Eurovision 2019: 42 countries to compete in Tel Aviv!

The official announcement has been made, and we now know the nations who will be competing at Eurovision 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Earlier today, the EBU announced that 42 nations will be competing at Eurovision 2019, 36 of which will be competing in the semi-finals with 6 automatically qualifying for the final (France, Italy, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom and host nation Israel).

Jon Ola Sand has commented, ‘Last year Netta dared to dream and won the contest in Lisbon, bringing it to Israel for 2019. We are thrilled that 42 countries will be represented in Tel Aviv and hope the participating broadcasters are inspired to have the same dream. The team at KAN is busy preparing to welcome the participants – and the world! – to Tel Aviv and will be putting on a show to remember.’

Here is the list of participating nations:

• Albania (RTSH)
• Armenia (AMPTV)
• Australia (SBS)
• Austria (ORF)
• Azerbaijan (İctimai TV)
• Belarus (BTRC)
• Belgium (RTBF)
• Croatia (HRT)
• Cyprus (CYBC)
• Czech Republic (ČT)
• Denmark (DR)
• Estonia (ERR)
• Finland (YLE)
• France (FT)
• FYR Macedonia (MKRTV)
• Germany (ARD/NDR)
• Georgia (GPB)
• Greece (ERT)
• Hungary (MTVA)
• Iceland (RÚV)
• Ireland (RTÉ)
• Israel (IPBC/KAN)
• Italy (RAI)
• Latvia (LTV)
• Lithuania (LRT)
• Malta (PBS)
• Moldova (TRM)
• Montenegro (RTCG)
• The Netherlands (AVROTROS)
• Norway (NRK)
• Poland (TVP)
• Portugal (RTP)
• Romania (TVR)
• Russia (RTR)
• San Marino (SMRTV)
• Serbia (RTS)
• Slovenia (RTVSLO)
• Spain (RTVE)
• Sweden (SVT)
• Switzerland (SRG/SSR)
• Ukraine (UA:PBC)
• United Kingdom (BBC)

This will be the anniversary year of a handful of nations including The Netherlands and Switzerland who will be competing for the 60^th time as of 2019. Additionally, Greece will be sending their 40^th entry, while Croatia, Estonia and Slovenia are competing for the 25^th time. Latvia and Lithuania will take part for the 20^th time and San Marino the 10^th time.

Holding the record for participation is Germany who will be competing for the 63^rd time.

In total, 19 nations have the potential to win the contest for the first time.

Eurovision 2019 will take place on the 14^th, 16^th and 18^th of May 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel. News about tickets will be released soon, so stay tuned!