Watch now: Eurovision 2025 Semi-final Allocation Draw live from Basel

by Sanjay (Sergio) Jiandani 575 views

The draw for allocating the countries that will compete in the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals will be held today at 12:30 CET in Basel. The draw will be streamed live via YouTube.

The ESC 2025 Semi-final Allocation Draw in Basel (Photo credit: Chris Fox)

The Host Insignia Handover Ceremony will be held prior to the Semi-final Allocation Draw in Basel.

Both the Semi-final Allocation Draw and the Host Insignia Ceremony will be conducted by Jennifer Bosshard and Jan van Ditzhuijzen

Host Insignia Handover Ceremony

The a representative from the City of Malmo will officially hand over the keys to a representative from the City of Basel.

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

The ceremony will be carried out in the presence of SSR-SRG and EBU officials.

How to watch?

You can watch the Semi-final Allocation Draw live at 12:30PM CET via the following channels:

Pot distribution

The 31 semi-final competing countries have been divided and distributed into 5 pots specially for the draw.

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 neighborly 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

  • Belgium
  • Czechia
  • Estonia
  • Lithuania
  • Luxembourg
  • Latvia
  • Netherlands

Pot 2

  • Armenia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Georgia
  • Israel
  • Poland
  • Ukraine

Pot 3

  • Albania
  • Austria
  • Croatia
  • Montenegro
  • Serbia
  • Slovenia

Pot 4

  • Cyprus
  • Greece
  • Ireland
  • Malta
  • Portugal
  • San Marino

Pot 5

  • Austalia
  • Denmark
  • Finland
  • Iceland
  • Norway
  • Sweden

Semi-final Allocation Draw

A total 31 countries have been distributed into 6 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.

Sixteen countries will compete in one semi-final whilst fifteen countries will compete in the other semi-final  The draw will be supervised by the EBU.

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 + Switzerland semi-final draw

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

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

Eurovision 2025

A total of 37 countries will compete at the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Basel next May. 31 countries will compete in the semi-finals, whilst 26 countries will compete in the Grand Final.

The exact running order of the 31 countries competing in the 2 semi-finals on 13 and 15 May will be determined by the producers of the show by late March.

The Big 5 (Spain, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy) and Switzerland are automatically qualified to compete in the Grand Final on 11 May.

The 2025 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on  13, 15 and 17 May at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland.

Cover photo credit: EBU/SSR-SRG