On March 17 we asked our readers to name their favourites to win Semi-Final 1 of Eurovision 2016. Two months — and 39,116 votes later — some clear favourites have emerged among our readers. This comes with one massive caveat. The majority of votes in this poll were cast prior to the live dress rehearsals. Essentially our readers were rating the studio versions of these songs rather than the live performances. Armenia’s Iveta Mukuchyan won both of our polls for who had the best first rehearsal and best second rehearsal, but she only finished fourth here. In any event, this poll is still an interesting — if very rough — indicator of where allegiances lie.

Malta’s Ira Losco wants to “Walk on Water” at Eurovision — and she sashayed her way to the top of our poll, earning 4,799 votes, or more than 12% of all those cast.

Ira, who recently revealed that she is pregnant with her first child, had a difficult first rehearsal: her dynamic LED projection dress did not work, leaving her looking like she was wearing a box. But she hit the drawing board and re-emerged for her second rehearsal in an elegant gown that shows off her stunning décolletage and gives her the confidence to slay. Ira is most definitely back in top form. Singing for two suits her…

Just 48 votes behind her is Croatia’s Nina Kraljic. Her staging for “Lighthouse” hasn’t been received very positively in the press centre — the dress reveal sees her looking like a Las Vegas show girl dressed as a chicken fighting a wind machine — but the beauty of her song may very well see her through anyway. She earned 4,751 votes, or around 12%.

Third place in our poll goes to Eurovision 2016 favourite Sergey Lazarev. The “You Are The Only One” singer finished with 4,115 votes, or around 11%. He has gotten stronger and stronger as the week has progressed and remains in pole position with the bookies and many Eurovision insiders.

Results: Who should win the first semi-final of Eurovision 2016?

  1. Malta: Ira Losco “Walk On Water” 12.27% (4,799 votes)
  2. Croatia: Nina Kraljic “Lighthouse” 12.15% (4,751 votes)
  3. Russia: Sergey Lazarev “You Are The Only One” 10.52% (4,115 votes)
  4. Armenia: Iveta Mukuchyan “LoveWave” 9.43% (3,688 votes)
  5. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Dalal & Deen feat. Ana Rucner and Jala “Ljubav Je” 7.94% (3,105 votes)
  6. Iceland: Greta Salóme “Hear Them Calling” 6.83% (2,671 votes)
  7. Hungary: Freddie “Pioneer” 5.9% (2,307 votes)
  8. Austria: Zoë “Loin d’ici” 5.39% (2,110 votes)
  9. Cyprus: Minus One “Alter Ego” 5% (1,955 votes)
  10. Azerbaijan: Samra “Miracle” 4.71% (1,842 votes)
  11. Czech Republic: Gabriela Guncíková “I Stand” 4.67% (1,825 votes)
  12. Estonia: Jüri Pootsmann “Play” 4.61% (1,805 votes)
  13. Netherlands: Douwe Bob “Slow Down” 3.92% (1,534 votes)
  14. Greece: Argo “Utopian Land” 2.22% (869 votes)
  15. Finland: Sandhja “Sing It Away” 1.91% (747 votes)
  16. Moldova: Lidia Isac “Falling Stars” 1.21% (474 votes)
  17. San Marino: Serhat “I Didn’t Know” 0.81% (317 votes)
  18. Montenegro: Highway “The Real Thing” 0.51% (202 votes)

Total Votes: 39,116

Semi-Final 1 dress rehearsals

Semi-Final 1 wiwi jury reviews

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redhot
7 years ago

welldone malta

Diane
Diane
7 years ago

Ira Losco <3

Miki
Miki
7 years ago

Oh who cares about the dress. Stop it all ready with the dress non sense! We should value only the songs and the quality of singing.

For that I would like these countries as winners:
-Croatia or Ukraine (both very artistic songs with amazing singers) or Israel (the most poetic song of the whole contest) or Spain (the most up lifting song).

