After the second semi final of the semi final was held, the draw positions of the ten qualifiers in the grand final this Saturday, 16th May, were determined during the press conference.

The complete running order for Saturday:

1. Lithuania
2. Israel
3. France
4. Sweden
5. Croatia
6. Portugal
7. Iceland
8. Greece
9. Armenia
10. Russia
11. Azerbaijan
12. Bosnia & Herzegovina
13. Moldova
14. Malta
15. Estonia
16. Denmark
17. Germany
18. Turkey
19. Albania
20. Norway
21. Ukraine
22. Romania
23. United Kingdom
24. Finland
25. Spain

Opening and closing

For the second time and in ten participations, a Eurovision Song Contest will be opened by Lithuania. In 1999, the country did so for the first time but only finished 20th out of 23 competing countries. It will also be the fourth year in a row that the final will be opened by a ballad. However, the last three opening songs were no major success as Switzerland finished 16th in 2006, Bosnia & Herzegovina finished 11th in 2007 and Romania came 20th last year. Spain will be the last country on stage for the third time following 1964 and 1979, when the country finished second. The last three entries closing the contest all finished in the top ten although this very popular draw position has been less successful in the years of televoting than in the years of jury voting.

Number two and number three

The draw positions two and three are usually said to be the least successful ones. Israel got number two this year having already been drawn second in the 2007 semi final and in the first semi final in 2008. I is the fifth time already Israel got this draw and the first time sice 2004 that the number two in a final is a ballad. France got the number three for the sixth time already and the previous French entries at number three (1958, 1975, 1984, 1986 and 1998) show a declining trend having finished first, fourth, eighth, 17th and 24th respectively, although the early contests can hardly be compared with today's situation. It also has to be mentioned that the most successful entry at number three in recent years was a ballad, too (Malta 2005).

For the sake of variety…

The first three songs performed on stage will all be ballads and after a faster song from Sweden, another three ballads will follow. In the middle of the running-order, the songs are more mixed but eight of nine last songs that are performed are up-tempo songs with the United Kingdom's It's my time being the last ballad in the line-up.