This month, viewers have watched 37countries take to the stage in Basel in a bid to be crowned as the new 2025 champion, following in Nemo's footsteps.

After some star-studded performances throughout the week, only 26 countries will be battling it out during Saturday's Grand Final.

Despite fans expecting to see a plethora of bizarre and unusual antics on stage, there are certain things that won't be making an appearance as they're banned.

One of these includes live animals, although no official reason has been given. It's reported that this could be due to the welfare of the animal and the desire to ensure they're not distressed during the live performance.

Due to this, acts have had to get creative if they wanted to include animals in their routine. In 2016, Belarusian entrant Ivan used holographic wolves during his performance due to his love of the animal.

Another thing you won't see on stage during the Eurovision Song Contest is more than six people on stage at a time, which is outlined on their official rules page.

Something which may shock fans is the ban of live instruments on stage. However, this hasn't stopped performers from pretending to play live during their time to shine.

One of which includes Sam Ryder, who competed for the United Kingdom in 2022. At the end of his song, Sam was seen doing an impressive electric guitar solo.

That, however, wasn't played live but was pre-recorded with Sam mimicking the chords during his act.

Another thing that is banned from being on-stage is children, with the youngest entrants being aged 16 or above.

A statement from their site reads: "All Contestants and artists competing in a Semi-Final must be aged at least 16 on the day of the Final.

"All Contestants and artists competing only in the Final must be aged at least 16 on the day of the Final."

This year, Remember Monday are representing the UK with their song 'What The Hell Just Happened?'. This marks the nation's first all-female group entry since 1999.

The full list of participating countries - in no particular order - are:

• United Kingdom
• Italy
• Spain
• France
• Germany
• Switzerland
• Iceland
• Poland
• Estonia
• Sweden
• Portugal
• Norway
• San Marino
• Albania
• Netherlands
• Latvia
• Armenia
• Austria
• Greece
• Lithuania
• Malta
• Denmark
• Luxembourg
• Finland

The Eurovision Song Contest airs this Saturday at 8pm on One.