The Big 5 have participated in a draw to determine which half of the Eurovision final they’ll sing in. But Italy and Spain will have to wait. That’s because they drew the new “producer’s choice” category, which allows producers to put them wherever they see fit.
Sweden, the host country, drew their starting position at the Head of Delegation meeting in March. Marcus & Martinus will open the grand final after drawing spot #1.
Big 5 Draw results
🇫🇷 France – Second Half
🇩🇪 Germany – First Half
🇮🇹 Italy – Producer’s Choice
🇪🇸 Spain – Producer’s Choice
🇬🇧 United Kingdom – First Half
In March, executive producer Christer Björkman explained why producers were introducing the new category.
“It’s all about creating the best TV show possible and giving all artists a chance to shine. In previous years, with just the First Half and Second Half draws you might find many ballads ended up in the same part of the show or many favourites were drawn to perform in the same half. Adding the flexibility of Producer’s Choice gives me the ability to create an even better flow of different tempos and an even more thrilling Grand Final.”
So that’s Italy in slot 23 or 24 and Spain in wherever they can shove it near a ballad. UK will close out the first half I think. Germany are gonna get like 3 or 4 and France will be put as close to another big favourite of another genre as possible or if some of the less strong vocalists get through then directly between them.
If Bjorkman really wants France to win then he’ll put them directly after two successive less strong vocalists. We need to be wary of two or more producer’s choices in a row
It’s so rigged rhey aren’t even trying very hard to disguise it any more
unlimited time for voting means more corrupted votes. Azerbaijan corrupted voting a few years ago when they disseminated SIM cards in small countries, remember? Im sure this open a room for cheating for countries like Azerbaijan again…
I’m going to vote for Azerbaijan because they deserve to qualify. Deal with it.
Then you side with the wrong side of events. One day they will come after you, too…
what does that even mean, they decide the running order anyway
The UK which has drawn in the first half needs to be after the 9pm watershed ?
(For continental wiwi readers, the show starts at 8pm UK time)
The homoerotic dancing I can cope with, it’s the sticky out tongues which turn me off
They should cancel all prime programmes so people watch Eurovision and root for Olly lol
Grow up
Stupid and awful.
And ugh I still cannot get over the fact that voting will begin from the start of the show. We had this before and it was abandoned.. For a reaaon.
I know! 2010 and 2011, and the EBU dumped it because it wasn’t a success.
And now it’s back, without really saying why they think it’ll work this time.
With Sweden performing first, the optics look terrible. They’ll look even worse if they drop again after this edition.
If you think about it, if countries are allocated just first or second half then there is massive producer’s discretion anyway. Nothing wins purely because of running order.
Voting from the start makes things a lot fairer. It definitely harmed Austria last year.
Expect Italy to be in second half.
Wonder what will come second after Sweden? San Marino or Czechia would be a good shout if they qualify to provide contrast to song 1. Or perhaps a ballad…
If Italy get a sh!tty spot, I hope they withdraw in protest.
Of course they will get a sh!tty spot. Do you think SVT and Bjorkman would give an advantage to a direct competitor? We will see if they play fair or not.
Björkman has been responsible in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and now in 2024. He’s a professional and I have no doubts he’ll make it better than ever.
Let me guess… you are from Sweden?
Italy doesn’t like being the winner. Why do people forcefully push them for a victory again? Italy got even mad and refused to host the contest after winning it a few years ago. Italy abandoned the contest outright. Why would you vote for Italy then?
The junior contest doesn’t count.
He will probably put her second
Big 5 + Host potential running order slots:
Sweden #1
Germany #2
Spain #8
UK #12
France #16
Italy #23
I don’t agree with this producer’s thing. I don’t agree with the producer deciding the running order to begin with. So, this new rule this year…it’s like, when you think they can’t surprise negatively anymore & you find out you were wrong.
100% ! All positions should be chosen in a blind draw.
But that has its disadvantages too. The UK was such a dreadful opener in 2012, for example. It’s hard to say which is better, random draw or producer-decided. Both have pros and cons.
I think this rule of voting between performances will be for eurofans to vote and those who are not eurofans will wait to see everything to vote like every year so being in the 2nd part is preferable to have a memory of the voters. you have to know the eurofans represent 5% in the final so it will have a lot of votes after all the countries
5%? More like 0.1%
I know we eurofans are very few but believe me we are more than 0,1%. It depends on what you call fans. And we also are the ones that vote the most. Lambda viewers generally send like 2 votes, 3 at best. I don’t know about you but me (and some other fans I know) generally cast more than 10 votes on the final.
The spin will be, as always: it’s not because of me. I just wanna be helpful. It came from the EBU, really. They more or less forced me to just decide everything as I please. Puke.
