Seventeen countries competed in the first semi-final of Eurovision 2022. Among them were the eventual Eurovision winners — Ukraine — and other Top 10 finishers Moldova, Greece, Portugal and Norway.
Joining them in the grand final were The Netherlands, Armenia, Lithuania, Switzerland and Iceland.
The unlucky seven who got the chop were: Albania, Latvia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark and Austria.
Of these, we can safely say that Albania’s Ronela Hajati and Austria’s LUM!X feat. Pia Maria were fan favourites heading into the contest.
Ronela’s provocative performance — which led to a lot of chatter during first rehearsals — earned a Top 10 spot in the semi with the public. But juries weren’t feeling it, ranking her 14th.
LUM!X and Pia Maria, meanwhile, arrived with a strong stage concept — a large industrial halo that emitted light and channeled the club. Unfortuanately Pia’s vocals lacked the lustre of her prop.
Croatia’s Mia Dimsic managed to finish 11th overall. But we can’t say that she “barely” missed out. She was a full 28 points behind 10th place act Systur from Iceland.
Which Eurovision 2022 Semi-Final 1 non-qualifier was your favourite?
Eurovision 2022 semi-final one results
- Ukraine: Kalush Orchestra – “Stefania” (337 points)
- Netherlands: S10 – “De Diepte” (221 points)
- Greece: Amanda Tenfjord – “Die Together” (211 points)
- Portugal: MARO – “saudade, saudade” (208 points)
- Armenia: Rosa Linn – “Snap” (187 points)
- Norway: Subwoolfer – “Give That Wolf A Banana” (177 points)
- Lithuania: Monika Liu – “Sentimentai” (159 points)
- Moldova: Zdob și Zdub & Advahov Brothers – “Trenulețul” (154 points)
- Switzerland: Marius Bear – “Boys Do Cry” (118 points)
- Iceland: Systur – “Með hækkandi sól” (103 points)
- Croatia: Mia Dimšić – “Guilty Pleasure” (75 points)
- Albania: Ronela Hajati – “Sekret” (58 points)
- Denmark: REDDI – “The Show” (55 points)
- Latvia: Citi Zēni – “Eat Your Salad” (55 points)
- Austria: LUM!X feat. Pia Maria – “Halo” (42 points)
- Bulgaria: Intelligent Music Project – “Intention” (29 points)
- Slovenia: LPS – “Disko” (15 points)
Eurovision 2022 semi-final one split results
As you can see below, the public would have put Albania into the final. It would have left Switzerland out.
The jury, meanwhile, would have put Croatia through to the final. It would have left Moldova out.
| Televote | Jury | |
| 1. | Ukraine (202 points) | Greece (151 points) |
| 2. | Moldova (135 points) | Netherlands (142 points) |
| 3. | Armenia (105 points) | Ukraine (135 points) |
| 4. | Norway (104 points) | Portugal (121 points) |
| 5. | Lithuania (103 points) | Switzerland (107 points) |
| 6. | Portugal (87 points) | Armenia (82 points) |
| 7. | Netherlands (79 points) | Norway (73 points) |
| 8. | Greece (60 points) | Iceland (64 points) |
| 9. | Albania (46 points) | Lithuania (56 points) |
| 10. | Iceland (39 points) | Croatia (43 points) |
| 11. | Austria (36 points) | Latvia (39 points) |
| 12. | Croatia (33 points) | Denmark (35 points) |
| 13. | Denmark (20 points) | Moldova (19 points) |
| 14. | Bulgaria (18 points) | Albania (12 points) |
| 15. | Latvia (16 points) | Bulgaria (11 points) |
| 16. | Switzerland (11 points) | Slovenia (7 points) |
| 17. | Slovenia (8 points) | Austria (6 points) |
Eurovision 2022 Semi-Final 1: Who did the jury hurt the most?
As you can see in our chart below, Albania was the non-qualifier hurt the most by the jury. The jury scored Ronela 34 points lowers than the public.
Among the non-qualifiers, Latvia benefited the most from the jury. The jury scored them 23 points higher than the televoting public.
Which non qualifier was your favourite? Is your taste more aligned with the juries or the public? Let us know in the comments box below!
Albania was the worst of this bunch, and the ‘Ronela stans’ even more.
