How many countries will participate in Vienna next year? So far a total of 39 countries have confirmed their intention to participate at the forthcoming 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Austria, next year.

The 2015 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on the 19, 21 and 23 May at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria. The submission period for countries to apply for participation concluded on Monday 15 September. Hereafter the applicant countries had a grace period until 10 October to decide if they want to stay in the competition or withdraw without facing a financial penalty.

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The official list of the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest participants is expected to be released by the EBU, by early January.
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Confirmations timeline

Cyprus and Serbia  will be returning to the competition after a year’s absence from the event. The Czech Republic will also be returning to the contest after a 5 year absence.

Greece will  definately compete in Vienna as its national broadcaster NERIT is now an active member of the EBU. NERIT had submitted an application for participation, and was awaiting the approval of its EBU membership. On December 4 NERIT was officially confirmed as an active member of the EBU at EBU’s  73rd General Assemby in Geneva.

In 2014 Greece was exceptionally allowed to participate in the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen after the shutdown of its former national broadcaster ERT in June 2013.

Bulgaria announced via its Twitter account that it will not join the party in Vienna next year, after having initially submitted an application for participation.

Bosnia & Herzegovina has confirmed to ESCToday that it has decided not to enter the competition thus joining the league of Morocco, Croatia,Ukraine, Turkey, Monaco, Luxembourg, Slovakia, and Andorra all whom have confirmed their absence at next year’s contest. While both Lebanon and Liechtenstein confirmed to ESCToday that they will not debut at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna.

Semi-finalists

[table sort=”asc,”]
,Country,,Country,,Country
[Albania],Albania,[Armenia],Armenia,[Azerbaijan],Azerbaijan
[Belarus],Belarus,[Belgium],Belgium, [Cyprus], Cyprus
[Czech Republic],Czech Republic,[Denmark],Denmark,[Estonia],Estonia
[Finland],Finland,[FYR Macedonia],FYR Macedonia,[Georgia],Georgia
[Greece],Greece*,[Hungary], Hungary,[Iceland],Iceland
[Ireland],Ireland,[Israel], Israel,[Latvia],Latvia
[Lithuania],Lithuania,[Malta],Malta,[Moldova],Moldova
[Montenegro],Montenegro,[Norway],Norway,[Poland],Poland
[Portugal],Portugal,[Romania],Romania,[Russia],Russia
[San Marino],San Marino,[Serbia],Serbia,[Slovenia],Slovenia
[Switzerland],Switzerland,[Sweden],Sweden,[The Netherlands],The Netherlands
[/table]

Finalists (Big5 +Host country)

[table sort=”asc,”]
,Country,,Country,,Country
[Austria],Austria,[France],France,[Germany],Germany
[Italy], Italy,[Spain],Spain,[United Kingdom], United Kingdom
[/table]

Will not participate

[table sort=”asc,”]
,Country,,Country,,Country
[Andorra],Andorra,[Ukraine], Ukraine,[Croatia], Croatia
[Luxembourg],Luxembourg,[Monaco], Monaco,[Bosnia Herzegovina], Bosnia Herzegovina
[Morocco],Morocco,[Slovakia],Slovakia,[Turkey],Turkey
[Bulgaria],Bulgaria
[/table]

Will not debut

[table sort=”asc,”]
,Country,,Country,,
[Lebanon],Lebanon,[Liechtenstein], Liechtenstein,,
[/table]

Stay tuned to ESCToday for all the confirmations and the final list of participants!

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