Tomorrow it’s time for the first semi final of Eurovision 2026. 17 countries will perform; 15 of them will compete for a place in the Grand Final of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest. But 50% of the results will already be decided tonight! Follow the jury rehearsal with us. In this blog you can read what we think of the vocal qualities of each country, and how we think the juries will react to their performance.

NOTE: The star ratings are our indication of how likely it is that the professional jury might vote for this performance. They do not display any personal preferences.

For more information on how to read this blog, check out our Jury Jargon Explanation.

Please keep refreshing this blog to receive the latest updates. Timeslots are indicated in CET. Newest update always appears on top.

22:45 – Wrapping up for tonight

We will close the liveblog for tonight. Join us again tomorrow for in-depth descriptions of the performances and the show elements such as postcards, presenters and interval acts.

22:41 – Georgia historically weak

In a weak semi final, ESCDaily is still confident to project Georgia as the bottom of the pack. Bzikebi delivered a historically weak jury show performance tonight.

Moldova, Montenegro and Lithuania were also weak and figure to be towards the bottom of the rankings.

22:38 – Finland & Sweden before a lot of mediocrity

This is a weak semi final – especially from a jury perspective. ESCDaily projects Finland as the clear jury winner tonight, before Sweden. After that comes a lot of mediocrity, which makes it tough to predict the exact outcomes.

22:35 – Star ratings updated

Every participant has performed. We have now updated all star ratings to our final list and will soon start to draw conclusions.

22:31 – Serbia – Lavina – Kraj mene

The first minute features a lot of hissing vocals. While performed adequately, this is not a jury friendly type of vocals (and we haven’t even gotten to the grunting yet). In the first chorus, the lead singer misses a few notes low. Second verse and chorus are better.

The harder the rock song, the less likely it is that juries will vote for it. Grunting is a potential red flag, as is the aggressive staging. Serbia has a solid chance to qualify – but mostly based on televoting. See for comparison Hungary 2018 which finished 13th with juries in the semi final.

22:27 – Poland – Alicja – Pray

After a slight delay, it is time for Poland. Alicja is a strong vocalist, however, she misses one ad-lib note at the first “pray, pray” part in the first chorus. She looks confident and professional on stage. Vocally a rather flawless performance.

Juries have shown a lot of love for gospel, which is one of the genres of this song. However, it is not the only one. R’nB is less jury friendly, but more importantly, the combination of the two make this song susceptible to the label “messy” which juries are quick to give.

22:22 – San Marino – Senhit & Boy George – Superstar

At the end of the first verse, Senhit misses a note low at the word “neon-lights”. At the pre-chorus she really struggles at the words “there you are”, missing them low, before sliding off the final note at “superstar” on the high side. In the second chorus, Senhit shouts “come on!” into the audience – red flag. Senhit misses a big note at “superstar” high by a mile again. During the Boy George vocals, which are off-key too by the way, Senhit shouts into the audience multiple times again.

A generally mainstream, dated disco pop song could be right up the juries alley. When you consider that the less jury friendly song by Senhit (and Flo Rida) in 2021 finished the semi with 76 points in 7th place with the jury, there might still be some potential here. However, this vocal performance left much to be desired.

22:18 – Lithuania – Lion Ceccah – Sólo quiero más

First verse is vocally strong, however, in the chorus he misses a note high at the word “mas” and again the second time around. The words “the sky falls” are off-key as well. However, the big takeaway from this performance comes in the final chorus. Lion Ceccah decides to shout most of his words instead of sticking to the melody line. This is a well-known red flag for jurors.

The composition contains a little bit of everything: from pop to opera to darker disco tones. Such a combination is generally a red flag for juries.

22:14 – Belgium – Essyla – Dancing on the Ice

First verse vocally sound. The pre-chorus is technically really, really difficult and while Essyla is not flawless, she gets through it without huge mistakes. She takes the first of the two notes low and the second one high at all the pre-chorus sentences, and this kind of works out for her. The ad-libs before the final chorus are on-key too, however, afterwards she slides off one note low in the final chorus.

In terms of genre, this song is best described as upbeat indie, with innovative underground influences. Best point of comparison might be Loic Nottet in 2015, however that entry was in a different league. A rather equal split between juries and televoters looks likely here. Essyla was a finalist in The Voice of Belgique.

22:07 – Germany – Sarah Engels – Fire

As with Italy, we will describe this performance, even though it does not actually compete tonight.

The vocal start of the song has been made more difficult now that Sarah starts lying on the floor – and she does miss a couple of notes because of this. Germany added a few elements to increase the level of difficulty, including a throwback of Sarah during the second verse – this test, she passes with flying colours. The final minute features a dance break, a green flag with juries. The final high notes come out okay.

Non-offensive middle of the road pop song. Not typical jury food, but there is jury potential here. In recent years, juries have sometimes supported similar entries – only if the dance & vocal combination is of a high level of difficulty, while also being well executed.

22:02 – Israel – Noam Bettan – Michelle

In previous years, both televoters and juries have shown that they are not willing to judge the Israeli entry based on the merits of the performance. Therefore, it’s tough to predict the actual result of their jury voting. However, if we leave aside the political aspects of it, this is how the jury would have judged a performance like this:

The first verse comes out strong. Not only on-key, but confident too, keeping jurors off the edge of their seats. You can sit back relaxed, feeling as if Noam will not miss a note. The chorus is a slightly different story, as the high notes toward “problème” and “je t’aime” are slightly off-key. The middle and lower ranks are no problem for Noam, though, who also looks like a professional artist on stage.

“Michelle” is a ballad, but less jury friendly than the previous two Israeli songs would have been. It has more ethnic elements, which can be a red flag. Noam won Rising Star, a talent show in Israel.

(Once again, this star rating is based on how the performance should be judged if it were any other country than Israel. ESCDaily does not promote juries judging on the basis of the country – however, based on the previous two years, we cannot rule out that it will happen).

21:58 – Estonia – Vanilla Ninja – Too Epic To Be True

The first verse comes out vocally solid. In the first chorus a few notes are on the edge, however the girls avoid big mistakes. Those mistakes come at the second pre-chorus at the words “believe it”. The bridge notes at “control” are missed low, too. Vocally, this performance is better than expected on the basis of the 30-second rehearsal clip whi...

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