Production. The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 was produced by the Swedish national broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT). The core team consisted of Ebba Adielsson as executive producer, Christel Tholse Willers as deputy executive producer, Tobias Åberg as executive in charge of production, Johan Bernhagen as executive line producer, Christer Björkman as contest producer, and Per Blankens as TV producer. Additional production personnel included head of production David Wessén, head of legal Mats Lindgren, head of media Madeleine Sinding-Larsen, and executive assistant Linnea Lopez.

Edward af Sillén and Daniel Réhn wrote the script for the live shows’ hosting segments and the opening and interval acts, while Robin Hofwander, Daniel Jelinek and Fredrik Bäcklund served as multi-camera directors. Background music for the shows was composed by Eirik Røland and Johan Nilsson. A majority of the production personnel for 2024 previously worked in the previous three editions of the contest held in Sweden: 2000, 2013 and 2016.

Malmö Municipality contributed 30 million SEK (approximately €2.5 million) to the budget of the contest.

Slogan and visual design. On 14 November 2023, the EBU announced that “United by Music”, the slogan of the 2023 contest, would be retained for 2024 and future editions. The accompanying theme art for 2024, named “The Eurovision Lights”, was unveiled on 14 December. Designed by Stockholm-based agencies Uncut and Bold Scandinavia, it was based on simple, linear gradients inspired by vertical lines found on auroras and sound equalisers, and was built with adaptability across different formats taken into account.

Stage design. Thestage design for the 2024 contest, revealed in December 2023, was devised by German production designer Florian Wieder, who had previously designed the sets of six previous contests – the most recent being in 2021. Lighting and screen content was designed by Swedish designer Fredrik Stormby. The stage featured five movable LED cubes, floors and a backdrop screen along with other lighting, video and stagecraft technology, all set around a cross-shaped centre, with the aim of “creating a unique 360-degree experience” for viewers. The green room was placed behind the backdrop screen, in a similar fashion to the stages for the 2010 and 2011 contests. Construction of the stage began on 2 April and concluded on 25 April.

Postcards. The “postcards” are short video introductions shown on television while the stage is being prepared for the next entry. Filmed from November 2023 to May 2024, the postcards were composed of footage shot by the participating artists through “selfie-mode”, introducing the artists themselves and the country they represent. Archival footage of two of a country’s previous entries was also used in each postcard. During the interval of the final, the postcards were parodied by presenter Petra Mede, with archival footage from her previous hostings in 2013 and 2016 being featured.

