After the Swedish singer Eric Saada took the stage with a bun – the EBU responded to the provocation in response to Mako’s request: “The Eurovision contest is a live television broadcast, the contestants are aware of the rules of the contest and we regret that Eric Saada chose to damage the non-political nature of the event.”
00:30 A moment of Israeli solidarity: the Israeli delegation watched the first semi-final, and Eden and the rest of the delegation reacted with cheers when they heard that Tali had advanced to the final. This is how it looks. Photo: Nitzan Livnat, here digital.
00:20 So now it’s official – Luxembourg is in with the Israeli Tali Goulargant. The Irish contestant, Bambi Thug, also made it to the finals, who is not exactly crazy about Israel. We really hope that we will also see Aden Golan in the final after the second semi-final on Thursday. For sure – it will be interesting!
00:13 And here are the results – the 10 finalists, who will compete on Saturday for the first place in the competition. The 10 finalists of the first semi-final who will reach the final on Saturday are: Serbia, Portugal, Slovenia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Finland, Cyprus, Croatia, Ireland and last but not least – Luxembourg! Tali Golargant, born in Jerusalem.
00:07 Reports from the hall: When the contestants of the second semi-final were introduced and Eden Golan was introduced, boos were heard in the hall.
00:06 By the time the results are counted, Benjamin Ingrosso appears who represented Sweden at Eurovision 2018, he came in seventh place – and today he is the hottest name in music in Sweden. An energetic and immersive performance.
00:04 While we wait for the results (really soon) – receive the Israeli flags raised in the hall. Hope to see many more of these when Eden performs on Thursday.
Israeli flags in the first semi-final, Eurovision 2024 | Photo: Miki Israeli
23:54 And a look at the bets on the first semi-final: Croatia, as expected, tears up the betting table with 37% on first place. In second place, by a considerable margin, is Switzerland with 16 percent. And that’s it – the vote is closed.
23:48 The Eurovision Song Contest pays special attention to Israel’s Tali Golargant, who represents Luxembourg after 31 years of absence. “I am excited and grateful to be here tonight,” Tali tells the host.
23:34 And we came to the last song of the evening, the comeback of Luxemburg with our own Tali Goulargant. Something is a little unpolished to the end and we hold fast that it will pass to Saturday. This is the song we want the Doz Poa from Israel to receive. And now we are waiting for the end of the voting and the results.
23:31 The Portuguese Yolanda, another singer who does not really sympathize with us, took the stage. It’s annoying – but she’ll probably make it. A mesmerizing performance and a clear voice that will bring Portugal to the final.
23:26 Mil-ka-li! Electric Fields from Australia bring Aboriginal culture to the stage. They do it excellently and really from repetition to repetition it just gets better. There is a final here.
23:23 Azerbaijan brings a boring song. Something happened to them in the last two years. Despite the interesting direction and the miscreants from space – it probably won’t work.
23:18 And now another country that automatically advances to the final – Sweden, because they won last year with Lorin. Markus and Martinus (they’re actually Norwegian! Not Swedish!) came up with Unforgettable, a dance song that sounds a bit copied from Faithless. Excellent chorus, not bad performance, a song that sticks to the ear – will it go high? We will wait and see.
23:12 The Moldovan contestant, Natalia Barbeau, came up with a song full of pathos about her children. Lovely of her, but she could have been content to sing it to them at home. Weak vocal performance and awkward choreography. Hope the kids had fun at least.
23:10 Another horrifying nude show and this time from Finland sponsored by Windows95man. There is no song, there is no voice and there are no pants. In the Finnish preliminaries, the judges did not give him a single point, but the audience gave him the victory. In such a weak evening with inexplicable audience love – it will be in the final.
23:04 Raven from Slovenia takes the stage in a fishnet overall that leaves no room for imagination, surrounded by almost naked dancers. The vocal performance is good, but the song is not really successful, and like maybe the British Alexander – not sure how smooth it went down the throats of the viewers.
23:01 A second break in the order of the songs of the first semi-final, this time in favor of another contender of the “Big Five”: Isaac from Germany, who is very flattering to us. You can see that he is very excited and it hurts his vocal performance, which in rehearsals was excellent. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that he will be better in the final.
22:51 Iceland decided to send the charming Hera Bjork, instead of the Palestinian candidate Bashar Murad. Between us, it was a mistake. At my Bar Mitzvah this song was outdated and uninteresting. Unfortunately this is a strong contender for last place tonight.
22:47 If you told us that a singer called “Baby Lasagna” with a song called “Rim Tim Taggy Dim” would be the favorite candidate to win Eurovision 2024 – we would probably believe it, because anything can happen. It’s the truth. In the betting tables, he is currently in first place, and with the movements of Tovia the milkman, it actually seems that he is succeeding and the crowd is screaming. Is there a situation for Zagreb 2025? Everyone is praying. It’s been a long time since there was a Eurovision in a cheap country.
