Posted January 21, 20169 yr http://1news.md/uploads/posts/2015-12/1450341327_wer_vertritt_unser_land_in_stockholm_span12.jpg The Semi-Final Allocation Draw, to determine which country will participate in which Semi-Final of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, will take place in Stockholm's City Hall at 11:15 (am) CET on Monday 25th January. Vienna, last year's host city, will also formally hand over the Host City Insignia to its successor Stockholm. Dr. Andreas Mailath-Pokorny, Executive City Councillor for Cultural Affairs of the City of Vienna will present the Host City Insignia to Stockholm's Mayor, Ms. Karin Wanngård. Familiar names The Semi-Final Allocation Draw will be hosted by SVT hosts Alexandra Pascalidou and Jovan Radomir, both well known to die-hard Eurovision Song Contest fans. Pascalidou, who was born in Romania, was the Greek commentator to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005, when Greece won the contest with Helena Paparizou's My Number One. She hosted one of the Swedish national selection semi-finals in the same year. Radomir, who was born in Serbia, gave the Swedish points in 2004 and 2006, and wrote the English lyrics for Serbia's 2007 Eurovision Song Contest winning song Molitva. The draw: How it works The first part of the draw will determine which of the six pre-qualified countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and host country Sweden) will have to broadcast and vote in which Semi-Final. The first Semi-Final will have 18 participants and the second will have 19. Another draw will then decide in which half of the respective Semi-Finals each country will perform. The exact running order will be determined by the producers of the show at a later date. From each Semi-Final, ten countries will proceed to the Grand Final on 14th May, joining the six pre-qualified countries. In total, 26 countries will be represented in the Grand Final. At the request of German broadcaster ARD, and following approval from the Reference Group, the governing body of the Eurovision Song Contest, Germany will broadcast and vote in the second Semi-Final on 12th May. Israel will compete in the second Semi-Final since the first Semi-Final clashes with the country's memorial day. The allocation draw pots The 37 Semi-Finalists have been allocated into 6 pots, based on historical voting patterns as calculated by the contest's official televoting partner Digame. Drawing from different pots helps to reduce the chance of so-called neighbour voting and increases suspense in the Semi-Finals. Pot 1: Albania, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina Pot 2: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia Pot 3: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine Pot 4: Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Australia, The Netherlands, Bulgaria Pot 5: Czech Republic, Lithuania, Ireland, Malta, Poland, San Marino Pot 6: Austria, Hungary, Israel, Moldova, Romania, Switzerland Swedish broadcaster SVT will also unveil the artwork and slogan for Contest on Monday. Eurovision.tv will be streaming the Semi-Final Allocation Draw live this Monday at 11:15 am CET, and so will SVTPlay. If you aren't following us on Instagram yet, do so right away! The Eurovision.tv team will be giving you a sneak peak behind the scenes from the Semi-Final Allocation Draw. Don't miss it! Eurovision.tv I'm very excited for this as the semi-final draw is what I always consider as the next contest officially getting into full flow! I'm glad we'll finally get the theme art and slogan too, we were spoiled last year with getting Vienna's theme art and slogan so early!
January 25, 20169 yr Author I couldn't believe it when it happened again either! Mostly very happy with the draw, lots of my favourite countries getting second half draws: Cyprus, Malta, Belgium, Albania, Slovenia and Estonia - finally! Also glad to see Bulgaria get a good draw on their return, even if they have been split from Greece and Cyprus. Semi-final 1 seems like the tougher one again with Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, Greece and Bosnia & Herzegovina (based on the latter's qualification record) all in there. First half for Ireland isn't ideal but still feels like something that will sneak through, second half for Laura and Belgium is very handy and gives them a better chance. Ira is looking safer now with Malta's first second half draw since the system came in in 2013! Eneda has a good chance of following in Elhaida's footsteps now too with a good revamp.
January 25, 20169 yr They look pretty even to me, which is good. Plenty of no-hopers and countries that tend to do well in both. (I swear each year I have a class when this is going on :( )
January 25, 20169 yr How on EARTH do Russia end up in the first semi-final EVERY SINGLE YEAR?! and once again in the same half as finland ;_;
January 25, 20169 yr I notice they haven't split Norway and Denmark automatically like they did for Malmö.
January 25, 20169 yr Only major observation of note is that semi one has a lot more countries with 100% or one off 100% qualification records (although with Bosnia I get the feeling that if they'd been entering over the last three years then they wouldn't necessarily have kept it but that's just conjecture).
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