MALMO, SWEDEN (Top40 Charts) Tonight in the first two hour show of this year's Eurovision Song Contest, broadcast LIVE from Malmö Arena, 16 countries took part in the First Semi-final in order to qualify for 10 places available in Saturday's final. We have our ten qualifiers, and these are as follows, in the order they were announced.
Moldova
Lithuania
Ireland
Estonia
Belarus
Denmark
Russia
Belgium
Ukraine
The Netherlands
The 16 acts were competing in the first Semi-Final of the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in order of appearance are:
Austria: Natália
Kelly - Shine
Estonia:
Birgit - Et Uus Saaks Alguse
Slovenia:
Hannah - Straight Into Love
Croatia: Klapa s Mora - Mižerja
Denmark: Emmelie de Forest - Only Teardrops
Russia: Dina Garipova - What If
Ukraine:
Zlata Ognevich - Gravity
The Netherlands:
Anouk - Birds
Montenegro: Who See - Igranka
Lithuania: Andrius Pojavis - Something
Belarus: Alyona Lanskaya - Solayoh
Moldova: Aliona Moon - O Mie
Ireland:
Ryan Dolan - Only Love Survives
Cyprus: Despina Olympiou - An Me Thimasai
Belgium:
Roberto Bellarosa - Love Kills
Serbia: Moje 3 - Ljubav Je Svuda
First Semi-Final concludes
The first ten finalists (beside those already known, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and last year's winning country Sweden), will take part in the Grand Final of the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, which takes place on Saturday the 18th of May. Another ten finalists will be chosen in the Second Semi-Final on 16th of May.
The result was determined by way of a 50/50 split between national expert juries and televoting. The combined scores created the final outcome. In yesterday's Jury Final, the expert juries already determined their votes for the First Semi-Final by watching the live performances. Televoting took place tonight during the live show.
Sixteen songs have participated in the First Semi-Final, and professional juries and viewers in each of the participating countries, as well as in Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom have voted tonight. For the first time, smartphone and tablet users had a chance to vote using the official Eurovision app.
Each jury is comprised of five members, (including a chairperson). Each jury member ranked last night all the songs in the show and TV viewers have voted during tonight's show. The EBU's televoting partner Digame merged the points given by the jury and the televoters per individual country.
About the show
The First Semi-Final was open with a three-minute clip called Euphoria from Baku to Malmö, showing different "interpretations" of last year's winning song from different corners of
Europe and Israel. Then the view switched to the stage, where a children's choir performed Euphoria including a translation into sign language. Later they are being joined by Loreen.
After the intro, Petra Mede, the host of the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest entered the stage - she lifted onto the stage on a podium from below. Of course, as it has been a tradition since the 1950's, she greeted TV viewers from all over
Europe and beyond in English and French.
After the performance of 16 contestants, the audience in the Malmö
Arena and millions of viewers across
Europe could enjoy the interval act called Northern Lights.
