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LAST UPDATE | 15 May
IRELAND HAVE EXITED the Eurovision at the semi-final stage.
Malta, Finland and Austria were among the ten acts progressing to the final from tonight’s show.
Here’s how the action played out.
Bienvenue.
Welcome to our live coverage of tonight’s Eurovision show.
If you’ve somehow managed to avoid hearing much about this year’s contest over the last few days, we’ll kick off with a wrap of the basics to get you up to speed.
We’ve already had one semi-final this week, on Tuesday. Favourites Sweden were amongst the qualifying acts with the likes of Iceland and the microstate of San Marino managing to defy the bookies’ odds and also snatch themselves slots in the Saturday final.
Norwegian singer Emmy Kristiansen will represent Ireland tonight with her song Laika Party. Performing alongside her brother Erlund on keyboards, a troupe of dancers and a large prop spacerocket, Emmy is third in the running order this evening.
Austria, Malta and Finland are all safe bets for qualification tonight and perform sixth, ninth and sixteenth, respectively.
Ireland’s progression tonight is by no means assured, so we could be in for a tense time when the qualifiers are announced at the end of tonight’s show.
Israel’s act, Yuval Raphael, is also likely to progress to the final. Once again, the country’s participation in the contest has been met with opposition, and in a change of policy last week RTE’s director general called for contest organisers the European Broadcasting Union to allow for a debate on Israel’s future inclusion.
Each nation’s act is managed by the respective national broadcasters in each country, and eligibility is dictated by membership of the EBU. The EBU has defended Israel’s inclusion on that basis.
Israel perform in the fourteenth slot this evening.
The country’s dress rehearsal performance was disrupted earlier today, when six people described as carrying “oversized flags and whistles” obstructed the act.
Swiss broadcaster SRG SSR, which is organising the event, said the group was removed from the St Jakobshalle arena.
The full semi-final show has already been performed through twice in front of a live audience – last night and this afternoon. Neither of the performances are televised.
On hosting duties once again tonight are Swiss standup comedian and presenter Hazel Brugger and Sandra Studer – a former Eurovision contestant and (according to the press notes) ‘grande dame of Swiss entertainment’ .
Well this is quite an outfit.
The running order, just in case you want to have it handy.
Just time for our usual reminder that you’re not allowed vote for your own country.
Opening act coming up.
We won’t be doing a twirl-by-twirl report on every act tonight, but if you’re just tuning in it’s well worth sitting through Milkshake Man – the single entendre-heavy earworm from Australia’s Go-Jo.
Alongside Estonia’s Tommy Cash, he’s among the more ‘Marmite’ of the entries in this year’s lineup, but – love it or hate it – there’ll certainly be plenty going on on stage. Producers always make sure the opening number is upbeat with plenty of action and try to balance out the running order so we don’t see runs of two or three ballads one after another.
If you need to make a cup of tea, Montenegro might be the act to skip in the second slot (apologies to our Montenegrin readers!).
Emmy is up right after that.
In case anyone was concerned Jedward hadn’t shown up – this just in from RTÉ’s photographer in the arena Andres Poveda.
Emmy up on stage after this postcard of her and her brother at CERN.
A suggestion of some nerves at the start of that performance, but the rest of it went off pretty flawlessly.
Still waiting for someone to explain why the LED screens light up with animations of dancing space cats, during a song about a tragic space dog.
The comments on the Youtube feed run the gamut from “bring back Bambie Thug” to “I love it”.
After Tautumeitas from Latvia, fifth in the running order tonight comes another song with an Irish songwriter, Survivor by PARG (Pargev Vardanian).
Irish-Czech singer-songwriter Joshua Curran told RTÉ earlier this year that writing a song for Eurovision had been incredible experience – and said he’d always watched it as a child, putting it down to his dad’s influence.
“He was always telling us about how successful Ireland had been in the competition and how it was ruined by a turkey, which honestly, I still don’t understand.
“Also, the Eurovision episode from Father Ted has always been my favourite.”
Some reaction to Emmy’s performance – including from Marty Whelan in the RTÉ commentary box.
Ah Emmy that was so good!! So proud!!! 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪#Eurovision pic.twitter.com/ijFkP7Mm49
— Matthew Joyce (@ItsMatthewJoyce) May 15, 2025
Ahh thought Emmy sounded great, really hope that’s enough to qualify! 🇮🇪 #Eurovision
— Rob // 🇩🇰🇩🇪🇨🇾🇮🇪🇳🇴 (@eurobvision) May 15, 2025
Emmy absolutely delivered her performance! Laika would be proud 🥹🇮🇪#Eurovision #Eurovision2025 pic.twitter.com/2CwNt2xB1S
— LUKE PAXLEY (@LukePaxley_) May 15, 2025
G’wan EMMY #Eurovision2025 pic.twitter.com/yMd47BF067
— Marty Whelan (@martylyricfm) May 15, 2025
Wasted Love, which we just heard, from Austria’s JJ, was one of the early favourites to win this year’s contest and Austria are currently tipped to progress in first place from tonight’s semi-final.
Ireland’s odds have slipped a little in recent days and we’re currently two places outside of the qualifying spots, going by the aggregated odds.
We’re around ninety minutes from finding out whether Emmy will be making a repeat performance on Saturday.
The bookies got it pretty wrong on Tuesday night, so don’t write our chances off just yet.
Back at the contest, here come the UK.
