Today’s the day: all 43 songs competing at this year’s Eurovision will be officially handed to the EBU at today’s Head of Delegation meeting in Kyiv. Whilst Bulgaria and Armenia haven’t publically revealed their tracks yet, all songs are now locked in. This means we can get on to some of the fun stuff — like the running order! At today’s meeting, Ukraine learned they will perform 22nd in the Grand Final!
As is now customary, host broadcaster NTU will decide the running order of both the Semi-Finals and the Grand Final itself. However, they don’t get to choose their own spot for obvious reasons. NTU therefore drew O.Torvald’s position at random this afternoon.
What a lucky draw it is too: 22nd is one of the later spots in the draw and one spot later than Jamala performed in Stockholm. O.Torvald’s rock song could very well be coming at just the right “time” in the evening to wake the crowd up!
Ukraine have good history performing 22nd as well. In 2013, Zlata Ognevich took third place in the Grand Final with “Gravity” after performing from spot 22. It also produced a recent winner: Lena performed 22nd in 2010 on her way to winning with “Satellite”.
There’s no news yet as to when NTU will publish the running order for the semi-finals. There’ll no doubt be more news coming out of the Head of Delegation meeting as it continues, so keep checking back for more info.
What do you think about O.Torvald’s draw? Do you think that this could help lead them to a better result on home soil? Shout out your thoughts on the wiwibloggs app, or in the comments section below!
Racal
We have neighbouring voting and in the western Europe nordic block, Greece Cyprus connection, Malta Italy connection….France Portugal connection, Spain Andorra connection..
Do you remember of Malta and Luxembourg love from 91 to 93, they love with Azerbaijan and San Marino in past few years, plus Malta every years got many points from juries , maybe because they call chef of other delegation to be member of juries in their national fnal.
@Purple
You were better behind the DJ console in Norway’s final. Lol 😛
@WTF: It’s not about “allowing” countries to vote for each other, it’s about mitigating neighbouring voting to make sure that all countries stand a fair chance. That’s why they use pots to separate the voting blocks into different semis; I just don’t think it worked this time for some reason (…).
With televoting and all the Eastern countries joining the contest, neighbouring voting has exploded in the 2000s. If you don’t do anything about it, then why should “isolated” countries like Malta, Switzerland or Germany keep participating?
Purple joke alert.
@Kris: He wasn’t able to finish his tuna sandwich in time before the draw. So she asked him where he put the fishy item. :p
@Racal: Sure, and while you’re at it, why not make a list showing us which other countries each particular country should be allowed to send votes to, as well? Seriously…
@Tomas
If you saw the draw ceremony you’ll see that during it the female presenter had told the male presenter that he seems to be doing something fishy.
Jon Ola Sand must be working his ass off to be keeping all this together. I imagine he is looking forward to the end of this year’s Contest more than any other cycle. What a nightmare it’s been, we even wanted to it tickets for the SF but didn’t bother (like so many) because of the disaster organisation, the scary reports of local crime and lack of safety, the threat that the show might be moved, and the ignorant treatment of fans. I agree with the others: it makes logical sense for Russia also to be pulled out of hat.… Read more »
I think that the order of the Grand Final is almost meaningless now compared to 15-20 years ago. Why? – Because everyone has the opportunity to preview and review all the acts online and even watch rehearsals(!) Also, voting is much more widespread with app options now rather than just one (expensive) telephone call. As we proved this year already with Estonia’s “Verona” and Romania’s “Yodel it,” even a song in the old death slot (2nd) can win a contest nowadays! Semi Finals might be a little trickier; here’s where I leave the debate open. I’m still amazed that Greta… Read more »
@Hebbuzz Yes please put Montenegro later in the semifinal so we can have a moment to laugh with all that gayfest haha
Sweden should start semi 1. Not Montenegro they’ve started so many times already? Latvia would be a logical end of semi one. Semi two; start with Romania ending with Croatia.
In this specific case Russia should have gotten a place in the running order for semi one and eventually final too, again for obvious reasons.
Prediction TOP 10 with juries in final
1.Belgium 2.Sweden 3.Australia 4.The Netherlands 5.Denmark 6.Portugal 7.Azerbaijan 8.Italy 9.Armenia 10.Norway 11.Bulgaria…
Ukraine listened to fans and gave up the blood. Nobody asked them to bring something else, but they came with that time clock, which is a better idea.
