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Day 1 of rehearsals - selected reviews

In his first rehearsal, Stefan Filipović, the singer representing Montenegro in the First Semi-Final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, performed in leisure clothes. He was supported on stage by four female backing dancers wearing red gloves, which are a key feature in the elaborate stage choreography: In the middle of the song, the dancers start to caress the singer's face with their hands. Being the first rehearsal of this year's ESC, there were several technical problems, but Stefan himself said later at the press conference that he was satisfied with how things went, that he liked the stage, though he had expected a bigger one.

Israel's participant in the first semi-final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, Boaz Mauda, gave a good performance in the Belgrade Arena on this sunny Sunday morning. His song The Fire In Your Eyes is as a tender ballad that gets some oriental rhythm near the end of the song.

On stage, Boaz is supported by five male background singers. The backing singers stand at the left of the stage for the first part of the song, but as the song gets more oriental, they are joining Boaz at the front part of the stage. Vocally, The Fire In Your Eyes left nothing to be desired.

In his press conference, Boaz admitted that he is a bit tired at the moment as he performed 12 times on Israel's Independence Day, but he assured that he would be fit again by tomorrow. Boaz's favourites in this year's Eurovision Song Contest are the entries from Sweden, Switzerland, Romania and Serbia and he revealed that in the next press conference he would be joined by the winner of the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest, Dana International who's also one of the composers of his song this year.

There were only minor changes to the stage performance of the song in comparison to the one Kreisiraadio showed in the estonian national final.They entertained the audience with their first rehearsal of Leto Svet, the song they are competing with in the First Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest. One of the lead singers was absent today due to other commitments but will join the team later to complete the line up. The group appears on stage with the flags of Serbia, Finland, Germany and Estonia.

At the press conference, the group was asked why they chose to sing in serbiam german and finnish, and they answered: "Finnish is because they are our good neighbours, German as they share big historic traditions, and Serbo Croatian as they are the host country, we think that next year lets say Greece should sing in Serbo Croatian and other countries sing in different mixtures of languages!"

Kreisiraadio will attempt to become the first act from Estonia to qualify from the Semi Finals since their inauguration to the Contest.

The first rehearsal of the Moldovan delegation went very well today, and the performers gave a confident impression on stage. The main element in the performance is a big white sofa. In the beginning, the singer Geta Burlacu sits on the loan of it and a trumpet player kneels in front of it, while in the end of the stage act, the singer cuddles in the lap of the trumpet player on the sofa. Everything was designed to convey a cosy and warm mood, which was also the reason why Geta requested the technicians to make her voice sound softer.

In the press conference, Geta was asked why she decided to have only one person with her on stage, even though a total of six performers would be allowed according to the rules of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. She revealed that the trumpet player accompanying her is in fact the person she loves, and that they wanted to create an atmosphere of intimacy which would have been disturbed by additional people on stage.

Rebeka Dremelj completed her first rehearsal of the song Vrag Naj Vzame this afternoon, which proved a little challenging as the Slovenian team tried to iron out a few practical issues.

Rebeka appears on stage with three female backing vocalists and two male dancers, one of whom choreographed the piece.

Rebeka emerges from a cage at the beginning of the song, and is followed around by the male dancers. The theme of the song is about a girl feeling imprisoned by love, and wanting to break out, with love winning in the end.

At the beginning of the press conference Rebeka made a statement saying "Our first rehearsal was really awful, so we're all in a bad mood right now. It was bad because of us and nobody else. Everything will go well in the future, so please no questions about the first rehearsal." Despite this, the press conference itself was very upbeat.A journalist asked why the song was not being performed in English, Rebeka added "We have recorded a version of the song called Heavy Weather, and the theme of this is very similar to the original. A story of two people breaking up, sending to hell. We only have two million people in Slovenia, soif we're not proud to sing in our own language we don't deserve it.".
Rebeka proceeded to sing a solo acapella version of Heavy Weather, which was greeted with much cheer amongst the assembled press.

Norway's singer in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, Maria, performed brilliantly in her first reheasal on Belgrade's Arena big stage. She received huge cheers from the present media and fans.

Accompanied by three female backing singers and two guitar-players, Maria integrated a fitting cheorography into her number which worked well. The stage during Hold On Be Strong is filled with hundreds of lights on a predominantly blue background and it seemed that Maria and her team were already wearing their final clothes which are also bright blue.

During her rehearsal, Hind, who represents the Netherlands this year, appeared in the Arena and told the fans and media who greeted her that she actually just had arrived in Belgrade.

In her press conference, Maria treated the present media with her enormous vocal talent. She was also satisfied with the way her rehearsal went. When asked what was her favourite song in this year's contest, she answered that she liked the Danish song most.

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Day 1 of rehearsals - the videos!
So, the first day of the soundcheck-rehearsals for ESC 2008 is now officially over and here are the videos (well, at least for most of the countries that rehearsed today). Enjoy! :)

No video available at the moment.

No video available at the moment.

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Euroclub opening Sunday evening

Tonight (Sunday, May 11th) at 10PM local time, the Euroclub will open its doors for fans and members of the accredited media.

The EuroClub is organized by Host Broadcaster RTS in cooperation with OGAE Serbia, and is located at the same venue as the press centre, the Sava Centre. The entrance to the Euroclub will be entrance B of the Sava centre.

Traditionally, the EuroClub is the place where accredited delegates, journalists and fans can relax and enjoy Eurovision Song Contest music until the early hours.

Miroslav Luburić, president of OGAE Serbia, says that 16 DJs from across Europe have been invited to entertain the audience over the next two weeks.
We from OGAE Serbia invite all the fans and accredited media who already arrived in Belgrade to come to the opening tonight and enjoy their stay in the Euroclub!
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Belgrade welcomes first
song contest delegations

Today, the first delegations from across Europe arrived in Belgrade, Host City of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. Under massive interest from Serbian media, the delegations were warmly welcomed by their hosts at Belgrade's international airport. Tomorrow, contestants from nine countries will rehearse on stage at the Belgrade Arena.

The first day of rehearsals will also see the debute of Azerbaijan and San Marino at the Eurovision Song Contest stage. Both countries are represented at the competition for the very first time, and are both scheduled to rehearse their performance tomorrow. The representatives, respectively Elnur & Samir and the band Miodio, will both give a press conference at the press centre.

Other artists rehearsing and giving press conferences tomorrow are the participants from Montenegro, Israel, Estonia, Moldova, Belgium, Slovenia and Norway.

Between Sunday, 11 May, and Sunday next week, all artists from the 43 represented countries will rehearse their performance twice, and give two press conferences each. In total, almost 100 press conferences will given in the upcoming two weeks. The second week, between 19 and 24 May, is all about the dress rehearsals - three of each event - and the three live shows; the Semi-Finals, on 20 and 22 May, and the Final, on 24 May.

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Eurocafé opening May 9th, 9PM local time
eurocafé

We invite you to join us in the Eurovision Living Room from 9 till 27 of May.
Eurocafe' - the Eurovision Living Room is a special place, open to everybody, where you can meet fans from all over the world, take part in a quiz, sing to eurovision karaoke, surf the net or write an article, have a coffee or a lunch in the beautiful balcony with a view on the city core center, dance until late hours, enjoy live eurovision gigs, watch videos from past and this year's contest, have a chit chat, fall in love, relax at the wellness spa center, admire beautiful eurovision decoration and do many other things we haven't mentioned....

So come to the place prepared for the fans by the fans!

See you there.. very soon :-)))

OGAE SERBIA