Featured entries 

Country	Entries
	Year	Artist	Song
Albania	2009	Kejsi Tola	“Carry Me in Your Dreams”
	2012	Rona Nishliu	“Suus“
Armenia	2009	Inga and Anush	“Jan Jan” (Ջան Ջան)
	2022	Rosa Linn	“Snap”
Australia	2015	Guy Sebastian	“Tonight Again”
	2019	Kate Miller-Heidke	“Zero Gravity”
Austria	2014	Conchita Wurst	“Rise Like a Phoenix”
	2018	Cesár Sampson	“Nobody but You”
Azerbaijan	2009	Aysel and Arash	“Always”
	2011	Ell and Nikki	“Running Scared”
Belgium	1986	Sandra Kim	“J’aime la vie“
	2015	Loïc Nottet	“Rhythm Inside”
Croatia	1999	Doris Dragović	“Marija Magdalena“
	2023	Let 3	“Mama ŠČ!“
Cyprus	1997	Hara and Andreas Konstantinou	“Mana mou” (Μάνα μου)
	2012	Ivi Adamou	“La La Love”
Czechia	2018	Mikolas Josef	“Lie to Me”
	2022	We Are Domi	“Lights Off”
Denmark	1988	Hot Eyes	“Ka’ du se hva’ jeg sa’?“
	2000	Olsen Brothers	“Fly on the Wings of Love”
Estonia	2001	Tanel Padar, Dave Benton and 2XL	“Everybody”
	2009	Urban Symphony	“Rändajad“
Finland	1994	CatCat	“Bye Bye Baby”
	2023	Käärijä	“Cha Cha Cha”
France	1977	Marie Myriam	“L’Oiseau et l’Enfant“
	2021	Barbara Pravi	“Voilà“
Georgia	2007	Sopho	“Visionary Dream”
	2015	Nina Sublatti	“Warrior”
Germany	1994	Mekado	“Wir geben ‘ne Party“
	2010	Lena	“Satellite”
Greece	1974	Marinella	“Krassi, thalassa ke t’ agori mou” (Κρασί, θάλασσα και τ’ αγόρι μου)
	2005	Helena Paparizou	“My Number One”
Iceland	1986	ICY	“Gleðibankinn“
	2021	Daði og Gagnamagnið	“10 Years”
Ireland	1987	Johnny Logan	“Hold Me Now”
	2011	Jedward	“Lipstick”
Israel	1991	Duo Datz	“Kan” (כאן)
	1998	Dana International	“Diva” (דיווה)
Italy	1987	Umberto Tozzi and Raf	“Gente di mare“
	2021	Måneskin	“Zitti e buoni“
Latvia	2002	Marie N	“I Wanna”
	2015	Aminata	“Love Injected”
Lithuania	2012	Donny Montell	“Love Is Blind”
	2021	The Roop	“Discoteque”
Luxembourg	1965	France Gall	“Poupée de cire, poupée de son“
	1988	Lara Fabian	“Croire“
Malta	1998	Chiara	“The One That I Love”
	2021	Destiny	“Je me casse“
Moldova	2005	Zdob și Zdub	“Boonika bate doba“
	2010	SunStroke Project and Olia Tira	“Run Away”
Netherlands	1998	Edsilia Rombley	“Hemel en aarde“
	2019	Duncan Laurence	“Arcade”
Norway	1986	Ketil Stokkan	“Romeo”
	2009	Alexander Rybak	“Fairytale”
Poland	1994	Edyta Górniak	“To nie ja!“
	2014	Donatan and Cleo	“My Słowianie – We Are Slavic”
Portugal	1982	Doce	“Bem bom“
	2017	Salvador Sobral	“Amar pelos dois“
San Marino	2014	Valentina Monetta	“Maybe”
	2019	Serhat	“Say Na Na Na”
Serbia	2007	Marija Šerifović	“Molitva” (Молитва)
	2022	Konstrakta	“In corpore sano“
Slovenia	2001	Nuša Derenda	“Energy”
	2019	Zala Kralj and Gašper Šantl	“Sebi“
Spain	1968	Massiel	“La La La”
	2022	Chanel	“SloMo”
Sweden	1983	Carola	“Främling“
	2023	Loreen	“Tattoo”
Switzerland	1988	Celine Dion	“Ne partez pas sans moi“
	2021	Gjon’s Tears	“Tout l’univers“
Ukraine	2004	Ruslana	“Wild Dances”
	2021	Go A	“Shum” (Шум)
United Kingdom	1967	Sandie Shaw	“Puppet on a String”
	2022	Sam Ryder	“Space Man”

Malin Åkerman and Petra Mede, presenters of the 2024 contest

Presenters. Swedish comedian and television host Petra Mede and Swedish-American actress Malin Åkerman were announced as the presenters of the 2024 contest on 5 February 2024. Mede had previously hosted both the 2013 and 2016 editions (solo and with Måns Zelmerlöw, respectively), as well as the 2015 special anniversary programme Eurovision Song Contest’s Greatest Hits alongside Graham Norton. The “Turquoise Carpet” and opening ceremony events were hosted by Elecktra and Tia Kofi,^[while Jovan Radomir moderated the contest’s press conferences.