They deserve to do well because they are open minded.
Ukraine is one of few country who can sale not good song to juries and viewers with amazing stage performance. For me good staging help these songs from Ukraine
2009, 2011. without that Ukraine would be out of TOP 5 maybe even TOP 10
2014 .
Only one time they have kitch staging in 2012. That year juries help so much to Ukraine in semi and final.
Prediction for II semi
Prediction for running order in II semi
1.Romania or Serbia
2.Russia
3.Serbia or Romania
4.Ireland
5.Macedonia
6.Malta
7.Hungary
8.Denmark
9.Austria
10.The Netherlands
11.Switzerland
12.Israel
13.Bulgaria
14.San Marino
15.Belarus
16.Norway
17.Estonia
18.Croatia
19.Lithuania
Prediction for running order by EBU refrence group for Eurovision full of nordic people and people from western Europe and host producer from Ukraine.
In I semi
1.Montenegro
2.Finland
3.Azerbaijan
4.Portugal
5.Belgium
6.Georgia
7.Sweden
8.Albania
9.Australia
10.Czech Republic
11.Moldova
12.Iceland
13.Slovenia
14.Armenia
15.Cyprus
16.Latvia
17.Greece
18.Poland
@Tomas Patrick Davitt: I’m not accusing anyone, I’m simply suspicious. Besides, watching the draw doesn’t mean that you know what’s going on backstage… You have no idea about how the draw was prepared, just like me. @Salsa: Who said anything about “separating ALL these countries”? I just don’t think I’ve ever seen such big blocks of neighbouring countries voting in the same semi, that’s it. Look at it on the map (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest_2017#Participating_countries), and then look at previous years’ maps. You’ll see that semis looked way more balanced… And what exactly is the link between this and “people liking my country’s… Read more »
@ Danuta – sure, Joanne. It’s the only rock song out of all 43 entries. It’s bound to be popular in televote.
Ukraine’s luck strikes again. Apart from 2014, they’ve always had amazing draws.
fikri is right. Julia Samoilova will be #2 in the final. I think everyone expects that.
Racal : ”there’s a huge block of Eastern/Balkan neighbouring countries that will be in the same semi and will be able to vote for each other (Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia), same for Russia/Belarus/Ukraine/Estonia/Lithuania, Greece/Cyprus and Armenia/Georgia/Azerbaijan.”
Are you aware that you can’t separate all these countries unless will be 10 semifinals ?
Music is subjective, but you are not happy even when you’re told that people like your country’s artists (Switzerland). Are you ever happy ?
@Racal
You should actually watch the draws before you make up these silly accusations. I watched the semi final draw – it was done properly
@Ryan – is he? Isn’t he there just to help with things staging and camera -wise?
I still don’ t think the broadcaster has the right to decide order. Why can’ t they draw instead?
A case of “save the best for *almost* last” 🙂
russia is going to get screwed by NTU when it comes to the grand final running order. i just knew it.
Perhaps Sweden should also draw their place seeing as Bjorkman will be the one deciding the running order.
Great position! Even though I’m not a fan of the song, I’m pretty sure this will land in the left part of the scoreboard in the final
Am I the only one to think that these draws look fishy af? The semi-final allocation didn’t separate any allies (except Netherlands/Belgium and Romania/Moldova): there’s a huge block of Eastern/Balkan neighbouring countries that will be in the same semi and will be able to vote for each other (Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia), same for Russia/Belarus/Ukraine/Estonia/Lithuania, Greece/Cyprus and Armenia/Georgia/Azerbaijan. The only isolated countries are Belgium, Ireland and Latvia (and Australia, obviously). I feel like neighbouring voting in the semis is going to be huge this year… And now Ukraine picks a perfect spot in the grand final “out… Read more »
i’d rather they perform early on since they’re not a contender but okcurr
I have a feeling that Ukraine will do alright this year (10th-15th place maybe), not only because they will perform towards the end, and because of their ex-soviet neighbours, but also because they are the only rock band. Rock usually does okay in the contest because it suits the viewers who aren’t really fans of the modern pop stuff.
Thirdd commentttt lucky dayyyyy:))))))) ‘
That man with the mic just looks like my maths teacher, omg i am shocked 😮 😮
Performing 22nd in the grand final won’t guarantee them a good rank in the scoreboard, we may even see them ending up in the bottom 5 (I may even say place 22 of 26 will be good for this boring song)….