Bulgaria, Ukraine, Norway, Australia, Romania, Malta, Cyprus, Albania, Denmark and the Czech Republic joined the group of finalists of the 70th Eurovision Song Contest this Thursday, as they were chosen in the second semi-final of the contest, to be held in Austria.
In the second semi-final, which took place at the Wiener Stadthalle, Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Armenia, Switzerland and Latvia also competed, which fell by the wayside.
A final is scheduled for Saturday and will be in competition 25 countries.
Bulgaria (with the song “Bangaranga”, performed by Dara), Ukraine (“Ridnym”/ Leléka), Norway (“Ya ya ya”/Jonas Lovv), Australia (“Eclipse”/Delta Goodrem), Romania (“Choke Me”/ Alexandra Capitanescu), Malta (“Bella”/Aidan), Cyprus (“Jalla”/Antigoni), Albania (“Nân”/Alis), Denmark (“Før vi går hjem”/ Søren Torpegaard Lund) and Czech Republic (“Crossroads”/ Daniel Zizka) were chosen today.
In the first semi-final, on Tuesday, the following had already qualified for the final, scheduled for Saturday: Greece (“Ferto”/Akylas), Finland (“Liekinheitin”/Linda Lampenius & Pete Parkkonen), Belgium (“Dancing on the ice”/Essyla), Sweden (“My System”/Felicia), Moldova (“Viva, Moldova”/Satoshi), Israel (“Michelle”/Noam Betten), Serbia (“Kraj mene”/Lavina), Croatia (“Andromeda”/Lelek), Lithuania (“Sólo quiero más”/Lion Ceccah) and Poland (“Pray”/Alicja).
These 20 countries are joined by five with direct entry into the final: Italy (“Per semper sì”/Sal Davinci), Germany (“Fire”/Sarah Engels), France (“Regarde!”/Monroe) and the United Kingdom (“Eins, Zwei, Drei”/Look Mum No Computer) – from the so-called ‘Big5’ group – and Austria (“Tanzschein”/Cosmó), host country for this year’s edition.
Boycotts
Although only 25 countries are in the final, this year there were 35 countries competing in the after withdrawals from Spain (one of the countries in the ‘Big5’ group), Ireland, Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland – due to Israel’s participation in the contest – and returns to the competition from Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova, after three, two and one year of absence, respectively.
The Eurovision Song Contest takes place annually since 1956 and there have already been excluded countries, such as Belarus, in 2021, after the re-election of President Aleksandr Lukashenko, and Russia, in 2022, after the invasion of Ukraine.
Israel was the first non-European country to participate, in 1973, and has won four times.
This year, Portugal was in competition in the first semi-final, represented by Sing Banditswith the song “Rosa”, but something that had already happened five times – 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2019 – since the two semi-finals were established in 2008, to determine the countries competing in the final.
