Read back: Finland and Sweden top a mediocre Jury Show in Semi Final 1 of Eurovision 2026
Tomorrow it’s time for the first semi final of Eurovision 2026. 17 countries will perform; 15 of them will compete for a place in the Grand Final of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest. But 50% of the results will already be decided tonight! Follow the jury rehearsal with us. In this blog you can read what we think of the vocal qualities of each country, and how we think the juries will react to their performance.
NOTE: The star ratings are our indication of how likely it is that the professional jury might vote for this performance. They do not display any personal preferences.
For more information on how to read this blog, check out our Jury Jargon Explanation.
Please keep refreshing this blog to receive the latest updates. Timeslots are indicated in CET. Newest update always appears on top.
22:45 – Wrapping up for tonight
We will close the liveblog for tonight. Join us again tomorrow for in-depth descriptions of the performances and the show elements such as postcards, presenters and interval acts.
22:41 – Georgia historically weak
In a weak semi final, ESCDaily is still confident to project Georgia as the bottom of the pack. Bzikebi delivered a historically weak jury show performance tonight.
Moldova, Montenegro and Lithuania were also weak and figure to be towards the bottom of the rankings.
22:38 – Finland & Sweden before a lot of mediocrity
This is a weak semi final – especially from a jury perspective. ESCDaily projects Finland as the clear jury winner tonight, before Sweden. After that comes a lot of mediocrity, which makes it tough to predict the exact outcomes.
22:35 – Star ratings updated
Every participant has performed. We have now updated all star ratings to our final list and will soon start to draw conclusions.
22:31 – Serbia – Lavina – Kraj mene
The first minute features a lot of hissing vocals. While performed adequately, this is not a jury friendly type of vocals (and we haven’t even gotten to the grunting yet). In the first chorus, the lead singer misses a few notes low. Second verse and chorus are better.
The harder the rock song, the less likely it is that juries will vote for it. Grunting is a potential red flag, as is the aggressive staging. Serbia has a solid chance to qualify – but mostly based on televoting. See for comparison Hungary 2018 which finished 13th with juries in the semi final.
22:27 – Poland – Alicja – Pray
After a slight delay, it is time for Poland. Alicja is a strong vocalist, however, she misses one ad-lib note at the first “pray, pray” part in the first chorus. She looks confident and professional on stage. Vocally a rather flawless performance.
Juries have shown a lot of love for gospel, which is one of the genres of this song. However, it is not the only one. R’nB is less jury friendly, but more importantly, the combination of the two make this song susceptible to the label “messy” which juries are quick to give.
22:22 – San Marino – Senhit & Boy George – Superstar
At the end of the first verse, Senhit misses a note low at the word “neon-lights”. At the pre-chorus she really struggles at the words “there you are”, missing them low, before sliding off the final note at “superstar” on the high side. In the second chorus, Senhit shouts “come on!” into the audience – red flag. Senhit misses a big note at “superstar” high by a mile again. During the Boy George vocals, which are off-key too by the way, Senhit shouts into the audience multiple times again.
A generally mainstream, dated disco pop song could be right up the juries alley. When you consider that the less jury friendly song by Senhit (and Flo Rida) in 2021 finished the semi with 76 points in 7th place with the jury, there might still be some potential here. However, this vocal performance left much to be desired.
22:18 – Lithuania – Lion Ceccah – Sólo quiero más
First verse is vocally strong, however, in the chorus he misses a note high at the word “mas” and again the second time around. The words “the sky falls” are off-key as well. However, the big takeaway from this performance comes in the final chorus. Lion Ceccah decides to shout most of his words instead of sticking to the melody line. This is a well-known red flag for jurors.
The composition contains a little bit of everything: from pop to opera to darker disco tones. Such a combination is generally a red flag for juries.
22:14 – Belgium – Essyla – Dancing on the Ice
First verse vocally sound. The pre-chorus is technically really, really difficult and while Essyla is not flawless, she gets through it without huge mistakes. She takes the first of the two notes low and the second one high at all the pre-chorus sentences, and this kind of works out for her. The ad-libs before the final chorus are on-key too, however, afterwards she slides off one note low in the final chorus.
In terms of genre, this song is best described as upbeat indie, with innovative underground influences. Best point of comparison might be Loic Nottet in 2015, however that entry was in a different league. A rather equal split between juries and televoters looks likely here. Essyla was a finalist in The Voice of Belgique.
22:07 – Germany – Sarah Engels – Fire
As with Italy, we will describe this performance, even though it does not actually compete tonight.
