The first ten countries qualified for the Eurovision final are...

• This Tuesday, in Turin (Italy), took place the first semi-final of Eurovision 2021.

• Seventeen countries participated in it to win one of the ten qualifying places for the final on Saturday.

• The ten countries qualified for the final are: Switzerland, Armenia, Iceland, Lithuania, Portugal, Norway, Greece, Ukraine, Moldova and the Netherlands.

From our special correspondent in Turin (Italy)

On Saturday, the Pala Alpitour will host the final of Eurovision 2022. Twenty-five countries will participate.

We already knew that the countries of the "Big 5" (Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom) were automatically qualified for the final as the main financial contributors to the competition.

This Tuesday, ten other countries won their ticket for the big night, while for seven others, the competition ended before midnight.

Back to the lucky ones and the big disappointed ones.

• Albania, eliminated

Ronela Hajati had a complicated start to her stay in Turin.

In particular because of the grossophobic and sexist attacks of his haters.

“I'm here to sing, if you like my song, listen to it!

If you don't like it, turn off the music.

I'm not here to be judged, no one is there for that, ”she replied to them at a press conference on Wednesday.

Unfortunately, the Eurovision adventure ends tonight for the Albanian.

Watch the performance here.

• Latvia, eliminated

The Citi Zeni group is the fusion of the minds of Cyril Dion (for the green conscience) and Patrick Sébastien (for the redneck side).

"Rather than meat, I eat vegetables and kitties", sing the Latvians, claiming that "being green is cool".

Energetic and smiling in their colorful staging, they do not seem to have been understood by the public (and/or the juries).

Watch the performance here.

• Lithuania, qualified

Monika Liu takes the bowl cut a step further.

She offered the public three minutes of elegance with her ballad with Italian-retro accents

, sung in Lithuanian.

She wasn't spoiled by the running order, but that didn't stop the charm from working.

Watch the performance here.

• Switzerland, qualified

"Boys Don't Cry", boys don't cry, sang The Cure thirty years ago.

Marius Bear takes the opposite view by assuring in "Boys Do Cry" that yes, the boys cry.

A ballad that is not memorable in itself, but which takes on a bit of consistency once sung on the Eurovision set, wrapped in a scenography whose sophistication disguises itself in simplicity.

Watch the performance here.

• Slovenia, eliminated

LPS, acronym for “Last Pizza Slice”, “the last slice of pizza”, is a curious group name.

But he goes well with this friendly band of young Slovenians giving the impression of having skipped the rehearsal of the high school orchestra to come and jam at Eurovision.

Their song,

, is one of the curiosities of this year: depending on the ears listening to it, it radiates a cheerful retro charm or makes you want to yawn under a disco ball.

Watch the performance here.

• Ukraine, qualified

If there was a country whose ability to qualify was beyond doubt, it is Ukraine.

A final without the Kalush Orchestra group was unimaginable.

Already because the song

is at the top of the basket of this semi-final and she deserves her ticket for Saturday evening.

Then because, symbolically, it is important that Ukrainian music shines in the spotlight, for hundreds of millions of viewers.

Watch the performance here.

• Bulgaria, eliminated

One of the main pitfalls to avoid at Eurovision: choose a piece in line with the winner of the previous year.

Bulgaria fell right into it by calling on a rock group, Intelligent Music Project (a hardly presumptuous name), to hope to succeed the rockers of Maneskin.

The song,

, is also pretty basic, so it feels like it's been heard a thousand times.

Watch the performance here.

• Netherlands, qualified

"I was afraid that the international public would not catch my song because it is in Dutch but, on the contrary, it is magnificently received, I find", rejoiced S10 (pronounced "S ten") with

.

The rising glory of the Dutch independent scene had confirmation on Tuesday that

very popular.

Watch the performance here.

• Moldova, qualified

“Hey ho, let's go!

Folklore and rock'n'roll”, sings Zdob Zi Zdub who takes us on a train journey between the Moldavian and Romanian capitals, Chisinau and Bucharest.

Even if this piece is perhaps more folklore for tourists than a masterpiece, the good humor is contagious.

And the group has validated its ticket for its third final after its two previous participations in 2005 and 2011.

Watch the performance here.

• Portugal, qualified

Portugal is one of the few countries (along with, say, Italy and Ukraine) to have real consistency in its choices for Eurovision.

With its Festival da Cançao – the song festival that acts as a selection for the competition – it offers quality songs, sometimes daring, but of which it never has to be ashamed, even when it fails to qualify for the final.

With

, Maro offered a welcome breather to this first semi-final, a suspended moment, capturing the Portuguese spirit.

Watch the performance here.

• Croatia, eliminated

Mia Dimsic sings

, but there's nothing guilty about this song.

It is more like the Taylor Swift of the Balkans: a ballad without much roughness and quickly forgotten.

Watch the performance here.

• Denmark, eliminated

The group Reddi also plays the rock card, but unlike the Bulgarian example, it works.

The song is better constructed, the picture seems more coherent and the proposal less opportunistic.

But that's not enough to get a ticket to the final.

Watch the performance here.

• Austria, eliminated

You may have heard this song

, on French radio.

In studio version, it has all the dancing tube making you want to venture on the dance floor.

On the Eurovision stage, she loses energy.

The scenic device encloses the two artists in a circular light device: the duo seems trapped when it should inspire passion.

Watch the performance here.

• Iceland, qualified

As their name suggests, the Systur are three sisters, Icelandic, singing in their native language.

Their guitar ballad evokes the great American plains more than the island's fjords, but it makes anyone who takes the trouble to listen to it travel.

Watch the performance here.

• Greece, qualified

Amanda Tenfjord is one of the favorites of this edition.

His qualification for the final was a formality.

The unusual staging – she moves among “soft” chairs that Dali would not have denied – is meant to be dreamlike.

The singer can continue to dream of victory.

Watch the performance here.

• Norway, qualified

As

explained to you here, we are not completely sure who is hiding under the masks of the Subwoofers.

What is certain is that their song,

, is extremely effective.

Impossible to get it out of your head.

Watch the performance here.

Armenia, qualified

Armenia had not qualified for a Eurovision final since 2017, with

, a catchy ballad, Rosa Linn remedied it with a snap of her fingers.

The artist, who evolves in a room decor covered with post-its, can also compete for the title of the most ambitious scenic device of this edition.

Watch the performance here.

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