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The clock above counts down to the Eurovision Song Contest 2026, with semi-finals on May 12 and 14 and the Grand Final on Saturday, May 16, 2026, hosted by Austrian broadcaster ORF following JJ's win for Austria in 2025.
Eurovision is the world's longest-running annual international televised song competition, organised by the European Broadcasting Union since 1956. The 2026 edition is the 70th anniversary contest and lands in Austria after Vienna's last hosting stint in 2015. It draws roughly 160 million live viewers across the EBU's member countries plus a substantial global audience watching through official streams, making it one of the most-searched broadcast events of the spring on a level with the Super Bowl in the US and the FIFA World Cup final.
The contest's structure is fixed: each participating broadcaster submits one entry, two semi-finals whittle the field down to 26 finalists who join the Big Five and the host country, and a 50/50 split between national jury votes and televoting decides the winner. Eurovision functions as a soft-power showcase for European broadcasting, a launchpad for pop careers (ABBA, Celine Dion, Maneskin, Loreen), and a fixture of LGBTQ+ pop culture, with millions of fans organising watch parties from Sydney to Toronto.
Austria's ORF is staging the production at Vienna's Wiener Stadthalle, the same venue used in 2015. Entries are confirmed by national broadcasters between November 2025 and March 2026; the running order, hosts, and interval acts are typically locked in over the spring. Expect heavy attention on Israel's participation following recent debates among broadcasters, on returning powerhouses like Sweden, Italy, and Ukraine, and on whether JJ performs an interval reprise as the previous winner. The Big Five (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain) plus Austria as host are pre-qualified for the final.
Eurovision streams free on the official YouTube channel and on each participating broadcaster's platform: BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK, ARD/Das Erste in Germany, France 2 in France, RAI 1 in Italy, RTVE in Spain, SBS in Australia, and Peacock in the US. The Grand Final on May 16 starts at 21:00 CEST in Vienna, which is 20:00 BST, 15:00 ET, 12:00 PT, 00:30 IST on May 17, and 04:00 JST on May 17. The full broadcast runs roughly four hours including voting.
Eurovision shares the spring live-music slot with EDC Las Vegas 2026, Primavera Sound Barcelona 2026, and Tomorrowland Belgium 2026. For the awards-broadcast cluster, see the Tony Awards 2026.
When is Eurovision 2026? The Grand Final is Saturday, May 16, 2026, with semi-finals on May 12 and 14. Where is Eurovision 2026? Vienna, Austria, at the Wiener Stadthalle, hosted by ORF. How can I watch Eurovision 2026? Live on the official Eurovision YouTube channel, BBC One/iPlayer in the UK, Peacock in the US, and each EBU broadcaster's stream. Why is Austria hosting? Eurovision tradition is that the previous year's winning country hosts the next contest, and JJ won for Austria in 2025.
