The main Eurovision Song Contest shows are long TV events: each live show usually runs between about 2.5 and 4 hours, depending on whether it’s a semi- final or the Grand Final.

Quick Scoop

  • The Grand Final typically lasts around 4 hours from opening to winner announcement.
  • The live performances part of the Grand Final usually takes about 2 to 2.5 hours, with the remaining time for voting, interval acts, and results.
  • Each competing song is capped at 3 minutes by the official rules, so the musical part is dense but individually short.
  • The contest week normally has two semi‑finals and one final , all on separate nights in the same week.

What “how long is Eurovision” can mean

  1. Length of each live show (what you see on TV):
    • Semi‑finals: about 2.5 hours each.
 * Grand Final: about 4 hours, and in recent years sometimes slightly over (around 4:10+).
  1. Length of the songs themselves:
    • Rule: songs must not be longer than 3 minutes.
 * With roughly 26 acts in the final, that’s up to about 78 minutes of competing music, plus intros, postcards, breaks, and guest performances.
  1. Length of the whole “Eurovision period”:
    • The competition itself is structured as two semi‑final shows on Tuesday and Thursday and the Grand Final on Saturday, all within one week each May.

So if you’re planning an evening: expect to sit down for almost a full movie double‑feature’s worth of TV for the Grand Final, and a solid single‑movie length for each semi‑final.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.