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		</div><p>The 26 finalists of the Eurovision Song Contest have performed for the international juries in the hope of securing the coveted “douze points”.</p>
<p>Sweden’s John Lundvik, the Netherlands’ Duncan Laurence and Australia’s Kate Miller-Heidke gave their best technical performances during the non-televised event.</p>
<p>The UK’s Michael Rice, 21, also took to the stage at the Expo Tel Aviv where he performed against a backdrop of a starry night sky.</p>
<div>https://youtu.be/m3WF2AsxLB8</div>
<p>Rice is hoping the impress the judges whose votes count for 50% of the overall score for each country. However, he will not find out the result until Saturday night’s televised show.</p>
<p>Rice was joined on stage by an outfit of backing vocalists who assisted him as he broke into the song’s gospel-influenced chorus.</p>
<p>“Thank you everyone,” he said to the crowd after.</p>
<p>“I’m living the dream. Thank you so much. I love you.”</p>
<p><amp-youtube layout="responsive" width="696" height="392" data-videoid="dDFFMdnNgYg" title="Michael Rice at the second Semi-Final of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest"><a placeholder href="https://youtu.be/dDFFMdnNgYg"><img src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dDFFMdnNgYg/hqdefault.jpg" layout="fill" object-fit="cover" alt="Michael Rice at the second Semi-Final of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest"></a></amp-youtube></p>
<p>He performed 16th, after Norway and before Iceland, whose techno-punk outfit Hatari are a favourite to win.</p>
<p>The UK, as one of the “big five” countries, along with France, Germany, Italy and Spain, was assured a place in the grand final.</p>
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<p>This meant Rice did not perform in either of the two live semi-finals earlier in the week, and that his performance tonight was his first to a full audience.</p>
<p>The UK’s five-strong jury panel consists of Kylie Minogue’s musical director Pete Watson, radio DJ Adele Roberts, vocal coach Jai Ramage and singer AJ Bentley.</p>
<p>Each country gives two sets of 1 to 8, 10 and 12 points.</p>
<p>Murder On The Dancefloor singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor was meant to chair the group but stepped down earlier this week citing “unforeseen circumstances”. She was replaced by musical theatre actor George Ure.</p>
<p>The night also featured performances from former Eurovision contestants.</p>
<p>Earlier Israeli pop singer Dana International, who won the contest in 1998 when it was held in Birmingham, sang Omer Adam’s song Tel Aviv as the 26 entries were introduced.</p>
<p>Later four former Eurovision contestants also took to the stage to perform a medley of songs with a twist. They sang one another’s tracks in turn.</p>
<p><amp-instagram data-shortcode="BxeXiv9D5id" data-captioned layout="responsive" width="600" height="600"><button overflow type="button">See more</button></amp-instagram></p>
<p>Austria’s Conchita Wurst, who won in 2014 with Rise Like A Phoenix, sung Mans Zelmerlow’s Heroes, which won the Swede the 2015 event.</p>
<p>Zelmerlow then performed Fuego, which earned Greece’s Eleni Foureira second place behind Netta’s Toy in 2018.</p>
<p>Foureira then took on Verka Serduchka’s Dancing Lasha Tumbai, which won the eccentric Ukrainian character actor the contest in 2007.</p>
<p>Finally, Serduchka sung Netta’s Toy, which won Israel the right to host the event during last year’s contest in Lisbon, Portugal.</p>
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