Good evening Europe! For the first time ever, we are live-commentating on a Eurovision show. At 21:00 CET, the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 kicks off with the first semi-final! You are also welcome to join our chat for discussing the show with other fans! This page will get automatically refreshed every 30 seconds, so you don’t have to reload it to see new updates – they will appear automatically. After the show, we’ll also report from the press conference, both in this live blog and in the chat.

And now enjoy the show – our latest entries in this post will appear on top!

0:14 That’s it from the press centre, I hope you all had an entertaining semi-final and that you are happy with the results! We from esc-chat.com got 8/10, 8/10 and 7/10 right. Personally, I think that I can’t complain about these results at all, even though it would have been nice to have Igranka in the final. Good night from Malmö and thank you for reading our reports from Malmö!

0:12 Addition: Ireland and Lithuania will both perform in the second half of the final.

23:59 Ryan Dolan unfortunately doesn’t want to show his sixpack unlike – so we were told – promised before.

23:58 As the host announces Ireland, the hot drummers storm the press conference, playing their drums!

23:56 Belarus is performing in the 1st half, as does Moldova.

23:55 Aliona Moon thinks, that a lot of countries deserve to win the contest.

23:52 Alyona Lanskaya responses a political question in the usual Belarusian way.

23:49 Netherlands will perform in the first half, Belgium as well.

23:48 Roberto will cut his hair, now that he qualified to the final. After the final, as told by his head of delegation 🙂

23:42 Anouk felt really good when the audience cheered, as the chorus set in.

23:39 Russia to perform in the first half, Ukraine in the second half.

23:38 Zlata lost her boots on the way to the stage.

23:36 Zlata is almost crying, and does as if she didn’t expect to sit there now.

23:35 Dina is having a “little grandma” doll with her, to give her good luck.

23:32 Estonia will be in the 1st half of the final, Denmark in the 2nd half.

23:32 Emmelie feels better without shoes.

23:30 Birgit from Estonia is happy that she qualified

23:19 It begins! The artists are about to arrive.

23:13 Remember, you can join our chatroom and submit questions for the qualifiers! I might pick some of them up, ask them, and answer right away in the chat. No promise though.

23:07 We are now in the press conference room, waiting for the glorious qualifiers to arrive.

22:55 Qualifiers: Moldova, Lithuania, Ireland, Estonia, Belarus, Denmark, Russia, Belgium, Ukraine, The Netherlands

22:47 Big 5 + Sweden videos get shown, with the United Kingdom being the only one creating a small applause in the press centre. A sign?

22:42 Lynda Woodruff says hi from Jukkasjärvi. Yuck is yärvee.

22:39 We’re seeing the interval act, with people dancing in Euphoria-snow. The Igranka-Elevator doesn’t seem unused either.

22:36 The lines are closed!

22:26 Nice, that the green room is coming without walls between the delegations again.

22:22 Now if we really want to go by the Press Centre Cheerometer, we would see Belgium, Cyprus, Moldova, Belarus, Netherlands, Ukraine, Russia, Denmark, Estonia and either Slovenia or Montenegro again in the final. The strongest applause surely got Denmark. Serbia, Ireland, Lithuania, Croatia and Austria would be definitely out, if the reaction here is matching with the actual results.

22:19 Serbia: Oh dear, the clothes. A car crash in fashion, vocally in parts as well. Europe is surely puzzled over this one, and it’s the last one for tonight! 6 seconds of weak applause in the press centre.

22:15 Belgium: Hey, he smiled! Really good one, tonight, when it counts. 11 seconds of admittedly light applause in the press centre.

22:11 Cyprus: Vocally very good, but is the song strong enough? 12 seconds of applause in the press centre!

22:06 Australia: We love you too 🙂

22:05 Ireland: Vocally not the best. Can the hotness of the dancers help this into the final? I, personally, have my doubts. But maybe I’m completely wrong. It’s a hard one to call! 7 seconds of applause in the press centre.

22:00 Moldova: Is this the cosmic hair, that Aliona promised to us? Anyway, this is my favourite “total package” of the whole night. Love every second! 10 seconds of applause in the press centre.

21:56 Belarus: I didn’t see it, as the Belarusian TV team was blocking the screen. 16 seconds of applause in the press centre, in 1 corner that is. The rest: 2 seconds?

21:53 While the Belarusian TV team is now completely blocking the screen, I have the time to write some country-unrelated thoughts. Does the standing area work? I don’t think it does. It doesn’t look very vibrant, does it? The producers might have forgotten, that you need to relax in between to recharge batteries, before you can go crazy again. Only the Belarusian TV team doesn’t need to recharge batteries, it seems.

21:52 Lithuania: Well. Not the strongest song in the competition, but hey, it’s not “bad”. Might even qualify over Anouk. seconds of applause in the press centre. 7 seconds of applause in the press centre.

21:48 Montenegro: Strong, modern, electric as always. Nina is vocally fine, but a bit out of sync at times. I think this will qualify. 8 seconds of applause in the press centre.

21:44 Netherlands: I still have strong doubts that this will qualify. I hope I am wrong, as the country deserves to be there. I am just afraid, that the crowds won’t jump on this. 13 seconds of applause in the press centre.

21:39 Ukraine: Vocally not in the same league as we experienced her in the past days. The Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians are blocking the big screen, standing, waving flags and annoy everyone else in the press centre. 12 seconds of applause in the press centre, especially in one corner.

21:36 Russia: This still leaves me cold, despite the nice special effect. 11 seconds of applause in the press centre.

21:30 Denmark: Great reception in the press centre even before it began. The journalists and “journalists” are clapping along! Come on, this has it in its bag, doesn’t it? 17 seconds of applause in the press centre. Great reception.

21:26 Croatia: Very solid as expected. Very nice. I’m quite sure it will qualify. 5 seconds of applause in the press centre. Now on to the hot favourite: Denmark!

21: 22 Slovenia very modern, very cool, very hopeless? 8 seconds of applause in the press centre. Now on to Croatia!

21:18 Now Estonia turned out to be a very nice one. 10 seconds of applause in the press centre. Now on to Slovenia!

21:14 No big cheer in the press centre for Austria (5 seconds). We have seen Natalia better before. Now on to Estonia!

21:10 It’s time for the first song: Austria!

21:08 Petra is wearing a wonderful dress, we think.

21:06  Our host entered the stage: Petra Mede!

21:05 Loreen entered the stage and joins the children choir.

21:02 Now we’re flying over the Öresund Bridge to the Malmö Arena

21:00 The show has begun! Enjoy everyone!

20:55 3 minutes to go, these are the last standings of the OGAE prediction poll: 10. Belgium, 9. Serbia, 8. Austria, 7. Moldova, 6. Belarus, 5. Netherlands, 4. Ireland, 3. Russia, 2. Ukraine, 1. DENMARK

20:46 I see Martin Rolinski walking through the rows, probably trying to get some more people in front of the camera in order to interview them.

22:40 20 minutes before the show, the press centre becomes more and more hectic. To the right of my table, there’s a Belarusian and a Ukrainian TV team, ESC Radio, escXtra and Eurovisionary are not far away either.

20:20 we arrived in the press centre! Tonight it’s just me, FelixK, blogging about the events as they happen. And remember, no need to refresh, it’s automatically doing so!