Tonight: The First Semi-Final From Baku

22 May 2012 at 02:10 CEST

Tonight, the First Semi-Final of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest will be broadcast LIVE from the Baku Crystal Hall in Baku, Azerbaijan, where 18 countries will compete for just 10 places in the Grand Final

The broadcast will be hosted by Nargiz, Eldar and Leyla who are all eager to welcome the millions of viewers to Baku for tonight's show!

The 18 acts competing in the First Semi-Final of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in order of appearance are:

Montenegro: Rambo Amadeus - Euro Neuro
Iceland: Greta Salóme & Jónsi - Never Forget
Greece: Eleftheria Eleftheriou - Aphrodisiac
Latvia: Anmary - Beautiful Song
Albania: Rona Nishliu - Suus
Romania: Mandinga - Zaleilah
Switzerland: Sinplus - Unbreakable
Belgium: Iris - Would You
Finland: Pernilla - När Jag Blundar
Israel: Izabo - Time
San Marino: Valentina Monetta - The Social Network Song (Oh Oh - Uh - Oh Oh)
Cyprus: Ivi Adamou - La La Love
Denmark: Soluna Samay - Should've Known Better
Russia: Buranovskiye Babushki - Party For Everybody
Hungary: Compact Disco - Sound Of Our Hearts
Austria: Trackshittaz - Woki Mit Deim Popo
Moldova: Pasha Parfeny - Lăutar
Ireland: Jedward - Waterline

You can find more information about tonight's participants on our event page for the First Semi-Final.

Of the 18 entries, 10 will qualify to the Grand Final of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, which takes place on Saturday the 26th of May. The result will be determined by way of a 50/50 split between national expert juries and televoting. The combined scores will create the final outcome.

In yesterday's Jury Semi-Final, the expert juries already determined their votes by watching the live performances. These results have however not been revealed. The televoting will take place during the live show once the final performance has taken place.

The viewers of the 18 competing nations as well as thee viewers watching in Azerbaijan, Italy and Spain will have the opportunity to televote for their favourite song with the numbers being revealed by their respective national broadcaster during the live show.

Once the televotes have been collected, these will be combined with the jury votes and centrally added up. The countries successful in qualifying to the final will then be announced in random order with the opening of virtual envelopes on screen.

Remember that you can watch the First Semi-Final LIVE right here on Eurovision.tv via our ESCTV player, streaming Europe's Favourite TV Show right to your computer.