Security. In November 2023, the production team at SVT stated its intention to increase security measures and to keep in contact with Malmö’s police authority during the contest, citing a tense climate of protest amid Israel’s participation. This included police reinforcement from Denmark and Norway, tightened cybersecurity, and a no-fly zone to prevent drone attacks, as well as adjustments to the number of locations set to host side events. Through social media content, Israeli broadcaster Kan also expressed concerns over alleged antisemitism in Malmö, attributing this to the “Islamisation of Europe”. Additional measures were taken to protect the Israeli delegation, with the representative Eden Golan being escorted by Shin Bet agents in addition to local police officers following death threats directed at her via social media. Shin Bet also advised Israeli citizens against travelling to Malmö and sent there a delegation, headed by its director Ronen Bar, to prevent potential threats against them. Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in Malmö to protest against Israel’s participation in the competition.

SVT’s decision was made in the context of a high terroristic threat level in Sweden, with the Swedish Security Service (SÄPO) having raised the level from 3 to 4 out of 5 in August 2023, primarily in response to the 2023 Quran burnings in the country and prior to the Israel–Hamas war. Concerns about the risk of terrorist attacks resurged in the wake of the Crocus City Hall attack outside Moscow on 22 March 2024. In the event of an emergency, Malmö Municipality would provide accommodations in local schools and sports facilities as well as psychological support.

Format. 

Voting system and contest structure. After the outcome of the 2023 contest, which saw Sweden win, despite Finland’s lead in the televoting, sparked controversy among the audience, Norwegian broadcaster NRK began discussions with the EBU regarding a potential revision of the jury voting procedure. It was noted that Norwegian entries in recent years had been penalised by the juries, particularly in 2019 and 2023, when Norway finished in sixth and fifth place overall, respectively, despite coming first in 2019 and third in 2023 with the televote. In an interview, the Norwegian head of delegation Stig Karlsen discussed the idea of reducing the jury’s weight on the final score, from the current 49.4%, to 40% or 30%. No changes to the voting system were ultimately implemented in this regard.

For 2024, the “Rest of the World” voting window was open for 24 hours before each show, as well as during each show. For participating countries, it was open after the last song is performed – as in previous years – in the semi-finals. In the final, it was opened just before the first performance and closed 25 minutes after the last performance.^[e] The automatic qualifiers – the host country and the “Big Five” – performed their entries in full during the semi-finals, in between the competing acts. Following an incident which ultimately led to the disqualification of the Dutch representative, the opening of the “Rest of the World” voting window for the final was delayed until eight hours before the show.

Thirteen of the twenty-five open positions in the running order of the final will be subject to a “producer’s choice” draw option, alongside six positions available each, for the first half and second half of the show. For those countries which draw the “producer’s choice” category, the contest producers will be able to place that country anywhere in the running order. The runtime of the final was initially planned to be reduced by approximately an hour. This was ultimately not a priority, with the final planned to be shortened by a maximum of five minutes.

Semi-final allocation draw. The draw to determine the participating countries’ semi-finals took place on 30 January 2024 at 19:00 CET, at the Malmö Town Hall. The thirty-one semi-finalists were divided over five pots, based on historical voting patterns, with the purpose of reducing the chance of bloc voting and increasing suspense in the semi-finals. The draw also determined which semi-final each of the six automatic qualifiers – host country Sweden and “Big Five” countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) – would vote in and be required to broadcast. The ceremony was hosted by Pernilla Månsson Colt and Farah Abadi, and included the passing of the host city insignia from Steve Rotheram, the mayor of the Liverpool City Region and representative of previous host city Liverpool, to Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh, the mayor of Malmö Municipality.

With the approval from the contest’s reference group, Israel was allocated to the second semi-final following a request from Israeli broadcaster Kan, as the rehearsal date for the first semi-final coincided with Yom HaShoah.

