Australia defied the oddsmakers and established itself as a surprise frontrunner at the Eurovision semifinal Thursday while a trio of past winners — including 2024 champion Switzerland — failed to advance.
Switzerland joined Latvia and Luxembourg as erstwhile title-holders who won’t have the chance to grab another Eurovision crown as the final 25 nations were set for the weekend’s big singing showdown in Vienna.
The 70th-annual homage to soaring and sometimes silly song production will anoint a winner Saturday, ending a months-long saga that saw five countries boycott over the inclusion of Israel. The Middle Eastern nation had not broken any rules, but its presence in the competition prompted Spain, Slovenia, Ireland, Iceland and the Netherlands not to compete as a protest over Israel’s military actions in Gaza and Lebanon. Israel earlier in the week advanced to the final in the first of two semifinals.
After enduring wars, unrest, infighting and Celine Dion, Eurovision is still going strong many decades in, watched by more than 150 million people across the continent — though with financial difficulties brought on by the boycotts, is on much shakier ground than it was even a year go.
The Austrian emcees sought to put a brave — or at least sequined — face at the semifinals Thursday night, complete with the usual over-the-top country shoutouts and awful puns. It resulted in some big wins for small countries.
Malta, a quiet powerhouse that finished second twice in the 2000s and which has a reputation for putting on a good show, advanced at the Austrian capital’s Stadthalle. Aidan’s “Bella” won over the mix of jurors and public televoters that determine the winners. A lounge song sung in English and (some) Maltese by a man wearing a leather-vested cowboy outfit, “Bella” will try to bring back the Maltan mojo; the country will compete in only its second final in five years.
Denmark also unsurprisingly advanced with Søren Torpegaard Lund’s Før Vi Går Hjem — an EDM-backed, glam rock-flavored ode to forbidden love — and sits in fourth in most betting markets.
But the night’s big winner was Australia, which after flying under the radar emerged as a frontrunner on betting markets, landing in third place after its strong showing Thursday. Delta Goodrem’s soaring pop ballad “Eclipse” will try to give Downunder its first-ever win since joining Eurovision in 2015.
Not every country enjoyed such good fortune. Latvia, which won in 2002 with Marie N.’s “I Wanna,” came up short as Atvara’s doleful solo “Ena” didn’t make the cut.
While on the bubble to get past the semifinal with oddsmakers, Switzerland’s Veronica Fusaro turned in a strong performance with her pyrotechnics-heavy blues “Alice,” but couldn’t get over the hump with jurors and televoters. The country won’t repeat its feat from two years ago, when Nemo’s heartfelt trans anthem “The Code” took the top spot.
Perhaps the most notable omission — or at least greatest evidence of the contest’s disconnect with the U.S. pop scene — came with Luxembourg. “Mother Nature,” a Top 40-ready English-language number from the telegenic 20-year-old Eva Marija, somehow did not move European voters and jurors. The small landlocked nation once dominated Eurovision, winning five times in the 1960s and early 1970s. After declining to participate for 30 years, Luxembourg returned in 2024 but is still searching for its first top ten finish.
The two top betting contenders ahead of Australia and Denmark had already advanced in Tuesday’s semifinal. Finland occupies the top spot thanks to Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen’s violin-backed tortured love song “Liekinheitin.” Greece sits right behind it with “Ferto,” rapper Akylas’ nonsense ode to the good life while wearing a tiger costume.
Israel currently rounds out the top five with “Michelle,” French-Israeli singer Noam Bettan’s Middle Eastern-vibed tri-lingual tribute to a very rhymable title lady. But even with the stiff competition ahead of it, the country has become a subject of intense interest.
Israel finished second in Eurovision last year, and the nation is likely to compete strongly again, as its entrant features a charismatic performer singing a feel-good love song while an Israeli European diaspora and its allies take out their phones to support it. Still, comparisons to 2025 may be inexact: last year’s Israeli performer was Yuval Raphael, a Nova massacre survivor singing “New Day Will Rise,” giving the performance a resilience theme Bettan can’t match.
Israel is a surprise Eurovision powerhouse — it is one of only seven countries to have won the contest at least four times (its most recent win came in 2018). This despite joining at least 15 years later than nearly all the other countries in that class.
The final takes place Saturday night in Vienna with the expected melismas, wails, crescendoes and fire shooting out of the stage for absolutely no reason.
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