The Eurovision Song Contest enters its endgame with the first of two semi-finals Tuesday. In a few hours, we will know which ten entrants will advance to Saturday's final.
It begins! Sixteen countries will enter today's Eurovision Song Contest semi-final, but only ten will move on to Saturday's Grand Final. Here is the running order for today's festivities:
[table id=13 /]
Methodology
The big question: which 10 entries will advance? During our review process, Ben and I have engaged in ranking each semi-finals entrants. Along with these rankings, we have kept track of how bookmakers have ranked the entries, how the press covering Eurovision in Copenhagen are ranking the entries, and YouTube views of the second round of rehearsals. After tabulating these results, we have ranked the entries according to their total points and the Top 10 are our predictions for who will advance.
Prediction
We believe the following acts (in alphabetical order) will advance to Saturday's final:
- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- Belgium
- Estonia
- Hungary
- Montenegro*
- Netherlands
- Russia
- Sweden
- Ukraine
*After our tabulation, Montenegro and Iceland were tied. In the five categories where we generated scores, Montenegro received higher marks than Iceland in four of them.((Sorry Ben.))
The semi-final will take place at 9 p.m. CET, which is 3 p.m. Eastern and 12 p.m. Pacific. You can watch live at Eurovision.tv. We will have a rundown following the results and press conference. SO EXCITING!