In case you’re wondering why the UK performed during the semi-finals – yes, the country is still guaranteed an automatic spot in the final, but their act, Remember Monday, got the chance to perform tonight as a warm-up and to generate some of those all-important social media shares to build up buzz and support ahead of the weekend.
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 the 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.
Producers are sticking with that approach this year.
France and Germany also perform tonight while Spain, Italy and host nation Switzerland were on stage on Tuesday. You won’t be able to vote for any of the acts, however – we’ll see them all on Saturday no matter what.
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.
Some pics of tonight’s Irish performance just in, from Andres at the arena…
Okay, up after the Pearl Jam-esque stylings of Katarsis from Lithuania we’ve an act that’s already generated a few headlines in the buildup to Eurovision.
Malta’s Miriana Conte was accused – by some broadcasters at least – of risking offending family viewers 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).
With apologies to our Georgian readers, possibly time for another cup of tea?
Do come back for the French though (up next).
Emmy’s been out making the diplomatic rounds apparently.
Someone get this woman a passport.
Wishing EMMY the very best of luck in tonight’s Eurovision semi-final! 🍀
— Embassy of Ireland, Switzerland (@IrlEmbBerne) May 15, 2025
We were thrilled to host EMMY and her team, the dedicated Irish fan club, and our vibrant Irish community at our own ‘Laika Party’ in Basel on Monday evening. 🎉
Go #TeamIreland! 🇮🇪 pic.twitter.com/hTDizwUfud
France’s Louane coming up with her heartfelt ballad ‘Maman’.
This is another of the automatic qualifiers so you can’t vote for her but the performance is apparently well worth catching.
We haven’t seen any preview footage, but have been told there’s a lot of sand involved for some reason – here’s some photos from the dress rehearsal of the hosts cleaning the stage afterwards.
There genuinely was a fair bit of sand.
We’re past the hour mark – this show is flying in.
Up next, three acts Ireland could well be battling it out with for the ninth or tenth spot in qualifying tonight – Denmark’s Sissal, Czechia’s ADONXS and Luxembourg’s Laura Thorn.
Denmark’s act is very slick but I can’t stop looking for specks of sand on stage.
If you’re not watching along live – yes, this is genuinely a screengrab of the French act.
Great performance, sand or no sand.
Israel’s Yuval Raphael is set to take to the stage next.
The singer’s rehearsal performance was met with boos from pro-Palestinian protestors this afternoon.
Some audience members also used whistles during her performance.
In a statement this afternoon, Swiss broadcaster SRG said that six people, including a family, disrupted the rehearsal with “oversized flags”.
“Security personnel were able to quickly identify those involved and escort them out of the hall,” SRG said.
For the second year running, Israel’s participation in the contest has been met with opposition from groups across Europe due to the country’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza.
There were some reports of booing from fans posting to social media from within the arena, but very little trace of it in the live TV feed.
“Nowhere near as heavy as last year,” one fan near the front of the crowd said on X.
Finland have sent some strong acts to Eurovision in recent years – most memorably, perhaps, rapper Käärijä, whose bonkers ‘Cha Cha Cha’ captured fans’ imaginations in the 2023 contest.
The country’s Erika Vikman has been given the honour of closing tonight’s competitive section of the show.
The producers tend not to want to end on a boring note.
Well that brought the house down in Basel.
The voting section has kicked off.
You’ll find details of how to cast yours here.
Voting in the semi-finals is by viewer votes only – the professional juries don’t feature until the Grand Final on Saturday.
Once again, the top ten countries tonight will go through – meaning there’ll be six disappointed acts.
In a change to the show this year, producers will display split-screen shots focused on three countries at at time as the announcements are made.
In each sequence, one of the acts shown on screen will qualify and two will have to wait a little longer to hear whether they’ve made it or not.
The tenth announcement will be made by the hosts only, without any split screen.
Micheal Kealy, the senior RTÉ producer who’s overseen the Irish entry for more than a decade, was asked about the change to the finale by reporters in Basel earlier in the week.
However it’s handled, he said, the semi-finals are always “two hours of great fun followed by ten minutes of hell” for the acts involved.
While we wait, a quick trawl through reaction to the show so far…
This is a masterpiece from Latvia #Eurovision pic.twitter.com/lXvBrihVk1
— Klaus Freiesleben 🇸🇪 (@Klausfigu) May 15, 2025
She's absolutely bonkers. I'm loving Finland. Explosive performance and a little bit scary. Incredible stuff. #Eurovision #EurovisionSongContest #ESC #Eurovision2025 #EurovisionSongContest2025 #ESC2025 pic.twitter.com/wSv4bM3drF
— Andy Gibson (@AndyGibsonTV) May 15, 2025
The stuff you miss on the break #Eurovision2025 pic.twitter.com/qA9BhzGZSX
— Marty Whelan (@martylyricfm) May 15, 2025
Some shots of Emmy from the green room area, while the ‘interval’ acts continue.
Armenia also going through.
That could be bad news for Ireland – they were one of the countries we were battling with for one of the final slots.
Luxembourg also making the final – Emmy was in the split screen there, but no joy this time.
Disappointment for Emmy and Team Ireland – after Bambie Thug’s high-flying performance there’d been hopes the Irish could make it two qualifications in a row.
That’s not to be this time around.
We won’t find out where Emmy came in tonight’s placings until the full results from the semi-finals are released on Sunday – all that’s announced tonight are the ten acts going through, there are no rankings given.
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