THE QUALIFIERS

• 🇱🇹 Lithuania: Monika Liu – Sentimentai – SECOND HALF
• 🇨🇭 Switzerland: Marius Bear – Boys Do Cry – FIRST HALF 
• 🇺🇦 Ukraine: Kalush Orchestra – Stefania – FIRST HALF 
• 🇳🇱 Netherlands: S10 – De Diepte – FIRST HALF L
• 🇲🇩 Moldova: Zdob şi Zdub & Advahov Brothers – Trenulețul – SECOND HALF 
• 🇵🇹 Portugal: MARO – Saudade, Saudade – FIRST HALF
• 🇮🇸 Iceland: Systur – Með Hækkandi Sól – SECOND HALF 
• 🇬🇷 Greece: Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord – Die Together – SECOND HALF 
• 🇳🇴 Norway: Subwoolfer – Give That Wolf A Banana- FIRST HALF 
• 🇦🇲 Armenia: Rosa Linn – Snap – FIRST HALF

ARTIST STATEMENTS

The 10 finalists of the first semifinal were in the press room and answered the questions of the journalists, excited and cheerful. See their most characteristic statements:

SWITZERLAND

“I felt like I was dying when I was announced to the finalists. Yes, I was relieved of all the pressure. “My song is low-key and I was anxious if I would be able to restrain my voice so as not to exaggerate and still show strong emotion. Now I am ready for the final.  Why should the Australians wake up at 5 in the morning to vote for me? (Marius is half Australian and has lived in Australia). Because they are wonderful! ”

ARMENIA

“I am so proud of Armenia. We have been through a lot in recent years. And my country, but also my family. Many deaths. I’m glad to bring a smile to my people again. How did I feel when the last piece of the wall did not come out when I pulled it? I kept my composure, I did not lose them. He came out with the second pull. It’s like life. You do not always succeed with the first one and you try again. ”

ICELAND

Sigga: “The reason we strongly support the rights of trans children is that my son is trans. We did not realize before that how narrow-minded this world is. We focused on the message of the song: To bring hope to the world that is going through hard times. In the world that finds it difficult to cope, in the world in Ukraine that suffers, in the world that has suffered from covid. “So we are here not to put it down, not to stand together, not to hold Ukraine’s case high and not to let the media normalize the war.”

LITHUANIA

“I want the Lithuanians to be proud of our language. That’s why I sing in Lithuanian. It’s not a popular language, but I’ll make it cool! Are there any astrological predictions for Saturday? I don’t give a…! Do not forget the war in Ukraine. Slava Ukraine! ”

PORTUGAL

“We decided to do it like we were singing in a rehearsal tonight. To be calm. It was a very special moment because we were afraid that we would not be all together, after the incident in the mission. “

NORWAY

“We had a great time and we look forward to Saturday. How do wolves celebrate? We will have our soft drink today and on Saturday we will sing our song again. ”

UKRAINE

“We are happy about the qualification, it was important for us. We thank all those who support Ukraine. “If I spoke to my mother? I texted her because it’s too late in Ukraine now. I will talk to her in the morning. We understand that we must be here completely committed to our purpose, to our presentation, so we remain calm despite what is happening in our country.”

MOLDOVA

“What brought us to the final, our music or our lyrics? But both together! Our musical tradition is excellent, both in Moldova and in Romania. But the lyrics also speak of friendship, joy, love, and beautiful things. As Eurovision talks about nice things! We must protect nature, the biosphere, wolves, folklore and rock ‘n’ roll! Yes, if we win we will write a song for the Chisinau-Bucharest-Turin train!”

NETHERLANDS

“The song is vulnerable and my stage presence is vulnerable. Just before I went on stage I thought I did not know how to do that. At this time I am relieved but also proud. How did it feel to be last in the announcement of the finalists? I felt horrible while I was waiting. But in the end, all is well. It is May 10, they called me tenth, my name is S10 and on my microphone, he wrote the number 10. Something is happening with the number 10.”

RESULTS & PREDICTIONS

The annual EUROPREDICTION powered by OIKOTIMES has concluded for the first semifinal and 28,884 cast their votes. In the table below you see the following columns: The first is the online voting, the second is the invited juries from the first semi-final participating countries, and the third column is how (19) of the Eurovision 2019 participants voted (as personal favourites) and then the combined results. The last column will host the official results. Usually, oikotimes’ EUROPREDICTION has 8/10-9/10 in predictions.

EUROPREDICTION 2022 🇮🇹 FIRST SEMI-FINAL

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