A landmark moment in the yearly Eurovision Song Contest calendar, as this marks the official transition from last year’s host city (Rotterdam) to this year’s host city (Turin/Torino). The allocation draw was hosted by Carolina di Domenico and Mario Acampa.
The Allocation Draw
As usual, the draw took place in the upcoming host city of Turin, in the Palazzo Madama. An announcement was made ahead of time to announce the 6 pots for the allocation draw. These pots are made to divide certain countries that have similar voting patterns, in order to create a more competitive and fair split between the semi-finals. It was also a return to the original set-up, since for the 2020/21 contest, only 5 pots were in use.
In case you need a reminder, this is how the pots were split up:
Pot 1:
Albania
Croatia
Montenegro
North Macedonia
Serbia
Slovenia
Pot 2:
Australia
Denmark
Finland
Iceland
Norway
Sweden
Pot 3:
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Georgia
Israel
Russia
Ukraine
Pot 4:
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Greece
Malta
Portugal
San Marino
Pot 5:
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Moldova
Poland
Romania
Pot 6:
Austria
Belgium
Czech Republic
Ireland
Netherlands
Switzerland
Before the decision to split the countries into each semi-final was made, another draw had to determined first, which was the draw of the BIG 5. The BIG 5 had to be split into the semi-finals as well, but not in order to compete, but rather to decide in which semi-final the pre-qualified countries (
France, 
Germany, 
Spain, 
United Kingdom & 
Italy) would vote in. It was announced before draw, that 2 of them would take part in the first semi-final, while the remaining 3 in the second semi-final.
This was the following outcome for the BIG 5:
Voting in Semi-final 1:
- France
- Italy
Voting in Semi-final 2:
- United Kingdom
- Spain
- Germany
Time to the move on to the more exciting draw that took place. There was no request from any broadcaster to be placed in a specific semi-final ahead of the draw. The draw did NOT determine the running order, but rather which half each country would participate in, which is shown as follow:
Semi-final 1 – First Half:
- Albania
- Latvia
- Switzerland
- Slovenia
- Bulgaria
- Moldova
- Ukraine
- Lithuania
- Netherlands
Semi-final 1 – Second Half:
- Norway
- Russia
- Portugal
- Denmark
- Armenia
- Austria
- Croatia
- Iceland
- Greece
Semi-final 2 – First Half:
- Australia
- Georgia
- Cyprus
- Serbia
- Finland
- Azerbaijan
- San Marino
- Israel
- Malta
Semi-final 2 – Second Half:
- Montenegro
- Romania
- Czech Republic
- Poland
- Belgium
- North Macedonia
- Sweden
- Estonia
- Ireland
The First Semi-final will take place Tuesday of May 10th, while the Second Semi-final will place Thursday of May 12th and of course the final will immediately take place on the Saturday of May 14th. At the moment of the draw, only Albania, Bulgaria and Czech Republic had selected their song and act for the contest, while The Netherlands, Greece, Georgia, Belgium & Montenegro had revealed their act.
Should you want to re-watch the draw, or if you missed it and want to see how it all was done, you can freely do so in the video above.
What do #YOU think about the draw, are there some countries #YOU think are in trouble or safe? Which countries are #YOU worried about? There is so much to discuss and you can freely do so with us on our social media sites or on our forum HERE.
