The second Eurovision 2025 semi-final took place on Thursday, and saw some of this year’s most popular contestants vie for a place in the Grand Final.
Following on from the first semi-final, which was held on Tuesday 13 May in Basel, Switzerland, the second night featured performances from the UK’s entry Remember Monday, along with delegates from Austria, France, Israel and Australia.
Presenters Rylan and Scott Mills provided commentary for the night, which saw Israel’s Yuval Raphael progress to the final. You can find a full list of the countries who made it through here.
One of the big surprises of the night was Greece, who made it through to the final at the expense of countries including Ireland and Australia.
During Tuesday’s competition, Sweden’s entry KAJ, a Finnish comedy-music trio, sailed through thanks to their sauna-inspired song “Bara Bada Bastu”, along with Estonia’s Tommy Cash and his quirky tune “Espresso Macchiato”.
Switzerland was always guaranteed a spot in the Grand Final as last year’s winner, as were Italy, Spain, the UK, France and Germany - the “Big Five” countries.
Former Swiss Eurovision champion and global icon Celine Dion shared a special message with viewers amid rumours that she might perform this year.
Key Points
- Eurovision semi-finals running order explained
- Every Eurovision winner ranked, from worst to best
- Protestors disrupt rehearsals for Israel's entry
- UK contestants Remember Monday perform while already qualified
- Eurovision 2025 viewers accuse TV broadcast of ‘censoring’ Israel boos
00:23
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Louis Chilton
Does Eurovision really hate the UK?
It’s a good question...
23:25
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Louis Chilton
Right, that’s it for the second semi-final! Will share a few more links but that seems like Eurovision’s done... until Saturday, that is
22:58
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Louis Chilton
More on the reaction to Israel’s performance, and the boos people heard (or didn’t hear) on TV
22:50
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Louis Chilton
Here’s a look at all the acts who are progressing through to the final:
22:24
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Louis Chilton
Greece take the final spot! Goodbye Ireland, Australia, Serbia... the list goes on. A shock!
22:21
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Louis Chilton
Malta are through and SERVING
22:21
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Louis Chilton
Three more: Latvia, Luxembourg and Finland
22:18
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Louis Chilton
Austria through! JJ has done it...
22:18
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Louis Chilton
Denmark are through!
22:17
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Louis Chilton
Israel are through, though a mixed reception in the room.
Armenia are through.
22:16
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Louis Chilton
Lithuania are through!
21:57
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Louis Chilton
Voting still underway, results nearly in. Exciting? For some...
21:40
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Louis Chilton
And with Finland’s Erika Vikman, we have a wrap!
Voting time...
21:31
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Louis Chilton
Much commentary over booing during Raphael’s set on X right now, more on that shortly...
In the meantime, we’ve had Germany’s Abor & Tynna, and now Serbia’s Princ., performing “Mila”. Only one more after this!
21:22
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Louis Chilton
Israel’s Yuval Raphael now performing.
21:17
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Louis Chilton
Luxembourg’s Laura Thorn... the staging of these things is so darn elaborate, isn’t it?
21:14
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Louis Chilton
Now it’s Czechia, represented by ADONXS.
A pretty nice, deep voice on the guy. With a decent falsetto to boot!
21:11
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Louis Chilton
Judging by a quick scan of Twitter, the show in general is going down very well, it seems!
Ireland was fun, Tautumeitas was magic, Tavo Akys was incredible, Malta was fun, Remember Monday slayed, Louane gave me goosebumps, Sissal is mothering, hell even parg was good
— Emmanuel V ☘ (@ElManuVauttier) May 15, 2025
beautiful show tonight whoever qualifies will deserve (except that country)
21:10
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Louis Chilton
Sissal, for Denmark. The song’s called “Hallucination”.
It’s described as being about “an experience of encountering someone with a great connection”. Huh.
21:07
Israel coming up in a couple of songs’ time.
There’s been no shortage of controversy surrounding that one.
21:05
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Louis Chilton
Fun fact: Louane voiced the character of Violet Parr in the French-language dub of Incredibles 2.
“Incredible” is a fair enough assessment of her singing, for that matter...
21:03
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Louis Chilton
Louane performing for France. Like the UK, they are already qualified, so just... sit back and enjoy, I guess? Turn off the voting nodes in your brain.
