The countdown to the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest is underway as countries start declaring their entries.
Eurovision will be held in Basel, Switzerland this year after Nemo's success, winning the 2024 edition with The Code.
Find out all you need to know from the schedule to the dates to how scoring works for the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest below.
The first semi-final will take place 13th May with an expected start time of 20:00 BST. The second semi-final will take place on 15th May with an expected start time of 20:00 BST.
The jury final, which is not broadcast on TV, is essentially a dress rehearsal and is what each nation's jury will judge the acts on (with results announced at the Grand Final), as opposed to the final which is broadcast on TV and is what the general public vote on, and is held on 16th May.
The Grand Final will be held on 17th May at 20:00 BST.
The running order is partly decided by random ballot, with nations finding out whether they will be in the first or second half of the draw. Typically, countries are at an advantage in the second half, when more viewers are watching.
From there, the show's producers would select where to place the entries, trying to create the best show possible. Producers would try not to group similar songs together, and in order not to unfairly penalise the favourites drawn in the first half, these entries would typically be drawn later in the first half (in 2023, Sweden were ninth, in 2022, Ukraine were 12th, in 2019, the Netherlands were 12th).
However, first introduced in 2024, there is now a slight change to the draw. While there are still six first half and second half slots, there will be 13 'Producer's Choice' slots, where nations can be drawn anywhere (apart from first, which has already been randomly allocated to hosts Sweden).
After winning the first-ever contest in 1956, and a second in 1988, Switzerland joined Denmark, Norway, Italy and Ukraine with three wins after Nemo won with The Code.
You can see a full list of previous winners here
The 2025 Eurovision Song Contest will be held at St Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland. 2025 will be the third time Switzerland has hosted Eurovision, and the first time Basel has hosted.
Traditionally, the winner of the Eurovision Song Contests undertakes the duties of hosting the following year.
The two semi-finals will be voted on by the countries performing within each respective semi-final, as well as Italy, Spain and Switzerland for the first semi-final, and France, Germany and the United Kingdom for the second semi-final. Non-participating countries will also vote on the semi-finals.
15 countries will compete in the first semi-final with 16 competing in the second semi-final, and 10 countries from each will qualify for the Grand Final.
The voting and scoring systems have undergone a number of changes over the years, and the current system sees the televote and jury votes combined.
Each country announces its jury scores first, with the best song receiving 12 points, the second best 10 points, then the next 10 receiving eight down to one. These are all added up to create a leaderboard, but since 2016, a new system has been used where the televotes are then tallied separately and added after the jury results have been announced.
These are announced in ascending order for each country's televote. For example, the country with the lowest televote score will be announced first, with their score added to their jury score. The country with the highest televote score will be announced last, with their score added to their jury score. The country with the highest combined score wins.
In 2023, Sweden were leading after the jury vote with 340 points (Israel were second with 177, ahead of Italy (176) and Finland (150)), and although Finland won the televote with 376 points, Sweden's 243 points were enough to win the Grand Final.
All countries who qualify for the final will be randomly allocated a half of the draw or given a 'Producers's Choice' slot where the producers can place them anywhere in the running order. Historically, the best place to be drawn is in the second half of the draw, ideally around 18th-24th, when more people are tuning in.
In the interest of fairness, any leading contenders who are drawn in the first half of the Grand Final are usually given a draw later in the first half; for example, in 2023, Sweden and Finland were allocated 9th and 13th in the Grand Final.
The United Kingdom are set to be represented by a currently unconfirmed girl band, with the entrant set to be announced in March.
As a member of the 'Big Five', who contribute more money to the running of Eurovision, the United Kingdom, along with Spain, Germany, Italy, France, and the previous year's winner (in this case, Switzerland) are automatically assured of a place in the Grand Final.
Early flagbearers in the competition, the UK won four times between 1967 and 1981 with Sandie Shaw, Lulu, Brotherhood of Man and Bucks Fizz, before winning again in 1997 with Katrina and the Waves.
The UK has fared decidedly worse in recent years, however, finishing bottom more times (five) than finishing in the top five (four), with the infamous nul points twice in that time with Jemini and James Newman.
Sam Ryder is the UK's most successful entry of the 21st century, finishing second with Space Man in 2022.
The Eurovision Song Contest has been broadcast in Australia every year since 1983 to a large audience, with the contest earning a large cult following, so much so that the country was granted an entry to the 2015 Grand Final to commemorate the 60th edition.
After finishing fifth in the Grand Final, Australia were granted an entry in 2016, but were entered into the semi-finals, which they won, eventually coming second in the Grand Final.
Australia have been entered into Eurovision nine times, appearing in seven finals, where they've recorded two top-five finishes and three more top-10s.
Both semi-finals and the Grand Final will be broadcast live on BBC One in the UK, all at 20:00 BST.
Viewers in the US can watch Eurovision exclusively on Peacock.