We are watching the first Eurovision 2016 semifinal. Join us!

A year ago Måns Zelmerlöw won the Eurovision Song Contest for his homeland Sweden, so this year the contest moved to Sweden’s capital, Stockholm. Also, Måns Zelmerlöw is hosting this year’s event with Petra Mede.

18 countries will compete for 10 open places in the Grand Final tonight. You can find the list below. I will add the videos of all the performances once they are available on Eurovision’s YouTube channel.

Verka Serduchka is still dancing. Click on the GIF to re-watch her performance.

Here is the explanation of the voting process from Eurovision’s official website:

18 Songs: 21 Televoting countries

Eighteen songs will participate in the first Semi-Final, and professional juries in each of the participating countries, as well as in Sweden, France and Spain, voted on yesterday’s dress rehearsal. They accounted for 50% of the overall total.

Tonight the remaining 50% of the votes will be decided by the public televote in the same 21 countries. These votes will be added to those of the juries to determine the ten countries that will qualify for the Grand Final on Saturday the 14th of May.

The semifinal starts at 9pm CEST, 3pm EDT, 12pm PDT

Eurovision’s Official Website
Eurovision’s Official YouTube Channel
WATCH Eurovision Online

You can watch the event through your local EBU member European broadcaster, LOGO TV in the USA or SBS in Australia. Beware of the local commentary, though! You can also watch the live stream on the official Eurovision website or on YouTube (click the links above).

Måns Zelmerlow – Heroes (Opening act at Semi-Final 1 of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest)

Finland: Sing It Away sung by Sandhja

Greece: Utopian Land sung by Argo

Moldova: Falling Stars sung by Lidia Isac

Hungary: Pioneer sung by Freddie

Croatia: Lighthouse sung by Nina Kraljic

Netherlands: Slow Down sung by Douwe Bob

Armenia: LoveWave sung by Iveta Mukuchyan

San Marino: I Didn’t Know sung by Serhat

Russia: You Are The Only One sung by Sergey Lazarev

Czech Republic: I Stand sung by Gabriela Guncíková

Cyprus: Alter Ego sung by Minus One

Austria: Loin d’ici sung by ZOË

Estonia: Play sung by Jüri Pootsmann

Azerbaijan: Miracle sung by Samra

Montenegro: The Real Thing sung by Highway

Iceland: Hear Them Calling sung by Greta Salóme

Bosnia & Herzegovina: Ljubav Je sung by Dalal, Deen, Ana & Jala

Malta: Walk on Water sung by Ira Losco

The Results – 10 countries moving on to Saturday’s final are:
Azerbaijan
Russia
The Netherlands
Hungary
Croatia
Austria
Armenia
Czech Republic
Cyprus
Malta

The 10 qualifiers of Semi-Final 1 get announced