Sweden, the UK and Israel will compete in the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest final in Switzerland.
British girl group Remember Monday, with the genre-shifting “What The Hell Just Happened?” inspired by their friendship after they met at school in Hampshire, will be the eighth performance on Saturday night in Basel.
There has also been speculation that Canadian singer Celine Dion, who won for the Swiss in 1988 with “Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi,” could take to the St Jakobshalle stage, amid her stepping back from touring due to health issues.
Remember Monday will be up against the noted contenders Sweden, who are represented by Swedish-speaking Finnish trio Kaj with their entry “Bara Bada Bastu,” a comedic song about Nordic sauna culture, and who will break Eurovision records if they win.
Ireland, whose 2025 representative Emmy Kristiansen failed to get through in Thursday’s semi-final, and Sweden are currently on seven wins each after Swedish singer Loreen’s victory in Liverpool in 2023.
Other favourites this year are Austria’s JJ (Johannes Pietsch) with the emotional song “Wasted Love,” and Israeli singer Yuval Raphael, who will see her country join Luxembourg, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom on five wins if she lifts the trophy with the ballad New Day Will Rise.
Also in the mix are Finnish leather-wearing Erika Vikman with the innuendo-laden German language song “Ich Komme,” France’s Louane with the soulful Maman, and Dutch singer Claude Kiambe’s touching “C’est La Vie.”
There has also been buzz around host country Switzerland’s Zoe Me with “Voyage,” Estonia’s Tommy Cash with Italian parody “Espresso Macchiato,” and Malta’s Miriana Conte, who changed her song’s title, Kant, due to a complaint about its similarity to an English language swearword, to Serving.
The winner will be determined by a combination of points from national juries and viewer votes in the participating 26 countries, along with a separate rest of the world poll.
The UK’s national jury votes are set to be announced by singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, after Doctor Who actor Ncuti Gatwa pulled out of being the British Eurovision spokesperson due to “unforeseen circumstances.”
The grand final will also see previous Eurovision runners-up Croatia’s Baby Lasagna and Finland’s Kaarija perform, as well as 2024 champion and Swiss singer Nemo with their new song “Unexplainable.”
On Thursday, the Basel government said more than 200,000 people have visited the city so far for the contest, after the competition came home to Switzerland, which first hosted it in 1956 in Lugano.
There were pro-Palestinian protests in Basel on Sunday and Wednesday, which were attended by no more than 150 people, police said, a significant drop from Malmo 2024, which saw thousands of marchers demonstrating against Israel’s inclusion amid the war in Gaza.
On Thursday, a protest was held against antisemitism by around 150 people, and that same day a small group were ejected from the arena after Raphael’s rehearsal was disrupted by what appeared to be pro-Palestinian demonstrators with “oversized flags and whistles.”
TV coverage for the final is provided by “King of Eurovision” Graham Norton on BBC One at 8pm on Saturday, while British audiences can also listen to BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds for live coverage with presenters Rylan Clark and Scott Mills.