Victoria Swarovski Leads 10 Qualifiers Through Delta Goodrem Australia Eurovision 2026
delta goodrem australia eurovision 2026 moved one step closer to the Grand Final after the First Semi-Final ended in Vienna with 10 songs advancing. Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski hosted the live show from the Wiener Stadthalle, where the field narrowed fast and the first finalists drew their running-order half.
The 70th Eurovision Song Contest now has 10 more songs set for Saturday 16 May, joining the qualifiers from the Second Semi-Final on Thursday 14 May, plus the Big 4 and reigning champions Austria. That leaves the first live cutoff of the contest with real business consequences for every act still waiting on a place in the final lineup.
Vienna’s first 10 qualifiers
Finland’s Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen qualified with “Liekinheitin,” and Lithuania’s Lion Ceccah advanced with “Sólo Quiero Más.” Those two entries secured spots in the Grand Final alongside eight other qualifiers, then drew their Grand Final running-order half after the show.
The live result came from a 50% jury vote and a 50% public vote, with the public voting during the broadcast itself. Fifteen participating countries voted in the First Semi-Final, and Italy and Germany also took part in the ballot.
Two songs missed the cut
Montenegro’s Tamara Živković and her song “Nova Zora” did not qualify, and Estonia’s Vanilla Ninja with “Too Epic To Be True” also fell short. For those acts, the contest now stops at the semi-final stage, while the 10 qualifiers move on with a locked place in Saturday’s final.
The split between advancing and eliminated entries is the part of Eurovision that still feels ruthlessly simple. A single semi-final decides who stays in the running, and in Vienna that decision was made by two voting blocs of equal weight.
Running order and next step
Italy, Germany, Israel, Finland, Moldova and Croatia were assigned Producer’s Choice for the Grand Final running order. That sets the framework for how the final will unfold once the qualifiers from both semi-finals are added to Austria, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.
The practical takeaway for readers is straightforward: the first batch of finalists is in, the running order half is drawn, and the Grand Final picture is now partly fixed before the second semi-final adds the rest. By Saturday 16 May, the contest will be down to the entries that survived both the jury and public vote test in Vienna.
