It’s the event that truly starts to shape Eurovision 2020. On Tuesday, January 28, the semi-final allocation draw will take place at Rotterdam’s City Hall. And now the EBU has confirmed the pots the semi-finalists will be drawn from.
It’s a big event for two vitally important reasons. Tel Aviv officially hands over the host city insignia to Rotterdam, and we’ll get to see who will be performing and voting in which semi-final.
Tuesday’s event will be hosted by the three hosts of Eurovision 2020 — Chantal Janzen, Edsilia Rombley and Jan Smit. It will give Eurovision fans their first look at what we might be expecting for Rotterdam in May.
What happens at the semi-final allocation draw?
The first part of the draw assigns the pre-qualified countries (Big 5 nations France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom and host country The Netherlands) to vote in one of the two semi-finals.
This is followed by the semi-final allocation draw. And ahead of this part of the draw, the EBU has released the five pots which the countries will be selected from. Countries are grouped into pots based on historic voting patterns, as calculated by Eurovision’s televoting partner Digame.
The pots can also be used when calculating a “fake” jury or televote score if something prevents the usual result being used. This happened in Tel Aviv when the Belarus jury was dismissed ahead of the grand final.
Countries that share a pot are essentially split evenly between the two different semis to help ensure each semi-final is not dominated by countries that may all vote for each other by default.
Allocating the semi-final halves now also lets delegations start planning for Rotterdam. Countries will know how early they’ll have to be in the Netherlands for their rehearsals and how much they’ll need to budget for accommodation and other expenses. Rehearsals for the first half of the first semi-final general start three days before those in the second half of the second semi.
The full running order of Eurovision 2020 will be decided later in the year once all the competing songs have been selected. The running order will be decided by the Dutch producers of the show, with a final veto by the EBU.
Eurovision 2020 Semi-Final Allocation Draw Pots
The one big change this year is the number of pots has reduced from six to five. And it’s meant some new positions as the countries that were in Pot Six now all have new homes.
Pot One is mostly serving Balkan realness, but Switzerland returns to the pot, while its neighbour Austria also has a place. The Nordic nations can be found in Pot Two, along with Baltic neighbour Estonia. After a few years of pot-shuffling, Australia now has a home amongst its Nordic friends.
Pot Three is the usual collection of Eastern European countries, including Russia. But this year Moldova also has a place in this pot. This means that Moldova and Romania are no longer in the same pot.
Romania can be found in Pot Four, along with other countries in the general south-eastern region, along with Portugal and San Marino. Returning country Bulgaria also has a space in this pot. The rest of the countries have a place in Pot Five, including 2019 host Israel.
Pot 1
Pot 2
Pot 3
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Pot 4
Pot 5
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The semi-final allocation draw will take place on Tuesday 28 January from 16:10 CET. You will be able to watch the live-stream here:
What do you think of the allocation draw pots? Do you think this could help or hinder certain countries? Let us know all your thoughts down below.
Read more Eurovision 2020 news here
Can we just all agree that bloc voting is a thing? Like, to varying extents, sure, but Greeks and Cypriots vote for each other and Nordic countries vote for each other. Sometimes they don’t. Who cares? I honestly have never had much of an issue with it if the song is good. I totally got why Sweden scored so well last year, Norway too. Greece and Cyprus exchanging 12’s felt slightly less earned (and those suspiciously high marks to songs with Greek involvement like Russia and San Marino – not that I’m complaining!), but I can’t blame their televotes for… Read more »
i love some scandinavian hypocrisy. Just visit wikipedia and see the countries that sweden and norway have given the most points to. Greece/cyprus and romania/moldova are also exchanging a lot of points because they basically have the same music industry. Did you expect Eleni Foureira who is the number one pop singer in Greece not to get 12 points? In fact, People gave her 12 points and the greek jury in the semifinal gave her 8! Know you facts before you speak.
I think it’s a common trend in Eurovision that you typically get the most points from your neighbor countries – that’s a fact. Is it a fact that we reward each other 12 points (or ten) every year? NO. Yes, we’re definitely voting for each other (like all neighbor countries do), but not in a blatantly obvious way like some other countries do. Okay, I can understand if there’s a cultural thing or someone’s a huge star, etc. like your example with Foureira – that’s not to be used as a scapegoat for all the other years.
