Welcome back to Malmö, welcome back to Eurovision! The most exciting week for millions and millions of Eurofans continues today with the second of the three Eurovision shows. The second semi final will air tonight from Malmö Arena in Southern Sweden. Sixteen more countries will perform for the audience in the arena and around the globe hoping to get one of the ten qualifying tickets to this Saturday’s Grand Final.

If last Tuesday the first semi final of Eurovision 2024 gave us the first impression of how incredible the Swedes are at organising the contest, tonight will do no less than that. The second semi final of Eurovision 2024 in Malmö, Sweden is ready to amaze again. Hosts Petra Mede and Malin Åkerman will take us through three hours of live show together with an impressive set of former Eurovision entrants and winners.

The show

The opening of this year’s contest will be dedicated to last year’s winning song Tattoo, performed by hosts Petra Mede and Malin Åkerman. In what is anticipated to become the new Love love peace peace, the two hosts have slightly modified the lyrics to indicate viewers how to get from Stockholm all the way to the Southern city of Malmö.

Tonight’s sixteen contestants will be introduced by the traditional postcard of the duration of 40 seconds. This year SVT is introducing a new concept to reduce their impact on the environment. The postcards have been sent from each participating country.

The interval acts will feature former Eurovision winners such as Helena Paparizou (Greece, 2005), Charlotte Perrelli (Sweden, 1999) and Sertab Erener (Turkey, 2003), each performing their respective winning entries. Furthermore, Take me to your heaven and Everyway that I can will include a special sing-along part that SVT has been preparing with the audience. It will then be the turn of our Eurovision superstar Petra Mede to perform We just love Eurovision too much, a satire on numerous aspects of the contest. This special show will include Charlotte Perrelli, Sarah Dawn Finer (also known as the one and only Lynda Woodruff) and last year’s runner-up Käärijä (Finland, 2023) singing his very own Cha cha cha. The closing of the show will be for Herreys, the iconic trio winning the 1984 Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden with Diggi-Loo-Diggy-Ley.

Tonight’s contestants

The draw for both semi-finals took place on 30 January at the Malmö Town Hall. The exact running order was revealed on 26 March on the website of the Eurovision Song Contest:

1. Malta – Sarah Bonnici – Loop
2. Albania – Besa – Titan
3. Greece – Marina Satti – Zari
4. Switzerland – Nemo – The Code
5. Czechia – Aiko – Pedestal
6. Austria – Kaleen – We will rave
7. Denmark – Saba – Sand
8. Armenia – Ladaniva – Jako
9. Latvia – Dons – Hollow
10. San Marino – Megara – 11:11
11. Georgia – Nutsa Buzaladze – Firefighter
12. Belgium – Mustii – Before the party is over
13. Estonia – 5miinust and Puuluup – (Nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi
14. Israel – Eden Golan – Hurricane
15. Norway – Gåte – Ulveham
16. The Netherlands – Joost Klein – Europapa

The vote

Once again the semi-finals will be decided by the televote only, following last year’s decision from the EBU. Viewers from tonight’s participating countries will have all the power to decide of the outcome. In addition, viewers from the France, Spain, Italy and the Rest of the World will also be able to cast their vote in this first semi-final.

Furthermore, the three pre-qualified and voting countries will perform during tonight’s semi final, in between the competing acts. France will perform between the acts 5 and 6, Spain will sing between the acts 9 and 10, while Italy will be on stage between the acts 13 and 14.

The ten countries with the most televote points will advance to the Grand Final, whereas the remaining six will unfortunately abandon this year’s competition. The ten lucky entrants will be announced at the end of the show in random order. Stay tuned on ESCToday.com for the results!

In order to vote, verify the information provided by your national broadcaster if you reside in a participating country or are eligible to vote under the Rest of the world. You may also download the official Eurovision app. Remember, you cannot vote for your own country.

How to watch

The second semi-final of Eurovision 2024 will air live tonight at 21:00 CEST.

You can follow the show through the national broadcasters of the participating nations, with local commentary, or via the live stream on eurovision.tv and the official Eurovision YouTube channel. The list of participating national broadcasters is available here.

Who is your favourite tonight?
Let us know with a comment below!