The show opens with one of this year's hosts, Ukranian singer Julia Sanina, performing with a large number of dancers.
Norway kick off the contest with Alessandra singing 'Queen Of Kings', a folk metal melody played by an EDM act. A great energetic start.
Malta are much more fun than I expected. Their Sunstroke Project style sax pop is performed with lots of energy, is very colourful and contains a few moments which will look great on TV.
Serbia's powerful electronics sounds immense live and there are great visuals too.
Latvia's entry is stadium rock but it fails to fill the arena. It's a more intimate set up than anything we've seen so far but it isn't anything special.
Portugal's Mimicat plays upbeat cabaret. It's great fun and the crowd seem to really enjoy it.
Ireland's Wild Youth (a real misnomer) get a predictably great reaction from the crowd for their bland stadium rock.
Croatia's performance pop is bonkers. Gloriously Eurovision.
Switzerland's entry is a nice song with some poignant visuals representing shellfire and war.
Israel's Noa Kirel is a a big star in her homeland. Her performance has everything. Hot dancing, pyro, cool effects, contemporary pop and powerful vocals.
Moldova's pagan folk pop is most notable for the flute player.
Swedish Eurovision legend Loreen justifies the position of pre-tournament favourite with powerful trance pop.
Azerbaijan are a bit bland. The crowd create a nice moment by waving their torches around though.
Czechia has some excellent hairography.
Netherlands puts forward a simple performance but the vocals don't seem good enough.
Finland's Käärijä is just brilliant and he gets the biggest reaction from the crowd too.
The interval sees Rebecca Ferguson and Ukraine's Alyosha covering Duran Duran's 'Ordinary World'. The song is secondary to the performance though, a powerful piece about the war.
Rita Ora performed a selection of her songs with a ton of dancers. I was stood near the choreographer who was barking instruction into a mic which was obviously connected to the earpieces and I found this much more interesting than the music.
We also get three performances from three of the big five (the nations who automatically qualify for the final).
It takes a little while for France's Last Zarra to get going vocally but when she does she is stunning.
German rockers Lord Of The Lost have LOTS of pyro.
Italy have a charismatic singer in Marco Mengoni and a poignant story of two men telling off a staircase onto a trampoline over and over. Better than it sounds.
At the end of the night, they run through a false set of results (which funnily enough, sees Sweden and Finland not qualifying).
Overall ****
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