Eurovision 2022: When is the final and how to watch?

The Eurovision Song Contest is back with the grand finale on Saturday 14 May, broadcast live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 8pm.

After Italian rock band Maneskin won 2021, this year’s event will be hosted by Italy, with 26 artists flocking to Turin to represent their countries in the grand finals. This year’s UK entry will be Sam Ryder. Find out more about the musician here.

Everything you need to know about the Eurovision 2022 schedule

The semi-finals began on Tuesday (May 10) as 17 countries battled it out for a place in the grand final.

The countries that made it to the first semi-final were Armenia, Greece, Iceland, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland and Ukraine.

The qualifiers in the second semi-final, which took place on Thursday, were Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Sweden.

In February it became known that the European Broadcasting Union had excluded Russia from participating.

“The decision reflects concern that, given the unprecedented crisis in Ukraine, including a Russian entry in this year’s competition would bring the competition into disrepute,” said the EBU, which earlier announced it had no plans to involve Russia in it to prevent them from participating before they retract their testimony.

France, Great Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy belong to the so-called “Big Five”, which automatically qualify for the grand final on Saturday (May 14) and therefore do not have to compete in the semi-finals.