ORF, the Austrian national broadcaster will hold the 2015 Host Insignia Handover Ceremony and the Eurovision 2015 Semi-finals Allocation Draw on Monday 26 January at Vienna’s City Hall (Rathaus).

The Host Insignia Handover  Ceremony will be held at 12:00 CET whilst the Semi-final Allocation Draw will be held at 13:20 CET at Vienna’s Rathaus. Thes Semi-final Allocation draw and Host Insignia Ceremony will be conducted by Andi Knoll and by Kati Bellowitsch. The Host Insignia Handover Ceremony and Semi-final Allocation Draw will be aired live on ORF 1 from 12:40 onwards, whilst there will be live connections on ORF 2‘s Heute Mittag afternoon show. Both ceremonies will be streamed live on ORF’s official Eurovision website songcontest.orf.at

For international fans the Semi-final allocation draw will be streamed live via eurovision.tv at 13:20 CET.

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!

Semi-final 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 distribution of the countries in the 5 pots has been based on the voting pattern in each country in the pastyears. 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. 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.

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 hosts Austria will vote in the semi-finals too. A draw will also determine which country will vote in which semi-final.

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. A total of 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.