The night has finally arrived – tonight marks the official start of the Eurovision Song Contest as the first semi-final takes place tonight.

Tonight, the world’s most-watched non-sporting event will begin with the first semi-final, live from the International Exhibition Centre in Kyiv. A total of 18 countries will compete for the ten places in Saturday’s grand final. A further ten countries will qualify on Thursday night to join the six automatic qualifiers.

The show will be hosted by three male hosts for the first time; Oleksandr Skichko, Volodymyr Ostapchuk and Timur Miroshnychenko.

The opening act will feature Ukrainian performer Monatik and the interval act will be Jamala performing a symphonic version of her winning 3016 entry 1944 together with her song Zamanyly.

How to watch

Tonight’s show kicks off from 21:00 CEST and will last for around 2 hours 15 minutes.

• The show can be viewed through the participating national broadcasters
• A live stream will be available via the official Eurovision YouTube channel

Semi-final 1 participants

Eighteen acts are set to compete in the first semi-final, but only 10 will make it to the Grand Final on Saturday night. Who do you want to qualify?

Each of tonight’s 10 qualifiers will be decided by a combination of a public and national jury vote. Members of the public and the national jury from tonight’s participating countries will vote for their favourite acts, with the votes added together to create the final result. The top 10 will qualify to Saturday’s grand final.

Voting instructions can be found via the official Eurovision website.