It's Tuesday 20th May and for the very first time, the first of two Eurovision Song Contest semi finals will take place. 19 countries will battle for a place in Saturday night's final. Nine will be put through by the televotes of viewers in the participating countries along with Spain and Germany from the big four. The tenth qualifier will be put through as the highest placed country according to the back-up juries that does not finish in the top nine places.
Many questions will be answered later today. Which countries will qualify, will the worry of voting patterns be ended or will there be further evidence of neighbourly, political and diaspora voting, who's hearts will be broken, who will gain momentum towards capturing the 53rd Eurovision Song Contest title?
According to esctoday.com readers, with one day to go, the Big Poll suggest that the ten qualifiers should be (in order)
- Russia
- Armenia
- Greece
- Norway
- Slovenia
- Romania
- Israel
- Ireland
- Andorra
- Poland
just missing out are:
- Azerbaijan
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- The Netherlands
This can all change in the final day and many positions are still very close. Voting remains open until 17:00 CET, and many places are close, so if you haven't already registered your predictions on the outcome of tonight's First Eurovision Song Contest semi final, click here now to do so. Already over 5,500 people have made more than 100,000 predictions.
How to vote
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