I only like Austria. But the studio version. The live performance was bad, and the staging was weird too. So, to be fair, I will say Croatia who gave a solid performance in the night.
As always, I feel the public (naturally) made the netter decisions. I am quite happy with their ranking. Whereas the juries deserve to be slapped for axing Queen Ronela.
Queen of screaming 🙂
These were all good songs, but the best live were Slovenia and Croatia.
Anyone instead of Switzerland.
My faves:
Albania – I was not prepared for this to NQ, the live singing and messy choreography (and yelling) all didn’t help one of the best songs
Austria – I sort of knew this wouldn’t qualify, mainly because of the live singing
Latvia – This also wasn’t likely to qualify, although it was quite fun
Out of all the qualifiers, I only think Switzerland and Albania should have been switched.
Croatia was underrated. Mia gave a vocally strong performance, the song had a great melody, and lyrics were honest and of high level. Lyrics-wise I think it’s a masterpiece and one of the most well-written songs of this year’s ESC. It’s no wonder the juries liked it. Denmark was also great. Very strong vocals from Siggy, good interaction with the camera and the energy was everything. I also loved the song itself. These two countries were my favourites among the semi 1 non-qualifiers, but I liked Denmark the most.
Mia also sang in Croatian, a suprise but a good suprise to be sure.
None of them deserved a place in the final. The Austrian song should and would have made it if they had given a good live performance.
slovenia, bulgaria, denmark and latvia I dont want to comment
My vote goes for Croatia
Demmark and Latvia- I don’t want to comment
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but because Austria, Albania and Slovenia had incredibly underwhelming performances, Croatia was the best overall performance (even with the awkward dancers), with Denmark not far behind.
Albania and Austria both gave below average performances but their songs are much, MUCH better than the rest of the NQs in the semi.
I’m still surprised at how Croatia even finished 11th, like… how?
I can´t understand this harsh disliking by the jury for Moldova… Even behind Iceland, Croatia, Latvia and Denmark….
And I really don´t miss Albania in the Final. My vote in this poll goes to Croatia.
I missed the energy and fun of Latvia in the final, very much.
For me it’s Slovenia and Latvia.
Latvia had a pretty fun song which was missed in the final and Slovenia ending dead last was the most undeserved and wtf moment of the whole contest imo.
we needed more fun in the final, I’d like to change Latvia to Iceland (despite the fact that I like the Icelandic song)
Don’t be that kind of person…
Switzerland should stay in semi.
None to be honest. The better performance imo was Denmark’s but, not enough to make it the best.
+1
I don’t know how people can say Austria were robbed. The rehearsals were shockingly bad vocal-wise to the point the backing vocalist doing the harmonies had to take over the lead vocal. No, I don’t care for excuses. If you can’t sing, step off the stage. My votes go to Slovenia and Latvia.
The staging was absolute horrible. sorry….
Latvia and Slovenia stand out.
Based on my own ranking list:
Based on expectations to qualify:
Slovenia is always robbed. I can’t wait for the day when they will win the contest
They’ll win the year Mexico wins the FIFA World Cup xd
A while ago we were saying that about Turkey, Greece and Finland.
I would say Slovenia or Latvia based on personal taste.
Still surprised Latvia did that poor with televote.
I must say I find this one really hard to decide; I didn’t really like any om them and in my view no of them deserved to be in the final, so it’s justified that they didn’t make it. Merely looking at which one I enjoyed the most (or which I disliked the least), I’d vote for Latvia and Denmark.
In my eyes it’s Slovenia and Latvia. The others either had stagings I didn’t like, the vocals weren’t strong enough or I never liked the song in general. Slovenia finishing dead last is still something I consider the most undeserved result of the year.
The ones i felt bad for were Slovenia, Bulgaria and Latvia
Austria because it is a banger I still listen to
It got points from 12 televotings. Not bad at all
Albania. Retro Eurovision kitsch. They were a victim coz of having to open the ball. Ronela was so pumped up that most of her singing was out of tune.
They were victim of terrible staging
Also true
I liked Latvia the best, but thought that Slovenia wasn’t half bad either! However, Latvia is the one that has made it to my favourite songs on Spotify, I’m still sad they didn’t qualify
Slovenia and Croatia were my favourites of this Semi just a shame they didn’t qualify as they were both quality entries in my opinion
The question should be: Who did the televoters hurt the most? It is obvious that their votes are less based on musical merits.
