For the fourth sucessive year, there will be a semi-final to reduce the entries to a field for the final to just 24. As before, the "Big 4" of France, Germany, Spain and the U.K. are automatically qualified for the final, as they make the biggest financial contribution to the costs of staging the show. Once again, the Top 10 countries from the previous will also be automatic finalists; Finland (2006 winners), Russia, Bosn-a Herzegovina, Romania, Sweden, Lithuania, Ukraine, Armenia, Greece and Ireland.

 

The other 28 countries will compete in the semi-final, making that the biggest ever single contest in Eurovision history, overtaking the 26 countries that cometed in the final in Riga in 2003.

 

The list of participants now seems set at 42, making it the biggest Eurovision Song Contest ever. All the 37 countries that competed in Athens in 2006 are back with the exception of Monaco, which withdrew in December, believing it had little chance of success in such a big field.

 

Two countries return to the contest, after taking a break in 2006; Austria and Hungary. Two countries compete for the first time as separate countries having competed as a single entity in 2004 and 2005; Montenegro and Serbia. Finally two new countries join the Eurovision family; the former Soviet republic of Georgia and the Czech Republic. You can find details of the selection process in each country further down this page.

 

There is a minor change to the draw procedure for the 2007 contest. Instead of the traditional draw, where the first country drawn sings first and so on, this year the first five countries drawn in the semi final and first three drawn in the final will get a "wildcard" option. The Head of Delegation of these countries gets to choose where they will perform in the running order by selecting their starting position.

 

It is believed that performing later in the running order is to a country's advantage, so it is currently a disadvantage to be one of the first countries to be drawn. To balance this, countries drawn first will get to select the position from which they start. It also gives the countries drawn first a chance of positioning themselves away from a country with a similar entry. Once these countries have selected their position in the running order the draw will then continue in the normal way, where each country drawn fills a remaining space from the beginning down.

 

It is very likely that this will be the final Eurovision Song Contest with the current qualification process. The Eurovision reference group are believed to be working on a formula to put to the Heads of Delegation in March, which will change the qualification process from 2008 onwards. The new format would involve two semi-finals rather than one and all countries bar the previous year's winner would have to qualify for the final.

 

The status of the "Big 4" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) is believed to be still under review, as it is unlikely that the BBC or TVE would be keen on the idea of having to go through the qualification process, or more critically giving their primetime Saturday night schedule to a contest in which they wouldn't be participating. However giving four countries an automatic place in the final when everybody else has to qualify will very likely upset other countries.

 

The two semi-final shows are likely to take place on the same evening (probably the Thursday night before the final) and will use the same venue and stage as the final.

 

The semi-finalists are likely to be divided by timezone. Countries using the Eastern European timezones (coloured orange and purple on the map on the left) will take part in the first semi-final which would start at 19.00 BST.

 

Countries in the Central and Western timezones (green and yellow on the map) would take part in the second semi-final starting immediatly afterwards at 21.00 BST.

 

Some of the countries in the Central European timezone, like the former Yugoslav states, Poland and Hungary may be "moved" to the earlier semi, so equalise the numbers participating in each show.

 

Twelve countries will qualify from each semi, or ten if the "big 4" remain outside the qualification process. This change obviously takes the pressure off this year's entrants to finish in the Top 10 in Helsinki, as there is no advantage in terms of the following years qualification.

All this confusion for no reason :( It doesn't NEED changing :angry:

All this confusion for no reason :( It doesn't NEED changing :angry:

I know, it was perfectly alright before they started all this semi-final malarky. :arrr: If we have to enter the semi-final next year and don't qualify, the BBC are likely to pull out imo... same for France, Spain and Germany. -_-

I know, it was perfectly alright before they started all this semi-final malarky. :arrr: If we have to enter the semi-final next year and don't qualify, the BBC are likely to pull out imo... same for France, Spain and Germany. -_-

I know, why fund something you're not involved in? :lol:

It would be a good excuse for the Big 4 to make more efforts. In 2005, they all had lacklustre entries and in 2006, only Germany and UK made some effort.

well I think the big 4 should try a semifinal 4 once :P they make the biggest financial contribution but they are also the richest countries in Europe!!!

but nothing is official yet so we should wait till the finish of ESC 2007 :)

This semi-final stuff will be the death of Eurovision, having one semi-final is alright, it works, but having two takes the piss! :rolleyes: And if they get the "Big 4" to qualify, that will be the end of it, they'll withdraw funding and it won't be able to continue :arrr:

 

I don't see why they don't use a mixture of semi-final and relegation - those who finish in the bottom 10 of the semi-final don't return the next year ^_^

If they're willing to knock the 4 biggest contributors noses out of joint then we should pull out all together, we've got more important things to spend our money on, certainly in the UK

 

How much money do we actually put into it?

Since we churn out cr@p tracks out every year, we might as well pull out of the competition altogether

 

Anyhow why don't they have groups instead for each region, just like the footie, and only top 3 countries can qualify

Since we churn out cr@p tracks out every year, we might as well pull out of the competition altogether

 

Anyhow why don't they have groups instead for each region, just like the footie, and only top 3 countries can qualify

Next year they are having two semi-finals, which could be organised by regions. :funky: Though of course we get straight through anyway.