The selection season is away, but the Eurovision week is in full swing. Yesterday, we attended the first dress rehearsal in the St. Jakobshalle, and watched the second, evening rehearsal, covering it on our socials. Today, the actual show takes place after a third rehearsal in the afternoon.
🇪🇺 Eurovision Song Contest 2025 – First semi-final
When?
21:00 CET, until 23:00 CET
Where?
- On TV on your Eurovision broadcaster (countries for the second semi-final may broadcast the first on a secondary channel)
- Online, on the official Eurovision Youtube channel
- Physically, at the St. Jakobshalle, Basel
Who?
´Fifteen songs compete tonight for ten spots in the final, with three automatic qualifiers also performing as exhibition acts during the show.
They will perform in the following running order:
- 1 – 🇮🇸 Iceland – VÆB – “Róa”
- 2 – 🇵🇱 Poland – Justyna Steczkowska – “Gaja”
- 3 – 🇸🇮 Slovenia – Klemen – “How Much Time Do We Have Left?”
- 4 – 🇪🇪 Estonia – Tommy Cash – “Espresso macchiato”
- Break – Introduction to the three most famous songs from Switzerland
- AQ – 🇪🇸 Spain (automatic qualifier) – Melody – “Esa diva”
- 5 – 🇺🇦 Ukraine – Ziferblat – “Bird of Pray”
- 6 – 🇸🇪 Sweden – KAJ – “Bara bada bastu”
- 7 – 🇵🇹 Portugal – NAPA – “Deslocado”
- 8 – 🇳🇴 Norway – Kyle Alessandro – “Lighter”
- 9 – 🇧🇪 Belgium – Red Sebastian – “Strobe Lights”
- AQ – 🇮🇹 Italy (automatic qualifier) – Lucio Corsi – “Volevo essero un duro”
- Break – Small chat about and tribute to the Eurovision props of the last few years
- 10 – 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan – Mamagama – “Run With U”
- 11 – 🇸🇲 San Marino – Gabry Ponte – “Tutta l’Italia”
- 12 – 🇦🇱 Albania – Shkodra Elektronika – “Zjerm”
- 13 – 🇳🇱 Netherlands – Claude – “C’est la vie”
- 14 – 🇭🇷 Croatia – Marko Bošnjak – “Poison Cake”
- AQ – 🇨🇭 Switzerland (automatic qualifier) – Zoë Më – “Voyage”
- 15 – 🇨🇾 Cyprus – Theo Evan – “Ssh”
The evening will be hosted by Hazel Brugger and Sandra Studer.
For more information about the performances, do not hesitate to check our live-blog from yesterday’s first rehearsal, or our live-tweeting of the evening rehearsal.
Guest acts
There will also be some guest acts to introduce the show and perform in the interval before the results.
- Intro act – “Welcome Home”
- After an introduction video showing mountains, stars, water and other elements, the cameras will bring us in the arena for an act that mixes traditional Swiss elements (alphorn (horns from the Alps), traditional costumes, yodelling) with more modern dancing, before the hosts take to the stage
- First interval act – “Made in Switzerland”
- This act starts as the voting opens and takes place during the voting window
- It starts with the hosts reminding the audience of Eurovision history, and how Switzerland hosted and won the first edition in 1956
- The hosts then start singing “Made in Switzerland“, a special song about Swiss stereotypes, inventions and legends. The standout moment is probably the surprise appearance of Petra Mede dressed as William Tell (the “Swiss Robin Hood”).
After this, the voting window closes, and another interval act prepares to give time to the EBU and their voting partner Digame to count the votes. The hosts talk about Eurovision history some more, records especially (oldest participant, tallest hair, etc.). Then comes a moment a lot of people have been expecting.
- Second interval act – “Ne partez pas sans moi”
- Céline Dion appears in a pre-recorded video message, reminiscing on her 1988 victory and sending love in English and French
- Right after, four contestants of the 2024 edition, Jerry Heil, Sylvester Belt, Marina Satti and Iolanda start performing the 1988 winning song “Ne partez pas sans moi”
Qualification
The contest retains its 100% televote format for the semi-finals this year, with all the countries taking part in the semi-final (including the automatic qualifiers) and the Rest of the World voting. We won’t have the full details, only the list of ten qualifiers.
This year, the format for announcing the qualifiers will change though, as we could confirm yesterday. In the new system, for each announcement until the ninth spot (included), three countries will be called and the cameras will be on them for a split screen: only one will qualify, but the other two will not be “eliminated” and may come back later. The algorithm used for this is supposed to show countries no more than three times.
The idea behind this is to put more focus on the artists, and less on the hosts. The announcement of the tenth qualifier, however, will take place in the more traditional manner, with the hosts being on camera for the announcement.
Don’t forget to check the press poll and audience poll to get a better idea of how each act has fared with different kind of audiences yesterday. Stay tuned to ESCXTRA for more exclusive content throughout the week, and for the entire year!