The vocal start of the song has been made more difficult now that Sarah starts lying on the floor – and she does miss a couple of notes because of this. Germany added a few elements to increase the level of difficulty, including a throwback of Sarah during the second verse – this test, she passes with flying colours. The final minute features a dance break, a green flag with juries. The final high notes come out okay.
Non-offensive middle of the road pop song. Not typical jury food, but there is jury potential here. In recent years, juries have sometimes supported similar entries – only if the dance & vocal combination is of a high level of difficulty, while also being well executed.
22:02 – Israel – Noam Bettan – Michelle
In previous years, both televoters and juries have shown that they are not willing to judge the Israeli entry based on the merits of the performance. Therefore, it’s tough to predict the actual result of their jury voting. However, if we leave aside the political aspects of it, this is how the jury would have judged a performance like this:
The first verse comes out strong. Not only on-key, but confident too, keeping jurors off the edge of their seats. You can sit back relaxed, feeling as if Noam will not miss a note. The chorus is a slightly different story, as the high notes toward “problème” and “je t’aime” are slightly off-key. The middle and lower ranks are no problem for Noam, though, who also looks like a professional artist on stage.
“Michelle” is a ballad, but less jury friendly than the previous two Israeli songs would have been. It has more ethnic elements, which can be a red flag. Noam won Rising Star, a talent show in Israel.
(Once again, this star rating is based on how the performance should be judged if it were any other country than Israel. ESCDaily does not promote juries judging on the basis of the country – however, based on the previous two years, we cannot rule out that it will happen).
21:58 – Estonia – Vanilla Ninja – Too Epic To Be True
The first verse comes out vocally solid. In the first chorus a few notes are on the edge, however the girls avoid big mistakes. Those mistakes come at the second pre-chorus at the words “believe it”. The bridge notes at “control” are missed low, too. Vocally, this performance is better than expected on the basis of the 30-second rehearsal clip while still no masterclass.
The song has red and green flags combined. On the one hand, the poprock genre and the outdated nineties vibe will make it more suitable for juries than televoters. On the other hand, it is also the fastest song of this year by a landslide, making it an outlier and therefore less suitable for juries.
21:53 – Montenegro – Tamara Živković – Nova zora
Tamara misses the first two times around at the word “to” in the first verse. She also goes off-key for the word “inside” in the first pre-chorus. The second verse starts with a rap part. After that, she misses one note at the word “za” sliding off the high side. Choruses sound solid, albeit with support from a backing vocal tape. The big high note at the bridge is missed by a lot, and followed-up by a few more mistakes in the final chorus, drifting high on 3 occasions.
A club song with heavy underground elements, combined with the dark staging and gothic vocals, could be perceived as both aggressive and divisive. Multiple red flags for juries. At times, Tamara also looks aggressively in the camera, which is a potential red flag. Tamara participated in the talent show Zvezde Granda in Serbia.
21:48 – Finland – Linda Lampenius & Pete Parkkonen – Liekinheitin
A slight delay before the Finnish performance as the Austrian crew struggles with prop preparation.
The intro sounds solid. First verse also without mistakes, as Pete slightly grows more comfortable during the verse. The chorus also sounds okay, although he does sound a bit hoarse in the final few notes. Do not underestimate the level of difficulty of his vocal performance, as well as the crystal clear live violin performance by Linda. Uncharacteristically, Pete misses the final note low when he is with Linda at the back of the stage. However, this was a strong start to the Finnish title chase.
Finland has sent a couple of rougher rock songs in recent years, which generally made them more suitable for televote than for juries. With this song, however, they seem to have found the right pop-rock middle ground that could do well with both. Out of all the countries favored to win this year’s competition, Finland might be the one with the most equal potential among both televoters and juries.
21:44 – Italy – Sal Da Vinci – Per sempre sì
Italy will not be judged tonight – at least not on the scorecards. However, we will provide some comments, if only because jurors will watch the performance tonight and you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
Sal cuts a few notes short at the start without going off-key. The first note he actually misses, is at “viva” in the second line of the chorus. The big miss, however, comes at the high note at “d’avanti” – he misses that note high by a mile. Second chorus is without big mistakes, however the same “d’avanti” note goes wrong in the second chorus again. The vocal performance is better than in the 30-second rehearsal clip we got last week, however still not great.
A cheerful, mid-tempo, inoffensive pop song with an old-school disco rhythm makes this the kind of composition that could do well with juries. The message of the song, though some may perceive it as conservative, is also generally wholesome.
