Saturday 8 May and the rehearsals started for the first songs from semi final one. ESC Covers have on line accreditation and a team of reporters will follow it in shifts and report for us. Here is the sixth report from the first rehearsal – that of Ireland.

Unfortunately the connection was bad during Ireland’s rehearsal but they have brought some really creative staging, with huge digital trees and camera frames that makes it look like Lesley is in a storybook.