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The holy week has arrived in Eurofandom, with today the 1st of 6 days of action. The first verdict of this year's contest has been made during tonight's semifinal dress rehearsals, with 21 juries around Europe tuning into what is the most important rehearsal for the 18 participating countries in semifinal 1. Hereby, my take on this event.

All that is missing from Jedward's Twitter feed is "HI WE LOVE OUR FANS AND WE'RE ABOUT TO GO TO THE TOILET OK!"

The international press in the last few days has not been kind to Azerbaijan, and even Iran has their own spin on the country.

The big 5. Yesterday the five countries contributing most to the contest and therefor entitled to a final placing immediately, hit the stage for the first time.

This year we have to admit that the big five have all invested in quality, strong voices, experienced singers (with young German Roman Lob being the exception when it comes to much experience) and good songs. And, well, their long awaited first rehearsals mostly went well too. Not splendid in every detail, but it would be boring if there were to be nothing to improve still.

Betting odds say Loreen will walk away with Eurovision 2012, but a week is a long time in Azerbaijan.

It's you an me, and everybody out there! Joan Franka's second rehearsal went much better than the first one. We're happy.

It's been a while since the Netherlands made it to the final. In fact the only time we did, was back in 2004, which officially makes the Netherlands the country doing worst of all in the contest. Some of the years behind us we had already given up the hope to make it, some we were hopeful. Part of the group of people behind this website is Dutch, so that is why I am writing in the 'we'-form. This year we were more excited about the song You And Me, than we've been for a long time. And the second dress rehearsal made us even happier. She did a great job and it's filmed way better than the first rehearsal. Her big smile sells the song better than anything, and with the abundant close up shots he could show off just that smile and win the hearts of the tv audience.

But, well, we are Dutch, so biased. Let's see what others are thinking.....

Roving reporter Roy took Tooji outside the Crystal Hall for a great interview among Baku's glittering skyline.

We survived another night in the Euroclub. A night that started out with the Georgian food, wine and Anri and finished with Eurovision music.

Delegation parties are one of the Eurovision traditions we really like. Countries organise parties for invited guests or all accredited press or something in between the two. What the actual goal of these parties is, I don't know, but they are fun. They probably hope it will give the artists of that particular country an extra boost and some extra publicity. Anri Jokhadze, this year's Georgian representative and the host of the party gave proof of the fact that he actually is a very good singer and entertainer.

Soluna Samay performed brilliantly already in her first rehearsal, but what interesting topics did she discuss with us?

Fridrik (Iceland 2008) says the word "fabulous" with amazing conviction - here is what he's been up to recently.