Eurovision enters second semi-final stage with viral TikTok star on lineup
The Eurovision Song Contest will continue on Thursday night (11 May) in Liverpool, as countries including Austria and Denmark take to the stage for the second semi-final.
Sixteen acts will compete, with the top 10 making it through to the grand final on Saturday (13 May).
Alesha Dixon, Hannah Waddingham and Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina will return as hosts after helping to kick off the contest earlier this week.
One of the acts performing in tonight’s semi-final will be known to at least 10 million people: Denmark’s Reiley, with his song “Breaking My Heart”, has amassed a huge following on TikTok.
Polish pop singer Blanka will be performing her track “Solo”, which has been compared to Ariana Grande’s music.
Andrew Lambrou, from Cyprus, will also deliver a rendition of his emotional ballad “Break a Broken Heart”.
One of the more quirky acts will be Teya And Salena, the first female duo to compete for Austria at the contest, who will perform their dance-pop track “Who the Hell is Edgar?”
The song is both about being possessed by the ghost of 19th century horror author Edgar Allen Poe, and about the struggle of female writers to be taken seriously.
Here they are! Tonight's 10 qualifiers 🇭🇷🇲🇩🇨🇭🇫🇮🇨🇿🇮🇱🇵🇹🇸🇪🇷🇸🇳🇴 #Eurovision pic.twitter.com/AVEkIqiYZH
— Eurovision Song Contest (@Eurovision) May 9, 2023
The first semi-final took place on Tuesday night (9 May), with 15 acts competing.
Wild Youth, representing Ireland, were booted out, while Loreen from Sweden and Kaarija from Finland got through.
As the defending champions, Ukraine automatically qualifies for the grand final.
The so-called “big five” – the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – each get a free pass because of their financial contributions to the event.
In a change for 2023, only viewers’ votes will decide which countries qualify onwards from the semi-final stage.
This means acts will not have to face the judges until they reach the grand final stage.
The first Eurovision semi-final saw 2.3 million viewers tune in on average, based on overnight figures released by the BBC.
The second semi-final will be broadcast from 8pm on BBC One on Thursday.
Additional reporting by Press Association
