{"id":427792,"date":"2026-05-14T19:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/427792\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T19:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:46:09","slug":"watch-the-second-semi-final-of-the-eurovision-song-contest-2026-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/427792\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 live"},"content":{"rendered":"

Giant neon skipping ropes and songs about hating your job: Standout moments to look out forpublished at 20:11 BST<\/p>\n

20:11 BST<\/p>\n

\"\"Mark Savage
Music correspondent, at the semi-final<\/p>\n

\"Dara\"Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, <\/p>\n

Bulgarian singer Dara is kicking off the competition<\/p>\n

Tonight\u2019s semi-final has a couple of themes: Big ballads, operatic vocals and lots and lots of rope – you can watch it all live above.<\/p>\n

We won’t be providing running commentary until Saturday’s final – but here are some highlights to look out for tonight:<\/p>\n

The show opens with Bulgaria, whose singer Dara exclaims: “Welcome to the riot,” as she executes some dynamic chair choreography, with sly glances to the camera.<\/p>\n

Her song Bangaranga is one of my favourites – a nonsensical typhoon of tropical pop, based around a piece of Jamaican patois that means “a joyful kind of disorder”. <\/p>\n

Representing Romania, Alexandra
\nC\u0103pit\u0103nescu has provoked controversy with the lyrics to her song Choke Me. Campaigners have criticised the track for glamourising sexual violence – but Alexandra says it’s really about suffocating under the weight of society’s expectations.<\/p>\n

Representing her desire to break free of those constraints, she performs while tethered to two guitarists by giant neon skipping ropes. We’ll be seeing a lot of that behaviour over the next 90 minutes.<\/p>\n

Both Armenia and the UK have entered songs about hating your job. <\/p>\n

The former, entitled Paloma Rumba, is the more sinister of the two, with 31-year-old Sim\u00f3n bursting out of an elevator like he’s about to give the boss a piece of his mind.<\/p>\n

While Ramsgate synth act representing the UK, Look Mum No Computer, take a more zany approach on the herky-jerky stomp of Eins, Zwei, Drei.<\/p>\n

More soothing is Australia’s Delta Goodrem, whose ballad Eclipse is all about all-encompassing love, and comes with a spectacular key change. <\/p>\n

And we’ll also hear from Danish star S\u00f8ren Torpegaard Lund, who is one of the favourites to win, with F\u00f8r Vi G\u00e5r Hje. A charismatic ballad that slips into club mode, it has reminded some fans of Ariana Grande’s classic One More Time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giant neon skipping ropes and songs about hating your job: Standout moments to look out forpublished at 20:11…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-427792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}