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LAST UPDATE | 13 May
FOR THE SECOND year running, the buildup to the Eurovision Song Contest has been overshadowed – in Irish coverage at least – by the calls for a debate around Israel’s inclusion in the competition.
In a change of policy, RTÉ last week added its voice to those of a number of national broadcasters calling for a ‘discussion’ on the issue. Broadcasters in Iceland, Slovenia and Spain have also raised concerns around Israel’s participation this year.
Contest organisers the EBU have defended Israel’s right to participate, saying the emphasis of the competition is to be “positive and inclusive”.
You’ll find links to our latest coverage of the debate here.
The rest of this article focuses solely on what’s happening on stage at the contest.
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The Swiss city of Basel, on the banks of the Rhine. Switzerland won the right to host last year thanks to Nemo’s gravity-defying performance of The Code in Malmö last May.
The first semi-finals happen tonight, with Ireland competing in the second semi-final show on Thursday. The final is on Saturday.
The 37 acts have been in Basel since the May bank holiday weekend, where rehearsals have been taking place at the St Jakobshalle arena.
Norwegian singer EMMY will be flying the flag this year with Laika Party.
The song – a dance-infused anthem about a Soviet space dog who became the first living creature to orbit the Earth – was co-written by Larissa Tormey, a Russian-Irish singer-songwriter who’s been based in Westmeath since the early 2000s.
The Scandinavian won the right to represent Ireland after seeing off competition from five other Eurosong finalists on a Late Late special back in February.
You may recall that Samantha Mumba, who just lost out, wasn’t best pleased with the views expressed by the show’s panel, in the wake of her own performance.
Ireland have been hovering between tenth and eleventh place in the odds for the Thursday semi-final in recent weeks, leaving us in a battle with a handful of other smaller nations like Luxembourg and Denmark for one of those prized slots in the final.
The top ten acts from the sixteen competing in Thursday night’s semi will go through to compete on Saturday. Ten entrants will also go through from tonight’s show, which sees fifteen acts performing. The qualifiers are selected in a process entirely based on viewer votes.
EMMY’s current odds are by no means locked in, however. Last year, Bambie Thug’s odds shortened considerably after footage of their rehearsal emerged in the days before their semi-final.
The Macroom singer became the first Irish act to qualify from the weeknight heats since 2018 last year, going on to secure sixth place in the final – the best Irish placing since 2000.
At this stage, it’s probably fair to predict that EMMY won’t quite hit those heights if she does make it through. At the moment the focus is on qualifying and making sure Ireland have some skin in the game come the weekend.
Ireland isn’t the only country to have a non-resident performer fronting their entry. Finnish comedy-musical act KAJ are hotly tipped to bring the contest back to Sweden with Bara Bada Bastu – an infectious, upbeat celebration of all things sauna.
The troupe beat off competition from previous Eurovision winner Måns Zelmerlöw to win Sweden’s final, and the song has already topped the charts in both Sweden and Finland.
Victory for the Swedes would move them ahead of Ireland as sole record-holders for most contest wins. Currently the two nations are tied at seven each, after Loreen last sealed the top spot for Sweden in Liverpool just two years ago.
The bookies currently have Austria’s JJ as second favourite with his pop-opera ballad Wasted Love, with France and the Netherlands following.
Sweden have held the favourites tag for months at this stage, but at the same time this year’s competition is considered to be one of the more open contests in recent years after the likes of Ukraine and Sweden were considered nailed on for wins in 2022 and 2023.
There are a number of tracks straddling the fence between ‘novelty’ and ‘fun’ this year with varying degrees of success – meaning they could well split the votes and leave a route open for a song with a more traditional Eurovision sound (for instance, Louane’s French ballad Maman) to sneak through.
Keep an eye out for two single entendre-heavy performances from opposite sides of the planet – Australia’s Go-Jo with Milkshake Man and Finland’s Erika Vikman with Iche Komme.
Tommy Cash was accused of offending Italians with his novelty song Espresso Macchiato after the track was picked earlier this year as Estonia’s entry.
Elsewhere, Malta’s Miriana Conte was accused – by some broadcasters at least – of risking offending just about everyone else with her entry Serving Kant. The song is now simply called ‘Serving’, reportedly at the request of the BBC. (Kant is Maltese for ‘singing’ so you can see what they were up to).
This year’s entries from Ukraine and Albania are well worth a listen and both tipped to do well.
Sweden, Estonia and Ukraine all perform tonight. You’ll find the full running order here, and the show airs on RTÉ 2 in Ireland from 8pm.
In the semi-finals, as previously mentioned, it’s public voting only. In the Grand Final, the voting’s split between public votes and national juries. If you want a full rundown of how it all works, here’s a link to the official Eurovision version.
Until last year, performers from the so-called Big Five countries and the host nation only had a clip from their rehearsals played out during the semi-final broadcasts and didn’t perform live until Saturday night.
The format was tweaked last year meaning we saw full live performances from France, Spain, Germany, Italy, the UK and 2024 host nation Sweden during the semi-finals, and producers are sticking with that approach this time around.
France, Germany and the UK all perform during Ireland’s semi-final on Thursday with Spain, Italy and host nation Switzerland up this evening. You won’t be able to vote for them, however, and they’ll still get a free pass into Saturday’s contest.
Acts from the Big Five are always guaranteed a spot in the Saturday show as each of the five countries bring a massive TV audience and make proportionally larger contributions to the running of the show compared to smaller nations. The host nation automatically goes through as part of the prize for winning the previous year’s contest.
The rules state that the singer (or singers) must perform live and there’s no auto-tuning allowed.
No other instruments can be plugged in and a maximum of six people are allowed on stage.
The rules also state – just in case the thought had occurred to anyone – that “no contestant may compete for more than one country” in any given year.
Note: A version of this article was originally published on Saturday. It’s been updated today, in advance of the first semi-final.
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