Sakis rouvas is a big star in cyprus as well. Elena Paparizou is also a star there. Loukas Giorkas is from Cyprus. Eleftheria Eleftheriou is from cyprus. People vote for what they know. And to give you a different example, Uk gave 12 points to Ireland in 2011. why? Cause Jedward were popular in UK due to being in x factor
Fair point. How many times have you seen the UK give Ireland 12 points and vice versa over the latest years though? I can’t recall that. Point is that the Greece/Cyprus thing is a lot stronger than, let’s say, the UK/Ireland
Indeed, the same goes for romania/moldova. This doesnt mean that i agree with that, there are cases where greek or cypriot entries didnt deserve these points like in 1998 where greece had 12 points overall, all of them coming from cyprus. But the impact on the scoreboard in such cases is not much
When Will this happen: You dont talk about us in scandinavia in Every article you write. We are not that important.
That will happen they day you will stop answering every single comment which isnt “omg i love sweden”.
Its very obvious i cant discuss with you with that answer so i Will not
They’ll probably do it on the day of the allocation draw.
I would want to know how a greek,cypriot, moldovan,romanian are thinking when they every year vote the same. I have never voted the same for over 15 years. so it must be REALLY boring to take up your phone and vote the same year after year.
You mean the same way it’s boring for a Norwegian, Icelander, Dane, or Finn when they…well, you know. Glass houses, Rasmus.
Tell me when we in scandinavia have voted 10 years for the same? or even 5 years? or even 3? I want to know. ps i know you cant do it becuase you know i owned you right now. So its you that are living in the glass house.
Usually we (sweden) get 12 Points from Estonia and Finland Rasmus? As you seem to know. How many 12 points have we received from those countries the last 9 years?
Off the top of my head, just talking finals (and specifically those in the allocation pot this year): 2019: Australia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, and Iceland (Jury) and Norway (Televote) 2018: None, surprisingly. They went for the other neighbors (Finland’s televote gave 12 to Estonia; Iceland’s televote gave 12 to Denmark; Denmark’s televote gave 12 to Germany; Norway and Estonia’s televotes gave 12 to diaspora-heavy/neighbor respectively Lithuania; only odd one out Australia gave 12 to very much non-neighbors Israel). 2017: Denmark (Jury and Televote) and Finland (Jury) 2016: Denmark and Iceland (Televote), Finland (Jury) 2015: Australia, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Norway… Read more »
Oh wait, not even. Australia gave 12 to Sweden in 2018 also.
Thats still not 20 years for the same as Greece / cyprus so i dont agree. As you know Australia are a pop country. Balkan are Balkan etno music lovers so if Australia give 12 to Sweden who Also are a pop country. I dont Find that strange. Vote for the same for over 15 years like moldova, Romania , Greece , cyprus. Thats strange to me
So…bloc voting doesn’t bother you if it’s in favor of your country, is what I’m getting. This is a thing that deserves to be called out for anyone but the Nordic countries because Nordic countries vote for Sweden. Dress it up any way you like, but you can pull that same “they listen to the same kind of music so it makes sense that they vote for each other” card for Sweden and the Nordics for any of the other blocs. It’s not a thing I’m mad about or saying shouldn’t happen – if the countries know this kind of… Read more »
So? I meant in order. Thats the point . Greece/ cyprus have same in order for over 20 years.
2015-18 would beg to differ if you go back to the semis. Cypriot jury only gave Greece three(!!!) points in 2016.
Also, in regards to Romania and Moldova, there’ve been a bunch of times where Moldova have given the 12 to another country (Latvia in 2005, Ukraine in 2013, plus the times they couldn’t actually vote for Romania), or vice versa (Denmark in 2010, Netherlands in 2017, Austria in 2018, plus the jury gave Iceland 12 in 2009 before the televote bumped Moldova up).
