Eurovision 2026: Semi-Final 1 Insights
- Kyriakos Tsinivits
- May 13
- 4 min read
Updated: May 13
The first semi-final of Eurovision 2026 has concluded with ten countries making it to Saturday evening's Grand Final (Sunday morning in Australia).
There are some interesting trends and details from these results so let's take a look!
There will be spoilers below!
Semi-final as a whole
Before we look at each country let's look at the semi-final as a whole.
Over 80% of the entries that featured a language other than English qualified (Moldova, Croatia, Greece, Finland, Israel, Lithuania and Serbia).
For the fourth year in a row the opening entry qualified for the Eurovision Grand Final.
Now, let's look at each country individually.
Moldova
Moldova returns to the Eurovision Grand Final after missing out in 2024 (they withdrew in 2025). They maintain a 100% record of all songs featuring Romanian making the Eurovision Grand Final - 2005, 2009, 2013, 2022, 2023 and now with Satoshi's Viva, Moldova!.
Aliona Moon who features in the performance has now qualified for the second time, after representing Moldova at Eurovision in 2013 with O mie.
Sweden
Sweden has now qualified for the Eurovision Grand Final for 15 years in a row, since 2010.
Bookmakers have Sweden in the Top 10 in tenth position to take out the Contest with 2% chance of winning.
Ever since 2011 Sweden has finished in the top 3 of their semi-final, expect in 2021 (7th place) and 2025 (4th place).
We will have to find out over the weekend if Felicia has achieved a podium finish in a semi.
Croatia
Croatia return to the Eurovision Grand Final after missing out last year.
Since the inception of the semi-finals this is only the fifth time a song in full Croatian language that has qualified for the Grand Final. When it comes to songs that featured in English and Croatian 50% of them have qualified for the Final via competing in a semi.
Andromeda is only the second song, in full Croatian, to qualify since 2009.
Greece
Greece have found their mojo, qualifying for the Grand Final for the third time in a row. They haven't had a qualifying streak of three or more years since the mid 2010's.
When it comes to the Greek language Ferto is also the third entry in a row with Greek to qualify.
Portugal
Unfortunately this year Portugal broke their five year streak of qualifying for the Grand Final, which was a record for them since the introduction of semi-finals.
Georgia
Georgia has unfortunately missed the Grand Final for the second year in a row.
Over the last decade they have only made it to the Grand Final the one time with Nutsa Buzaladze's 2024 entry Firefighter.
Finland
Finland have now qualified for the Grand Final for the sixth time in a row continuing their record since the introduction of semi-finals. Since 2004 Liekinheitin is Finland's sixth song in the Finnish language and the fourth to qualify to the Grand Finland.
Montenegro
This is the seventh time in a row that Montenegro has failed to make the Grand Final.
The last time they did was in 2015 with Adio by Knez, where he earned a 9th place Grand Final finish.
Estonia
After qualifying in the last four Contests in a row, this year they will be missing out on the Grand Final.
When Vanilla Ninja first competed at Eurovision 2004 for Switzerland with Cool Vibes they finished in 8th place in the semi-final. They qualified for the Grand Final where they also finished in 8th place.
Israel
Israel have a qualifying streak of four entries going to the Grand Final, all with a mix of English and Hebrew languages and the last two with French language as well.
Belgium
Belgium has returned to the Grand Final after missing out for two years. They were last there with Gustaph's Because of You from 2023.
ESSYLA is the first female Belgian entrant to make the Grand Final since 2017 when Blanche competed with City Lights finishing in 4th place.
Lithuania
The 2020's has been a great decade for Lithuania so far! Lion Ceccah has secured them their sixth qualification in a row a feat they have never before achieved.
Sólo Quiero Más is the fourth semi-final entry to feature Lithuanian language with all 100% of them qualifying for the Grand Final.
San Marino
This was Senhit's four entry at Eurovision and the third time competing in a semi-final.
Unfortunately for her the star power of Boy George was not enough to get them across the line, missing out on the Grand Final.
This is her second time not qualifying. She first missed out during her first appearance in 2011 with the song Stand By.
She was then meant to compete in 2020 with the song Freaky! but the Contest was cancelled.
Senhit did have success with Adrenalina, which featured the US rapper Flo Rida, finishing 9th in the semi-final and 22nd in the Grand Final, San Marino's second best result.
Poland
Poland have qualified now for the second year in a row when last year Justyna Steczkowska got them back in the Grand Final with Gaja.
It is great to see ALICJA make it to Eurovision yet alone the Grand Final as she was part of the class of 2020 when Eurovision was cancelled due to the global pandemic. She had planned to compete with the song Empires.
Serbia
Serbia have returned back to the Grand Final and in a big way with the emotional metal performance of Kraj Mene by LAVINA.
It is their ninth entry in a row to feature or be sung fully in Serbian, with the exception of last year when Princ missed out with Mila.
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