How did we arrive at this point? I’m reading the comments here and it’s clear that nobody is happy about this new rule.
I find the voting from the start of the show a bigger problem, since it means more votes and so each individual call is likely to count for less. I hate to be cynical, but voting will also be more vulnerable to fixing.
Both rules changes make it easier for producers to influence the result. That should become clearer when we see two or more producers choices in a row next week.
Oh yes, feels like that point is being dusted off. Thanks for highlighting this!
Theres no way germany will be out 2nd. These produces care about views only! Larger nations with bigger populations will get teh better slots later on. While smaller unfortunate nations will be shoved into earlier draws just killing their chances. Look at the semifinals. Poor malta, serbia, albania early as always
Songs. Based on the mood of the song and sometimes logistics. If you have a gigantic set to stage you preferably put that one after one of the breaks. Placing 4 ballads after each other would not really make it beneficial for any of those songs. Possibly for the uptempo song after that. But you make an order that keeps the tension and don’t place very similar songs after each other.
Normally this would be big news. However, as viewer voting will now commence from the start of the show, running order will probably have less of an impact than in previous years.
There is also the scenario that a lot of the audience will vote for Sweden right at the start, then get bored and/or run out of money/parental permission to vote again.
There is also a chance that it gets fewer votes because of the fact that many TV viewers tune in later. That has been statistically proved also.
It dosent matter. People wote for a country, and not to the music
And thats stupid
My favorite entry continues to be Switzerland. It’s one of the boldest, boldest and most original songs I’ve ever seen in this competition. Hate me if you want, but it’s my honest opinion.
Great, but this is not the topic now, is it.
Let’s aid Italy Sweden and the big countries to keep domination. That’s what all these new categories should be titled
This new draw of “Producer’s choice” is dodgy. Drawing only halves instead of actual spots is biased enough, and this is even worse. So, now it’s up to the producers whether La noia is helped to win, or not. Also, what are the chances of poor Germany being the designated 2nd or 3rd? Usually it’s Albania, but they aren’t qualifying, are they?
Germany will never be put in such an early slot, because of high viewership.
The intention of producers determining the running order is to raise viewing figures, which in turn means higher profit. As the country with the biggest population in Eurovision, producers wouldn’t want 80 million potential German viewers to abandon the show after two songs, since many people only tune in to watch their own country’s entry.
This. I was thinking about this today, and also that the best spot in the R/O now is the one that you’re surrounded by countries that typically don’t vote for your own.
Germany will be No. 2…
The Big 5 spots in the Semis were drawn or by producers?
Then the producer put Spain and Italy in the second half already in the Semis. And Italy on a good spot at the end.
Can they do that again?
Otherwise they will put at a good spot in the first half.
I hope Italy be nr 2
Not even Björkman is that shameless. Or is he?
UK deserves NR2.
Absolutely. But that spot never goes to those who deserve it.
They won’t want it there, it’s before the watershed
No it doesn’t Spain does
Great. Italy’s fate is partly in the hands of that guy. I’m sure nothing can go wrong. Producer’s Choice… the title alone is so obnoxious.
Remember when the split first half second half was introduced it was stop all ballads/uptempo being together! well that worked didn’t it!! now we have producers choice. One mans opinion were a song should be placed! how come since 1956 until 2010’s everything worked fine by a FAIR random draw.
It worked perfectly and stopping it is one of the worst things to ever happen to Eurovision, the worst probably being Björkman himself. Having clueless executives who aren’t very smart or as power hungry as that guy served the contest better.
Björkman hane nothing to do whit this. Its EBZu. And they love Italy. And do what they can to help them. This is not ok
They had to meet Christer half way. I’ve heard he wanted almost all the power. For Italy I hope no favorism..
They had to meet him no way.
They had to meet him in a dark alley, where he showed them all the blackmail material he has on them.
Haha perhaps. Or maybe they simply don’t care and let him walk all over the contest without having to blackmail them. The way he said he saved Bulgaria 2016… a strong delegation comes with a strong vision… it feels like he’s taking all this space because nobody will stand up to him.
It’s true. That’s what’s been said here in Sweden anyway.
I’m not doubting it’s true he wanted everything and more. I just mean they didn’t have to give him anything. This guy doesn’t own the contest. What’s he gonna do? Quit? Good, I’d love that. And he’d never quit anyway.
People in Sweden find it ridiculous as well.. so…
The only reason anyone has to suspect Sweden of sabotage is that they put an effort into their Eurovision songs and are perceived as doing the contest well. That’s literally it.
We are not talking about their Eurovision songs but about one man’s power trip.
Well said, Ari! It was exactly my thought!