All 36 semifinalists have now rehearsed for the first time. Let’s take a look at the output of the daily press polls and try to get a better image on our Semifinals!

The Press Poll is a prediction toll introduced by ESCToday in 2015 in order to get a summary of each day of first rehearsals by presenting a simple question total of 35 members of the press in the press centre: Which three countries had the best three rehearsals today? Based on vocals, staging, backdrops, camera work and choreography. From each voter, five points are awarded to the first place, three to the second and one to the third. The maximum amount of points that a country can get is 175, with the record so far being 119 for Ukraine in 2016.

The poll is used mainly to show trends and get a first prediction regarding this year’s ESC. It is also stands as a reflection for delegations to understand whether they are on the right way or if some actions should be taken prior to the upcoming rehearsals.

In 2016, the press poll has managed to predict 18 out of the 20 qualifiers as well as the exact top 3 of the final in the right order (Ukraine-Australia-Russia).

As votes for each day are given separately, it is impossible to simply sort the countries by the total result. Further analysis must be taken into account, and luckily we did that for you!

Let’s take a look at this year’s results, and divide the countries into three groups:

• D (Direct Qualification) – Countries with a strong first rehearsal that should qualify to the final without problems.
• S (Swinging Qualification) – Countries that should qualify depends on improvement in further rehearsals or further less predictable factors as voting patterns.
• N (Non Qualification) – Countries that are unlikely to qualify without huge improvements or should qualify based on less predictable factors.

In both semifinals, the first half is stronger than the second one. Hence, countries from the first half with lower score might end up higher than countries with higher score from the second half.

Semifinal 1

		Country	Entry	Score
1	D	Armenia	Artsvik – Fly with me	100
2	D	Finland	Norma John – Blackbird	72
3	D	Moldova	SunStroke Project – Hey mamma!	69
4	D	Azerbaijan	Dihaj – Skeletons	65
5	D	Portugal	Salvador Sobral – Amar pelos dois	64
6	D	Sweden	Robin Bengtsson – I can’t go on	39
7	D	Australia	Isaiah – Don’t come easy	37
8	S	Cyprus	Hovig – Gravity	40
9	S	Latvia	Triana Park – Line	30
10	S	Greece	Demy – This is love	22
11	S	Poland	Kasia Moś – Flashlight	20
12	S	Slovenia	Omar Naber – On my way	17
13	N	Montenegro	Slavko Kalezić – Space	16
14	N	Georgia	Tamara Gachechiladze – Keep the faith	13
15	N	Iceland	Svala – Paper	11
16	N	Albania	Lindita – World	9
17	N	Czech Republic	Martina Bárta – My turn	6
18	N	Belgium	Blanche – City lights	0

Semifinal 2

		Country	Entry	Score
1	D	Bulgaria	Kristian Kostov – Beautiful mess	97
2	D	Austria	Nathan Trent – Running on air	79
3	D	Romania	Ilinca and Alex Florea – Yodel it!	72
4	D	The Netherlands	OG3NE – Lights and shadows	54
5	D	Hungary	Joci Pápai – Origo	39
6	D	Croatia	Jacques Houdek – My friend	50
7	D	Estonia	Koit Toome & Laura – Verona	43
8	D	Belarus	NAVIBAND – Story of my life	43
9	S	Denmark	Anja – Where I am	29
10	S	Norway	JOWST – Grab the moment	30
11	S	San Marino	Valentina Monetta & Jimmie Wilson – Spirit of the night	27
12	S	FYR Macedonia	Jana Burčeska – Dance alone	18
13	S	Israel	IMRI – I feel alive	16
14	N	Ireland	Brendan Murray – Dying to try	14
15	N	Malta	Claudia Faniello – Breathlessly	10
16	N	Switzerland	Timebelle – Apollo	6
17	N	Serbia	Tijana Bogićević – In too deep	0
18	N	Lithuania	Fusedmarc – Rain of revolution	3

The Press poll will continue on Friday, 5 May, with the first rehearsals of the host country and the big 5, and will come back for a final round at the jury final on 12 May to check who will win the Eurovision Song Contest 2017.

Stay tuned to ESCToday for more news regarding the Eurovision Song Contest 2017!