The second Eurovision Song Contest semi-final is under way in Vienna, with 15 countries competing for the final ten places in Saturday's Grand Final.
The 70th edition of the contest is being staged at the Wiener Stadthalle in Austria, following JJ’s victory for Austria last year with Wasted Love.
Bulgaria opened tonight’s semi-final, with Azerbaijan, Romania, Luxembourg, Czechia, Armenia, Switzerland, Cyprus, Latvia, Denmark, Australia, Ukraine, Albania, Malta and Norway also hoping to qualify.
France, Austria and the United Kingdom, who are already through to the final, are also performing during tonight’s show. Their audiences and professional juries are eligible to vote in the second semi-final.
Look Mum No Computer is representing the UK, the stage name of Lincolnshire-born musician Sam Battle, who is performing Eins, Zwei, Drei.
Australia is being represented by former Neighbours actress and pop star Delta Goodrem, who is performing Eclipse.
The ten qualifiers from tonight's semi-final will join the ten acts who progressed from Tuesday’s first semi-final, along with pre-qualified countries Austria, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, in Saturday night’s Grand Final.
The semi-final comes after a tense opening night on Tuesday, when Israel’s entrant Noam Bettan qualified for the Grand Final with his song Michelle after receiving a mixed reaction from the crowd.
The European Broadcasting Union and Austrian host broadcaster ORF said one audience member, close to a microphone, loudly expressed their views as Bettan began his performance and during the song, which was heard on the live broadcast. They said the person was later removed after continuing to disturb the audience, while three other people were also removed from the arena for disruptive behaviour.
Greece, Finland, Belgium, Sweden, Moldova, Serbia, Croatia, Lithuania and Poland also qualified from the first semi-final. Portugal, Georgia, Montenegro, Estonia and San Marino were eliminated.
San Marino’s entry, Superstar, was performed by Senhit and co-written by Boy George, who joined her on stage during Tuesday night’s show.
Read more:
Eurovision boycott: How did we (not) get here?
Ireland is not taking part in this year's Eurovision Song Contest and RTÉ is not broadcasting the competition, after the European Broadcasting Union confirmed Israel would be allowed to compete.
RTÉ said in December that Ireland’s participation remained "unconscionable" given the loss of life in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there. The broadcaster also said it remained deeply concerned by the targeted killing of journalists in Gaza during the conflict and the continued denial of access to international journalists to the territory.
Ireland is one of five countries boycotting this year’s contest over Israel’s participation, alongside Iceland, the Netherlands, Spain and Slovenia.
The EBU has introduced changes to the voting system for this year’s contest following concerns raised after Eurovision 2025, when Israel’s Yuval Raphael received the highest number of public votes and finished second overall behind Austria after jury votes were taken into account.
Under the revised system, professional juries have returned to the semi-finals, while the maximum number of votes any viewer can cast has been reduced from 20 to ten. Audiences have also been encouraged to spread their support across multiple songs.
Tonight’s semi-final result will be decided by a combination of public vote and professional jury vote, with each carrying a 50% weighting.
Saturday night’s Grand Final will take place at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna.
