You need to know that before Laura Thorn’s appearance in the ESC semi-final

The 69th Eurovision Song Contest in Basel in Switzerland is just around the corner. But before the 26 candidates in the grand finale demonstrate their skills, most of them first have to go through the preliminary decisions. And the spectators have a lot to say there. Here is the most important information for your television evening.

What does the timeline look like for the ESC 2025?

The two semi -finals take place on May 13th and 15th. Here it is decided who qualified for the grand finale on Saturday, May 17th. In the first semi -final, 15 candidates compete, but in the second 16th only ten candidates from both rounds. The television broadcasts on RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg and other channels (One, Tipik) begin at 9 p.m. The event is also transferred to YouTube, but without a commentator.

Who appears when?

The official starting order for the first and second semi-finals can be seen in the Eurovision Instagram contribution. In the first semi -final, our neighboring country Belgium and the favorites Sweden and Estonia compete. The last year’s winner Switzerland as well as Spain and Italy are also there. The latter two are already automatically qualified as Big Five, i.e. as the largest donor.

Luxembourg is only there in the second semi -finals. Favorite Austria and the other “Big Five” Great Britain, Germany and France also compete here.

What do Laura Thorn’s chances are to qualify for the final?

The chances of the Luxembourg participant could currently be better. The betting providers don’t seem to be quite convinced that they make it into the final. You believe the portal Eurovisionworldwhich summarizes the betting odds of various providers, she has a chance of 61 percent to qualify (as of May 12). That sounds a lot, but many candidates are close together, so that several good chances have. So there is still a lot on the staging on the stage. And – that the contribution is also received by the spectators.

Because only they are allowed to vote in the semi -finals, no juries. After all, Germany and France are entitled to vote in the second semi -finals, which could be an opportunity. Luck could also bring her that she only started as the 13th.

This is quite late and could lead to the audience still in your memory. After her, Finland and Israel appear, which are traded as favorites. However, they differ in terms of stylistically from Thorn’s song.

How does the voting work?

As already mentioned: The viewers alone decide at home about the outcome of the two semi -finals of the Eurovision Song Contest. And: it is not possible to coordinate for your own country.

However, you can vote for other countries that take part in the same semi -finals as Luxembourg. Three of the countries – Germany, France and Great Britain – pre -qualified for the grand finale – are also entitled to vote.

The “rest of the world” is entitled to vote on all three shows. These are the countries that do not participate in the ESC. All votes are counted together for the evaluation and considered a country.

In the semi -finals, the voting is opened after the last song and remains open for about 18 minutes. You can either use the official Eurovision Song Contest app or about the Website vote. Anyone who coordinates the app receives a special video message from their favorite artists. Payment is made by credit card. You can vote up to 20 times for the countries for which you want to vote.