AThe semi-finals take place on Tuesday and Thursday and the final on Saturday, but the festival has been running for a few days now, with participants taking part in rehearsals, press conferences and a host of side activities.
The rules dictate that the country hosting the contest is the one that won it the previous year. Last year, Ukraine was the winner, with “Stefania”, by the Kalush Orchestra, but the war that has raged in the country for over a year ended up leading the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the competition, to decide which would be the United Kingdom, ranked second, the host country.
The ‘headquarters’ of the contest was set up at Liverpool Arena, where on Tuesday 15 countries will compete for 10 places in the final. The countries in competition will be, in order of presentation: Norway, Malta, Serbia, Latvia, Portugal, Ireland, Croatia, Switzerland, Israel, Moldova, Sweden, Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Netherlands and Finland.
On Thursday, 16 countries will compete for another ten places in the final. They are, in order of presentation: Denmark, Armenia, Romania, Estonia, Belgium, Cyprus, Iceland, Greece, Poland, Slovenia, Georgia, San Marino, Austria, Albania, Lithuania and Australia.
In the final, scheduled for Saturday, the 20 countries selected in the two semifinals join six more: the so-called “Big Five” (France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom and Italy) and Ukraine, which should be the host country.
Although not in competition in the semi-finals, the themes of France, Germany and Italy are featured in the first semi-final and those of Spain, Ukraine and the United Kingdom in the second.
According to the average of several bookmakers, calculated by the ‘site’ eurovisionworld.com, specialized in the contest, the three favorites to win this year’s contest are Sweden, Finland and Ukraine.
Portugal participated in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 1964, having, however, missed five editions (in 1970, 2000, 2002, 2013 and 2016). Between 2004 and 2007, inclusive, and in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2019, Portugal failed to reach the final.
Portugal won for the first and only time the Eurovision Song Contest in 2017, with the theme “Amar pelo dois”, performed by Salvador Sobral and composed by Luísa Sobral. Following the victory, Lisbon hosted the competition the following year.
In 2022, Portugal was in the Eurovision Song Contest with “Saudade, saudade”, by Maro, which reached 9th place in the contest.
The semifinals and final of the Eurovision Song Contest are shown live on RTP1 at 20:00 in Lisbon.
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