This is all worth knowing about tonight’s semi-final, where Israel will perform

Malmö

In Eurovision there is another semi-final coming up today, Thursday, which will receive special attention because it features an Israeli artist Eden Golan.

You can watch the Eurovision semi-finals live on TV from TV1 or Yle Areena from 10 p.m. HS follows the Eurovision semi-finals closely throughout the evening In the visa report and reports on possible twists and turns during the competition.

The runner-up in last year’s Eurovision will bring a Finnish color to Thursday’s semi-final Wrapperwhich appears in the interval number.

Because Finnish artist Windows95man won’t appear in tonight’s semi-final, Finns can’t vote today either. A total of 16 countries will compete for the ten remaining final spots on Thursday evening.

After Thursday’s semifinal, the order in which the countries will appear in Saturday’s final will also be decided. Finland was drawn for a place in the latter half, which has traditionally been considered a better place in terms of hopes for success.

Here is all the essential information about tonight’s semifinal:

Israel is performing tonight

Major the topic is, of course, the representative of Israel, 20-year-old Eden Golan, who is performing in Eurovision Hurricanesong called

For a moment it already seemed that Ebu would ban Israel’s participation in Eurovision, because the original version of the song October Rain was too political in its lyrics. It was easy to interpret the song as directly referring to the war in Gaza.

Direct references to the October attack have been removed from the lyrics, but the song’s message between the lines is easy to interpret as still the same.

Momentarily in the spring, it seemed as if Ebu and Israel’s public broadcaster Kan had found a way to get Israel out of this year’s Eurovision under the pretext of a “too political song” without either party losing face, so to speak.

Ebu has not wanted to prevent Israel from participating in Eurovision because of the war in Gaza. Experts believethat this is influenced by the fact that the main sponsor of Eurovision is the Israeli-owned hair brand Moroccanoil.

Israel’s participation in Malmö, whose security situation is otherwise uncertain, significantly increases the security risk around Eurovision. The Israeli artist will probably get a very rude reception from the audience there. In the semi-final held for the public on Wednesday evening, Golan was booed, and during the performance, shouts of “Free Palestine” were heard.

This would have been preventable if Israel had pulled out of Eurovision after Ebu deemed the song too political. For a while in the spring, it seemed that this is exactly what was happening. Then Ebu would have avoided the situation at hand now, but the Israeli public broadcasting company could also have appeared strong in its home country.

The matter became complicated after the president of Israel Isaac Herzog demanded Kan to edit the lyrics of the song because according to him it is important for Israel to perform in Eurovision. The song was edited, and now Israel is included.

Israel is predicted to go to the final, although the votes in the semi-finals come entirely from the audience. In many European countries, the Gaza war and Israel’s participation in Eurovision are not at all the same level of discussion as in Finland. Israel will also receive votes of support.

Which other countries should you follow?

Thursday in the semi-final, at least one country fighting for the Eurovision win will compete: Switzerland. Switzerland’s representative is a transgender singer Nemowhose demanding The Code -song is musically the best entry of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

On betting sites, Nemo is considered together with Croatia Baby Lasagnan along with this year’s most likely winner. Just like Baby Lasagna Dim Tag Team Rim there’s going to be a scramble, Nemon The Code is a significantly more difficult song. Its dreams of success may be tripped up by the fact that, upon first hearing, it does not leave as strong an impression as, for example, Croatia. It is still clear that Switzerland will advance to Saturday’s final.

Holland’s Joost Kleinin paragraph European Pope is possibly this year’s funniest song, but its stage show, at least on Thursday, didn’t seem to reach quite the same level as the humor of the song itself. The ongoing ringing will probably still appeal to the Eurovision audience.

In total Among the 16 contestants, there are also many performances that resemble each other. Among others, performances from Malta, the Czech Republic, Georgia and Austria will be seen, in which four male dancers dressed in dark appear on stage with a young female singer.

On the other hand, a more special whole is served by Greece, whose representative Marina Sattin paragraph Zari has been at least a favorite of viusu fans. For some, the song may seem unnecessarily confusing, but on the other hand, a song that moves from one genre to another can also be thought of as insightful and creative. Greece will reach the final.

The Nordic countries include Norway and Denmark. Norway is represented by the long-standing folk rock band Gåte, who will probably advance to the finals with their song Ulveham. Denmark’s representative is a singer Sabawhich Sand-song represents a very stereotypical Eurovision production. Denmark’s place in the final cannot be considered certain.

This year, Estonia sent the hip-hop group 5minust together with the psychedelic folk duo Puuluup to the Eurovision Song Contest. The end result is a performance in Estonian that strongly reflects Estonian popular music. The whole thing is fun and should have a chance to make it to the finals.

Thursday’s semi-final performance order:

What else will we see on Thursday?

Most importantly: Wrapper. Jere Pöyhönen, Finland’s last year’s Eurovision representative and who earned the place of Eurovision icon, will return to the Eurovision stage on Thursday, when he will top the host Petra Meden interim number. It jokes about how people shouldn’t be mad at Sweden when they won Eurovision again last year.

At the end, Mede sings about how fortunately it’s a good thing that the Eurovision Song Contest is held in Sweden and not in Finland, where the intermission would have seen some other entertainment. After this, Moomin figures, dancers dressed in national costume and towels on their hands, and performers spinning with sauna fans rush onto the stage, while Ieva’s polka starts ringing.

This humor part is interrupted by the arena turning completely green and Cha cha cha starts ringing. The wrapper marches his last year’s dancers onto the stage Katri Mäkinen, Etel Röhrin, Matti Myllyahon and Jesse Wijnansin with and performs a little over a minute long version of last year’s five song.

Wrapper in addition, the intermission program number will see the presenters Petra Mede and Malin Åkermanin hosted by Allsång på Skansen-inspired group singing event. The audience sings along with the Eurovision classic My Number Oneand finally the original performer of the song, the 2005 Eurovision winner Helena Paparizou will sing it himself.

In addition to Paparizou, former Eurovision artists will also perform, including Sweden, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1999 Charlotte Perrelli and in 2003 Eurovision winning Turkey Sertab Erener.

Thursday France, Italy and Spain, who automatically qualified for this year’s final, also appear in the semi-finals.

In Eurovision, the five major sponsoring countries (Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain and France) and last year’s winner get an automatic final place. In the past, the performances of these countries have not been seen at all before the final, but this year it has been decided to change the rules.

In both semi-finals, the performances of the three automatic finalists will be sprinkled between the competition performances. So you should be careful during the evening that you don’t try to vote for a presentation that you can’t vote for.

How will Eurovision continue after Thursday?

Thursday the semi-final ends a little after midnight. On the night between Thursday and Friday, the order of the finals will be determined, and on Friday the general rehearsals for the finals will begin. A total of 26 countries will appear in the final, one of them being Finland.

The Eurovision final starts on Saturday at 10 pm and lasts until late at night.