Today: Eurovision 2022 Semi-final Allocation Draw live from Turin

by Sanjay (Sergio) Jiandani 1,088 views

The draw for allocating the countries that will compete in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals will be held today at 12:00 PM CET at Turin’s iconic Palazzo Madama. The draw will be streamed live via YouTube.

The Madama Palace in Turin (photo credit: Google Arts & Culture)

The Host Insignia Handover Ceremony will be held prior to the Semi-final Allocation Draw at Palazzo Madama.

Both the Semi-final Allocation Draw and the Host Insignia Ceremony will be conducted by Carolina di Domenico and Mario Acampa.

Host Insignia Handover Ceremony

Palazzo Madama in Turin (Photo credit: EBU/RAI)

The Mayor of Rotterdam, Mr. Ahmed Aboutaleb, will officially hand over the keys to the Mayor of  Turin, Stefano Lo Russo, at Palazzo Madama.

A grand ceremony has been organized for the occasion, where Turin will officially take over from Rotterdam as the Eurovision host city.

The ceremony will be carried out in the presence of Mr. Frank Dieter Freiling (Eurovision Reference Group chairman) who will give a short speech on behalf of the EBU.

How to watch?

You can watch the Semi-final Allocation Draw live at 12: 00 PM CET via the following channels:

Pot distribution

The 36 semi-final competing countries have been divided and distributed into 6 pots specially for the draw.

The 2022 Eurovision Pot (Photo credit: EBU/RAI)

The distribution of the countries in the 5 pots has been 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.

Which country is in which pot?

Pot 1

  • Albania
  • Croatia
  • Montenegro
  • North Macedonia
  • Serbia
  • Slovenia

Pot 2

  • Denmark
  • Australia
  • Finland
  • Iceland
  • Norway
  • Sweden

Pot  3

  • Armenia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Georgia
  • Israel
  • Russia
  • Ukraine

Pot 4

  • Cyprus
  • Greece
  • Malta
  • Bulgaria
  • Portugal
  • San Marino

Pot 5

  • Estonia
  • Lithuania
  • Latvia
  • Moldova
  • Poland
  • Romania

Pot 6

  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Switzerland
  • Czech Republic
  • Ireland
  • Netherlands

Semi-final Allocation Draw

A total 36 countries have been distributed into 5 pots and will be allocated into one of the 2 semi-finals by a draw. The first draw will determine which country will compete in which semi-final.

Eighteen countries will compete in one semi-final whilst eighteen countries will compete in the other semi-final  The draw will be supervised by the chairperson of the Eurovision Reference Group Mr. Frank Dieter Freiling.

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 semi-final draw

The Big 5 (Italy, France, UK, Spain and Germany) countries will vote in the semi-finals too.

A draw will also determine which country will vote in which semi-final.

Eurovision 2022

A total of 41 countries will compete at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam next May. 36 countries will compete in the semi-finals, whilst 25 countries will compete in the Grand Final.

The exact running order of the 36 countries competing in the 2 semi-finals on 10 and 12 May will be determined by the producers of the show by late March.

The Big 5 (Spain, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy) are automatically qualified to compete in the Grand Final on 14 May.

The 2022 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 10, 12 and 14  May at Pala Olimpico in Turin, Italy.

Cover photo credit: EBU