Lithuania is slowly becoming a threat to win Eurovision. They’ve got allies(and diaspora) all over Europe. Nordic’s, Baltics, British Isles, and Eastern Europe all seem to like them. Jurijus 7th last year? Ieva and Donny left hand side of scoreboard ? And even awful 2017 getting 12 from Ireland.
Lithuania and Russia benefit the most from diaspora voting. Every year when they are in the final, their diaspora alone can push them into televote top 15. Plus they have neighbors.
If Lithuania had no such diaspora, 50% of their qualifications would’ve been nq-s. I’m so sick of eastern european diaspora voting. I don’t understand people who vote for their own country, like why do they do it? They ruin Eurovision.
Your only concern is Romania and Moldova exchainging points, same about Greece and Cyprus. But what about the whole Scandinavian pot, exchanging points between them every frickin’ year. Sweden, especially gaining votes from at least 2 nordic countries every year in the semifinal, while benefiting from the others votes in the final. What about that? Year by year by year by year…by year… Not to mention Ex-Soviet countries exchanging votes between them, too… Same about ex-Yugoslavian countries… But hey, your only concern is Moldova and Romania and Greece and Cyprus. Get a life!
1. We in scandinavia have the pop sound in common. 2. greece and Cyprus have voted for eachoter 12 points for 40 years. No one else has that so i dont agree
fake, pathetic, news.
Putting Romania and Moldova in separate pots? I don’t think…
For fun, I tried doing my own “allocation draw” with flashcards a week or so ago (I…didn’t have many friends around…), and wound up with this. SEMI-FINAL ONE Voting: France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom First half: 1. Romania 2. Austria 3. Bulgaria 4. Armenia 5. Ireland 6. Israel 7. Greece 8. Azerbaijan 9. Latvia Second half: 1. Denmark 2. Cyprus 3. Iceland 4. Slovenia 5. Norway 6. Estonia 7. Sweden 8. Malta 9. San Marino SEMI-FINAL TWO Voting: Germany, Italy, and Spain First half: 1. Portugal 2. Ukraine 3. Russia 4. Serbia 5. Georgia 6. Czech Republic 7.… Read more »
There are some funny things about allocation draw : – Germany last time voted in 1 semi in 2010 – Spain last time voted in 2 semi in 2013 CzRep, Ice, Port, Cyp, last time were in 2 semi in 2015 Fin and Greece were last time in second semi in 2014 Romania, Denmark, were last time in first semi in 2015 Norway was last time in 1 semi in 2011 Russia was almost always in 1 semi (2018,2019 and 2009 were in 2 semi only) Switzerland also been mostly in 2 semi Bulgaria was only 2 times in first… Read more »
It’s all up to chance. Most of that is coincidence.
Qualifiers out of the semis usually make sense based on the quality of the song.
If it actually mattered about neighbour voting, the same countries would win every single year.
Cyprus – never won, Romania – never won, Moldova – never won, Greece – one win.
Neighbouring countries vote because they have similar tastes, and the songs have probably been on their radio, or the singer is a star in both countries. No-one is cheating or voting tactically, they are voting for what they Like!
It’s about the songs people!! The best songs rise to the top whatever happens.
I agree, in many cases, that you’re correct. Certainly the last few years have been a lot more unpredictable in what the televote likes and doesn’t like (for instance, how Duncan’s victory was at least partially thanks to a really strong showing from Central and Eastern Europe – just saying, getting 10 from Armenia and Belarus and 7 from Azerbaijan probably wouldn’t happen if he didn’t have an amazing song).
Explain how Lithuania placed 7th last year in the semi televote. He has the poorest stage show, bland song and wasn’t famous. The only points he got was 12s from countries with Lithuanian diaspora.
I happened to like that song….. and I can’t be the only one.
Just because someone doesn’t share your opinion doesn’t mean either of you are wrong, you just like different music and staging.
Romania and Moldova being separated shows the effect that Romania’s poor results are having. Over the past 5 years, Moldova has only had two chances to vote for Romania in the final, and in return have given their votes to Ukraine and Russia, so it seems natural that Moldova has swapped pots.
That being said, Moldova and Romania have been in the same semi the last two years, complete with the requisite mutual 12’s.
I’ve been thinking Australia ought to be in the same pot as the Nordic countries for a while now, so I’m not overly surprised. These pots make sense.
