As it happened: the Eurovision Song Contest Final 2024

Welcome, or välkommen should that be!

I’ll be looking after you, dear readers, throughout the broadcast of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest 2024. We’ll be live blogging our thoughts, along with tidbits of information about this year’s contestants along the way.

It’s been a controversial 48 hours at Eurovision though, with the latest reports now stating that Finland’s 2023 entry, Kaarija, he has stepped down from the role, as announcing the points “does not feel right”.

Taking to Instagram earlier, the “Cha Cha Cha” singer wrote: “I have decided not to participate as the spokesperson for the Finnish jury in tonight’s Eurovision finale.

“Giving out the points does not feel right.”

That comes after The Sun have now reported that should Israel win this evening’s event, that 2023 winner Loreen will not hand over the Eurovision trophy to Eden Golan, the country’s entrant with her song “Hurricane.”

Just a nice, calm Eurovision then.

For those of you wanting to know when the BBC’s coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 will begin, the show is scheduled to start at 8pm with a finishing time of 11:55pm. However, seasoned Eurovision viewers will tell you don’t expect it to be punctual.

Rylan Clark and Scott Mills are also hosting a Eurovision party on BBC Radio 2 from 8pm, if you fancied some alternative commentary during this year’s event.

Apologies to those who were looking to escape the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 final by tuning into ITV to watch Britain’s Got Talent, but it’s not on this evening.

ITV made the scheduling move so as to not oppose what is considered one of the BBC’s biggest expected audiences of the year.

There is expected to be a tribute to Abba as it is the 50-year anniversary of the Swedish group winning with their hit song Waterloo, as well as a performance by 2023 Eurovision winner Loreen, who represented Sweden.

The next episode of Britain’s Got Talent will air on May 12 at 7.40pm instead.

We previously posted the running order for this evening’s final, but with the news that the Netherlands have been disqualified, there has been a change to the order; not a huge change through.

The Netherlands were originally scheduled to perform fifth this evening. The EBU confirmed that this will just be omitted from the performances instead.

Revised performance order as follows:

The talk over the last 48 hours has been about the shock disqualification of the Netherlands’ entry this year, Joost Klein with his incredibly catchy track “Europapa.”

So what led to his DQ at the 11th hour? As it stands, Songfestival and AVROTOS have shed some light on the situation alongside their thoughts about the entire situation.

We still have a music contest ahead of us with all the drama and controversy surrounding it, so who is considered the favourite ahead of this evening’s event?

No surprise that Croatia’s Baby Lasagna is considered the favourite to win this evening’s contest, but there has been a last-minute surge for Israel’s Eden Golan and her song “Hurricane,” now considered the second favourite to win.

We’ve looked at the full booking odds as we’re now only 30 minutes away from the live show.

Considered one of the favourites to win this year’s contest, Switzerland’s Nemo almost stole the show at the second semi-final after their performance of “The Code” saw them performing on a rotating disc. Fingers crossed the final performance goes as smoothly as Thursday!

Though given this year’s contest so far...

We profiled Nemo in an earlier post, which you can check out ahead of their performance this evening. The two-time winners, who boast Celine Dion as an entrant in previous years, are scheduled to be the 20th performance this evening.

So with the last-minute odds now in the ether (the website ), it looks as if there is still a lot of momentum behind Croatia’s entry, Baby Lasagna. “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” fever has taken over the country, with motorway signs and even bus stops all posting the song title in celebration of his entry.

But did you know Baby Lasagna was in a rock band before his dalliances being a solo artist? We took a look at this year’s favourite, Baby Lasagna.

News now regarding Norway’s involvement in this year’s contest.

TV presenter Ingvild Helljesen will be announcing the jury votes for Norway in the Eurovision final, according to the broadcasting company NRK. 

This follows the withdrawal of Alessandra Mele, who was originally set to be the country's jury spokesperson. 

Mele announced her decision to withdraw in an Instagram video, where she also expressed her gratitude for the opportunity and ended the message with the words "Free Palestine".

Ten minutes until this year’s final commences, with coverage live on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and BBC Radio 2 from 8pm. Spoiled for choice this evening however you wish to take part of what SuRie called the “musical Olympics.”