In a few hours' time Malta’s singer Ira Losco will face off against 17 other entries in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm.
The 10 qualifiers will join 10 entries from the second semi-final on Thursday and the traditional Big Five in Saturday’s Grand Final. The Big Five are made up of France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom.
Here's what you need to know.
Who is taking part?
Malta will perform last in the running order, following Finland, Greece, Moldova, Hungary, Croatia, Holland, Armenia, San Marino, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Austria, Estonia, Azerbaijan, Montenegro, Iceland and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
For the first time this year, the Big Five and Sweden, the host country, will perform in the semi-finals, although they remain pre-qualified. France, Spain and Sweden will be performing with Malta in the first semi-final tonight.
What do the odds say?
Ira Losco is odds-on to qualify from tonight’s semi-final, and at around 7/1 with most bookmakers, third favourite to place first tonight, though the indications are that she still faces a fight to get through.
Ahead of Losco, Russia’s Sergey Lazarev, long considered a favourite to win the competition outright remains in first place in the betting odds for tonight’s semi-final. But Armenia’s Iveta Mukuchyan has been surging up the rankings and is now placed second at 4/1 to win the semi-final.
Also keep an eye on the Netherlands’ Douwe Bob and the Czech Republic, both of whom are tipped for also tipped for success.
So it's going to be tight?
Probably. Though a Finnish analytics company reckons Losco will make it through to the final without breaking a sweat.
Accuscore has ranked Malta’s entry Walk on Water the second favourite for tonight’s contest, right behind Russia’s entry and ahead of the Netherlands.
Its algorithm is based on a combination of YouTube views – and how they have varied over time - social media activity, betting factors and different countries' voting patterns.
The company's predictions were reported by Finnish national broadcaster YLE.
How has the voting system changed?
Expect significant change.
In previous years, the results of the national juries and televoting were announced as a combined result, with each accounting for 50 per cent of the total.
From this year, the jury and televoting will be presented separately – the national presenters will announce only the results of the juries, with the televoting results for each country presented at the end as one combined score, allowing for dramatic turnarounds in the scoreboard.
The new system seeks to prevent the winner of the competition becoming mathematically certain long before the end of voting, but also to boost transparency and ensure that the song which is most popular among the public will receive 12 points regardless of how the juries vote.
Organisers say the changes will create “a new level of excitement for hundreds of millions of viewers”.
Where can I follow the show?
The semi-final will be broadcast live on Eurovision.tv and on TVM at 9pm.
Timesofmalta.com will be providing live commentary from our reporter in Stockholm during the show.