The week of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 has officially arrived, and the semi-finals are now underway, with only 20 countries outside the Big Five advancing to the final.
After JJ’s win last year, 35 countries will travel to Vienna to see who can follow in their footsteps and be crowned the new Eurovision Song Contest 2026 champion.
During the final, only some of the countries will be performing, and as one of the ‘Big Four’ countries (the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, following Spain’s withdrawal from the competition), the United Kingdom has a guaranteed place in the Grand Final, which takes place this Saturday, May 16.
Waiting to see if they’ll make it to the last round, there will be two semi-finals taking place with different countries on both nights. As in previous years, the semi-finals will be broadcast live on BBC iPlayer and BBC One, with Rylan joined by Angela Scanlon live from the Wiener Stadthalle arena in Vienna.
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 the Grand Final.
The contest is hosted in Vienna following Austria’s win last year(Image: EBU)
Viewers in the United Kingdom will be able to vote for their favourites in the second semi-final, and they are also in for a treat, as the UK act LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER takes to the Eurovision stage for the first time to perform his song, Eins, Zwei, Drei, before he competes in Saturday’s Grand Final.
What time is the first Eurovision semi-final on and how to watch?
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.
Here are the countries competing in the first semi-final: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”