RTÉ’s Arts and Media Correspondent Evelyn O’Rourke is in Vienna as the countdown continues to Saturday night’s Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final.
Fifteen countries took to the stage in the Austrian capital last night for the second Eurovision semi-final, hoping to secure one of the ten remaining spots in the competition.
Performances that impressed both the public vote and the juries, which have returned to the semi-finals as part of new measures to bolster trust and transparency in the voting system, included Australia, represented by Delta Goodrem, and Ukraine. Both claimed their place on Saturday’s big stage.
Last night also gave audiences their first opportunity to see the UK’s entry, Look Mum No Computer, in action.
Delta Goodrem performing Eclipse for Australia during the Second Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest at Wiener Stadthalle, Vienna
As the UK is one of the Big Five countries that make the most significant financial contributions to the event, he and his song Eins, Zwei, Drei are guaranteed a spot in the final.
Spain is also one of the Big Five, but as its broadcaster is boycotting the contest this year, it has no entry involved.
The other countries guaranteed a place in the final are France, Germany and Italy, while Austria, as the host country, has also automatically secured a place on the Grand Final stage.
Inside the Eurovision press centre last night, the venue was jampacked with journalists from across the world, all staring up at the big screens beaming the semi-final down to them.
It was a busy place, with members of the media sitting at long tables covered in laptops and cables. Some were typing furiously, while for many others it was all about social media content, as they moved around in small groups, chatting into their phones and live-streaming the action back home.
LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER performing Eins, Zwei, Drei for United Kingdom
In recent years, the media centre has become a clear example of how Eurovision is now covered across multiple platforms, with content creators bringing plenty of colour and noise to the room.
They often move around in small groups and, as ever at Eurovision, many had brought the glamour.
Eurovision is big business for global media organisations, as is clear from the number of press gathered each year.
Being in the room during the semi-finals is also interesting because you can get a sense, from the reactions across the different countries, of which songs are really having an impact.
Bulgaria got a great reaction last night, as did France and Australia.
Outside, Vienna was damp and wet, so the media pack seemed happy to be tucked indoors, fuelled by the endless coffee supplied by the venue.
But while those entries are hoping to deliver memorable performances on Saturday night, for Ireland and four other broadcasters, including Spain, the Netherlands, Iceland and Slovenia, this 70th anniversary of Eurovision will be memorable because of their absence.
LELÉKA secured a sport for Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final
The ongoing participation of Israel has been a contentious issue over the last two years and the five broadcasters announced in December that they had decided to withdraw from this year’s contest.
So after a turbulent year for Eurovision, following the tensions at Basel 2025, what is the atmosphere like in Vienna this week?
The contest is being held against a backdrop of heightened security in the city, with a strong police presence clearly visible on the streets surrounding the Wiener Stadthalle, the host venue.
For Irish Eurovision fans and experts who have made the trip to Vienna this week, they say the atmosphere is palpably different, describing it as “quieter”.
They describe protests or demonstrations this week as being smaller compared with those seen in 2024 and 2025 so far.
Any demonstrations have been more muted than the large visible protests seen on the streets of Basel and Malmö in previous years.
Eurovision expert Matthew Joyce said: “The protests that were planned for Tuesday were smaller, nothing really major, and there’s another protest on Saturday, and that might be bigger because it’s the day of the final, but we will have to see.”
He added: “There is a very high police presence around, so maybe that’s actually putting people off as a result?”
For Eurovision Tom, a Eurovision YouTuber, the atmosphere both in Vienna and among fans who have not travelled is “in general very low within the fandom, with a lot less people engaging this year”.
He pointed to the metrics that Eurovision experts use to assess how the event is impacting online. Streaming numbers for the songs in the build-up to the contest are a useful tool to see if there is a buzz building around the music. He says that, in his experience, “there are less streams for the songs”.
For Matthew Joyce, the absence of some fans is having an impact too. He said Vienna is “definitely missing the energy that the Dutch, Spanish and Irish fans brought”.
The decision by the five broadcasters to boycott this year’s event is a unprecedented moment in the history of the contest.
Whether the uncertainty off stage makes its way on stage this Saturday night will be watched closely by loyal fans.