Not long now until Malmö officially becomes the host city of this year’s contest, when the official keychain is handed over to the city from Liverpool. Before all that, we still have the very last details that needs to be set, before the ceremony can take place and before we exactly know, who will compete in the two semi-finals. Let’s get into it and guide #YOU through it all, so we all can be ready for the draw.
Allocation Draw – The Pots
Before a draw can take place, all possible candidates are placed into pots. Depending on the occasion, the pots used group certain countries, teams, associations and what not, based on specific predicaments. For example in sports, teams that are usually considered better, are grouped together, in order to avoid having them clash too early, so excitement can also take place at a later stage in a competition.
When it comes to the Eurovision Song Contest, these pots are decided based on voting patterns. Countries who have a tendency to normally vote for each other, who then are split into the two semi-finals that take place prior to the final. Normally with half of the pot going into the first semi-final, while the remaining half ending in the second semi-final. The pots used for the contest, doesn’t eliminate friendly voting completely, but reduces it a lot, so countries can’t only depend on friendly voting, but also by having a good song and performance, which lift each acts competitiveness.
With that said, let’s see how the pots for 2024 will look like:
- Pot 1
- 🇦🇱 Albania
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇭🇷 Croatia
- 🇭🇷 Serbia
- 🇸🇮 Slovenia
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- Pot 2
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇪🇪 Estonia
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇮🇸 Iceland
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- Pot 3
- 🇦🇲 Armenia
- 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan
- 🇬🇪 Georgia
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇱🇻 Latvia
- 🇱🇹 Lithuania
- 🇺🇦 Ukraine
- Pot 4
- 🇨🇾 Cyprus
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇲🇹 Malta
- 🇵🇹 Portugal
- 🇸🇲 San Marino
- Pot 5
- 🇧🇪 Belgium
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇩 Moldova
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇵🇱 Poland
Importantly to point out, is that there will be 37 countries competing this year, with the return of Luxembourg and the withdrawal of Romania form last year. However, only 31 countries were listed into the pots. The 6 missing countries are this year’s host country, Sweden and the BIG 5(France, Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom), who all are pre-qualified to the final, and won’t need to worry about qualification.
Exactly like last year, the 31 countries have been placed into 5 pots. There are only 2 things differently this year, which is Luxembourg replacing Romania in pot 5, and Ukraine is now present in pot 3, instead of Sweden who are usually in pot 2.
This means that there will be 3 countries from each pot that are allocated into the 2 semi-finals, with the exception of pot 3, whereas one of the semi-finals will contain 4 countries from that one singular pot.
The 6 pre-qualified countries will however, vote in either one of the semi-finals, which will also be decided by random, during the allocation draw. The draw will take place in Malmö, Sweden on the 30th of January at 19:00 CET.
Who do #YOU want in each semi-final and which countries are #YOU looking forward to picking their songs?
Let’s hear from #YOU on our forum site right HERE, or visit us on Facebook, X(Twitter), Instagram, Youtube, TikTok and Discord.
