Today, the draw of the running order for the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest semi final and final took place. Over the years it has been shown that the starting position may well affect the result…

You can find the complete running order here.

Opening / closing

Bosnia & Herzegovina will open the competition for the first time. The last top5 finish for an opening country was back in 2002, searching for the last victory we even have to back to 1984. Like last year, one of the semi final qualifiers will be the last entry to be performed. During times when juries were used to decide the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, the last position was very popular and very succesful. Since the televoting was introduced in 1997 / 1998, there were onlyfourcountries that managed to reach the top10: Estonia in 1999, Denmark in 2001, Sweden in 2004 and Armenia in 2006.

The curse of number 2

It is a common legend that the entry performed second never gets a high placing. Actually, the best result from that postition was second place achieved by the United Kingdom back in 1965! The last top10 placing from that position was the 3rd place for the United Kingdom in 2002. This year, after 45 years of participation, Spain will have to take on the burden for the very first time.

13th – a lucky number?

With 24 songs competing, number 13 might not be a popular starting position: this means that the entry will be performed directly after the break: Among others in 2004, Belgium was one of the big favourites but finished 3rd from last having performed 13th. Nevertheless, in 2005 and 2006 top10 placings were achieved. This year, it will be France, a country that will be heading for a good placing after four years of low results.

The semi final qualifiers

Last year, the semi final qualifiers were all drawn towards the end of the show while the first nine entries were all directly qualified songs. This year, they are pretty equably spread over the 24 spots.

Voting running order

The first country to vote will be a newcomer – Montenegro – while the last voting will come from a returning country – Hungary. All in all, the countries are evenly distributed, a cluster of neighbouring countries cannot be found.