Brace yourself: Eurovision 2026 is set to light up Vienna, with the final staged at Wiener Stadthalle on Saturday, May 16. Inside the arena, hosts Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski will guide the show.
First semi-final: Tuesday, May 12. Competitors include Croatia, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Portugal, Moldova, Sweden, Belgium, Estonia, Israel, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, San Marino, and Serbia.
Second semi-final: Thursday, May 14. Competitors include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Romania, Switzerland, Albania, Australia, Cyprus, Denmark, Latvia, Malta, Norway, and Ukraine.
From each semi-final, the top ten acts advance to join five pre-qualified nations in the grand final.
The hosts country, Austria, along with France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, will broadcast and vote in one of the semi-finals. Specifically, Germany and Italy will perform and vote in the first semi-final, while Austria, France, and the UK will take part in the second.
All semi-finals and the final will be broadcast live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, with additional listening options on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds.
Controversy has surrounded Israel’s Eurovision involvement in recent years due to the Gaza conflict. At the 2025 final in Switzerland, two protesters attempted to storm the stage and throw paint at Israel’s contestant, Yuval Raphael. They were stopped by crew and subsequently arrested.
In the run-up to the 2025 final, more than 70 former Eurovision performers — including Britain’s Mae Muller — signed an open letter urging KAN, Israel’s public broadcaster, to be barred, alleging complicity in what they describe as genocide in Gaza.
Tensions intensified when Raphael topped the public vote in 2025 but finished second overall after the jury results were counted. Eurovision, proudly non-political in its branding, has nevertheless adjusted its voting rules for 2026 to reduce government influence on outcomes.
Israel characterized the decision to participate as a victory over critics who claimed to silence it. In 2024, Israel’s entrant Eden Golan faced booing during rehearsals and saw thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside the Malmo venue where the finals were hosted. Golan had to alter the song Hurricane to remove lyrics referencing Hamas attacks from October 7, 2023, to comply with safety and broadcasting standards.