But some of the claims here are wrong. I always see people complaining about Scandinavian countries giving each other full points “no matter what” when they are butthurt about fans pointing out unfair relationships like Cyprus/Greece, Serbia/Montenegro, etc… but it’s not exactly the same case for us. Yes, I won’t deny that we reward each other points, the statistics over the years show that. Is it a fact that we usually reward each other points? Yes. Is it a fact that we reward each other top-points every single year? No. I mean, it’s a well-known fact here in Norway that… Read more »
The draw isnt important anymore with juries i feel. I only want Iceland to have a great draw if Iva wins in Iceland. I dont care about anything else. A good song will make you qualify anyway
Tell that to Conan, or Norma John.
i dont think Conan would have qualified in any semi
@Rasmus true about Conan but what u can expect ? If the jury include Maria Olafs and ex junior representative and old jury who always voted for voice and ballads/ or for friends (i mean Zena got 12/10 points from Ola or i dont know her name and she was in slovenian selection and also in JESC in 2014) so i think jury should consist from 10 people at least and not just 5 people ) and about Norma John, well in 2017 there were a lot of ballad or pop ballads in 1 semi …they cancel each others
To this day I still don’t understand the fascination of Eurofans of Conan. It was average at best. You can’t compare these two. If you wanted to make a point about good songs staying in the semi I would suggest Greta Salome.
Stop bringing out the example of Conan. He’s not even great, imo.
There should also be a rule that some countries are just not allowed in the same semi as each other (Greece and Cyprus; Romania and Moldova)
Australia every single year gives 12 points to Sweden so it makes sense that they are in the same pot. The funny thing is that everyone blames Greece and Cyprus but not a single word about that “exchange”.
Except 2016 (12 points to Belgium) and 2017 (12 points to UK) unlike Greece and Cyprus where the only time they wouldn’t exchange 12 points was if either of the two did not qualify from the semis
except 2015 when they both gave 12 points to Italy.
Every country has two 12 points to give out now, though, so you’re both only mentioning one…
And 2016 when Greece gave 12 to Russia
In 2016 the Russian song was written by a Greek songwriter so…
When Australia have given us 12 points for 40 years in a row like Cyprus /Greece have. Then we can talk. ps there arent 18 millions swedes in Australia so you know.
You’re so wrong. Based on the televote, Sweden didn’t benefit much from Australia. Even with the jury vote, they didn’t always give Sweden 12 points. However, Cyprus and Greece, on the other hand, almost gave each other 12 points with either televote and jury vote. If you wanna compare these two situations, you should know the fact better.
Israel should’ve been with former USSR countries
As they are in my one below!
The Israeli televote is usually generous with Russia (and sometimes other former Soviet countries) because of the large USSR diaspora there, but it’s not reciprocated. Also, the Israeli juries aren’t generous with the Soviets (which can’t be said for most Soviet juries).
There’s place for no more than seven countries in each pot, and those in the Ex-USSR pot are more distinctively Soviet than Israel.
My pots would look like this
Pot 1
—Albania
—Bulgaria
—Croatia
—North Macedonia
—Serbia
—Slovenia
—Switzerland
Pot 2
—Armenia
—Azerbaijan
—Belarus
—Georgia
—Israel
—Russia
—Ukraine
Pot 3
—Australia
—Denmark
—Finland
—Iceland
—Ireland
—Norway
—Sweden
Pot 4
—Cyprus
—Greece
—Moldova
—Malta
—Portugal
—San Marino
—Romania
Pot 5
—Austria
—Belgium
—Czech Republic
—Estonia
—Latvia
—Lithuania
—Poland
Based on voting history Ireland should definitely be with the Baltics
Why do you take Estonia out of the Nordic pot? We give always the most points to the Nordics
The Baltics are kind of wildcards. Very quickly switch from voting for Eastern countries to Western countries and Nordic countries (like how the Estonian jury gave 12 to Sweden and both Latvia and Lithuania gave 12 to the Netherlands, but all three gave 12 to Russia in their televotes, all of which makes total sense.)