Colin
Colin
7 years ago

These 6 just MUST qualify. I will be quite sad if at least 4 of these don’t qualify: Estonia Iceland Croatia Austria Czech Republic Netherlands Just please let us (Croatia) qualify for once. I don’t care if we are 26’th in the finals. It’s finally a good song that’s representing us, something I can stand by. Also, I would totally love to see Estonia qualify. The song is just as good as the one last year. If last year’s entry deserved Top 10, this one deserves at least to be in the finals. Again, I don’t care if it’s 26’th… Read more »

CookyMonzta
CookyMonzta
7 years ago

Alas, I will be at work when this is televised on the Web. I’ll watch this round (and grade them, including the previews from FRA, SPA and SWE) at midnight (NYC time), isolating myself from anything on the Web that would reveal the results before I watch the show., NYC time

CookyMonzta
CookyMonzta
7 years ago

Here is how I graded the entries for this round (song and video), on 10 criteria: 9.49 Iceland 9.48 Russia 9.44 Austria 9.43 Hungary 9.42 Croatia 9.37 Estonia 9.36 Czech Republic 9.35 Armenia 9.34 Cyprus 9.33 Malta (a more dramatic video, to go with the tempo of the song, would have upped my score here) Non-qualifiers 9.33 Netherlands (quite probably underrated, but then again I underestimated Serbia last year) 9.30 Azerbaijan 9.29 Bosnia and Herzegovina 8.95 Finland 8.83 San Marino 8.68 Moldova 8.26 Greece 7.91 Montenegro Preview performances (not to be judged or voted upon): 9.69 France (my #1 overall);… Read more »

Leo M
Leo M
7 years ago

My prediction to qualify are: Russia, Armenia, Austria, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Malta, Iceland, Hungary and Azerbaijan

Personally, I would like to see Estonia make it through instead of Azerbaijan and I wouldn’t rule out Croatia and/or Bosnia scraping through either.

Ati
Ati
7 years ago

My TOP 18:
1.Hungary
2.Estonia
3.The Netherlands
4.Cyprus
5.Bosnia & Herzegovina
6.Armenia
7.Czech Republic
8.Iceland
9.Russia
10.Greece

11.Malta
12.Finland
13.Montenegro
14.Croatia
15.Moldova
16.Austria
17.Azerbaijan
18.San Marino

My prediction:
1.Russia
2.Armenia
3.The Netherlands
4.Iceland
5.Malta
6.Hungary
7.Estonia
8.Czech Republic
9.Bosnia
10.Greece

11.Azerbaijan
12.Cyprus
13.Croatia
14.Austria
15.Moldova
16.Finland
17.Montenegro
18.San Marino

Darren
Darren
7 years ago

My predicted qualifiers are:
1. Russia (obviously)
2. Armenia (really growing on me)
3. Czech Republic (just has to)
4. Iceland
5. Malta
6. Hungary
7. Cyprus
8. The Netherlands
9. Azerbaijan (Just because)
10. Fight between Austria, Greece and Bosnia-Herzegovina, with probably Greece going though to the final.

Fransman
Fransman
7 years ago

This countries will qualify:

– Armenia
– Russia
– Iceland
– Malta
– Hungary
– Greece
– Croatia
– Azerbaijan
– Cyprus
– The Netherlands

Possible qualifiers: Czechia (I hope sooo) and Bosnia & Herzegovina

RK
RK
7 years ago

@GermanQR

Its to bad that i missed the “like” bottom in this whole site… I like your comment !
Maybe Hovi Star can report for this site he fits anyway. Im gay but they are acting like queers.

Gavin
Gavin
7 years ago

It will be Czech Republic and The Netherlands instead of Bosnia and Austria.

GermanQR
GermanQR
7 years ago

What a joke. This whole site is a joke.

Loo
Loo
7 years ago

http://youtu.be/mLoquQHelQo

guys just look how much support Amir has in the arena! It will be massive on saturday 😉