Today, the dress rehearsals for Semi-Final One of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 commence in Vienna, with the voting commencing tonight.
Dress Rehearsals
Two sets of rehearsals will take place today in Vienna as Eurovision week commences in Austria. The first dress rehearsal for the show commences at 15:45 CEST to 18:30 CEST followed by a second dress rehearsal from 21:00 CEST, which is the jury show.
Eurovoix will be reporting live on the dress rehearsals giving our first impressions of the staging from each of the fifteen Semi-Finalists plus the pre-qualified finalists from Germany and Italy.
Jury Voting
Juries in seventeen countries will be voting on the performances in tonight’s second dress rehearsal. The juries will once again determine 50% of the results in the Semi-Finals, returning to the rules in place between 2010 and 2022.
Each jury, as well as each individual jury member, has to meet a set of criteria regarding professional background, as well as diversity in gender and age. Each judge also has to sign a pledge, which states they will evaluate the entries based on a set of criteria and state that they are not connected to any of the contestants in any way that could affect their ability to vote independently.
This year the size and composition of the juries has changed. The number of jurors has increased from five to seven. In addition, two jurors must now be aged between 18 and 25. Accepted roles for jurors will now include “music journalists and critics, music teachers, creative professionals such as choreographers and stage directors and experienced music industry figures.
The jurors will be ranking the scores based on the following criteria:
- Overall impression of the act
- composition and originality of the song
- quality of the performance on stage
- vocal capacity of the performer(s)
Rest of the World Vote
Voting will open at midnight tonight for the Rest of the World vote at esc.vote.com. The vote will be open until the Semi-Final starts, and will pause during the live performances; it will re-open during the voting window in the Semi-Final.
This earlier online vote for the Rest of the World will require voters to watch clips of all the competing performances before the voting platform opens. Voting is open to non-participating countries in this years Eurovision Song Contest. Voting will cost 0.99 Euro per vote and can be carried out at www.esc.vote.com
The running order for the performances in Semi-Final One is as follows:
- 🇲🇩 Moldova: Satoshi – “Viva Moldova!”
- 🇸🇪 Sweden: Felicia – “My System”
- 🇭🇷 Croatia: Lelek – “Andromeda”
- 🇬🇷 Greece: Akylas – “Ferto”
- 🇵🇹 Portugal: Bandidos do Cante – “Rosa”
- 🇬🇪 Georgia: Bzikebi – “On Replay”
- 🇫🇮 Finland: Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen – “Liekinheitin”
- 🇲🇪 Montenegro: Tamara Živković – “Nova zora”
- 🇪🇪 Estonia: Vanilla Ninja – “Too Epic to Be True”
- 🇮🇱 Israel: Noam Bettan – “Michelle”
- 🇧🇪 Belgium: Essyla – “Dancing on the Ice”
- 🇱🇹 Lithuania: Lion Ceecah – “Sólo quiero más”
- 🇸🇲 San Marino: Senhit feat. Boy George – “Superstar”
- 🇵🇱 Poland: Alicja – “Pray”
- 🇷🇸 Serbia: Lavina – “Kraj mene”
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