Well, the big day has arrived finally! During the last days we've just seen the whole performances of all the countries taking part in this year's competition. In each semifinal, there were 18 countries competing for a pass to the final, but only 10 made it. Now, let's take a look to the results of each semifinal:
The first semifinal took part last Tuesday evening, then the qualifiers (blue) and the non-qualifiers (red) were, in random order, the following countries:
- Armenia
- Hungary
- Russia
- Croatia
- The Netherlands
- Azerbaijan
- Czech Republic
- Austria
- Cyprus
- Malta
- Iceland
- Moldova
- Estonia
- Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Finland
- Greece
- San Marino
- Montenegro
The most favored of the first semifinal were Armenia and Russia, both of them showing a great staging. Iveta from Armenia sent us a LoveWave with her powerful voice and helped by technical effects, using different camera angles, lightning and fire on stage. Then, Sergey from Russia used a back screen to give more power to the perfomance, based on the preview video of his song.
Likewise, Greta Salóme from Iceland, in her second time at Eurovision (she participated in 2012 too), used a back screen for her performance, but she didn't made to the final this time.
Another repeating artist, Ira Losco from Malta, succeed qualifying to the Grand Final with her Walk On Water.
The surprise came when Croatia and Czech Republic got to the final. Croatia made her appearance for the first time since 2012 and Czech Republic reached the Final for the first time ever.
The second semifinal took part last Thursday evening, then the qualifiers (blue) and the non- qualifiers (red) were, in random order, the following countries:
- Australia
- Latvia
-
Serbia
-
Ukraine
-
Lithuania
-
Poland
-
Bulgaria
-
Israel
-
Georgia
-
Belgium
-
Switzerland
-
Belarus
-
Ireland
-
FYR Macedonia
-
Slovenia
-
Denmark
-
Norway
-
Albania
In the second semifinal, we could see a lot of great performances, but those from Australia and Ukraine shone specially. Dami Im from Australia brought us a great vocal performance sitting in a cube and with a front screen in order to show some visual effects. Ukraine's Jamala sang an emotional song that caused some controversy due to its implicit political content, but her powerful voice brought her to the Final.
In addition, we have six more
pre-qualified countries, those from the Big Five (France, Germany, Spain, Italy and United Kingdom) and this year's host, Sweden. They had made their appearances in both semifinals, where there were shown short clips of the dress rehearsal.
One of the favorite songs from pre-qualifiers is
J'ai Cherché from France. His interpreter Amir chose a simple staging to focus on his powerful voice. Spain's Barei treated to do the same, but singing with four female vocalists and dancing her already famous steps.
Finally, here we have the running order of the 26 performances for tonight's show:
1. Belgium:
What's The Pressure by Laura Tesoro
2. Czech Republic:
I Stand by Gabriela Gun
číková
3. The Netherlands:
Slow Down by Douwe Bob
4. Azerbaijan:
Miracle by Samra
5. Hungary:
Pioneer by Freddie
6. Italy:
No Degree Of Separation by Francesca Michielin
7. Israel:
Made Of Stars by Hovi Star
8. Bulgaria:
If Love Was A Crime by Poli Genova
9. Sweden:
If I Were Sorry by Frans
10. Germany:
Ghost by Jamie-Lee Kriewitz
11. France:
J'ai cherché by Amir
12. Poland:
Color Of Your Life by
Michał Szpak
13. Australia: Sound of Silence by Dami Im
14. Cyprus: Alter Ego by Minus One
15. Serbia: Goodbye (Shelter) by Sanja Vučić ZAA
16. Lithuania: I've Been Waiting For This Night by Donny Montell
17. Croatia: Lighthouse by Nina Kraljić
18. Russia: You Are The Only One by Sergey Lazarev
19. Spain: Say Yay! by Barei
20. Latvia: Heartbeat by Justs Sirmais
21. Ukraine: 1944 by Jamala
22. Malta: Walk On Water by Ira Losco
23. Georgia: Midnight Gold by Nika Kocharov and Young Georgian Lolitaz
24. Austria: Loin d'ici by Zoë Straub
25. United Kingdom: You're Not Alone by Joe & Jake
26. Armenia: LoveWave by Iveta Mukuchyan
Tonight show is going to be special for a lot of reasons, but specially for the new voting results procedure. It'll begin with the usual 1 to 12 points from Jury voting, connecting with the spokeperson of each country from the 42 participating this year. Then, the hosts Måns Zelmerlöw and Petra Mede will announce the results of the televoting for each country, so we won't know the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 till the very last moment.
Finally, let's take a look to the betting odds, the most accurate prediction for the final results of the contest. The Top5 is composed by Russia, Australia, Ukraine, Sweden and France. Lazarev has an important advantage and his song is in the top of the scoreboard since he released his entry. It seems like this year's microphone trophy will be for Russia, but nothing is written yet. So let's wait for the show and the voting results to discover who will get the glory at the Globe Arena in Stockholm.
