Eurovision 2026 Vienna Semi Final 1 - Tuesday 12 May 8pm

[RedToothBrush]

Welcome to 2026’s MN Live Eurovision Threads. This year is once again marred by controversy (When hasn't it been?) I mean Sehit for a fourth time for San Marino with Boy George!!!? (Yes that Boy George) Fix!

Anyway, putting all the nonsense to one side this is for those of you who are here for the pan pipes (Yes we have pan pipes!), old crooners, the complusory appearance of the Eurovision violin, 70s/80s throwback costumes, Kryten from Red Dwarf and Joost Klein wannabies.

1 MOLDOVA Satoshi - Viva, Moldova!
2 SWEDEN Felicia - My System
3 CROATIA Lelek - Andromeda
4 GREECE Akylas - Ferto
5 PORTUGAL Bandidos do Cante - Rosa
6 GEORGIA Bzikebi - On Replay
ITALY Sal Da Vinci - Per Sempre Si
7 FINLAND Linda Lampenius & Pete Parkkonen - Liekinheitin
8 MONTENEGRO Tamara Živković - Nova Zora
9 ESTONIA Vanilla Ninja - Too Epic To Be True
10 ISRAEL Noam Bettan - Michelle
GERMANY Sarah Engels - Fire
11 BELGIUM Essyla - Dancing On The Ice
12 LITHUANIA Lion Ceccah - Sólo Quiero Más
13 SAN MARINO Sehit - Superstar
14 POLAND Alicja - Pray
15 SERBIA Lavina - Kraj Mene

Ten to Qualify for the Final.

The UK can not vote in this Semi Final (you vote in the semi you appear in).
Voting for participants opens after the last song has been performed.
Non participating countries (Hello Ireland) can vote as part the Rest of The World from midnight before the Semi-Final until the show starts when voting closes temporary before reopening after the acts have all performed.

Voting Changes from previous years
The jury vote returns for the Semi-Finals. This means there is less emphasis on the Televote than in previous years which should favour the more technically musical, reduce odd voting patterns and be harder for the quirker entries (which you might want to keep in mind when voting). There is also a bigger restriction on how many times you are allowed to vote, with everyone being cut to ten votes.

Huzzah! I'm in! pulls on spangly jacket Who are the favourites this year?

The clear favs are currently Finland. With Greece and Denmark coming in a little behind and then France and Australia.

The UK looks set for another year of bombing in the scoring as we are hiding out at 19th in the betting. I'm actually glad we've gone for something a bit out there (and keep in mind that our entry was not the first choice and instead was drafted in as a last minute reserve as the original artist was dropped at the last minute apparently due to something being 'found' that meant they weren't considered acceptable by the BBC).

I like our entry as its at least fun.

Pulling up a pew...

We're not in it this year (Ireland) and nobody will miss us but I'm here for the show.

I only know Italy's entry so far this year, which I would describe as nice but safe, ie completely unforgettable.

As an aperitif, DD and I have been watching last year’s final with the brilliant BSL interpreters. Cat1 was not impressed: he has Sensitive Ears you know 😼

Yay for the live thread!

I am routing for Finland and Greece tonight - should be very safe and hoping Estonia, San Marino and Portugal beat the odds.

I'll be here if I don't keep getting 400 bad request messages which are doing my tits in.

Disco ball and spangly tights to the ready.

Ohhh excited 😆 😆 😆 !
I can never keep up with the tread to post in time but I do live it !

I might pop on with some profound wisdom about something or other ....!!!

Actually...it is usually a question on something I haven't understood !
So apologies in advance !

🎶🎤👄🎙️🎶🎶 !

I am very excited- mn is playing up for me though, so I hope it sorts itself out.

I like our entry- win or lose, it's at least trying something different.

Going out for snacks...

i love this point: the wait is almost over, but all the live performances are still to come. I’m hoping the MN gremlins will let me participate in the thread, but I’m not sure as it’s all a bit unstable at the moment!

I've discovered the only way I can get MN to stay working on my laptop, is to post in incognito mode. For some reason, this works.. It's a bit of a pain, but I'm not getting any error messages.

At the risk of sounding like a "cash the cheque" reply...

Have you cleared your cookies/cache?
Apparently that's what MN is recommending.
They also say use Chrome rather than Safari.

I had constant 404 and "Thread lost down the back of the sofa" messages but cleared the history/cookies on Safari and now it seems to be OK...

(I may be jinxing myself now...famous last words etc)

This is what got sent from Justine/MN:

You may have experienced freezing or crashing during longer browsing sessions on Mumsnet, particularly on Safari, and I wanted to explain a bit more about what’s going on.

Over longer sessions, browser memory usage can gradually build up because of advertising and other third-party technologies running on the site. Eventually this can cause pages or tabs to freeze, crash, or refresh unexpectedly.

Safari has lower memory limits than some other browsers, which means people using Safari during long sessions on Mumsnet are particularly affected. This is not unique to Mumsnet and can happen on other heavily used ad-supported sites too.

I want to reassure you that I and the team are actively working on improvements. We’re currently testing changes including different ad partners, lighter ad formats, and reduced ad refresh rates to try to reduce the problem. However, this is a technically complex issue involving browser memory limits, long browsing sessions, and third-party advertising technology, so it is not something we can fix overnight.

In the meantime, a few things may help improve your experience:

• where possible, using Chrome instead of Safari, as it tends to be more stable
• clearing your browser cache regularly
• making sure your browser is fully up to date
• closing older or unused tabs during very long browsing sessions
• bookmarking longer threads so that if a page refreshes unexpectedly, it’s easier to return to where you were

I know this is frustrating, especially for those of you who spend a lot of time reading, posting, and supporting others on the site, and I really appreciate your patience while I continue working on improvements.

@StandingHereLikePiffy Yes, I did all that But I only ever use chrome, I cleared everything, a number of times- and it still isn't working on either my laptop or phone.

So- I've decided it's a 'them' problem .

I can manage with incognito for now- so long as I remember what tab I'm using . .

Ah! What a pain. Hope a fast moving Eurovision thread doesn't make things worse!

Hopefully not- I will try and re-boot everything again in a bit and see if it helps. I clear my history quite often anyway, because my laptop is slow.

By the time I've had a drink and the show has started, I will probably not even notice if I'm typing on the wrong website .

I’ve enjoyed previous contests but won’t be watching this year. Mainly because of the Romanian entry’s horrible lyrics, but let’s face it, there are an increasing number of reasons to boycott Eurovision.

Hello!!! Thanks for the lowdown in the Op @RedToothBrush

Evening

Guten Abend! Have found live stream on YouTube in German.

i was expecting Sara Cox not Angela Scanlon. Sara must be only the radio 2 bits.

Likewise. I am pleasantly surprised. I hate Sara Cox. She makes my teeth itch.

I’m not complaining also pleased. I feel Sara cox might take over somehow

Here we go.

Oh, this opening took a bit of a turn.

I'm welling up already. It feels like a nod to missing friends...