SVT, the Swedish national broadcaster has announced that the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest Semi-final Allocation Draw will be held at Stockholm’s City Hall on Monday 25 January at 11:15 CET.

The 2016 Eurovision Allocation Draw will be streamed live next Monday 25 January via eurovision.tv and svtplay. During the draw 37  countries will be divided into one of the two Semi-finals. The Host  Insignia Handover Ceremony will also be held on the same day at the same venue.

Mr. Jon Ola Sand, the Executive Supervisor  of the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of the EBU will attend the ceremony and the draw along with SVT Eurovision 2016  Executive Producers Martin Österdahl and Johan Bern Hagenp, Eurovision 2016 producer Christer Björkman, SVT’s president Hanna Stjärne and Karin Wanngård (Commissioner of Finance Stockholm).

A total of 43 countries will compete at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest.  37 of them will battle it out in the Semi-finals.  The BIG 5 (Spain, UK, Italy, France and Germany) and host country Sweden are directly qualified to compete in the Grand Final.

The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 10, 12 and 14 May at the Globen Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.

Stay tuned to ESCToday for the latest news on Sweden and the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.