. There is very little Cypriot blood in the preformers Jon Lilygreen and Islanders, who are mostly from the UK. The song has Cypriot writers however. There will be obvious comparisons between this number and Belgium’s song about a man and his guitar later on.

Song six – Bosnia and Herzegovina

And here follows immediately another man and a guitar, albeit in a rockier version. Vukasin qualified as one of the only two ex-Yugoslavian countries from the first semi-final. He is undoubtedly a charismatic performer with a good voice.

Song seven – Belgium

And the third man with his guitar in a row immediately follows. These coincidences in the draw for the positions in which the artists perform are unfortunate but unavoidable – the running order was decided in the press conferences right after the semi-finals by drawing balls from a hat. Tom Dice was one of the most popular acts in the hall on Tuesday night.

Song eight – Serbia

The Serbian singer Milan got extra attention from the Norwegian host when one of them wore a wig modelled after him in the green room on Tuesday. This song has a very strong composer in Goran Bregovic. This is the other of only two songs from ex-Yugoslavian countries in this year's final.

Here is then a voting reminder from one the hosts.

Song nine - Belarus

Butterflies is the theme for the Belarusian entry and they have probably one the most memorable gimmicks in this year’s contest. It is also the only song that won the battle of the wings after all the others with wings failed to qualify.

Song ten – Ireland

One of the most experienced artists comes from Ireland, who qualified last night with It’s for you with some Swedish songwriters in the team. Niamh Kavanagh is saving her voice today and we can hear mostly her backing singers

Song eleven - Greece

The Greek team qualified from the first semi-final with Opa. It is a very traditional Greek dance number, but whether they can get one of their usual high positions with an all-male group remains to be seen.

Song twelve – United Kingdom

Josh has been inspired by the light box used by Ani Lorak in Belgrade in 2008. This is probably the biggest prop and production the BBC has ever used on a Eurovision stage. Josh is today also saving his voice and does not sing many of the high notes.

Song thirteen – Georgia

All the three countries from the Caucasus have once again qualified for the final, all with female vocalists. The second one comes from Georgia and Sofia has a group of French dancers to support her in this Disneyesque ballad. After the tough schedule Sofia’s voice also seems a little tired, but of course she will have sang this song in from of an audience already four times in the past two days with little time to rest.

Song fourteen - Turkey

The Turkish broadcaster has once again managed to get one of the biggest names in the country by throwing most of their Eurovision budget at the band as a performance fee, alleged to be up to 150000 Euro. MaNga has already some international success and are hoping that Eurovision Song Contest will futher raise their profile.

Song fifteen – Albania

Juliana Pasha qualified from the first semi-final with her up-tempo stomper. The three American backing singers bring a lot of soul to this number.

Song sixteen – Iceland

The Icelandic team seem to have managed to turn the publicity caused by the Volcanic ash cloud disrupting European air traffic into their benefit and some even see some symbolism in Hera’s volcano-shaped dress on stage. She is one of the darlings of the fans and media present in Oslo with this disco number favoured by many fans and played in Eurovision discos and gay clubs.

Song seventeen – Ukraine

Alyosha qualified from last night’s second semi for Ukraine. She creates her own nuclear blast on stage with the help of lights, a wind machine and lights. Her voice is very strong and the Ukrainian team should feel happy for getting their entry right after a difficult beginning earlier in the year.

Song eighteen – France

The French team seem to have gone for the idea to get more on stage than any other act. There are loads of fireworks and dancing and even a naked torso. The overall image on the screen today was however messy, with the cameras not keeping at all up with the French action.

Song nineteen – Romania

The Romanian entry is almost the other Norwegian home entry with Ovi living here now, This catchy disco stomper has loads of fire effects fitting the title. Paula Seling is a beautiful woman with a beautiful voice and the best cat suit of the contest.

Song twenty – Russia

Peter Nalitch has changed his career as an architect to become a full time musician after becoming a YouTube with his ironic song Guitar last year. This wailing ballad is full of Slavic passion with the tongue firmly in the Russian cheek. Whether the message will be understood by those not familiar with the Russian way of thinking is a different story.

We go to the hosts again and another reference to the Icelandic volcano izs made and we even see a small volcano!

Song twenty-one - Armenia

It is not often we hear songs about fruit on the Eurovision Song Contest stage. The Armenians think very highly of apricots and the singer is symbolically seen carrying a stone from the fruit to remind her of her home far away. The three Caucasus countries could all easily be in the top five on Saturday this year.

Song twenty-two – Germany

The German entry goes also for the British radio pop sound and young Lena does even try an impression of a London accent in her song about a Satellite. Not a completely faultless vocal today, but if her German success will be repeated on Saturday night we might well be seeing Germany hosting next year.

Song twenty-three – Portugal

The Portuguese intricate ballad was a likely jury choice from the first semi-final. Filipa is only young and studies singing in the UK. The Portuguese Eurovision record has improved remarkably with now in their third year in the final in a row, so maybe a first victory for the longest running non-winning participant is not that far off?

Song twenty-four – Israel

Another entry that will have probably benefited from having the 50/50 jury system is Israel. Harel Skaat’s song might not be the most instant but is not easy to get out of your head once it gets there. Harel is a very confident performer and singer when it matters and could now well repeat the success of Israeli soloists in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Song twenty-five – Denmark

Denmark made a remarkable return to the running after a few very ropey rehearsals earlier in the week. They also managed to draw the coveted last position to perform, even if that impact is probably slightly diminished this year, as the voting lines open from the beginning. But Denmark will now have to be seen as a contender with this song, which was rejected by the Swedish TV before and is now one of the five songs with Swedish songwriters in the final, but no Sweden itself for the first time since 1976.

That was all the songs and now we get a recap of all the songs.

We then get a humorous insert filmed at the Opening party at the Oslo City Hall on Sunday, followed by another recap of the songs in the final.

We then go into the interval act, which is a song performed by Norwegian rap duo Madcon. We get the previously filmed flashmob dance inserts from all over Europe and also some purporting to be peoples’ homes around the continent. All are seemingly sharing the moment of the Oslo Eurovision Song Contest. A large number of dancers finally emerge on the stage in the Telenor Arena in Oslo.

After we go to the green room to meet some of the artists.