Montenegro | D mol face technical problems during First Rehearsal

This morning kicked off an exciting two week lead up to the final with the start of first rehearsals! Join us over the next four days as we take a look at the first rehearsals of all competing semi finalists. For the first day of rehearsals, the nine countries drawn to the first half of the first semi final will take to the stage.

Image Credit: Miodrag Marković & Isidora Mijanović (Eurovision.tv)

Montenegro were supposed to be the second country to take to the Eurovision stage for rehearsals however due to unknown circumstances they swapped to sixth this afternoon with the Czech Republic. Montenegro have had a rough time at Eurovision since their debut in 2007, qualifying only twice out of their ten previous appearances. They last saw the final in 2015 and despite seeing previous success with male balkan ballads, last year Vanja Radovanovic placed only 16th in the semi final with 'Inje'. This year, six-piece group D mol will be performing sweet ballad 'Heaven' at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest.

D mol were selected to represent Montenegro at this years Eurovision Song Contest after they won Montenegro's national selection - Montevizija, beating four other hopefuls including previous representative Andrea Demirovic. The six piece group consists of three guys (Rizo Feratović, Željko Vukčević and Emel Franca) and three girls (Ivana Obradović, Mirela Ljumić and Tamara Vujačić) and range in age from 16 up to 21. Their song was revamped back in March with a lot more strings added.

Image Credit: Andres Putting (Eurovision.tv)

MONTENEGRO - FIRST REHEARSAL

All six of the members of D mol are spread out across the stage and dressed all in white suits with some of them wearing small red details such as a shirt or a scarf. At the first chorus they all walk towards the centre where they group up in to a circle formation and sing the song together. For the final instrumental section, the members have some traditional Balkan dancing choreography.

Vocally, D mol sounded great however there were clear problems technically with the lighting and the camera cuts - at one point them focusing on the wrong singer (admittedly probably an easy mistake to make!). The choreography at the end also needs sharpening up, however is not a bad start.

Colours of the stage are mostly purple and red however the focus is very much on the bandmates. It does unfortunately look a little awkward on stage however they really get across that they are enjoying it. The issues with the performance could also be down to the technical problems as the third run through was a huge improvement and it looked a lot better on camera.