The second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 will be held this evening. During the evening presented at the Stadthalle in Vienna by Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski, 18 singers will perform, 15 of which will compete to secure one of the 10 places in Saturday's final. The other three pass by right as members of the so-called Big 4 (France and United Kingdom) and representatives of the organizing country (Austria).
The evening will be broadcast on Rai 2, RaiPlay and Rai Radio 2 from 9pm. The live television broadcast is presented by Gabriele Corsi and Elettra Lamborghini. As is known, Sal Da Vinci performed on Tuesday 12 May and with his Forever yes he went straight to the final since Italy is one of the Big 4. Tonight's show will end shortly after 11pm.
Here is the release order of the singers. Apart from the French, English and Austrian, they will be judged by a mix of televoting and national juries (Italy will not vote):
Bulgaria, Dara, Bangaranga
Azerbaijan, Jiva, JustGo
Romania, Alexandra Căpitănescu, Choke Me
Luxembourg, Eva Marija, Mother Nature
Czech Republic, Daniel Zizka, Crossroads
France, Monroe, Regarde! (out of competition)
Armenia, Simon, Paloma Rumba
Switzerland, Veronica Fusaro, Alice
Cyprus, Antigoni, Jalla
Austria, Cosmo, Tanzschein (out of competition)
Latvia, Avara, Ēnā
Denmark, Søren Torpegaard Lund, Før Vi Går Hjem
Australia, Delta Goodrem, Eclipse
Ukraine, Leléka, Ridnym
United Kingdom, Look Mum No Computer, Eins, Zwei, Dre (out of competition)
Albania, Alis, Nân
Malta, Aidan, Pretty
Norway, Jonas Love, Ya Ya Ya
The evening will be opened by a number entrusted to the presenters Swarovski and Ostrowski to the tune of Wasted Love, the song with which JJ won Eurovision 2025. JJ himself will return to present the new single during the televoting window.
The ten who qualify this evening will play the final on Saturday with Austria, the four big names and the other ten singers who emerged from the first semi-final, i.e. the representatives of Greece, Finland, Belgium, Sweden, Moldova, Israel, Serbia, Croatia, Lithuania and Poland.
In Italy the first semi-final was seen by 1,856,000 spectators, with a share of just over 10%. They did it better Big Brother VIP (18.3%) e Inspector Montalbano (16.8%).
