{"id":42234,"date":"2026-05-14T18:50:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/42234\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T18:50:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:50:23","slug":"eurovision-2026-here-are-your-finalists-from-the-first-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/42234\/","title":{"rendered":"Eurovision 2026: Here are your finalists from the first semi-final!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>One show down, two more to go! The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 is now well and truly underway in Vienna and we already have 10 more spots secured for Saturday\u2019s final. The first Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 has just concluded and here are the results!<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">After an exciting show featuring 15 competing acts, the following countries managed to secure their place in the Grand Final:<\/p>\n<p>Greece<br \/>\nFinland<br \/>\nBelgium<br \/>\nSweden<br \/>\nMoldova<br \/>\nIsrael<br \/>\nSerbia<br \/>\nCroatia<br \/>\nLithuania<br \/>\nPoland<\/p>\n<p>The results were determined by a combination of national juries and public voting, alongside an additional set of online votes cast by viewers from non-participating countries under the \u201cRest of the World\u201d vote, which counted as one extra voting country.<\/p>\n<p>Below you may recall the moments of the qualifiers\u2019 announcement of the first semi-final:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"First Semi-Final | Qualifiers Reveal | Eurovision 2026 | #UnitedByMusic \u200b\u200b\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddf9\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oBAfsfYcqDA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Unfortunately, the Eurovision journey ends here for the remaining five countries (Portugal, Estonia, Georgia, San Marino and Montenegro), who failed to qualify from tonight\u2019s show.<\/p>\n<p>During the winners\u2019 press conference, which will take place shortly after the show, each qualified country will also discover in which half of the Grand Final they will perform.<\/p>\n<p>What a show\u2026 even kangaroos onstage!<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Beyond the competition itself and tonight\u2019s results, the first semi-final also delivered a number of emotional and humorous surprises.<\/p>\n<p>The show opened with a touching introductory film following the Life of Toni, a young boy growing up in the Austrian countryside, whose lifelong companion would become the Eurovision Song Contest itself. Over the course of the segment, viewers watched Toni experience both the small and defining moments of his life, with Eurovision remaining a constant presence through an entire 70-year journey. Following the video, Toni himself appeared live on the Wiener Stadthalle stage, performing on the piano.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The show opened with the iconic L\u2019amour est bleu, the song that competed in the first Eurovision Song Contest hosted in Vienna back in 1967. Taking to the stage was its original performer, Vicky Leandros, who would later go on to win the contest in 1972 under the Luxembourgish flag.<\/p>\n<p>Hosts Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski then welcomed us to the show, while the evening also featured a humorous musical segment alongside last year\u2019s Australian representative Go-Jo. Through the performance, the trio playfully explained the differences between the \u201cOpposites\u201d Austria and Australia, a long-running Eurovision joke among fans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Tonight\u2019s semi-final also featured performances from the automatically qualified countries Italy and Germany. The other three qualified entries from France, the United Kingdom and host couuntry Austria will perform in the second semi-final come Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 continues on Thursday with the Second Semi-Final, where another set of countries will compete for the remaining 10 places in the Grand Final.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think about tonight\u2019s results? Were there any surprises or shocking eliminations? Let us know!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; One show down, two more to go! The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 is now well and truly&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20858],"tags":[20859,20890,20860,7063,22119,20869],"class_list":{"0":"post-42234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eurovision","8":"tag-eurovision","9":"tag-eurovision-2026","10":"tag-eurovision-song-contest-2026","11":"tag-featured","12":"tag-first-semi-final","13":"tag-orf"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}