It's time for the Eurovision semi-finals - here's what you need to know

Look Mum No Computer is a solo artist, songwriter and YouTuber, who is also described as "an inventor of unique musical machines".

He will perform the song Eins, Zwei, Drei.

He previously performed as Sam Battle, frontman of the indie rock band Zibra which appeared at Glastonbury 2015 as part of BBC Introducing.

"I find it completely bonkers to be jumping on this wonderful and wild journey," he said.

"I have always been a massive Eurovision fan, and I love the magical joy it brings to millions of people every year, so getting to join that legacy and fly the flag for the UK is an absolute honour that I am taking very seriously."

The singer-songwriter has his own museum in Ramsgate called This Museum is (Not) Obsolete. It includes a vintage Game Boy which he has programmed to play a 100-year-old church organ.

Tensions have grown over Israel's participation in Eurovision in recent years because of the war in Gaza.

The contest is now facing the biggest boycott in its 70-year history.

While 35 countries are participating in the 2026 contest, broadcasters from Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Iceland and Slovenia have withdrawn.

During last year's Eurovision final in Switzerland, two people attempted to storm the stage and throw paint over Israel's contestant, Yuval Raphael. They were stopped by crew members and later arrested.

A number of countries also raised concerns after Raphael came top of the public vote in 2025 - finishing second overall after jury votes were taken into consideration.

Reports suggested that an Israeli government agency had paid for adverts and used state social media accounts to encourage people to vote for its entry.

Eurovision - which describes itself as non-political - has consistently resisted calls for Israel to be excluded. But it has changed the voting rules for the 2026 contest to limit the influence of governments on the results.

Israel said the decision to let it take part was a "victory" over critics who had tried to silence it and spread hatred.

In the final, every participating country is awarded two sets of scores: one from a jury of music experts and one from fans.

For the 2026 contest, fans have a maximum of 10 votes - down from 20 - which they can cast by phone, SMS or via the official Eurovision app. They can vote for as many different acts as they like, but cannot back their home country.

Each country awards 12 points to its most popular song while the second choice gets 10, and the rest are scored from eight to one.

Votes from viewers in non-participating countries are combined into a single bloc known as the "rest of the world" vote.

Jury votes will be added to the public vote to decide which countries qualify for the final. Previously, jury votes were only used in the grand final itself.

The contest organisers also said that better technical monitoring would help "detect and prevent fraudulent or coordinated voting activity, and strengthen monitoring of suspicious patterns".

Scoring for the semi-finals works the same way as the grand final, though people in the UK will only be able to vote in the second semi-final on Thursday.

The five countries who automatically qualify for the final (the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Austria as last year's winners) will participate in the semi-finals but the public will not be able to vote for them.