Here\u2019s what to know about eight favored acts.<\/p>\n
Finland\u2018Liekinheitin\u2019 by Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s favorite is Finland, and it\u2019s easy to see why.<\/p>\n
Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen\u2019s \u201cLiekinheitin\u201d (or \u201cFlamethrower\u201d) ticks every Eurovision box.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s essentially a duet between Parkkonen, 36, a Finnish pop star, and Lampenius, 56, a onetime violin prodigy, in which Parkkonen sings about his passionate obsession for a woman who treats him badly and Lampenius responds with forceful melodies on her instrument.<\/p>\n
The competition doesn\u2019t usually allow live instrumental performances, but Eurovision organizers have given Lampenius special permission to play onstage, given that her violin lines are so critical to the song.<\/p>\n
This week, so much focus has been on Lampenius\u2019s playing that some fans may have missed her struggles on the way to the Eurovision stage.<\/p>\n
Lampenius was a crossover violin star in the 1990s, even making the cover of Playboy (which called her the \u201cBrahms Bombshell\u201d). But amid that success, Lampenius got caught up in a legal dispute with the Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard<\/a> after she told a Finnish journalist that other women should be careful in his company.<\/p>\n Nygard sued her for defamation, demanding $10 million, an ordeal that the violinist said \u201cruined my life.\u201d Since that time, however, Nygard has been sentenced to 11 years in prison<\/a> in Canada for sexually assaulting four women.<\/p>\n For her part, Lampenius has in recent years signed a new major label deal and is now the favorite in Vienna.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is my revenge,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Australia\u2018Eclipse\u2019 by Delta Goodrem<\/p>\n Sometimes a Eurovision nation surprises everyone by sending a singer who seems to have little need of a fame boost. This year that person is Delta Goodrem, representing Australia, who shot to stardom as a teenager in the early 2000s starring in the wildly popular Australian soap \u201cNeighbours,\u201d<\/a> and then as a singer of epic ballads.<\/p>\n So why is she at Eurovision with \u201cEclipse,\u201d a soaring track that grows in momentum and volume with each verse?<\/p>\n Goodrem, 41, has said in interviews that friends asked her for years to enter the contest, and in 2025 she finally decided to try. Her approach in writing the song was to go as big as possible, she said this week in Vienna<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re doing Eurovision, I want a key change, I want high notes, I want wind machines, I want sparkles, I want surprises, I want it all!\u201d Goodrem told Wiwibloggs, a popular Eurovision YouTube channel.<\/p>\n She took the same maximalist approach for the staging, she added. \u201cI want pyro! I want fire! I want smog! I want lighting! And I want 7,000 sparkles on my dress!\u201d<\/p>\n That method might work. After Goodrem\u2019s semifinal performance on Thursday \u2014 which included her standing atop a golden piano \u2014 she was made second favorite.<\/p>\n Romania\u2018Choke Me\u2019 by Alexandra Capitanescu<\/p>\n It seems that every Eurovision has a lyrics controversy, and this year\u2019s centers on Romania\u2019s track: Alexandra Capitanescu\u2019s \u201cChoke Me.\u201d<\/p>\n When the hard-rocking song appeared online in March, it enraged some women\u2019s rights groups for its chorus in which Capitanescu sings, \u201cAll I need is your love \/ I want it to choke me, choke me, choke me.\u201d<\/p>\n Landing at a moment when some experts have drawn attention to the dangers of choking during sex<\/a>, the track shows \u201can alarming disregard for young women\u2019s health and well-being,\u201d Clare McGlynn, a professor at Durham University, told the Guardian<\/a> newspaper at the height of the furor.<\/p>\n Yet Capitanescu has said that the song has nothing to do with sexual practices. The singer told one interviewer<\/a> that she was struggling with anxiety last year and that her mother had said, \u201cYou have to stop choking yourself with these negative thoughts.\u201d That comment helped inspire the song.<\/p>\n Eurovision organizers regularly order artists to change lyrics if songs are considered political<\/a> or overly rude<\/a>. But they haven\u2019t made Capitanescu change a word, and Martin Green, Eurovision\u2019s director, said that Capitanescu\u2019s explanation was good enough for him. \u201cThere would be an irony, wouldn\u2019t there, if we were not believing this woman,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The flap hasn\u2019t seemed to hurt Capitanescu\u2019s Eurovision chances. She\u2019s many fans\u2019 favorite.<\/p>\n Greece\u2018Ferto\u2019 by Akylas<\/p>\n Last fall, Akylas was fearing that his music career was over.<\/p>\n He had spent years trying to make it as a pop star and had two minor successes in his native Greece, but had also needed to work as a waiter and cruise ship performer to pay his rent. At that point, he was busking for tourists in Athens.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the most difficult September in my life,\u201d Akylas, 27, recalled in an interview. \u201cI was like, \u2018Maybe I should go back to the cruise ship.