The EBU, European Broadcasting Union has revealed the 2016 Eurovision Semi-final Draw pot distribution.

A total of 43 countries will participate at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm. 37 will compete in the Semi-finals. 18 countries will take part in Semi-final 1 on 10 May and 19 countries will take part in Semi-final 2 on  11 May.

10 countries from each Semi-final will proceed to the Grand final where they will join Sweden and the BIG 5 countries. A total of 26 countries will compete in the Grand final on 14 May.

The BIG 5 ( Spain, UK, France, Italy and Germany) and host country Sweden are pre-qualified to compete in the grand final.

The 2016 Eurovision Semi-final Allocation Draw is scheduled to be held on 25 January at the City Hall in Stockholm at 11:15 CET and it will be hosted by Alexandra Pascalidou and Jovan Radomir. The draw will be streamed live on SVTPlay and eurovision.tv

How will the draw work?

A draw will first take place in order to determine which of the 6 pre-qualified countries (BIG 5 and Sweden) will broadcast and vote in which Semi-final. (Germany will broadcast and vote in Semi-final 2 on May 12).

Another draw will take place in order to disbrute the remaining 36 countries in one of the 2 Semi-finals. Followed by a third draw to determine which half of the Semi-final will each country perform in, in its respective alloted Semi-final (1st half or 2nd half). (Israel will compete in Semi-final 2 as the date of Semi-final 1 clashes with Memorial Day).

The final and exact running order of both the Semi-finals will be determined by SVT at a later date.

37  countries have been allocated into 6 pots, based on historical voting patterns as calculated by the contest’s official televoting partner Digame. .

The Pots

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 (pre-assigned to the second Semi-Final)
• Moldova
• Romania
• Switzerland

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

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