It’s time for the jury show of the first semi-final for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest! Jury members from across 21 countries will vote in tonight’s show, with the jury votes making of 50% of the semi-final vote.

Tonight sees the 18 participating nations from the first semi-final competing in tonight’s jury show, each of whom will be performing for the votes from each of the jury members.

Juries from across the 18 competing countries alongside Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom will vote in tonight’s show, making up 50% of the semi-final vote. The remaining 50% will be determined via a televote tomorrow evening during the live broadcast.

Opening act

Tonight’s show opens with a simple video of Ukrainian women dancing within the city of Kyiv, dressed in traditional Ukrainian clothing.

This video clip is followed a big performance Ukrainian pop-R’n’B singer Monatik. Dancers take over the stage with a Justin Timberlake-vibe taking over the arena, getting the venue up and dancing with an English version of his hit song Kruzhit. The song has won the YUNA awards this year for the best videoclip.

An introduction follows of this year’s 3 male hosts – Oleksandr Skichko, Volodymyr Ostapchuk and Timur Miroshnychenko.

The hosts enter the stage, ready to introduce the public to the show ahead. Cracking a few jokes here and there, the hosts explain the voting system in this year’s competition before opening the show with act number one, Sweden.

Postcards

The postcards this year, around 43 seconds in length, begin with the artist and the country’s team standing in a corridor full of fluorescent lights.

We then see the artist featured doing various activities and back to the corridor as the whole team is walking forward. The information regarding the country and its representative are showing both at the beginning and at the end of the postcard. A live shot of the artist is on just a moment before the performance begins.

01 Sweden: Robin Bengtsson – I can’t go on

A solid performance for Sweden in tonight’s jury show, with everything falling right into place – from the camera work and the vocals to the opening of the jacket somewhere in the middle. A great opening performance from Sweden for this year’s contest with qualification on the horizon.

02 Georgia: Tamara Gachechiladze – Keep the faith

Tamara’s all-red performance now sees the addition of Rykka-smoke effects (but as holograms), different from her previous rehearsals. Despite her strong voice, the overall performance seemed perhaps not as powerful compared to previous rehearsals. However the performance could still stand well with the jury with tonight generally solid performance.

03 Australia: Isaiah – Don’t come easy

Australia’s performance is more innovative featuring a round treadmill and a MTV-like backdrop. Waterfalls and ongoing pyro feature highly in the performance tonight. His vocals, although not as powerful as that from the studio version understandably, are still strong throughout tonight’s performance and can see the nation do decently in the semi-final.

04 Albania: Lindita – World

Good improvement for Lindita’s vocals compared to previous rehearsals, with Lindita vocals shining in tonight’s jury show. World is a dramatic song which could very well appeal to the jury tonight. The big note at the end of the song could also impress the public tomorrow, potentially ending in a respectable place in the semi-final.

05 Belgium: Blanche – City lights

Blanche has replaced her flowing white dress in favour of a smaller black one. She seems to be more comfortable on stage which massively improves the overall performance, with the singer herself performing in an alternative style towards the end of the performance. A sweet performance from Blanche tonight, however we’ll have to see how that fares with both the jury and televote.

06 Montenegro: Slavko Kalezić – Space

Montenegro’s performance is as fun and energetic as it should be. Getting a huge round of applause from the audience could see Slavko doing very well with the public televote tomorrow evening. The jury may not be as convinced, however the artistic style of the singer himself and the staging direction could have a positive impact.

07 Finland: Norma John – Blackbird

Taking to the staging, Leena seemingly missed the entrance to her song. However, this didn’t stop her from providing a better-than-studio version of Blackbird. Having received attention after winning the Daily Press Poll on Day 1, it seems that Finland should rank highly within the jury vote this evening.

08 Azerbaijan: Dihaj – Skeletons

Probably the most artistic entry in this year’s contest by terms of staging. Dihaj provides a solid performance tonight and, although perhaps not the most “powerful” vocals of the night, the artistic and creative nature of the song could fare well for the country in this year’s competition. The jury may rank this entry highly in terms of commercial promise.

09 Portugal: Salvador Sobral – Amar pelos dois

Dead silence at the press centre while Salvador is on stage as no one wants to miss a single second of the magic. Although performing in for the second time on the Eurovision stage, the intimate and magical feeling is there. Can fare very well with the jury this year with charm taking over the arena.

