Eurovision 2022

It's Eurovision time once again and this year the song contest is heading to Turin in Italy, following Maneskin's victory in 2021.

This year Eurovision's semi-finals start on 10th May with the Grand Final airing on 14th May. 

Hosting the musical spectacular will be pop star Mika, who had a UK No.1 with "Grace Kelly" and if you are thinking to yourself that's a bit random, well Mika is a well-known name in Italy, where he currently resides on the judging panel for the Italian version of The X Factor. Also hosting will be Laura Pausini and Alessandro Catelan.

This year there are 40 countries taking part in Eurovision. Those countries not taking part are Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Luxembourg, Monaco, Slovakia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kosovo and Liechtenstein. 

Russia was removed from Eurovision following its invasion of Ukraine. 

Sam Ryder will represent the UK with his song "Space Man". Sam was chosen after an exhaustive search undertaken by TaP Music. Space Man has been written by some music industry heavyweights too; Amy Wadge (Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud) and Max Wolfgang (Years & Years' Sweet Talker).

According to the bookmakers the clear favourite to win is Ukraine. Eurovisionworld, a website all about Eurovision which has a live list of favourites according to the most popular bookies, shows Ukraine with a 43% chance to win.

Next is Italy with 15% and Sweden, with 11%. The UK is fourth according to the list, with a 6% chance of winning.

The Eurovision Grand Final will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 8pm on Saturday 14th May.