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A record high 43 countries will participate in the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Kyiv. The official page of Eurovision Song Contest reports.

The following countries are represented in the contest: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and United Kingdom. The list includes Romania and Portugal who are returning to the competition after a year’s absence.

The Semi-Finals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 will take place on Tuesday 9th and Thursday 11th May, with the Grand Final on Saturday 13th May.

The Minister of Culture of Ukraine has announced that the country will not allow those Russian artists, who are included in the “black list” to participate in the contest. 80 names of the Russian artist are included in the list, including the names of Valeria, Stas Piekha and Oleg Gazmanov. According to his if one of this artists wins in the national level of the contest it will be considered as a “deliberate provocation”.

Currently the European Broadcasting Union, which is one of the organizers of the song contest, is conducting talks with the Ukrainian authorities regarding the visit of those artist included in the “black list”.