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, he wrote \u201cFerto\u201d (or \u201cBring It\u201d in English). And now he is among the favorites to win Eurovision.<\/p>\n On the track, which mixes traditional Greek instruments with electronic bleeps, Akylas sings in Greek about wanting everything the world can offer, including diamond rings, submarines and lots of \u201csashimi tuna.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI want the summit, not just a step,\u201d he sings.<\/p>\n Although the lyrics make him sound like an insatiable Disney villain, Akylas said they also reflected his working-class childhood desiring things that others had. And the lyrics chimed with the economic precarity that many Greeks experienced in the financial crisis that began in 2008. \u201cA lot of my generation grew up feeling something was missing,\u201d Akylas said.<\/p>\n With Eurovision stardom, does he have everything he sings about wanting in \u201cFerto\u201d?\u201d \u201cThe money, no,\u201d Akylas said. \u201cBut that\u2019s going to come!\u201d<\/p>\n France\u2018Regarde!\u2019 by Monroe<\/p>\n The United States may not yet take part in Eurovision, but Americans still have a homegrown act to root for this year: Monroe, who was born and raised in Salt Lake City, is representing France.<\/p>\n The daughter of a French mother and American father, Monroe is singing, \u201cRegarde!<\/a>\u201d a sweeping track about falling in love in which she repeatedly shows off her operatic range.<\/p>\n If she wins, she will be the third singer in a row to use operatic skills to help secure the Eurovision title, following JJ of Austria and Nemo of Switzerland.<\/p>\n Monroe\u2019s breakthrough came in France last year when she won \u201cProdiges<\/a>,\u201d a popular TV talent show for classical musicians, singing the renowned \u201cQueen of the Night\u201d aria<\/a> from Mozart\u2019s \u201cThe Magic Flute.\u201d Before she learned that she was going to Vienna, Monroe had planned to study music at a college or conservatory in the U.S., but she said in an interview that she had deferred offers to take part.<\/p>\n Still, she made time for an hour or two\u2019s study a day while preparing for the Eurovision final, she said. \u201cLearning in life is the most important,\u201d the 17-year-old said.<\/p>\n Italy\u2018Per Sempre S\u00ec\u2019 by Sal da Vinci<\/p>\n Italy usually sends its hottest young acts to Eurovision, like Maneskin<\/a>, the snarly rock band that won in 2021.<\/p>\n This year, it has taken a different tack. It\u2019s entry is Sal da Vinci, 57, a suited Neapolitan singer, performing \u201cPer sempre s\u00ec\u201d (\u201cForever Yes\u201d), a disco anthem about the joys of marriage that sounds, appropriately enough, like a wedding dance-floor filler.<\/p>\n \u201cWith my hand upon my chest \/ I promise it to you \/ Before God \/ It will be you and me,\u201d da Vinci sings.<\/p>\n Da Vinci said in a recent interview \u2014 alongside his wife of 37 years, Paola Pugliese \u2014 that he was \u201ca bit of a traditionalist.\u201d He married the woman of his dreams, he said, and they persevered through all the usual ups and downs.<\/p>\n But he said he hoped his song also appealed to more liberal listeners. \u201cI\u2019m talking about universal love,\u201d da Vinci said. \u201cMale, male; female, female. It\u2019s not up to me to judge.\u201d<\/p>\n Of this year\u2019s Eurovision entries, \u201cPer sempre s\u00ec\u201d has the most Spotify streams. Yet the song has not been immune from criticism, with one Italian critic describing it as the soundtrack to a Mafia wedding<\/a>.<\/p>\n Da Vinci said comments like those didn\u2019t worry him. His song has touched so many people, after all \u2014 so why let a critic spoil it?<\/p>\n Israel\u2018Michelle\u2019 by Noam Bettan<\/p>\n Israel has a recent habit of sending power ballads to Eurovision, but this time the country is trying something different with \u201cMichelle<\/a>,\u201d a more upbeat pop track by Noam Bettan, in which he sings about a toxic relationship over Spanish guitar and a shuffling Middle Eastern beat.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also largely in French. \u201cAdieu ma belle \/ Je te laisse partir \/ Mais je t\u2019aime\u201d Bettan sings in a typical excerpt. (\u201cGoodbye my love, I\u2019m letting you go, but I love you.\u201d)<\/p>\n Bettan\u2019s language choice stems from his French heritage: His parents emigrated to Israel from Grenoble, France, before he was born.<\/p>\n The 28-year-old\u2019s appearance at Eurovision is the end point of \u201cmore than eight years of hard work, Sisyphean work,\u201d Bettan recently told The Times of Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n Israel has won Eurovision four times, but the contest\u2019s stage is a fraught place for any Israeli right now. Five countries that had called for Israel to be excluded because of its military actions in Gaza are boycotting the event<\/a>, and Israel\u2019s government was accused after last year\u2019s contest of trying to influence the outcome<\/a>. Israel\u2019s public broadcaster, KAN, which selects the country\u2019s Eurovision entry, said that all the promotions were within the rules, but Eurovision\u2019s director said the campaign was excessive<\/a>. This year, the organizers have updated the voting protocols.<\/p>\n During Tuesday\u2019s semifinal, an audience member shouted \u201cStop, stop, the genocide,\u201d throughout Bettan\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n
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