Israel hosted the 2019 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest

Tel Aviv, Israel hosted Eurovision 2019

Israel won the right to host the Eurovision Song Contest in 2019 following the win of Netta’s “Toy” in Lisbon, Portugal. Tel Aviv Convention Center welcomed guests from around the world for the event. The semi-finals took place Tuesday, May 14 and Thursday, May 16. The Grand Final of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest was held Saturday, May 18.

Participating Countries

Participants selected their entries via several different methods:

• Internal Selection: The broadcaster selected the act and the song. Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Russia, San Marino, and Switzerland used this method.
• National Final: The broadcaster will hold a one-off competition to determine their act and song. Australia, Belarus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom selected their acts and songs this way.
• Festival: The broadcaster holds a slightly longer competition, usually with one or two semi-finals and a grand final. Sometimes the competition will take place over the course of a week (Italy’s Sanremo or Albania’s Festivali i Këngës) or over a couple of weekends (Portugal’s Festival da Cancão or Iceland’s Söngvakeppnin). Croatia, Estonia, France, Latvia, Romania, and Serbia used this process.
• Selection Series: The broadcaster holds a long-form competition to determine their artist and song, usually with multiple rounds of winnowing down options. Georgia (Georgia Idol), Hungary (A Dal), Lithuania (Marathon), and Sweden (Melodifestivalen) are prime examples.
• Hybrid: A broadcaster may use one method to determine their artist and another method to select their song.
  • Finland’s broadcaster selected Darude as their artist, but used the national final UMK to have the public choose his song.
  • Israel’s broadcaster used HaKokhav HaBa (Rising Star) to select Kobi Marimi, but his song was chosen internally.
  • Michela Pace won Malta’s version of The X Factor and won the right to go to Eurovision, but her song was internally selected.
  • Spain’s Operacion Triunfo matches contestants from the show with songs for a special Eurovision round. Miki won the Eurovision round a few weeks after Famous won OT2018.

Eurovision Song Contest 2019 First Semi-Final

Eurovision Song Contest 2019 Second Semi-Final

Eurovision Song Contest 2019 Grand Final Participants