VIENNA – The final lineup for the 2026 Eurovision Grand Final is complete.
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The Second Semi Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna featured 15 Semi-Finalists, but only 10 of them were able to qualify for Saturday’s finale.
Those 10 countries are Albania, Malta, Denmark, Czechia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Romania, Australia, Ukraine and Norway.
Latvia, Switzerland, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Luxembourg did not manage to receive enough points from the jury and audience in order to qualify.
The show opened with a performance of “Wasted Love” – last year’s winning song. But it wasn’t sung by the winner JJ himself, but by Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski, this year’s hosts.
The first country to perform was Bulgaria with the dance-song “Bangaranga” by DARA.
The title song, which has influences from Balkan Turbofolk, means “Chaos” in Jamaican Creole.
Placing first in the audience and the press poll from yesterday’s rehearsal, DARA delivered a phenomenal start.
Also performing, but already qualified from the start, were two Gen Z artists: Monroe, a 17-year-old French American opera singer from Salt Lake City, Utah, who represented France with “Regarde!” and is one of the favorites to win the contest.
Her win would be the third opera winner in a row, after JJ and Nemo.
Performing for this year’s host country of Austria is 2006-born Cosmó with “Tanzschein” ( Dancing License ), a song that talks about his desire to go to the club in order to dance – without being judged, an experience he sadly had during his first club visit.
As the contest is in his hometown of Vienna, the local crowd was cheering for him like crazy.
Another favorite for the title is Søren Torpegaard Lund, who represents Denmark with “Før vi går hjem” (“Before we go home”), an ode to the nightlife and partying. His performance included several acrobatic tricks, all performed in a box.
The interval act during tonight’s second Semi Final was no other than JJ himself, the champion of last year’s contest.
He performed his new single, “Unknown,” live in the Wiener Stadthalle, featuring an incredible light show and breathtaking vocals.
Now that the line-up is concluded, the 20 qualifiers will join the Big 4 ( The UK, Germany, France and Italy ) as well as Austria as a host country to fight for the big title on Saturday: The 70th Winner of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Florian Gashi is a Reporter with Youth Journalism International from Germany. Reporting from Vienna, Austria, he wrote this story about the second Semi-Final of Eurovision 2026 and took photos and video during the event.