20:57
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Louis Chilton
Mariam Shengelia. Georgia. “Freedom”.
Fair play to the BBC’s commentators... we’ve still more than a half-dozen acts to go and I feel like I’m struggling for new things to say. A lot of them do all blur into one after a while, don’t they?
20:52
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Louis Chilton
“A bit of a fan favourite” up next. Malta’s Miriana Conte, with “Serving”.
Buoyant!
20:49
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Louis Chilton
And then it’s Lithuania! Katarsis, singing “Tavo akys”. Not tremendously memorable.
20:47
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Louis Chilton
Will surely be more reactions to the UK’s performance as we go on, but in the meantime, Greece are on. Klavdia is singing in front of a pretty intrusive CGI backdrop (not pictured)
20:43
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Louis Chilton
Another viewer had this to say:
“Wherever we end up in the #Eurovision2025 competition I think Remember Monday have done us proud. That was a perfect performance in a heat 2.”
20:42
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Louis Chilton
Responses seem to be pretty positive!
Remember Monday just absolutely smashed that. Totally changed my opinion of the song, that performance was brilliant. Those girls are doing us proud!
— james (@redmldnlghts) May 15, 2025
20:40
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Louis Chilton
Some almost Billy Joel-ish elements to this song.
Definitely one of the better ones of the night tbh!
20:35
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Louis Chilton
Now it’s Remember Monday, representing the UK with "What the Hell Just Happened?"
Want to know more about their story? Here’s our interview with ‘em.
20:32
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Louis Chilton
Now it’s JJ, performing “Wasted Love” as Austria’s entry.
I was about to say the singing sounded breathy, but it’s just broken into something incredibly impressive. Pseudo-operatic, even.
A really, really impressive mix of vocal styles on show. That’s not easy to do!
20:28
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Louis Chilton
Now it’s Armenian singer Parg, performing his track “Survivor”.
Kind of quite earnest seeming. Very 2000s in look. Don’t know quite what to make of it. But I’m looking forward to it being over
20:23
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Louis Chilton
Tautumeitas next, representing Latvia, introduced with some pretty laboured crowd work.
The song itself? Perfectly alright.
“It gives Girls Aloud biology,” says Rylan.
20:18
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Louis Chilton
Now it’s EMMY, performing for Ireland.
“Laika Party” is the song, Laika of course being the dog that was shot up into space by the Soviets.
As far as animals-in-space songs go, it’s not a patch on John Prine’s “Space Monkey”, if you ask me.
That said... pretty catchy
20:14
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Louis Chilton
All very dramatic, maybe even Bond theme-esque, you might say. But is it a tune you can hum?
20:14
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Louis Chilton
Nina Žižić next, representing Montenegro in a big, white dress. I’m not sufficiently fashion-lingual to know what that big puffy thing is called, but it’s certainly big... and puffy
20:09
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Louis Chilton
“Milkshake Man” is a lot of fun! Unless you’re lactose intolerant, that is.
20:04
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Louis Chilton
“What a dress.”
He’s not wrong.
20:03
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Louis Chilton
First on the docket is what I’m told is a particularly fun one: Australia’s act, Go-Jo.
He’s here with his song “Milkshake Man”
20:01
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Louis Chilton
And we’re off! Rylan and Mills on commentary... and me here, commenting on their commentary
19:28
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Louis Chilton
Half an hour to go until the semi-final begins!
19:00
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Louis Chilton
Here’s a fun one... every Eurovision winner, ranked.
18:00
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Louis Chilton
Israel’s participation in the competition has been the source of significant controversy.
Last week, over 70 former contestants signed an open letter demanding the country and its broadcaster be excluded
17:00
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Louis Chilton
And here’s the running order!
16:00
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Louis Chilton
One of the bigger stories has been the hack of rehearsal footage for the ceremony. Lawyers have got involved; read more here...
15:00
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Louis Chilton
In the French corner, we have Louane...
14:00
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Louis Chilton
Next up, it’s Yuval Raphael, the singer representing Israel
13:00
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Louis Chilton
For anyone wondering who the contestants are this year, we’ve got you covered. First up, Austria’s hopeful, JJ
11:59
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Louis Chilton
Hello! And welcome back to the Eurovision liveblog. I’ll be sharing some articles throughout the day ahead of the event in the evening.
First off, a look at who we know is progressing to the next round...
