From rehearsal room to the big stage, Lisa-Jayne Lewis examines the stagecraft journey that artists make from national finals, local selections and internal preparations all the way to the Eurovision Song Contest.

With our first rehearsals of both semi finals now behind us, we know the game, we gather a sense of positive and negative, a fluctuation of chances and odds. So now we turn to our pundits and ask, who has most improved or impressed us from our second semi-final?

Just like David Attenborough brings to our attention the endangered species of the world, ESC Insight wishes to examine the rarest of species on the recent Eurovision Song Contest stage. Nico Pittórtou discusses the diminishing appearance of and consequences to the loss of the backing singers.

With our first rehearsals of both semi finals now behind us, we know the game, we gather a sense of positive and negative, a fluctuation of chances and odds. So now we turn to our pundits and ask, who has most improved or impressed us from our first semi-final?

Guest writer and academic Catherine Baker weighs in on the debate of LGBT concerns across Europe and how representations at Eurovision have played out on this in recent history.