About

When is Eurovision?

The First Semi-Final will take place on May 12.

After that:

  • May 14 — Second Semi-Final
  • May 16 — Final

Who qualifies for the final?

This year, 35 countries are taking part. Five of them automatically qualify for the final:

  • members of the Big Five: the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France and Spain (Spain is part of the Big Five, but is not participating this year)
  • last year’s winning country: Austria

We will see performances by these countries in the semi-finals, but since their place in the final is guaranteed, it will not be possible to vote for them.

The remaining 30 participating countries are split evenly between the two semi-finals. 10 of them will qualify for the final from each semi-final.

How does the voting work?

Voting at Eurovision consists of two parts:

  • televote
  • jury vote

Viewers in each participating country vote for the songs they like. The 10 most popular songs receive points on this scale:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 12

The jury from each country gives votes using the same principle.

Then the televote points and jury points are added together.

The country with the most points wins.

Countries cannot vote for themselves.

In addition, viewers from countries that are not participating in the contest can also vote. Their votes are combined into one separate “country” called “Rest of the World”.

What is the Big Five?

The Big Five are the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France and Spain. Because these countries make the largest financial contribution to the European Broadcasting Union, which helps fund the production of the show, they automatically qualify for the final.

How do countries choose their songs?

There are two main ways to choose a song:

  • National selection, where a contest is held in the country and the winner becomes the country’s representative
  • Internal selection, where representatives of the national broadcaster / TV channel or a professional jury choose which entry to send as the country’s representative