VIENNA (AP) 鈥� Ten countries including favorite Finland and contentious competitor Israel won places Tuesday in the final, while five nations were sent home after the first day of competition in the .
Host city has been bedecked in hearts and the contest鈥檚 鈥淯nited by Music鈥� motto for a week in which singers and bands onstage for the continent鈥檚 musical crown. But divisions are clouding the contest鈥檚 70th anniversary edition, with five countries 鈥� Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland 鈥� boycotting to protest .
Despite the absentee nations, thousands of ebullient fans from across Europe and beyond packed the Wiener Stadthalle arena for the first semifinal. Some had flags painted on their faces or clothes in national colors, others wore sequins and spangles for a contest that celebrates the kitschy, infectious power of pop.
Security is tight across the city, with police from across Austria deployed in the capital, and support from forces in neighboring Germany. Awareness of risk is high after a 21-year-old Austrian man accused of pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group pleaded guilty to plotting to in Vienna in 2024.
Israel through to the Eurovision final
Acts from 15 countries performed their 3-minute songs onstage 鈥� often with eye-catching choreography and pyrotechnics 鈥� in a bid for votes from juries in participating nations and viewers around the world.
Israeli singer Noam Bettan was met with shouts of protests amid the cheers in the auditorium when he performed the rock ballad 鈥淢ichelle,鈥� but was one of 10 acts voted into Saturday’s final.
Finland, the favorite on betting markets, made the cut with 鈥淟iekinheitin,鈥� or 鈥淔lamethrower,鈥� a mashup of pop singer Pete Parkkonen鈥檚 anguished vocals and violinist Linda Lampenius鈥� fiery fiddling.
Joining them in the final are Greece鈥檚 Akylas with party-rap track 鈥淔erto,” or “Bring It鈥�; Serbian goth metal band Lavina with 鈥淜raj Mene鈥�; Moldovan folk-rapper Satoshi with 鈥淰iva, Moldova!鈥�; and 鈥淎ndromeda鈥� by Croatian female ensemble Lelek.
Soulful Polish singer Alicja, Lithuanian performer Lion Ceccah, Swedish singer Felicia and Belgium鈥檚 Essyla also made the final. Estonia, Georgia, Montenegro, Portugal and San Marino were eliminated 鈥� despite a guest appearance by 1980s icon Boy George on singer Senhit’s San Marino song, 鈥淪uperstar.鈥�
Ten more finalists will be chosen in a second semifinal Thursday. The U.K., France, Germany and Italy automatically qualify for the final because they are among the contest鈥檚 biggest funders. Austria, , gets a place in the final as host country.
Protesters urge artists to withdraw
Long a forum for good-natured 鈥� and sometimes more pointed 鈥� national rivalries, Eurovision has found it hard to separate pop and politics in recent years. Russia was expelled in 2022 after its .
The 2024 contest in , and last year鈥檚 event in , saw that called for Israel to be expelled over the conduct of its war against Hamas in Gaza and allegations it ran a rule-breaking marketing campaign to get votes for its contestant.
The European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision, has toughened voting rules in response to the vote-rigging allegations, halving the number of votes per person to 10 and tightening safeguards against 鈥渟uspicious or coordinated voting activity.鈥�
But the EBU declined to kick Israel out, spurring five countries to announce in December that they would not participate this year.
Several pro-Palestinian demonstrations are planned during Eurovision week, including a musical event dubbed No Stage for Genocide. Its backers urged Eurovision performers to pull out of the competition.
鈥淚 think it is a moral obligation for each and every artist to take action and step away from the competition,鈥� said Congolese-Austrian activist Patrick Bongola.
Israel strongly denies committing genocide in Gaza. Demonstrations in support of the country鈥檚 participation are also planned this week in Vienna.
The five-country boycott is a revenue and viewership blow to an event that organizers say was watched by 166 million people around the world last year. Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania have returned after skipping the event for artistic or financial reasons in recent years, but the number of participants, at 35, is still the lowest since 2003.
Jonathan Hendrickx, a media researcher at the University of Copenhagen, said any more boycotts will stress the structure of the contest and raise doubts about its future.
鈥淭hey really are at their limits now, in terms of what they can handle with the current format,鈥� Hendrickx said.
Dean Vuletic, the author of 鈥淧ostwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest,鈥� is confident Eurovision can weather the latest storms.
鈥淚f you look at the history of Eurovision, it鈥檚 gone through so many crises, so many political challenges, so many geopolitical changes in Europe, and it鈥檚 always managed to survive,鈥� he said.
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Associated Press writer Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report.
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