2016 Eurovision Song Contest: First 10 finalists named; Australian Dami Im prepares for semi-final 2 [VIDEO]

Dami faces off with a former boyband member

Dami Im with koala — "X Factor Australia" season 5 winner Dami Im takes a selfie with a koala at the Wild Life Sydney Zoo. Instagram/damiim

It’s three days before the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest grand finals, and the first batch of finalists has already been named.

On Tuesday, this year’s competition held the first round of semi-final at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden. Eighteen countries participated in the bout, wherein only 10 entrants were able to qualify for the finals on May 14.

According to the Eurovision Song Contest web site, the successful hopefuls include: Azerbaijan (Samra, “Miracle” ); Russia (Sergey Lazarev, “You Are The Only One”); The Netherlands (Douwe Bob, “Slow Down”); Hungary (Freddie, “Pioneer”); Croatia (Nina Kraljić, “Lighthouse”); Austria (ZOË, “Loin d'ici”); Armenia (Iveta Mukuchyan, “LoveWave”) ; Czech Republic (Gabriela Gunčíková , “I Stand”); Cyprus (Minus One, “Alter Ego”) and Malta (Ira Losco, “Walk on Water”).

Their inclusion in the grand finals was determined by a combination of scores from national expert juries and televoting. Prior to the first semi-final, the expert juries already determined their votes by watching a live feed of the performances. Televoting, on the other hand, took place during the live show.

The first 10 finalists join other Eurovision Song Contest finalists from Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and UK. On Thursday, another set of ten finalists will be chosen in the second semi-final. Australian entrant Dami Im faces 17 representatives from other countries to earn a place in the grand finals. The “X Factor Australia” Season 5 winner hopes to win over the juries and the audience with her powerful ballad titled, “Sound of Silence.”

[READ: “Dami Im’s ‘Sound of Silence’ is cleared to compete in 2016 Eurovision; Twitter users still question Australia’s entry in contest”]

Among Dami’s competitors is Westlife alum Nicky Byrne, who represents Ireland with his song entry, “Sunlight.” Dami uploaded a photo of herself with the Irish boyband member on her Instagram account. She captioned the image, “Had to hold myself from blurting out Westlife songs. Love your song Sunlight and can’t wait to see you at Semifinal 2!! Good luck #Ireland”

Apart from Nicky, the following will compete on the second semi-final on May 12: Latvia (Justs, “Heartbeat”); Poland (Michał Szpak, “Colour Of Your Life”); Switzerland (Rykka, “The Last Of Our Kind”); Israel (Hovi Star, “Made Of Stars”); Belarus (IVAN, “Help You Fly”); Serbia (Sanja Vučić ZAA, “Goodbye”); F.Y.R. Macedonia (Kaliopi, “Dona”); Lithuania (Donny Montell, “I’ve Been Waiting For This Night”); Slovenia (ManuElla, “Blue And Red”); Bulgaria (Poli Genova, “If Love Was A Crime”); Denmark (Lighthouse X, “Soldiers Of Love”); Ukraine (Jamala, “1944”); Norway (Agnete, “Icebreaker”); Georgia (Nika Kocharov and Young Georgian Lolitaz, “Midnight Gold”); Albania (Enede Tarifa, “Fairytale”) and Belgium (Laura Tesoro, “What’s The Pressure”).