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SBS Eurovision 2026: Semi-Final 1 replay – Who did the Australian public like?

  • Writer: Emma Garrie
    Emma Garrie
  • 2 hours ago
  • 2 min read



Tonight SBS aired the primetime replay of the first semi-final of Eurovision 2026 in Vienna.


Australian viewers could vote for their favourite songs from Semi Final 1, including those that were pre-qualified, via the SBS Eurovision Voting Page accessed by scanning a QR code shown during each performance.


Viewers could rate each song by giving a thumbs up or thumbs down with SBS tallying the results and displaying them at the end of each performance.



Who did Australia love most?


Australia's winner of Semi Final 1 was Finland with 91% of voters loving Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen's Liekinheitin!




In fact, Australians gave the thumbs up to 13 of the 17 songs performed in this semi-final with only four scoring under 50%.


And it seems there is a reasonably high correlation between tonight's results and the real results announced on Wednesday morning (Australian time) in Vienna.


Seven of Australia's Top 10 also made the 2026 Grand Final. Based on the SBS viewer poll, Australia would have put Montenegro, San Marino and Estonia through to the Grand Final and Serbia, Lithuania and Israel would have missed out.





The official semi-final results which will include the placing of each song and votes received from each country will be revealed after the conclusion of the contest on Saturday night (Sunday morning in Australia).



Full Results of tonight's SBS vote

(*pre-qualified songs)


  1. Finland - 91%

  2. Italy - 74%*

  3. Sweden - 72%

  4. Croatia - 65%

  5. Poland - 63%

  6. Belgium - 61%

=7. Moldova - 60%

=7. Montenegro - 60%

=9. San Marino - 58%

=9. Germany - 58%*

  1. Greece - 56%

  2. Estonia - 53%

  3. Serbia - 52%

  4. Lithuania - 48%

  5. Georgia - 42%

  6. Israel - 33%

  7. Portugal - 30%



The Eurovision 2026 Semi-Final 2 replay airs on Saturday 16 May, 7.30pm (AEST) on SBS and on SBS On Demand.



For continued updates on all Eurovision Song Contest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky and Instagram. All the links can be found at: https://linktr.ee/aussievisionnet

 
 
 
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