What time is the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 on TV? Start time, final running order and favourites
Where will it be? Who's hosting? And who will represent the UK?
The Eurovision Song Contest is one of the most-watched TV events of the year, with people tuning in from as far afield as Australia and the USA to watch the musical spectacular.
The 2019 competition will take place in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday 18th May. Here's absolutely everything you need to know about it...
- Who will be the UK’s entry at Eurovision 2019?
- Meet the acts competing at Eurovision 2019
- Where is the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest being held?
When is the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 on TV?
The Eurovision Song Contest will be held on Saturday May 18th 2019. Coverage will be on BBC1, fronted by Graham Norton, from 8pm till 11:40pm.
Who are the acts competing in the Eurovision 2019 final?
There are 26 acts still in the running to win this year's Eurovision Song Contest (15 countries were eliminated in the semi-finals). You can see all the 2019 confirmed performers here.
When is the UK performing in Eurovision?
Michael Rice and song Bigger Than Us are 16th in the running order (see below).
It's not a great spot to have: not a single act that's performed 16th at Eurovision has ever won the contest.
What is the full running order for Eurovision 2019?
The 26 acts of the night will take to the stage in this order...
- Malta: Michela – Chameleon
- Albania: Jonida Maliqi – Ktheju tokës
- Czech Republic: Lake Malawi – Friend of a Friend
- Germany: S!sters – Sister
- Russia: Sergey Lazarev – Scream
- Denmark: Leonora – Love Is Forever
- San Marino: Serhat – Say Na Na Na
- North Macedonia: Tamara Todevska – Proud
- Sweden: John Lundvik – Too Late for Love
- Slovenia: Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl – Sebi
- Cyprus: Tamta – Replay
- The Netherlands: Duncan Laurence – Arcade
- Greece: Katerine Duska – Better Love
- Israel: Kobi Marimi – Home
- Norway: KEiiNO – Spirit in the Sky
- United Kingdom: Michael Rice – Bigger than Us
- Iceland: Hatari – Hatrið mun sigra
- Estonia: Victor Crone – Storm
- Belarus: ZENA – Like It
- Azerbaijan: Chingiz – Truth
- France: Bilal Hassani – Roi
- Italy: Mahmood – Soldi
- Serbia: Nevena Božović – Kruna
- Switzerland: Luca Hänni – She Got Me
- Australia: Kate Miller-Heidke – Zero Gravity
- Spain: Miki – La Venda
Who is representing the UK at Eurovision 2019?
Michael Rice! Once again, the BBC programme Eurovision: You Decide asked viewers to vote on 8th February 2019 for who they thought should be the UK's entry at the Eurovision Song Contest and we chose 21-year-old Michael, a former All Together Now winner and X Factor contestant.
There were six acts to choose from, but only one winner. Here's a guide to the other contenders.
Who are the favourites to win Eurovision 2019?
The Netherlands' touching power ballad, Russia's returning star and the Swedish act who also wrote the UK's entry are the acts most favoured to take the Eurovision crown this year.
However, bookmakers are also predicting a very good night for Australia (who are sending an opera singer on a bendy role) and France (an LGBT Youtube Star).
Iceland's entry is also set to cause a stir: the country will be represented by techno-BDSM trio Hatari and song Hatrið Mun Sigra (Hate Will Prevail).
Where will Eurovision 2019 be held?
The 2019 song contest will be held in Israel, thanks to their victory at the 2018 Grand Final in Lisbon, Portugal. The city of Tel Aviv has be chosen to stage the competition.
Where is Tel Aviv?
Tel-Aviv, Israel's second largest city, is located on the Mediterranean coast. It has a population of over 400,000 people.
Who was the winner of Eurovision 2018?
Israel's Netta Barzilai was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018, storming to victory with her song, TOY, in Lisbon.
Why is Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest?
