From the first qualifying round of the jubilee 70th year of the Eurovision Song Contest, ten countries advanced to the grand final, including the favored Finland. Among the finalists is Israel, whose participation caused outrage. Based on the votes of the audience and the national juries, five countries were eliminated from the competition. TASR informs about it according to the reports of the AFP and DPA agencies.
The audience could enjoy a wide range of styles from across the continent. Among those advancing are violinist Linda Lampenius and singer Pete Parkkonen (Finland), Essyla (Belgium), female group Lelek (Croatia), singers Akylas (Greece) and Lion Ceccah (Lithuania). Rapper Satoshi (Moldova), Alicja (Poland), metal band Lavina (Serbia) and Felicia (Sweden) also advanced. Israeli singer Noam Bettan also succeeded in the first round of the semi-finals with the song “Michelle”, which was booed by several spectators during his performance.
According to media reports, several protests against Israel’s participation in the competition were held in the Austrian capital this week. Five countries are even completely boycotting this year’s Eurovision. Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain will not appear in the competition. They decided to do so as a sign of protest against the war in the Gaza Strip, which Israel is waging in retaliation for the October 2023 terrorist attack by the Palestinian militant movement Hamas.
No contestants made it to the final, which will take place on Saturday, May 16 in the Wiener Stadthalle from Estonia – Vanilla Ninja, Georgia – Bzikebi, Montenegro – Tamara Živković, Portugal – Bandidos do Cante and San Marino – SENHIT.
On Tuesday, the Italian singer Sal Da Vinci and the German Sarah Engelsová, who represent the countries of the so-called of the big five, which have a certain participation in the final. These countries also include France and Great Britain (along with Spain, which is boycotting the competition). The Austro-Hungarian singer Cosmó will also perform in the finals, since the previous year’s winner was a local performer.
The second semi-final round is scheduled for May 14. Only 35 countries are participating in this year’s music competition, which is also called the Pop Olympics, which is the least since 2004. 25 of them will be presented in the final.
Eurovision is an international popular music competition in which performers from all over Europe and several countries outside of Europe compete live on television. Each singer or group performs a three-minute song. The winner is decided by the votes of national juries and viewers from all over the world.
