Dutch Waylon through to Eurovision Song Contest finals

Dutch singer Waylon made it through to the Eurovision Song Contest finals on Thursday. He along with 25 other artists will represent their countries in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday, NU.nl reports.

The Outlaw in 'Em - singer will take the stage in the second half of the finals. "It was kind of stressful, but we are incredibly happy", Waylon said in a first reaction at a press conference on Friday.

The finals spots are partly determined by voting from home and party by a jury consisting of members from all participating countries. Other countries who made it into the finals on Thursday are Norway, Serbia, Denmark, Moldavia, Australia, Hungary, Sweden, Slovenia and Ukraine. On Tuesday evening 10 countries including Israel, Cyprus and Austria qualified for the finals. The so-called big five - Germany, Italy, Spain, France and the United Kingdom - go through every year because of their financial contribution. Portugal is also through to the finals, since Portuguese singer Salvador Sobral won the contest last year.

This is the third year in a row that the Netherlands is taking part in the finals. Over the past two years O'G3NE and Douwe Bob made it to the finals and finished in 11th place. In 2014 Waylon also made it to the finals with The Common Linnets. Along with Ilse DeLange, he then made it to second place - the highest ranking for the Netherlands in years.