EUROVISION 2016: 43 COUNTRIES WILL PARTICIPATE

During the last couple of days some countries have been added to the Eurovision 2016 list of participants. Bulgaria has confirmed that it will indeed be returning to Eurovision in 2016. And not only Bulgaria but Croatia as well.

And FINALLY it’s now official that 43 countries will participate in Eurovision 2016 in Stockholm next year. This matches the record number of countries we saw back in 2011 and 2008. In addition to 39 of the 40 countries that took part in Vienna, 2016 will see the return of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Croatia. As all of you Iberian Eurofans already know, Portugal withdrew from next year’s contest. The special 60th anniversary guest Australia will be back for the second time.

The EBU (European Broadcasting Union) has released the list of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest participating countries today. A total of 43 countries will compete in Stockholm.

43 countries will compete in the 2 semi-finals scheduled to be held on 10 and 12 May. A total of 26 countries will compete in the grand final on 14 May. The BIG 5 countries which are Spain, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany plus Sweden , the host country, are automatically qualified to compete in the grand final.

Semi-finalists

Albania	Armenia	Australia
Austria	Azerbaijan	Belarus
Belgium	Bosnia Herzegovina	Bulgaria
Croatia	Cyprus	Czech Republic
Denmark	Estonia	Finland
FYR Macedonia	Georgia	Greece
Hungary	Iceland	Ireland
Israel	Latvia	Lithuania
Malta	Moldova	Montenegro
Norway	Poland	Romania
Russia	San Marino	Serbia
Slovenia	Switzerland	The Netherlands
Ukraine