Croatia is the only non-qualifier that I would have wanted to the final. I voted for Mia and it’s a shame she narrowly missed out. Bulgaria was also a positive surprise. The rest of them are deserved non-qualifiers in my opinion, in one of the few semi finals where I agree so much with the qualifiers.
Denmark was my fave non-qualifier of the whole year. My fourth overall. The performance was electrifying and the vocals were amazing. The lyrics and song behind it are also exquisite, such an underrated entry! I also really liked Slovenia (did not deserve last at all) and Latvia (so quirky and fun, their charisma is undeniable. Although I like the studio cuts loads, the live performances of Albania and Austria were highly disappointing. Croatia was nice (I really liked the Croatian part at the end of the song) but it did not really stand out. Bulgaria was not good all-around (although… Read more »
Denmark was my fave non-qualifier of the whole year. My fourth overall. The performance was electrifying and the vocals were amazing. I also really liked Slovenia (did not deserve last at all) and Latvia (so quirky and fun, their charisma is undeniable. Although I like the studio cuts loads, the live performances of Albania and Austria were highly disappointing. Croatia was nice (I really liked the Croatian part at the end of the song) but it did not really stand out. Bulgaria was not good all-around (although I liked the last 30-45 seconds). Overall a majority of them were good… Read more »
Performance-wise, Slovenia and Latvia were the best. Even Austria was okay, if it weren’t for Pia’s irregular vocals. Croatia was really beautiful, but I think people forgot about it by the time they started voting. I wish they had qualified. Albania was way too messy, it would have been better to keep it dark, just like in FIK. I understand that Ronela wanted to mix things up, but the staging didn’t really match the vibe and feel of the song. Denmark was okay, but again it was too forgettable. The song was already a bit average, I wish they had… Read more »
I’m kind of sad that Denmark didn’t make it. The message in the song is the perfect middle finger to all those people who bring you down when you were a kid.
Undervalued at the ESC and here. I have no idea why – such a fun performance.
hands down, for me at least, SLOVENIA!!! disko has been stuck in my head for so long and lps were by far my biggest growers of the year. i thought they genuinely had a chance to qualify, obviously i was wrong but nonetheless i enjoyed slovenia a lot and it’s my 7th of the year
Have you watched a couple of videos on YT where the vocalist sings an acoustic version accompanied by Zala their bassist? (but here she plays the guitar). Just brilliant!
i havent but ill go check it out!! thank you
Austria & Denmark get my votes
I’d have to say Slovenia’s entry, it’s a song that I keep replaying.
I was obviously not able to vote (due to me being in the U.S.), but I was most disappointed to see Albania and Latvia miss out on the Final. I thought Latvia’s entry was a fun, cheeky (if a bit naughty) song and would have stood out from all the ballads that ended up in the Final. I think what killed Albania’s chances with the juries was the staging. Provocative choreography aside (which honestly was considerably tame compared to what I’ve seen artists like Cardi B do at some awards shows), the costuming didn’t really match the vibe of the… Read more »
Honestly, none. Yes, the Albanian song wasn’t bad (it wasn’t that good either), but the whole show was chaotic and mediocre. But, if I have to vote for one, I think it would be Denmark.
Ronela was my favorite all through the pre-parties, until that unfortunate staging happened. I couldn’t bring myself to vote for that.
Based on the semi final performance, I would pick Latvia.
Song-Austria. Though the staging and vocals for this were awful
Performance- Denmark. They did a great job with a very average song
Croatia
I’ll go with Slovenia, although they were last, because I think it’s honest and it was well performed. Albania was a scenic mess and Ronela couldn’t sing. Latvia was ok as a party song but the lyrics were unfortunate. Croatia was totally underwhelming. Bulgaria was ok but uninspired and formulaic. Austria suffered from a very poor singer and basic staging. And I really can’t stand Denmark…
Austria and Bulgaria should have qualified, and so should Denmark!!
Latvia is my 3rd this year and I was saddened to see it miss the final, due I understand why it NQ’ed. I certainly believe they deserved a slot in the final.
Though I understand*
Croatia was alright and Albania would at least have been an interesting addition to the final. But the only ones who really would have deserved it in every sense were the ever unlucky Latvians.
Austria