The draw for allocating the countries that will compete in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals will be held today at 19:00 CET in Vienna. The draw will be streamed live via YouTube.
The Host City Handover Ceremony will be held prior to the Semi-final Allocation Draw in Vienna.
Both the Semi-final Allocation Draw and the Host City Ceremony will be conducted by Alexandra Maritza Wachter and Cesár Sampson.
Host Insignia Handover Ceremony
The President of the Government of Basel, Mr, Conradin Cramer will officially pass the Eurovision baton to the Mayor of Vienna, Mr. Michael Ludwig. A grand ceremony has been organized for the occasion, where Vienna will officially take over from Basel as the Eurovision host city. The ceremony will be carried out in the presence of ORF and EBU officials.
How to watch?
You can watch the Semi-final Allocation Draw live at 19:00 CET via the following channels:
Pot distribution
The 30 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: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Switzerland
- Pot 2: Australia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Sweden
- Pot 3: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Israel, Poland, Ukraine
- Pot 4: Belgium, Czechia, Luxembourg, Moldova, Portugal, Romania
- Pot 5: Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, San Marino
Semi-final Allocation Draw
The 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. The semi-finals are scheduled to be held on 12 and 14 May.
First/Second Half of Semifinal 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 4 and Austria voting in Semi-finals
The BIG 4 countries and hosts Austria will vote in the semi-finals too. A draw will also determine which country will vote in which semi-final.
The draw will also determine in which of the 2 semi-finals the BIG 4 and host country will showcase their respective Eurovision entries.
Eurovision 2026
A total of 35 countries will compete at the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna next May. 30 of countries will compete in the 2 semi-finals which are scheduled to be held on 10 and 12 May (15 countries in each semi-final).
The exact running order of the countries competing in the 2 Semi-finals on 12 and 14 May, will be determined by late March.
The BIG 4 and Austria (the host country) are automatically qualified to compete in the grand final on Saturday 16 May.
The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 is scheduled to be held on 12, 14 and 16 May at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria.