21:36 – Georgia – Bzikebi – On Replay
The first four sentences of the male vocalists are almost completely off-key, sliding off them to the lower side. When the girls come in, the first few words are okay, however, the high note towards the first chorus is off-key again. Chorus sounds okay. Second verse starts a bit better but the male vocalist again misses two notes. Pre-chorus again two or three big mistakes, after which the singer shouts into the audience during the chorus (a well known red flag). The female are off-key several times during the bridge. It becomes harder and harder to point to all the specific missed notes as there are simply so many… One of the weaker vocal performances in the Eurovision history of the last 10 years.
The genre of this song can best be described as Electro alt-pop. There are not many highly comparable Eurovision entries to Georgia this year. One that comes to mind is Lithuania 2021, which scored considerably better with televoters than with juries, while still being a qualifier with juries as well.
21:31 – Portugal – Bandidos do Cante – Rosa
The first solo and first harmony are flawless. Second solo singer misses one note low. The third solo is very solid once again. The final few solo lines of the song feature 2 missed notes low again. However, generally the harmonies in this performance sound very good, and as noted before, they are a green flag for juries. Vocally this performance has a good draw, coming right after a few weaker performances.
While juries generally shy away from voting for songs with heavy ethnic or traditional elements, they have made several exceptions for the Portuguese fado tradition at times. Francisco Pestana, one of the group members, took part in The Voice of Portugal.
21:27 – Greece – Akylas – Ferto
The first minute is without vocal mistakes, with the obvious side comment that the song up to this point is really flat and easy to sing. In the first melodical part, Akylas misses a couple of notes sliding to the low side. Same thing happens right before the slower bridge of the song. Akylas also chooses to shout some of the words into the audience instead of singing them, which is generally something juries will not appreciate.
The FOP-effect will almost certainly be in play here, as both the song, the staging and Akylas’ presence give a non-serious vibe. The composition contains a mixture of different rhythms and genres, including heavy ethnic elements. Akylas reached the liveshows of The Voice of Greece before being eliminated immediately there.
21:23 – Croatia – Lelek – Andromeda
First two solos sound good. The harmonies in the first chorus too, although the final word “andromeda” is a bit on the edge. The first solo of the second verse also has a few shaky notes. Harmonies in the second chorus are generally good, except for the alternate vocal who misses two long notes. Again, it is the word “andromeda” which does not come out well toward the end with another two missed notes there as well.
Strong harmonies are a well-known green flag. The song is a mixture of the environmentally staged female group (comparable to Latvia 2025) and the traditional Balkan ballad. The first one is a genre that leans more toward the televote than the jury support in a Grand Final, however, in the context of a smaller semi final, the jury support was also present. Balkan ballads are typically well received by juries – however, can we really compare this song to a “Lane moje”? Tough to estimate exactly how juries will respond.
21:19 – Sweden – Felicia – My System
In the first four lines Felicia sounds a bit shaky without actually missing a note. Backing vocalists audibly support her. The second time “can’t get you out of my system” features one missed note. In the second verse, she goes off-key for the words “morning after” but quickly recovers. Second pre-chorus is more solid and confident than the first. The big high notes at the bridge sound good too.
Sweden has a strong track record in jury votings with mainstream club and pop songs. However, in recent years, when they have moved toward a slightly more modern composition within that same genre, juries have supported them slightly less (see 2024 for comparison). For the purposes of this semi final, we still expect solid jury support though.
21:14 – Moldova – Satoshi – Viva, Moldova
Much of the vocals in this song are rather flat and the level of difficulty is low. We do not hear many off-key notes, however, at the first pre-chorus a couple of shaky notes from the male vocalist. We are seeing wild, chaotic movements and camera work, contributing to a “messy” vibe in this performance (red flag).
This is a mixture of several different genres, including hiphop, pop, folk dance and ethnic elements. A song written to put smiles on people’s faces, much like previous Moldovan entries that have generally fared poorly with juries (but very good with televoters). This too could be an entry with a big split between the two.
21:10 – Long intro
The stream is thankfully in better shape. We are listening to a long, long intro talk by the two presenters…
21:01 – Shaky stream
The feed is a bit shaky at the start of this Jury Rehearsal. Let’s hope it improves before the first performance of the night.
20:49 – Focus on jury
One more disclaimer: in this blog, we focus on performances and jury scores only. There will be no info / comment on postcards, interval acts et cetera.
This year is a bit different compared to other years, because we have not had any previous rehearsals we could watch from the (online) press office. Therefore, the jury blog will be our first blog of the season. Join us again tomorrow afternoon, as we will use the 3rd dress rehearsal to describe to you all the performances and the show elements as well.
20:29 – Not just any blog
Team ESCDaily has studied jury results extensively over the past few years. We are confident that we know what jurors are looking for in a Eurovision performance. And tonight, we will describe each performance for you through the eyes of a juror! Stay with us, we’ll start soon!