22:44 Poland with “Luna” brings a chess game to the stage, but forgets the eyebrows. A simple pop song with an average vocal performance. We are already used to the audience cheering for Poland, and the very fact that there are no judges tonight means that even a mediocre song like this can make it to the finals. We will wait and see.
22:39 Ukraine, with Aliona Aliona and Jerry Hale, brings a great song and their performance has improved tremendously since they won the Ukrainian preliminaries. The directing is nothing less than perfect and it will definitely rank high on Saturday. They ended the performance by saying: “Thank you for supporting Ukraine!”.
22:37 Perhaps the British Alexander brings us a scene taken from the late hours of the sauna showers. It’s mostly embarrassing, there’s a difference between a nod to the gay community and cheap, repulsive sleaze. What’s more, the voice acting is not good. Our prediction: last place in the final.
22:29 Israel’s “darling”, Bambi Thug, took the stage. Let’s put her opinions aside for a moment – this is the outstanding performance of the evening, it’s different, it’s new and it’s just good. Bet – wins the first semi-final. In the middle of the performance, by the way, she changed into an outfit in the colors of the trans flag.
22:25 In response to our inquiry regarding Eric Saada, the European Broadcasting Union responded: “The Eurovision contest is a live television broadcast, the contestants are aware of the rules of the competition and we regret that Eric Saada chose to damage the non-political nature of the event.”
22:23 You know those who say “Sylvester was anti-Semitic?” So Sylvester, the Lithuanian representative, signed the petition against Israel – but on the other hand he brought a cool song and credits for preserving the Lithuanian language. For sure in the final, but maybe you should not vote for him in light of his opinions.
22:19 Tija Dora from Serbia came to make us a nomi nomi. She is a good singer but the song is boring and numb after the opening of Cyprus. But don’t fall asleep completely, soon Lithuania is coming to lift.
22:15 Celia from Cyprus opens the competition accompanied by four dancers in a clean and professional performance with good vocals. Blowing the roof off the Malmö Arena probably straight to the final on Saturday.
22:07 After the provocation, we move on. Chanel, who came third for Spain two years ago, tears up the stage.
22:05 As expected – Eric Saada came on stage with a black baking hat tied to his hand – a symbol of Palestinian resistance. A query was sent to the production regarding the cap – which did not appear in rehearsals.
Eric Saade’s Palestinian scarf in hand! #Eurovision pic.twitter.com/IhYxwvBome
— Luis Mesa ۞ (@luismesacabello) May 7, 2024
22:04 we started! The first performance tonight is given, before this year’s contestants, by Eleni Foureira, Neta’s biggest competitor from Eurovision 2018. Like a real fire, the hall goes wild. Arik Saada, who is not known for his great love for Israel, will arrive immediately after.
Eleni Foureira – Fire #Eurovision 2024 pic.twitter.com/MNwD1HlO2R
— Gabriel (@vodimtenigranku) May 7, 2024
21:30 Today (Tuesday) is the official opening shot of Eurovision 2024 – with the first semi-final to be broadcast today at 22:00 Israel time. To see Aden Golan perform we will have to wait until Thursday, but the Eurovision celebration officially starts tonight, and in any case to know who the 10 countries will qualify for the final on Saturday, and who Aden will meet in the final – we hope so. Throughout the evening we will update you on all the performances, the dramas and glitches (if any) and the exciting moments of the first semi-final.
15 male and female singers will compete in the semi-finals tonight. The security situation and tensions in light of the planned demonstrations against Israeli participation are causing a lot of headaches for the production and creating completely unprecedented situations: yesterday (Monday), for the first time in the history of the competition, the stage manager instructed the audience about the emergency exits of the hall before the dress rehearsal.
In addition to the 15 competitors, some of the countries that advance directly to the finals of the competition – the “Big Five” countries and the host country – will appear tonight. Tonight, of those, Germany, Great Britain, and the host Sweden will appear. Before the contestants start singing, the show will be opened by three Eurovision singers from the past: Eleni Foureira from Cyprus who almost beat Netta in 2018 with the hysterical “Fuego”, Chanel from Spain who came in third place in 2022, and Eric Saada, a well-known pro-Palestinian Lebanese who represented Sweden in 2011. Rumor has it that he was chosen to perform after Noa Kirel’s cancellation.
Unfortunately, one of the best and most prominent performances of the evening comes from Ireland. We say “unfortunately” because the Irish contestant, Bambi Thug, went on stage during rehearsals with a caption in ancient Irish writing against Israel, and despite appeals to the European Broadcasting Union about it – nothing was done about it. Even though Israel will not appear tonight, the one we will of course keep our fingers crossed for tonight is Tali Goulargant, who was born in Israel and represents Luxembourg. Tali will perform last tonight.
While we wait for the results at the end of the evening, “Mr Eurovision” Johnny Logan will perform a strange performance of “Euphoria” which he won for Sweden in 2012 followed by a performance from Sweden’s representative for Eurovision 2018 Benjamin Ingrosso. At the end of the evening we will know which are the 10 countries that will advance to the finals. To remind you, Israel is not participating tonight, so it is impossible to vote – you will have to wait patiently until Thursday.
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