Last year’s winner, Austria, welcomes 25 countries as they compete for a place in the Grand Final
The 70th Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Vienna, Austria, following JJ’s victory at the Grand Final in May 2025 with their operatic ballad, Wasted Love.
Like in previous years, the semi-finals will be broadcast live on BBC iPlayer and BBC One, with Rylan Clark joined by Angela Scanlon live from the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna to commentate for the UK audience.
Each semi-final, hosted by Austrian stars Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski, will feature performances from the pre-qualified Big Four countries, and an array of unmissable interval acts.
Across both semi-finals, we will see 10 contestants eliminated from the competition, giving us 25 competitors for Saturday’s Grand Final. However, the Big Four countries (the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany) will go straight through to the final, as will Austria, this year’s hosts.
Over previous years, Spain was one of the “Big Five”, but this year confirmed it will not broadcast the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest due to Israel’s participation. Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE will also not air the 2026 contest for the first time since 1961.
Therefore, the pre-qualified Big Four countries performing and voting during the first semi-final are Italy and Germany. Viewers in the UK cannot vote during this Semi-Final.
Here are the countries competing in the first semi-final and the running order:
- Moldova: Satoshi – “Viva, Moldova!”
- Sweden: FELICIA – “My System”
- Croatia: LELEK – “Andromeda”
- Greece: Akylas – “Ferto”
- Portugal: Bandidos do Cante – “Rosa”
- Georgia: Bzikebi – “On Replay”
- Italy: Sal Da Vinci – “Per Sempre Sì” (Big Four)
- Finland: Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen – “Liekinheitin”
- Montenegro: Tamara Živković – “Nova Zora”
- Estonia: Vanilla Ninja – “Too Epic To Be True”
- Israel: Noam Bettan – “Michelle”
- Germany: Sarah Engels – “Fire” (Big Four)
- Belgium: ESSYLA – “Dancing on the Ice”
- Lithuania: Lion Ceccah – “Sólo Quiero Más”
- San Marino: SENHIT – “Superstar”
- Poland: ALICJA – “Pray”
- Serbia: LAVINA – “Kraj Mene”
The first semi-final will be available to watch at 8pm on BBC One. Viewers in the UK will be able to watch from their television, as well as mobile phones, tablets and laptops by accessing BBC iPlayer and streaming the event at the same time.
The second Eurovision 2026 semi-final will then b live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 8pm on Thursday, May 14. The grand final takes place on Saturday, May 16, from 8pm.
