10 lucky qualifiers advance to Eurovision 2019 final

Congratulations to Greece, Belarus, Serbia, Cyprus, Estonia, Czech Republic, Australia, Iceland, San Marino and Slovenia. Tonight, these 10 countries can celebrate that they qualified for the grand final on Saturday.

After Ukraine withdrew, only 17 countries took part in this year’s first semi-final. 10 of them would qualify for the final leaving each participant with a 59% chance of success. But some had to face that this just wasn’t their year. After more than a week being busy with rehearsals and press conferences – but also celebrating the contest with fans and competitors, it is not easy being eliminated at this stage in the contest.

Tonight’s show kicked off with Cyprus’s Tamta delivering a very south European show with warmth, plenty of dance, fire and of course a sexy little, revealing outfit. In comparison, we had the middle aged Serhat in a white suit and a disco 70’s-80’s pop entry to close the show. In between we got quite variety in terms of songs and performances.

Turkish Serhat representing San Marino, Serbia’s Nevena Božović and Joci Pápai from Hungary all returned to the Eurovision Song Contest hoping to improve their previous results. For Serhat and Nevena just reaching the final would be an improvement.

Last year’s winner Netta opened the show, and 1998 winner Dana International performed as interval act with a cover version of Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars. Last year’s Junior winner Roksana was guest in the show. She didn’t perform, but was interviewed by one of the hosts. A tribute to the Eurovision heritage was played in form of a three minute video showing the history of the contest.

Clips from the entries from Spain, France and host country Israel was also shown tonight. These three pre-qualified countries voted in tonight’s semi-final along with the 17 participating countries.

Several of the participants clearly couldn’t hold back their nerves when the ten qualifiers were announced – one by one.

2019 Semi-final 1

Country Artist Songtitle Result
Cyprus Tamta Replay Qualifier
Montenegro D mol Heaven
Finland Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman Look Away
Poland Tulia Fire Of Love (Pali się)
Slovenia Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl Sebi Qualifier
Czech Republic Lake Malawi Friend Of A Friend Qualifier
Hungary Joci Pápai Az én apám
Belarus ZENA Like It Qualifier
Serbia Nevena Božović Kruna Qualifier
Belgium Eliot Wake Up
Georgia Oto Nemsadze Keep On Going
Australia Kate Miller-Heidke Zero Gravity Qualifier
Iceland Hatari Hatrið mun sigra Qualifier
Estonia Victor Crone Storm Qualifier
Portugal Conan Osiris Telemóveis
Greece Katerine Duska Better Love Qualifier
San Marino Serhat Say Na Na Na Qualifier
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