Israel, Cyprus and Finland - featuring former X Factor semi-finalist Saara Aalto - were among the other nine countries who progressed. Finland's Saara Aalto appeared on the UK's X Factor in 2016 -- Photo: EPAThe UK, represented by SuRie, is automatically in Saturday's final as one of the "Big Five" countries. The other four are Germany, Italy, Spain and France, while hosts Portugal also automatically qualified for the final. Ryan O'Shaughnessy represented Ireland, which has more Eurovision wins - seven - than any other country, but has not won the competition since 1996. The nine unsuccessful countries included Azerbaijan, which had previously never failed to qualify from a Eurovision Song Contest semi-final since first entering a decade ago.

Source: VietNamNet News May 09, 2018 07:41 UTC