The first semi final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was held tonight. 17 acts competed and ten of them were chosen by a jury and televoting to compete in the grand final this Saturday.

The following ten countries have qualified for the final:

Update: You can now find the position in the running order in the final in brackets.

• Bosnia & Herzegovina (6th)
• Moldova (4th)
• Russia (20th)
• Greece (11th)
• Portugal (23rd)
• Belarus (9th)
• Serbia (8th)
• Belgium (7th)
• Albania (15th)
• Iceland (16th)

The following countries did not qualify tonight:

• Estonia
• Slovakia
• Finland
• Latvia
• Poland
• Malta
• FYR Macedonia

Bigpoll results

The esctoday.com Bigpoll predicted seven out of ten countries correctly to reach the final. The highest placed country in the Bigpoll that did not make it to the final was Slovakia (2nd) while the lowest placed country that did make it to the final was Russia (17th). You can find the full Bigpoll results here.

Statistics

Belgium qualified from a semi final for the first time. The country will compete in the final for the first time since 2004, when they were pre-qualified due to a second place the year before. Belarus qualified for the second time ever.

Greece, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Russia will have competed in every Eurovision Song Contest final since the introduction of the semi final stage after Saturday. Iceland, Albania and Portugal have all qualified for the final for the third year in a row.

Slovakia competed in a semi final for the second time and did not qualify for the second time. Estonia was eliminated for the sixth time in seven years while Poland did not qualify for the final for the fifth time in six years. Finland did not qualify for the final for the first time since 2005.