Everything you need to know about the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest

Jacob Sarkisian
·3 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

The 2024 Eurovision Song Contest is almost upon us. The semi-finals have been taking place this week while the final itself is coming up. Scroll down for everything you need to know about the world’s most famous, extravagant music competition.

When is the Eurovision Song Contest?
The semi-finals took place on May 7 and May 9, respectively. Those events act as qualifiers for the grand final, which will take place on Saturday, May 11 at 20:00 BST.

More from GoldDerby

Where is the Eurovision Song Contest?
The Eurovision Song Contest is, barring any special circumstances, always held in the country that won the previous year’s competition. Sweden, with Loreen’s song “Tattoo,” won the 2023 edition of the competition, so this year’s event takes place in Malmö.

Last year’s competition was held in the UK after the 2022 winner, Ukraine, was unable to host due to the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Who is in the Eurovision Song Contest?
Sweden qualify for the final automatically as they won last year, while the competition’s Big Five also qualify automatically. The Big Five is made up of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK. They get such privilege as they contribute the most money to the organizers of the song contest — the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

The rest of the 37 countries (including Australia, who joined in 2015 to commemorate the 60th song contest) have to compete in one of two aforementioned semi-finals. The top 10 countries from each semi-final then go on to compete in the final.

Who is hosting the Eurovision Song Contest?
The live show will be hosted by Swedish presenters Petra Mede and Malin Åkerman. Mede previously hosted in 2013 and 2016, t00. Meanwhile, each country will have its own narrator for the show, with Graham Norton the UK’s representative.

How do you win the Eurovision Song Contest?
Each of the 37 countries (regardless of whether they make it to the final or not) dish out 1-8, 10, and 12 points to their favorite countries’ songs with 12 points going to their favorite song. The points are decided via a combination of public votes and a jury decision.

The points are then handed out and tallied up, being sorted into a league table. The table is updated constantly as each country reveals who they’ve given their points to, leading to some pretty tense viewing. In the event of a tie, the country with the most public votes wins.

Last year, Sweden won with 583 points, Finland finished second with 526 points, and Israel finished third with 362 points. Germany finished last for the second consecutive time with 18 points.

Who will win the Eurovision Song Contest?
The odds are currently in favor of Croatia, who reportedly have a 41% chance of winning with their song “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” by Baby Lasagna. Second favorites are Israel while Switzerland are third favorites.

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?

SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions

Best of GoldDerby

Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.