Eurovision reveals Grand Final running order for 25 acts

The European Broadcasting Union and Austria’s ORF published the running order for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 Grand Final on Friday, setting the sequence for the 25 acts due to perform on Saturday night in Vienna. Denmark will open the show, Austria will close it, and Finland — the bookmakers’ favourite entering the final — will perform 17th. The final is scheduled for 21:00 CEST on May 16 at Wiener Stadthalle, with BBC One and BBC iPlayer carrying the show in the United Kingdom. ### Which countries got the most prominent slots? Denmark’s Søren Torpegaard Lund will perform first with “Før vi går hjem,” while Austria’s COSMÓ will take the last slot with “Tanzschein,” according to the published order. Germany’s Sarah Engels is second, Israel’s Noam Bettan third and Belgium’s ESSYLA fourth. The middle of the show includes Australia’s Delta Goodrem in eighth place, the United Kingdom’s Look Mum No Computer in 14th, France’s Monroe in 15th and Finland’s Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen in 17th. (eurovisionworld.com) Italy’s Sal Da Vinci is 22nd, Norway’s JONAS LOVV 23rd and Romania’s Alexandra Căpitănescu 24th before Austria closes. ### How was the order decided? (esctoday.com) ORF, the Austrian host broadcaster, set the performance order after the semi-finals, following the contest’s producer-led system used in recent years. Eurovisionworld said countries were first allocated to first half, second half or “Producer Decides” buckets through draws held after the two semi-finals, after which producers fixed the final sequence. (esctoday.com) ESCToday reported that the order was created by the producers together with participating broadcasters, with the stated aim of building a balanced television show. The host country’s closing position had already been determined by draw, Eurovisionworld said. ### Where do the bookmakers stand before the show? Eurovisionworld’s bookmaker tracker listed Finland as the market leader on Saturday, with a 41% winning chance and best odds clustered around 1.85 to 2.1. (eurovisionworld.com) Australia ranked second on the same tracker at 22%, followed by Greece at 7% and Israel at 6%. Denmark was seventh on that list at 3%. ESCToday, in a separate pre-final market roundup published Friday, also said Finland remained the clear favourite after the second semi-final and described Australia as the main pursuer. (esctoday.com) That report said the betting market had moved sharply after Thursday’s qualifier lineup was completed. ### Who is in the field of 25? (eurovisionworld.com) The 25 finalists consist of host Austria, the automatic finalists Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, and 20 qualifiers from the two semi-finals held on May 12 and May 14. Eurovisionworld listed the final lineup as including Albania, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Israel, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Sweden and Ukraine alongside the automatic finalists. (esctoday.com) The running order places several higher-profile contenders in the second half of the show, including Finland, Sweden, Italy and Austria. Australia, Greece and Israel are all scheduled in the first third of the broadcast. ### How can viewers watch and vote? BBC said the Grand Final will air live from Vienna on BBC One, BBC iPlayer, Radio 2 and BBC Sounds from 8 p.m. in the UK on Saturday, May 16. (eurovisionworld.com) ESCToday said all 35 participating countries will vote in the final, with each country awarding one set of jury points and one set of televote points. (esctoday.com) The contest will also include the “Rest of the World” online vote through esc.vote, ESCToday reported. The winner will be decided after all 25 performances and the combined jury and public voting sequence later on Saturday night in Vienna. (esctoday.com) (bbc.com)