Armenia | Srbuk blows us away as she kicks off Day 3!

Over the past two days we've seen all the countries participating in the first semi final rehearse, but now we're on day three it means that it is time for the countries in semi final to take to the Eurovision stage. Today the first half of the semi final will have their first rehearsals so make sure to stay with us as we update you on all the performances and staging as the Eurovision Song Contest gets even more real!

Image Credit: AMPTV (Eurovision.tv)

Kicking us off today is Armenia who will also be opening the second semi final on the 16th May. This year they were the first to reveal their Eurovision performer all the way back in November when they internally selected Srbuk. She's bringing us some of the biggest notes of this years contest with her song 'Walking Out' and got today's rehearsals off to a good start!

Srbuk is not new to TV shows, with two very prominent appearances on singing talent competitions. Firstly, in 2010, at the age of 16 when she auditioned for the Armenian X Factor and placed second. In 2018, she auditioned for the eighth season of The Voice Ukraine, where she once again made the finals however this time placed fourth. Last year she released her ethno-banger single 'Half A Goddess', whilst her song for Eurovision was written by Garik Papoyan who also co-wrote Aram MP3's 2014 entry.

Image Credit: Andres Putting (Eurovision.tv)

ARMENIA - FIRST REHEARSAL

Alas we did not have sound in the press centre for the first run through however they have managed to sort them out for the second. The stage for this performance is very dark - mostly red and black colours - with Srbuk stood by herself. There's also a lot of close-up shots (think: Iveta, Armenia 2016) of Srbuk and she's definitely really engaging with the camera. She interacts it with a number of times, including knocking the cmaera out of the way.

The 'big' moment is during the middle eight and the massive notes leading in to the final chorus. Srbuk drops to her knees for the middle eight and then the whole screen shatters as she starts going for the big notes. There's also AR during other parts of the performance. We've also heard that in an Armenian interview yesterday, Srbuk has said there will be more AR featured at a later date including augmented people on stage however this has not been confirmed by what we've seen on stage.

Srbuk is dressed all in black and is looking fierce with knee high black boots and a black outfit similar to the one from the music video. A difference from the video is that her hair is long and down instead of braided. The third run through includes smoke and fireworks and ends with a LOT of pyro. It takes a lot for a performance to get an applause on the third run through but BAM - Armenia just delivered. The stage feels a lot more full with all the added effects and it is very powerful.