Ireland | Sarah serves up a Diner-Themed Performance at Rehearsals

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: Lili Forberg (Eurovision.tv)

The second country to perform this morning was Ireland. The past 10 years have been rough for Ireland, with only a handful of qualifications for the final and up until last year, Ireland were on a four year non-qualification streak. Acoustic guitarist Ryan O'Shaughnessy changed their fortunes and got them back to the final. This year, Sarah McTernan is the hopeful hoping to replicate Ryan's success. She'll be performing '22' at the Song Contest.

Sarah McTernan first gained prominence after auditioning for The Voice of Ireland 2015. Choosing to be on Rachel Stevens' team, Sarah got all the way to the finals where she eventually placed third. Interestingly, this is not Sarah's first attempt at Eurovision stardom. Last year, McTernan submitted an audition video for San Marino's 1in360 competition but unfortunately was not cast for the national final. She has also submitted a series of songs in previous years to RTE - including working with Ylva & Linda Persson - however until this year had never been chosen.

Image Credit: Andres Putting (Eurovision.tv)

IRELAND - FIRST REHEARSAL

Sarah's performance is the total opposite of Srbuk's - bright staging, a very positive, colourful and almost cartoon-like feel to the performance. It's all very 50s style as she's got an American-style diner up on stage with her, with Sarah in a lovely red frock - a good contrast from her backing dancers who are wearing pink.

The LED floor fades away early to be space/star themed - and actually looks quite good against the diner props on stage. Whereas the back drop has a mix of designs - including a racing car, speech bubbles and hearts. The number 22 is featured quite prominently at times too, with Sarah doing the twenty-two hand choreography that we saw in one of her performances on Irish TV.

Sarah walks up on stage at the start of the song and then moves around the diner props quite a lot. At around the two-minute mark, she gets up on to the table and lies down on her back for a short period of time before sitting up and being spun around. Overall the staging is quite nice however its biggest problem is that it does struggle to be impactful.