قراءة لمدة 1 دقيقة Eurovision Song Contest 2024

The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 was the 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Hosted in Malmö, the contest began on 7 May 2024 with the first semi-final.
The second semi final took place on 9 May and the grand final took place on 11 May 2024.

37 countries took part in the contest, with Luxembourg participating for the first time in 31 years.

The Netherlands were removed because of an incident with production crew at the contest despite having made it through to the finals.
The Swedish Police Authority has launched an investigation.

The winner was Nemo, representing Switzerland with the song "The Code".

Hosting.

The contest was held in Malmö, Sweden, following their win at the 2023 contest with the song "Tattoo" by Loreen.
The hosts are Malin Åkerman and Petra Mede, who hosted in 2013 and 2016.

Overview.

The Grand Final of Eurovision 2024 was planned to have 26 countries taking part.
These include the Big 5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom), the host country Sweden and ten countries from each of the two semi-finals.
On the day of the Grand Final, the Netherlands was removed from the contest, meaning that there were 25 countries in the final.

Semi-Final 1.

The first semi-final took place on 7 May 2024 at 21:
00 CEST.
Fifteen countries competed in this semi-final while Germany, Sweden and the UK also performed.
Guest performers included past contestants Eleni Foureira, Eric Saade, Chanel Terrero, Benjamin Ingrosso and Johnny Logan, who was the first person to win Eurovision twice.

All countries from this semi-final were able to vote, as well as viewers from non-participating countries under one "rest of the world" online vote.
The ten countries with the most votes qualified for the final.

Semi-Final 2.

The second semi-final took place on 9 May 2024 at 21:
00 CEST.
Sixteen countries took part in this semi-final while France, Italy and Spain also performed their songs.
Guest performers included winners from the 1999, 2003 and 2005 contests:
Charlotte Perrelli, Sertab Erener and Helena Paparizou.

All countries from this semi-final were able to vote, as well as viewers from non-participating countries under one "rest of the world" online vote.
The ten countries with the most votes qualified to the final.

Grand Final.

The final took place on 11 May 2024 at 21:
00 CEST.
The finalists included Sweden, the Big 5 and twenty countries which qualified from the semi-finals.
A voting system of points was used to determine the winner.
Half of the points were awarded by national juries from each participating country and the other half of the points were awarded by televotes from each country plus the "Rest of the World" online vote.
The winner was Switzerland, with "The Code" by Nemo.
The trophy was awarded to Nemo by Loreen, who also performed during the interval of the show.

Netherlands was removed because of an incident with production crew at the contest despite having made it through to the Finals.
The Swedish Police Authority has launched an investigation.

Controversies.

Israeli participation.

The decision to allow Israel to compete was controversial because some people argued that they should have been excluded from the contest due to their actions in their conflict with Hamas, much like how Russia was excluded in 2022 for their invasion of Ukraine.
The Israeli contestant, Eden Golan, was booed by the crowds during live shows.
Several contestants showed their unhappiness over Israel's participation over the course of the contest including Bambie Thug and Iolanda.
Additionally, Eric Saade, who performed in semi-final 1, had a keffiyeh around his arm, which Eurovision saw as a political move supporting Palestine and decided not to post footage of his performance on social media.

Dutch removal.

On the day before the Grand Final, Dutch contestant Joost Klein was not present in rehearsals.
It was later revealed that there was an incident between him and a female photographer.
Eurovision decided to remove the Netherlands from the contest while the Swedish Police Authority investigated the situation.