PREVIEW: Eurovision Semi-Finals 2021, BBC Four

The semi-finals will be live on BBC Four, presented by Rylan Clark-Neal, Scott Mills and Chelcee Grimes.

Tuesday 18 May, 8pm

In the first semi-final, the first group of countries will compete for a place in Saturday’s Grand Final.

The 16 countries competing are: Lithuania, Slovenia, Russia, Sweden, Australia, North Macedonia, Ireland, Cyprus, Norway, Croatia, Belgium, Israel, Romania, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Malta.

Opening the show is The Netherlands Duncan Laurence, the most recent winner of Eurovision from 2019. Since 2019 Duncan's Eurovision winning song Arcade became a TikTok phenomenon, and earlier this year it returned to the UK charts along with an appearance in US Billboard charts.

Highlights of the first semi-final includes one of the bookies favourites Destiny, who is representing Malta. Also appearing is a Russian rapper who is also a women's rights activist, a Ukrainian electro-folklore outfit, and a Cypriot act whose song El Diablo has faced protests from some of the country's devout Christian community.

Thursday 20 May, 8pm

The second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 will feature 17 different acts taking to the stage in the hope of securing a place in Saturday’s Grand Final.

Competing this evening are: San Marino, Estonia, Czech Republic, Greece, Austria, Poland, Moldova, Iceland, Serbia, Georgia, Albania, Portugal, Bulgaria, Finland, Latvia, Switzerland and Denmark

Viewers in the United Kingdom are able to vote in this semi-final once all of the nights acts have performed.

Highlights of the second semi-final include one of the bookies favourites, San Marino with their entrant Senhit. Plus Daði Freyr is back for Iceland. Daði was due to appear last year and even though the contest was cancelled, their entry Think About Things was a viral sensation racking up more than 75 million Spotify Streams.