The representatives of nineteen countries have presented their songs tonight in the First Semi-Final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. The theme of the show, presented by Jovana Janković and Željko Joksimović, was "City", whereas the theme of the Second Semi-Final will be "Water". After all songs had been presented, televoting started in all the participating countries as well as in Spain and Germany, who are already qualified for the Final, but were drawn to vote in the First Semi-Final, while the other directly qualified finalists - France, The United Kingdom and Serbia - get to vote in the Second Semi-Final. Nine of the qualifying countries were decided by televoting. Furthermore, the highest placed song in the result of the national backup juries which was not yet qualified through televoting got a place in the Final as well. However, the TV public will only find out which country it was after the Final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday.
The qualifiers
The following countries have qualified for the Final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest (in order of announcement):
- Greece
- Romania
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Finland
- Russia
- Israel
- Azerbaijan
- Armenia
- Poland
- Norway
