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Ukraine proved that it can put on a Eurovision Song Contest with all the glitz and glamour of recent years, with a semi-final that featured a stage so big its actually a problem as many artists looked dwarfed by its size and cut off from the audience.

Ten countries made it through to the Eurovision Song Contest, but eight have been eliminated from the biggest music competition on Earth.

It was heartbreak for Finland, Czech Republic, Latvia, Albania, Georgia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Iceland, who’s suitcases arrived just in time to head home after hot favourites Portugal cruised into the Eurovision Song Contest final with a perfect semi final performance.

With many artists being lost on that huge stage, Salvador Sobral stepped onto a mini stage in the middle of the audience and it was the most effective staging of the night.

Somewhere in the skies above, Sir Terry Wogan will be smiling down on Moldova after Sunstroke Project returned to Eurovision and went through to the final with their Brides of Frankenstein.

In one of the best performances of the night, their jazz-pop number stormed into the final.

Despite Greece’s huge problems with their sound and camera work – and having to repeat their jury performance – they made it through to the final along with Cyprus.

The new voting system means that the most infamous 12 points swap in Eurovision history is now worth up to 24 points and that will have helped.

Like Greece, Belgium suffered some initial problems in rehearsals, leaving one of the pre-rehearsal favourites plummeting with the bookies from 8/1 to 80/1.

A costume change brought Blanche to life however and her performance in the live show was visibly better; she seemed happier, made great eye contact with the camera and finally smiled on stage.

That smile may well have carried her country to the final.

Whilst Greece and Belgium gave huge performances to get over the line, Australia’s Isaiah had been looking strong in rehearsals but couldn’t deliver on the night.

He missed some of his big notes in his power ballad Don’t Come Easy at the point where the clip for the voting window was recorded.

It was an unfortunate reminder of a rare vocal mishap but he’s made it to the final anyway.

Like the United Kingdom, Cyprus’ entry Gravity is written by a former Eurovision winner.

Thomas G:son co-wrote Loreen’s Euphoria that won for Sweden in 2012; he’s won the Swedish final as a songwriter several times and written entries for several other countries.

Speaking of Sweden, it’s nine finals in ten years for the Eurovision heavyweights as Robin Bengtsson cruised into the final with his fashion show on treadmills.

It wasn’t his best vocal performance of I Can’t Go On but the staging looks strong and he can step it up for a big result on Saturday night.

Azerbaijan and Armenia maintained their impressive record of qualification.

Dihaj kept Azerbaijan’s 100% record alive and there will indeed be a man up a ladder wearing a horse’s head at the Eurovision Song Contest final on Saturday night.

Armenia are seen as a potential dark horse with Artsvik’s Fly With Me.

The ethnic beats and strong vocals saw this entry as a potential semi final winner and Armenia will be looking towards the top 10 at the Eurovision final.

Poland jumped from 25th to 8th on the televote alone at last year’s Eurovision final and Kasia Mos gave a strong vocal performance of Flashlight to get Poland back to the final this year.

The new voting system gives Poland an additional boost.

The ten qualifiers will go into the Eurovision Song Contest final on Saturday night along with the United Kingdom, hot favourites Italy, France, Germany, Spain and Ukraine.

The final ten places will be won in Thursday night’s second Eurovision semi final, which airs on BBC Four at 8pm.

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