Favourites Portugal, Finland and Switzerland through to Eurovision final
The final line up has been decided for the Eurovision Song Festival, to be held in Rotterdam on Saturday.
After a second semi-final on Thursday night – in which the crowd showed particular enthusiasm for Finland’s ‘nu metal’ Dark Side – another ten acts were chosen for the final.
The bookies correctly predicted that Switzerland, Iceland, Portugal, San Merino and Bulgaria would go through. Greece also qualified, to the delight of some of the Dutch because singer Stefania Liberakakis was born and grew up in Utrecht.
Acts ranged from Bulgaria’s quiet ballad, ‘Growing up is getting old’, to Portugal’s catchy, Beatles-esque ‘Love is on my side’.
Since some acts are pre-qualified (as a legacy for their broadcasters paying for the event), they will join odds-on favourites such as Italy and France in the final. On Tuesday night, qualifiers included girl power number ‘Je Me Casse’ by Malta and Ukraine’s quirky, electro-folklore number, ‘Shum’.
Former Dutch winner Duncan Laurence will not perform on the Saturday night, as is traditional, since he has been diagnosed with a coronavirus infection.
Meanwhile, Iceland’s performance on Thursday was a video recording from earlier in the day after one member of the group Daði og Gagnamagnið also tested positive for the disease. According to the Eurovision organiser, EBU, their song ’10 years’ remains in the competition.
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