Results of the semi-final allocation draw: B –   Participating countries in the first semi-final; LB – Pre-qualified for the final but also voting in the first semi-final; O – Participating countries in the second semi-final; LO – Pre-qualified for the final but also voting in the second semi-final

3.2.Semi-final allocation draw. The draw to determine the participating countries’ semi-finals took place on 30 January 2024 at 19:00 CET, at the Malmö Town Hall. The thirty-one semi-finalists were divided over five pots, based on historical voting patterns, with the purpose of reducing the chance of bloc voting and increasing suspense in the semi-finals. The draw also determined which semi-final each of the six automatic qualifiers – host country Sweden and “Big Five” countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) – would vote in and be required to broadcast. The ceremony was hosted by Pernilla Månsson Colt and Farah Abadi, and included the passing of the host city insignia from Steve Rotheram, the mayor of the Liverpool City Region and representative of previous host city Liverpool, to Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh, the mayor of Malmö Municipality. 

With the approval from the contest’s reference group, Israel was allocated to the second semi-final following a request from Israeli broadcaster Kan, as the rehearsal date for the first semi-final coincided with Yom HaShoah.

Contest overview. 

Semi-final 1. The first semi-final took place on 7 May 2024 at 21:00 CEST and featured fifteen competing countries. Those countries, plus Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom, as well as non-participating countries under an aggregated “Rest of the World” vote, voted in this semi-final. The running order (R/O) was determined by the contest producers and was announced publicly on 26 March. In addition to the competing entries, the United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden performed their entries during the show, appearing on stage after the entries from Ireland, Iceland and Moldova, respectively. Croatia was awarded the most points in the semi-final, and qualified for the final alongside, in order of points total, Ukraine, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Finland, Portugal, Slovenia, and Serbia. The countries that failed to reach the final were Australia, Poland, Moldova, Azerbaijan, and Iceland.

This semi-final was opened by former participants Eleni Foureira, Eric Saade and Chanel, who performed their respective competing songs – “Fuego” (Cyprus 2018), “Popular” (Sweden 2011) and “SloMo” (Spain 2022). Saade, whose father is Palestinian, performed wearing a keffiyeh. The EBU stated that his keffiyeh was a political symbol and that it regretted Saade’s choice to “compromise the non-political nature of the event”. The interval acts included three-time winner for Ireland (1980, 1987 and 1992) Johnny Logan performing the 2012 Swedish winning entry “Euphoria”, and 2018 Swedish entrant Benjamin Ingrosso performing a medley of his songs “Look Who’s Laughing Now”, “Kite” and “Honey Boy”.

First semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	Cyprus (Qualifiers)	Silia Kapsis	“Liar”	67	6
2	Serbia (Qualifiers)	Teya Dora	“Ramonda“	47	10
3	Lithuania (Qualifiers)	Silvester Belt	“Luktelk“	119	4
4	Ireland (Qualifiers)	Bambie Thug	“Doomsday Blue”	124	3
5	Ukraine (Qualifiers)	Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil	“Teresa & Maria”	173	2
6	Poland	Luna	“The Tower”	35	12
7	Croatia (Qualifiers)	Baby Lasagna	“Rim Tim Tagi Dim”	177	1
8	Iceland	Hera Björk	“Scared of Heights”	3	15
9	Slovenia (Qualifiers)	Raiven	“Veronika”	51	9
10	Finland (Qualifiers)	Windows95man[c]	“No Rules!”	59	7
11	Moldova	Natalia Barbu	“In the Middle”	20	13
12	Azerbaijan	Fahree feat. Ilkin Dovlatov	“Özünlə apar“	11	14
13	Australia	Electric Fields	“One Milkali (One Blood)”	41	11
14	Portugal (Qualifiers)	Iolanda	“Grito“	58	8
15	Luxembourg (Qualifiers)	Tali	“Fighter”	117	5

Detailed results – Scoreboard: The ten qualifiers from the first semi-final were determined solely by televoting. All fifteen countries competing in the first semi-final voted, alongside Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the aggregated Rest of the World vote. The ten qualifying countries were announced in no particular order, and the full results were published after the final was held.