Well, Eurovision isn’t strictly geographic. The contest is organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which is made up of various broadcasters from countries across Europe and beyond. The BBC is a member of the EBU, as is RTE in Ireland, Rai in Italy, SVT in Sweden and so on. There are 73 member stations from more than 56 countries, including Israel, and they’re entitled to send acts to Eurovision if they wish.
Israel's been a member of the EBU for decades and won the Eurovision a grand total of four times.
Dana International's victory in 1998 remains one of their most famous Eurovision wins.
How can I get tickets to the Eurovision Song Contest 2019?
Tickets for Eurovision are on sale to the general public, click on the link below for details on how to get your hands on some:
Who is the UK's Eurovision voting spokesperson for 2019?
Presenter, Radio 2 DJ and new Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two co-host Rylan will be reading out the votes from the UK. That's after he and Scott Mills hosted the semi-final coverage on BBC4.
How does the Eurovision Song Contest voting work?
Eurovision was originally judged by juries before being opened to the public for a tele vote but when people started getting worked up about political Bloc Voting (the idea that countries in Eastern Europe were all just voting for their friends and neighbours) they introduced a new dual system.
The juries from each country (made up of five music industry professionals) award 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12 points to their favourite songs, and reveal those jury scores through their national spokesperson in the usual time-consuming yet exciting way.
Viewers from each country also vote via phone or SMS, awarding 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12 points to their favourite songs. Then, all the results from each country’s public votes are combined to give one overall Eurovision viewer score per song.
Spokespersons from each country read out the jury results – those all-important douze points – during the live show.
Then the Eurovision presenters read out the results of the European televote – or public vote – in ascending order, beginning with the country that received the lowest number of televotes – public votes – and finishing with the country that received the highest.
Viewers in all the competing countries – including those who were knocked out in the semi-finals – can vote up to 20 times for the songs of their choice, but they can’t vote for their own country.
The country with the highest number of votes wins the competition and gets to host it the next year.
Who is performing at the interval in Eurovision 2019?
After organisers cast doubt earlier in the week, pop icon Madonna has been confirmed to take the stage after all 26 competitors perform.
She'll perform two songs during the show’s interval: 1989 hit Like A Prayer and new single Future (featuring US rapper Quavo).
Also performing is magician Lior Suchard, Israel’s answer to Derren Brown. We've got no idea why either.
How do you vote in the Eurovision Song Contest?
You can vote by telephone. Here are the official BBC guidelines for UK voters:
“After all countries have performed, viewers will be invited to vote for their favourite act/s.
Voting is by telephone only. Voters in the UK can choose either to call from their landline using the long (11-digit) number for the country of their choice or from their mobile phones using the shortcode (7-digit) number for the country of their choice.
Please note that callers from the Channel Islands and Isle of Man should call from their landlines using the long (11-digit) number to avoid higher mobile charges, as the short (7-digit) numbers are not available in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for reasons outside of the BBC’s control.”
The numbers to be used will be given during the programmes.
Why isn’t Bulgaria competing in Eurovision 2019?
Although the country has performed well in recent competitions, achieving a second and fourth place finish in the past three years, Bulgaria will be absent from Eurovision 2019.
According to a statement released by the country's national public broadcaster BNT, this is due to “financial reasons”.
This isn’t the first time the country has pulled out on such grounds, with the same broadcaster withdrawing from the 2014 and 2015 competitions due to its expensive participation fee.
As per Eurovision rules, Bulgaria will not provide votes in this year’s contest as it has no participating broadcaster.
Why isn't Ukraine competing in Eurovision 2019?
Ukraine were due to send an act to the 2019 contest in Israel, with Maruv winning a national contest. But after topping the vote, she stepped down due to a failure to agree with the national broadcaster on what she deemed to be a restrictive contract. "I am a musician, rather than a tool of the political stage," she said. The second- and third-placed acts were then approached to take her place but both declined, leading Ukraine to pull out of this year's contest altogether.
