The first semi-final of the 68th Eurovision Song Contest captivated audiences as 15 performers vied for a spot in Saturday’s grand final. Hosted by Petra Mede and Malin Akerman, the event took place at Malmö Arena, marking the seventh Eurovision held in Sweden.
For the first time since the creation of semi-finals, automatic qualifiers performed in the semifinal, marking the second consecutive year qualifiers are chosen by televote only. Additionally, the Rest of the World vote made its return, with their votes aggregated and distributed as one ‘country’.
The 10 qualifiers were announced in this order:
- Serbia: Teya Dora – “Ramonda”
- Portugal: Iolanda – “Grito”
- Slovenia: Raiven – “Veronika”
- Ukraine: Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil – “Teresa & Maria”
- Lithuania: Silvester Belt – “Luktelk”
- Finland: Windows95man – “No Rules!”
- Cyprus: Silia Kapsis – “Liar”
- Croatia: Baby Lasagna – “Rim Tim Tagi Dim”
- Ireland: Bambie Thug – “Doomsday Blue”
- Luxembourg: Tali – “Fighter”
Unfortunately, not all could make it through. The five acts that did not advance to the grand final are:
- Poland: Luna – “The Tower”
- Iceland: Hera Björk – “Scared of Heights”
- Moldova: Natalia Barbu – “In the Middle”
- Azerbaijan: Fahree feat. Ilkin Dovlatov – “Özünlə apar”
- Australia: Electric Fields – “One Milkali (One Blood)”
Three of the six automatic qualifiers, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom performed and voted in the first semi-final. They will return to the stage Saturday, May 11 for the grand final.
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