10 Greece: Demy – This is love

Greece flows onstage today with a generally solid performance from the singer herself. Although there seemed to be a few problems with some of the higher notes today along with the backing vocalists, the full performance does well as a whole and ends solidly for Greece tonight. The catchiness of the song with the special staging could see Greece do better in the televote.

11 Poland: Kasia Moś – Flashlight

Poland’s ballad works well onstage and is a quality song which could fare well with the jury tonight. Strong vocals are heard throughout the whole performance tonight with Kasia adding her own style to the song in comparison to the studio version, something which the singer has been doing since the national final. A solid performance tonight.

12 Moldova: Sunstroke Project – Hey, mamma!

Sunstroke Project makes the crowd go wild with the funky sax tunes of Hey mamma!. The performance stands as we all know, with the big party rising towards the end of the performance. The public televote may get behind the catchiness and fun vibes of the performance, as well as potentially a decent number of votes from the jury.

13 Iceland: Svala – Paper

The high party tempo turns into the edgy electronic tunes of Paper. Performed extremely well in all terms with Svala providing a strong performance throughout. How much this will actually convince both the public and jury will be seen tomorrow evening.

14 Czech Republic: Martina Bárta – My turn

Martina gets everything right in tonight’s show. The act itself is very well organised and it is visible that she is very excited being on stage, yet managing to nail this vocally together with the flowing camera work. It won’t be a surprise seeing her placing fairly well among the juries, however we’ll have to see how the Czech Republic fares with televote tomorrow night.

15 Cyprus: Hovig – Gravity

The award of tonight’s most complicated and intricate performance goes to Cyprus. With lots of visible potential during the rehearsal, the potential now comes to life with a sleek choreography and great vocals. Could place well in the semi-final, with generally a very commercially friendly song and performance.

16 Armenia: Artsvik – Fly with me

A small technical problem at the start of the performance sees the wrong song being played at the start, instead playing My turn. However this didn’t throw Artsvik off and the problem was soon fixed. The performance as a whole flows extremely well, with the intricate hand choreography seen throughout Armenia’s performance really adding to the show. Could do well with both jury and televote.

17 Slovenia: Omar Naber – On my way

The running order could work in favour of Slovenia with Omar and his strong vocals shining bright throughout tonight’s performance. The juries may rate Slovenia decently from tonight’s rehearsal and may be a surprise of the night. However, will On my way convince the televote? We’ll have to see.

18 Latvia: Triana Park – Line

Ending the semi-final is the high tempo electro-rock entry from Latvia. A great performance for a song of its kind and can fare decently with both the jury and televote with colours lighting up the arena. How Latvia will fare as a whole will be seen tomorrow evening.

Greece performs again

Following technical problems with the first run, Greece is set to perform their entry onstage once again. Vocals flow better in the second performance with both Demy and the backing vocalists. Even better second run from Greece tonight and should fare well.

Three of the ‘Big 5’ perform

Spain, UK and Italy are performing tonight as well and the performances will be shown partially during tomorrow’s live show.

Spain looks extremely fine for this easy-going harmless kind of song, whilst Lucie Jones continues to be a grower and brings elegance to the stage in the best way since Jade Ewen. Italy’s performance gives much more Sanremo vibes, with his place in the betting odds remaining strong.

‘Voting’ begins; Jamala takes to the stage as interval act

The interval act features the one and only – Jamala, last year’s winner. She performs her he winning entry 1944, is accompanied by eight girls dressed in white for the four-minute long symphonic version of 1944.

Following another look at the ‘televoting’ numbers, a small comedy clip featuring Verka Serduchka plays around the television featuring the Kyiv arch which was painted in rainbow colours earlier this month.

Jamala returns to the stage for a second time for her second performance, this time with her song Zamanyly. Mist and smoke fills the stage for the singer’s second mystical performance.

Dummy results are in!

‘Voting’ has closes and it’s time for the hosts to unveil the ‘results’ of the first semi-final. The dummy results are selected in a random order and have no say or impact on the vote itself.

The qualifiers were announced as the following:

• Poland
• Sweden
• Latvia
• Cyprus
• Albania
• Armenia
• Georgia
• Greece
• Iceland
• Montenegro