Sunday night in Malmö: all participating countries have rehearsed at least once on stage and tonight is the big, official welcoming party. Now the games will officially begin.
Speculations are in full swing, given new force today as the pre-qualified songs sang up for the first time. I'm not in Malmö, I have not heard or seen anything, but I hear talk about solid performances from France as well as Germany, that Bonnie Tyler managed to impress the press crowd and that Swedish hope Robin Stjernberg had problems nailing his notes in their right places.
One week of rehearsals is a long and intense time and some of the news sites on location are possibly beginning to radiate a certain air of tiredness already.
I suppose what everyone needs as this point is a phenomenal welcome party and a deep breath before it is time to plunge into the real, serious eurovision week.
In two days from now, we will know the ten qualifiers of the first semi, then soon enough the other ten as well as the final running order.
In a week from now it will all be over. We will have a winner and start speculations on how that country will stage the 2014 edition of the contest. And where.
Ready? Deep breath and let the real madness begin. Blink and you'll miss it.
