The allocation draw for allocating the countries that will compete in the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest Semi-finals will be held today at 13:20 CET at Rathaus– Vienna’s City Hall, in the Austrian capital. The draw will be streamed live on eurovision.tv.

The Host Insignia Handover will be held at 12:00 CET whilst the Semi-finals Allocation Draw will be held at 13:20 CET at Vienna’s Rathaus. The Allocation draw and Host Insignia Ceremony will be conducted by Andi Knoll and by Kati Bellowitsch.

Host Insignia Handover Ceremony

The Mayor of Copenhagen will officially hand over the keys to the Mayor of Vienna Dr.Michael Haupl at the Wiener Rathaus (Vienna City Hall). A grand ceremony will be organized for the ocassion where Vienna will officially take over from Copenhagen as the Eurovision host city. The ceremony will carried out in the presence of Mr. Jon Ola Sand (EBU’s executive supervisor for the Eurovision Song Contest) and Alexander Wabretz (ORF’s general director). This will be followed by the official kicking off of the 2nd countdown to Semi-final 1 on 19 May  on the Eurovision Countdown Tower in Rathausplatz, ORF’s general director Dr.Alexander Wabretz and the Mayor of Vienna will be responsible to set the countdown off!

How to watch?

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You can watch the Host Insignia Handover Ceremony live at  12:40 CET

You can watch the Semi-final Allocation Draw live at 13:20 CET

• eurovision.tv
• songcontest.orf.at
• ORF 1
• ORF 2-  Heute Mittag

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A total 33 countries will be divided into 5 pots and distributed equally into each of the 2 semi-finals by a 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 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
• F.Y.R. Macedonia
• Montenegro
• Slovenia
• Switzerland
• Serbia
• Malta

Pot 2:

• Denmark
• Finland
• Estonia
• Norway
• Sweden
• Iceland
• Latvia

Pot 3:

• Azerbaijan
• Belarus
• Georgia
• Israel
• Russia
• Armenia
• Lithuania

Pot 4:

• Belgium
• Cyprus
• Greece
• Ireland
• The Netherlands
• San Marino

Pot 5:

• Hungary
• Moldova
• Romania
• Portugal
• Poland
• Czech Republic

Semi-finals Allocation Draw

A total 33 countries will be divided into 5 pots and distributed equally into each of the 2 semi-finals by a draw. The first draw will determine which country will compete in which semi-final. 16 countries will compete in the 1st Semi-final on 19 May whilst 17 countries will compete in the 2nd Semi-final on 21 May. The draw will be supervised by EBU’s Executive Supervisor Mr. Jon Ola Sand and  Mr. Thomas Niedermeyer (Digame).

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 5 and Austria voting in Semi-finals

The BIG 5 (Italy, France, UK, Spain and Germany) countries and host country Austria will vote in the semi-finals too. A draw will also determine which country will vote in which semi-final.  The EBU’s Reference Group has granted ARD, the German national broadcaster  its request to air the 2nd Semifinal: hence Germany will vote and air Semi-final 2 on 21 May.

How many countries will compete in each semi- final?

A total of 39 countries will compete at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna next May. 33 countries will compete in the 2 semi-finals which are scheduled to be held on 19 and 21 May. 16 countries will compete in the First Semi-final and 17 in thes Second Semi-final.

The exact running order of the 33 countries competing in the 2 Semi-finals on 19 and 21 will be determined by mid March.

The BIG 5 (Spain, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy) and Austria (the host country) are automatically qualified to compete in the grand final on 23 May.

The 2015 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 19, 21 and 23  May at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna.

Stay tuned to ESCToday.com for the latest news on the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest