“The Dami Army are the best. I was just blown away by the amazing crowd,” said Australia’s representative at the Eurovision Song Contest, Dami Im, on getting through to the Grand Final.
Early this morning Australian time the second semifinal of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast live from the Globe Arena in Stockholm. Eighteen countries took part in the second semifinal in order to qualify for the remaining 10 places available in the Grand Final. The 10 qualifiers from the second semi are as follows, in the order they were announced:
• Latvia
• Georgia
• Bulgaria
• Australia
• Ukraine
• Serbia
• Poland
• Israel
• Lithuania
• Belgium
Following the second semifinal, the successful finalists held a press conference.
Dami Im performing at Eurovision semifinal
Australia’s Dami Im was thrilled with her win, as was evident in the live SBS broadcast, and she commented:
“I was so looking forward to today. My fans, the Dami Army, are the best. I was just blown away by the amazing crowd of Eurovision fans tonight. My family were all getting up at 5 am in Australia to watch me. I really don’t cry often, but after my performance I burst into tears because everybody was just so supportive,” Im stated.
What does Dami Im like about competing? “I am quite a shy and quiet person. But when I go on stage, I am like a different person. I am empowered. Especially when the standard is so high, it pushes me hard to be even stronger.
“Australia has been a big fan of Eurovision since the 1980s, we love watching Eurovision. We just love the concept of coming together and playing music. I am personally just very grateful to be able to be part of this,” she said.
Australia was drawn to perform in the first half of the Grand Final.
The second-semi qualifiers join the 16 countries that had already reached the Grand Final, either by automatic qualification (i.e. big five plus host nation) or from qualifying from the first semifinal, to give us the 26 countries that will compete in Europe’s biggest TV Show on Sunday.
The Finalists (In alphabetical order):
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
France
Georgia
Germany
Hungary
Israel
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Malta
Poland
Russia
Serbia
Spain
Sweden
The Netherlands
Ukraine
United Kingdom
The Grand Final will be broadcast on SBS at 5am Sunday and then replayed at 7.30pm Sunday.
Photos: Andres Putting (EBU)