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The weekend in review: Five new participants for Eurovision 2019

18 February 2019 at 17:31 CET
Zala Kralj & Gašper Šanti, winners of 'EMA 2019' in Slovenia Adrijan Pregelj / RTVSLO
Were you unable to follow all national selections last weekend? No worries, because this is the weekend in review. Over the last two days Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Romania and Slovenia picked their acts for Tel Aviv and several countries held more semi-finals.

New acts for Tel Aviv

Five countries picked their participants for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest, bringing the total number of selected acts to 26. Only sixteen more artists to go before we know all 42.

Croatia revived Dora

Through its popular tv format Dora, both the Croatian audience and jury decided that Roko will be its representative at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv. Roko is set to perform his song The Dream in the second half of the second Semi-Final on the 16th of May. Read more..

A storm blew through Estonia 

Victor Crone was chosen to represent Estonia at this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv with the song Storm, after two semi-finals and a thriller final. Read more..

Latvia's Supernova 

After two weeks of semi-finals and the Supernova final, Latvia decided to send Carousel to the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv with the song That Night. Read more..

Romania

In an exciting final, Ester Peony turned out to be the winner of this year’s ‘Selecţia Naţională’. And with it she has also won Romania’s ticket to Tel Aviv. Read more..

Slovenia

It was showtime in Slovenia tonight as their national selection final EMA took place in capital Ljubljana. The duo Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl have been selected to represent the country in Tel Aviv in May with their song Sebi (Oneself). Read more..

National final qualifiers

Hungary

A Dal, Hungary's national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, held its second - and last - semi-final. Of the nine entries that competed, these four are one step closer to a ticket to Tel Aviv:

Hungary's delegate will be chosen during A Dal's final on 23 February 2019.

Iceland

Söngvakeppnin 2019, Iceland's national selection for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest, held its second and last semi-final in Reykjavik today. Five artists performed in the second live show, from which the TV viewers chose their two favourites: Friðrik Ómar, one half of Euroband, who represented Iceland in 2008, and Tara Mobee. The contest’s selection commission reserved the right to give one of the eliminated songs a wildcard for the final on the 2nd of March, and they gave it to Kristina Skoubo Bærendsen

Read more about Söngvakeppnin 2019 here.

Lithuania

The national selection Eurovizijos Atranka saw twelve acts perform their entries, with just four continuing to the final:

Find out next Saturday who will become the Lithuanian representative at the 64th Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv. Tune in live on the 23rd of February.

Portugal

The 51st Festival da Canção kicked off in Portugal with the first of two semi-finals held at RTP's studios in Lisbon, hosted by Sónia Araújo and Tânia Ribas de Oliveira. Eight songs competed for four available places in the final, the decision being taken by a combination of votes from an expert jury panel and televoting from the viewers. The qualifiers are: Matay with the song Perfeito, Conan Osíris and his Telemóveis, Calema's A dois and Ana Cláudia with Inércia. The final will take place in Portimão on the 2nd of March.

Sweden

Sweden's national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, Melodifestivalen 2019, keeps touring the country. And this week's third semi-final marked a very special occasion, as it was the 100th live broadcast since SVT started the Melodifestivalen tour back in 2002.

This time the stop was in Leksand where two more songs captured the viewers votes to reach the final: Jon Henrik Fjällgren with Norrsken and Lina Hedlund with Victorious. It is Jon Henrik's third time to qualify for the final after his 2015 and 2017 attempts and Lina's first solo qualifier since her entries with Alcazar. Two further entries made their way to Andra Chansen; the second-chance round: Martin Stenmarck, who represented Sweden in the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest with Las Vegas, and Rebecka Karlsson.

Next Saturday, the fourth, and last, semi-final will take place in Lidköping, where the remaining seven acts will compete to reach the final in Stockholm on the 9th of March.

Ukraine

The second semi-final of Vidbir, Ukraine's national selection, saw a guest performance of this year's Czech participant Lake Malawi. After eight acts performed, only three could qualify for the final on the 23rd of February. These artists still have a shot at representing Ukraine in Tel Aviv:

The final of Vidbir takes place next Saturday.

Check out our calendar for upcoming broadcast dates of national selections for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest.