After two years of waiting, we are finally live from Rotterdam, where the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 is now well and truly underway. Following countless days and hours of preparations, the first live show from the Ahoy Arena venue has already passed through history, with 10 lucky winners!

Who’s going through to the final?

A total of 19 countries had voting rights in the first semi-final, including the 16 competing ones, as well as 3 of the 6 pre-qualified contestants, namely Italy, Germany and the host country of The Netherlands.

While the suspense was reaching at its peak, the presenters Chantal Janzen and Jan Smit announced in a random order the 10 countries which made up the Top 10 of tonight’s show. These are:

• Norway
• Israel
• Russia
• Azerbaijan
• Malta
• Lithuania
• Cyprus
• Sweden
• Belgium
• Ukraine

Hence, the 6 countries that are bidding farewell to this year’s Eurovision edition are: Slovenia, Australia, North Macedonia, Ireland, Croatia, Romania.

The eventual result emerged by both the public vote and the 19 national juries, with each one of them casting its own set of points yesterday, during the evening’s Dress Rehearsal. Each voting body had a 50% influence on the outcome. However, the full voting breakdown of the two semi-finals will be unveiled only after the Grand Final on Saturday 22 May.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 continues this Thursday 20 May with the second semi-final, with 17 participating nations, and 10 more spots to the Grand Final!

The qualifiers’ press conference

Following the results announcement, a joint press conference with all 10 tonight’s qualifiers is due to take place. During the event, the 10 countries will be drawn to compete either in the first or in the second half of the final.

The running order of the Grand Final will be decided by the show’s producers and will be announced after the end of both semi-finals on Thursday evening, when we’ll finally know all 26 contenders of the 2021 Eurovision trophy!

Are you excited about the results? Who will finally win the coveted trophy this year?