Today the 2011 Eurovision Semi Final allocation draw takes place. The draw will be carried out using twitter rather than a webcast, and esctoday.com is of course covering the event live here. The officials have decided to broadcast the results live on Twitter. The 2011 Eurovision Song Contest hostess Judith Rakers, will host the event, taking place at the Apollo Theatre in Dusseldorf. The draw begins at 15:00 CET

The semi-final allocation draw will decide which semi final each country will participate in for the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest.EBU Officials have decided to broadcast the results live on Twitter.Five countries are already guaranteed a place in the final. They are the 'Big Five', winners Germany, France, Spain, United Kingdom and the returning Italy.

Slovakia is still included in the pot 6, even though the local broadcaster has said the country would not participate. Israel will be placed in Semi Final two due to the national memorial day on May 10th meaning that the country cannot participate in the first semi final.The broadcasters will also know if their representatives will have to perform in the first or in the second half of the shows.It will also be determined which Semi-Final the 'Big Five' (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) will have to broadcast and vote in.

The 38 countries to participate in the semifinals will be drawn from six pots, based on the 2010 voting patterns. This system intends to reduce the effects of bloc voting, making the shows more exciting and less predictable.

The results will be filled as they come in:

Pot 1	semifinal	Pot 2	semifinal	Pot 3	semifinal
Albania	1st	Denmark	2nd	Azerbaijan	1st
Bosnia & Herzegovina	2nd	Estonia	2nd	Belarus	2nd
Croatia	1st	Finland	1st	Georgia	1st
FYR Macedonia	2nd	Iceland	1st	Israel	2nd
Serbia	1st	Norway	1st	Moldova	2nd
Slovenia	2nd	Sweden	2nd	Russia	1st
Switzerland	1st			Ukraine	2nd
Pot 4	semifinal	Pot 5	semifinal	Pot 6	semifinal
Armenia	1st	Ireland	2nd	Austria	2nd
Belgium	2nd	Latvia	2nd	Bulgaria	2nd
Cyprus	2nd	Lithuania	1st	Hungary	1st
Greece	1st	Malta	1st	Poland	1st
The Netherlands	2nd	Portugal	1st	San Marino	1st
Turkey	1st	Romania	2nd	Slovakia	2nd

Semifinal 1 (10 May 2011)	Semifinal 2 (12 May 2011)
First Half (spots 1-10) Albania Finland Armenia Switzerland Norway Georgia Turkey Serbia Russia Poland Second Half (spots 11-19) Croatia Azerbaijan Lithuania Hungary Malta San Marino Iceland Greece Portugal Voting Rights: United Kingdom Spain	First Half (spots 1-9) The Netherlands Bosnia & Herzegovina Ukraine Cyprus Austria Sweden Moldova Belgium Slovakia Second Half (spots 10-19) Israel FYR Macedonia Denmark Belarus Bulgaria Latvia Estonia Romania Slovenia Ireland Voting Rights Italy Germany France