The Semi Final allocation draw took place in Rotterdam to determine which country will perform in which of the two Semi Finals on May 12th and 14th. The three hosts Edsilia Rombley, Chantal Janzen & Jan Smit have welcomed the officials like Jan Ola Sand, Sietse Bakker, EBU Reference Group and the mayors of Tel Aviv and Rotterdam.

The Semi Final allocation draw took place in Rotterdam to determine which country will perform in which of the two Semi Finals on May 12th and 14th. The three hosts Edsilia Rombley, Chantal Janzen & Jan Smit have welcomed the officials like Jan Ola Sand, Sietse Bakker, EBU Reference Group and the mayors of Tel Aviv and Rotterdam.

Alongside the allocation it has been a tradition to hand over the symbolic keys of the host cities. Last year’s host city Tel Aviv has been represented by the Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo Mrs Zippi Brand Frank. She has put a big key to the ring of former ESC host cities and gave the advice to start quickly with the work which is to do before the contest starts in May. The Mayor of Rotterdam Ahmed Aboutaleb has shown great enthusiasm and anticipation about the upcoming weeks and months when a big invasion of fans, journalists and delegations will be expected.

There were five pots with the 35 participation countries of the Semi Finals. The content of the pots has been a result of former voting patterns. This leads to a fair allocation to avoid that neighbour countries vote for each other.

These were the five pots:

Pot 1: Albania, Austria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and Switzerland
Pot 2: Australia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden
Pot 3: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine
Pot 4: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Romania and San Marino
Pot 5: Belgium, Czech Republic, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland

Furthermore the Big 5 countries and the host countries have been allocated to the Semi Final where they have the right to vote as well:

• Semi Final 1: Italy, Germany, The Netherlands
• Semi Final 2: France, United Kingdom, Spain

Semi Final 1

First Half

• North Macedonia
• Belarus
• Lithuania
• Sweden
• Slovenia
• Australia
• Ireland
• Russia

Second Half

• Norway
• Cyprus
• Croatia
• Azerbaijan
• Malta
• Israel
• Ukraine
• Romania
• Belgium

Semi Final 2

First Half

• Austria
• Moldova
• Poland
• San Marino
• Serbia
• Iceland
• Czech Republic
• Greece
• Estonia

Second Half

• Denmark
• Bulgaria
• Switzerland
• Finland
• Armenia
• Latvia
• Georgia
• Portugal
• Albania

This is not the running order yet. This will be determined by the host broadcaster at a later stage, when all songs are known. This is made to order the songs and countries to make to increase the excitement, to avoid ballad after ballad.

Here you can watch the Semi Final allocation draw again:

Author: Jens PetersenEmail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Editor in Chief of eurovisionlive.com

About me:
Due to the fact that my parents are musicians, I have a gained a great enthusiasm for music. Since 1979 my interest in the Eurovision Song Contest has grown enormously. My first ESC I joined was in Dublin 1995. Six years later I founded the website eurovisionlive.com in the year 2001. The most fascinating part for me is the original idea of the Eurovision Song Contest – the peaceful contest of the European countries. I am very happy that I have the chance to contribute my little part for the greatest music show in the world.