Main points
- Representatives of 15 countries performed in the first semi-final of Eurovision 2026 in Vienna, of which 10 advanced to the final.
- The audience saw performances by the acrobatic show group Zurcaroh, Go-Jo with a humorous track, as well as representatives of the Big Five countries.
The first semi-final of Eurovision 2026 / Collage of Channel 24
The Eurovision Song Contest, which celebrates its 70th anniversary, took place in Vienna. In the first semi-final, representatives of 15 countries presented their songs, including bookmakers' favorites Finland and Greece. The audience also saw performances from Italy and Germany, which are included in the list of Big Five countries.
Eurovision was traditionally broadcast on all platforms of Suspilny. The show was commented by the unchanged Timur Miroshnychenko and stand-up comedian Vasyl Baydak. Read how the first semi-final went on the website of Channel 24 .
Ten countries made it to the final : Greece, Finland, Belgium, Sweden, Moldova, Israel, Serbia, Croatia, Lithuania and Poland. Portugal, Georgia, Montenegro, Estonia and San Marino were eliminated from the competition.
Go-Jo, who represented Australia at Eurovision last year with the song Milkshake Man, appeared on stage. Together with the hosts, he sang a humorous track about Austria and Australia.
Voting lines are closed! We will soon know the names of the finalists.
The audience saw a performance by Zurcaroh, an Austrian acrobatic show group.
Voting lines are open! We remind you that Ukraine is not voting today. Ukrainians will be able to vote for their favorite in the second semi-final on May 14, when LELÉKA will perform.
Serbia closes out today's show. The country's representative for the song contest is the Serbian metal band Lavina from the city of Niš. The band has been around since 2020.
Alicja from Poland presented the track Pray. She is the penultimate one today.
Lion Ceccah performed for Lithuania. After him, San Marino's representative, Senhit , took the stage.
The representative of Belgium, Essyla, presented the composition Dancing on the Ice.
The representative of Germany, also a G5 country, took the stage. Sarah Engels performed the fiery song Fire.
Noam Bettan from Israel performed at number 10. Recall that due to the country's participation in Eurovision 2026, Iceland, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, and the Netherlands boycotted the contest.
Next on stage were representatives from Montenegro and Estonia: Tamara Živković with the song Nova zora and the band Vanilla Ninja with the track Too Epic To Be True.
The performance of the representatives of Finland is probably one of the most anticipated today. The thing is that the bookmakers predict them to take first place. Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen performed the composition Liekinheitin on stage.
The representative of Italy , Sal Da Vinci, performed outside the competition. We remind you that the country is a member of the Big Five, so it automatically enters the final. Today we are not voting for the singer.
The next performers were representatives of Portugal and Georgia – the bands Bandidos do Cante and Bzikebi .
The bookmakers' favorite, Greece's Akilas, came in fourth with the fiery song Ferto. He is currently predicted to take second place.
The band Lelek , representing Croatia, appeared on stage. They performed the song Andromeda. By the way, the band had previously supported Ukraine by covering Ruslana's hit Wild Dances.
Next up is Felicia from Sweden. She prepared the song My System for Eurovision. The artist lit up the stage.
The first to perform was the representative of Moldova, Satoshi, with the composition Viva, Moldova. Let us remind you that this year he came to Kyiv and sang at the Ukrainian National Selection.
The hosts, singer Victoria Swarovski and actor Michael Ostrovsky, took to the stage.
Eurovision 2026 is now live! The first semi-final was opened by Greek singer Vicky Leandros, who represented Luxembourg in 1972 and won. She performed the track L'amour est bleu, which she entered in the 1967 song contest with and came in 4th place.