RTP, the 2018 Eurovision host broadcaster and the EBU have set a date for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest Semi-final Allocation Draw.

Semi-final Allocation Draw

The 2018 Eurovision Semi-final Allocation Draw is scheduled to take place on Monday 29 January in Lisbon. The venue is yet to be officially confirmed, but it is more likely that the Lisbon City Hall (Camara Municipal de Lisboa) will host the event.

A total of 43 countries will partake at the forthcoming 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon. 37 countries will compete in the semi-finals whilst a total of 26 countries will compete in the Grand Final on 12 May.

How many countries will compete in each semi-final?

A total of 37 countries will fight for the golden ticket to the Grand Final in one of the two semi-finals on 8 and 10 May. Thus 18 countries will compete in one semi-final and 19 countries in the other, whist the Big 5 ( Spain, United Kingdom, Italy, France and Germany) and the host country Portugal are pre-qualified and have an automatic ticket to the Grand Final on 12 May.

The 37 semi-finalist countries will be divided into several pots and distributed equally into each of the 2 semi-finals by a draw. The distribution of the countries in the pots will be based on the voting pattern in each country in the past years.

This mechanism is used in order to avoid neighbourly voting and countries that tend to vote for each another ending up competing in the same semi-final.

The first draw will determine which country will compete in which semi-final. 19 countries will compete in the 1st semi-final on 8 May, whilst the remaining 18 countries will compete in the 2nd semi-final on 10 May.

The exact running order of the 36 countries competing in the 2 semi-finals on 8 and 10 May will be determined by the producers of the show by late March. The draw will be supervised by EBU’s Executive Supervisor Mr. Jon Ola Sand.

Semi-finalist countries

  1. Albania
  2. Armenia
  3. Australia
  4. Austria
  5. Azerbaijan
  6. Belarus
  7. Belgium
  8. Bulgaria
  9. Croatia
  10. Cyprus
  11. Czech Republic
  12. Denmark
  13. Estonia
  14. Finland
  15. FYR Macedonia
  16. Georgia
  17. Greece
  18. Hungary
  19. Iceland
  20. Ireland
  21. Israel
  22. Latvia
  23. Lithuania
  24. Malta
  25. Moldova
  26. Montenegro
  27. The Netherlands
  28. Norway
  29. Poland
  30. Romania
  31. Russia
  32. San Marino
  33. Serbia
  34. Slovenia
  35. Sweden
  36. Switzerland
  37. Ukraine 

Big 5 + Host Country

  1. France
  2. Germany
  3. Italy
  4. Portugal
  5. Spain
  6. United Kingdom

First/second half of Semi-final Allocation Draw

Another draw will determine the appearance of the country in its respective semi-final (1st half or 2nd half of the semi-final).

Big 5 and Portugal voting in semi-finals

The Big 5 (Italy, France, UK, Spain and Germany) countries and host country Portugal will vote in the semi-finals too. A draw will also determine which country will vote in which semi-final.

The 2018 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 8, 10 and 12 May at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal.


Sanjay (Sergio) joined esctoday.com in December 2006 as an editor. He was appointed as the Head of Press of ESCToday.com in 2011. Hereafter in 2016 he was promoted as the Head of International Relations & Communications at ESCToday. Sergio has covered the Eurovision Song Contest live 22 times since 2000, having worked for several international magazines and media outlets.