Televote points to Russia come purely from their diaspora in the Baltics.
I don’t know about Latvia &Lithuania but Estonia tends to give the most points to Nordic countries (for example 10 televote points to Norway in 2019, we also gave points to all Nordic countries in 2019 and received points from all Nordic countries. 2017 10 jury points to Norway, 2009 12 jury points to Iceland, 2016 12 jury points to Sweden and 10 televote to Sweden. They are just some examples.)
I’m more interested where the Big V + the host country will vote. It can advantaged some countries or not. I don’t expect a lot of surprises for the rest of the draw. I always like to watch that. ^^
Estonia and Australia are nordic countries for sure.
?????????
Estonia has always been in the Nordic pot and participate in Nordic pre-party too. There’s no pot that suits us better. We always give the most points to the Nordics….
Except yknow, the pot with Lithuania and Latvia…???
Estonians feel much closer to the Nordics. Latvia&Lithuania are completely different from Estonia.
We gave high points to all Nordic countries in 2019 and received points from all Nordics…
Finally Australia is in the Nordic pot, I don’t know why they weren’t there after their first participation. The pots seem very accurate, I can’t wait for the semi- final draw, it always seems like the start of the Eurovision year for me. Just hoping that there’ll be balanced semi- finals for once.
Armenia and Azerbaijan will probably be in the same semi final anyway 😀
Why can’t the EBU just mandate that those two are always placed in different semis? Their mutual sabotage in a semi could impact the qualification of a couple of countries.
That would mean acknowledging their blatant cheating, so that’s probably not gonna happen.
Azerbaijan and Armenia can easily loose a final palce with their feud. Every point counts. I thinkt theyy already had some years
2011 probably, when Armenia missed out by 1 point
I don’t know why they had to cut the number of pots from 6 to 5. What if 4 out 5 nordic countries end up in the same semi-final?
To get 5 points of exactly 7 rather than 6 pots which would mean one pot only having 5 and all the rest 6
Its unlikely though that 4 Nordic countries end up in same semi. Youre supposed to end up with some but not all of your neighbours
As some of you might have already noticed, the method of drawing the countries will have to be changed this year, as we’ve got an odd number of countries in each of the pots. I think there are three ways of dealing with this problem: 1. The semis will be drawn alternately (1st drawn country – 1st semi, 2nd – 2nd, 3rd – 1st, 4th – 2nd and so on). 2. Each pot will have its own separate draw. 3. The countries will be drawn in a traditional way, and the last five will be drawn separately (the most probable… Read more »
I don’t know about this, this actually means that there’s a chance of Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway ending up in the same semi-final (for instance). I think 7 pots of 5 countries would have made more sense:
1 Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland
2 Croatia, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Albania
3 Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, Belarus
4 Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland
5 Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ireland, Australia
6 Cyprus, Greece, Malta, San Marino, Israel
7 Portugal, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic
.
thats really impossible when pot 1 have 3 in one and 2 in one
Fingers crossed for Finland and Ukraine to be in one semi …
And for Russia in 2 semi (they are almost always in 1 semi ) Same Bulgaria is almost always in 2 semi .
Wait have Finland and Ukraine never performed in the same semi- final? That is really odd.
Well, they did perform together in 2004 and 2006, but that’s cheating.
Yes they did perform together but as a host countries in 2004 and 2006, last year they should have been 2gether but Ukraine withdraw from ESC …
In what world do Moldova and Romania go in separate pots?
It doesn’t matter, they’re only two countries so they have a 50/50 chance of ending up in the same semi final, regardless of whether they are put in the same pot or not.
The pots are significant for large voting blocs, such as the Scandinavian bloc, former Soviet bloc and former Yugoslav bloc – it assures that no more than three countries from each bloc could end up together in the same semi final.
Now though we may have a 4:1 scandi semi
Yeah, I don’t like it either. They should have kept 6 pot with 6 countries in each (except for one pot with 5 countries in it), like last year.
Good question
“Going to the Netherlands for a different kind of pot”
I love the creativity 😀
How do you divide 7 countries equally in 2 semis ? Defies logic 🙁
They decide in advance which semi would one more participant than the other (e.g. in 2019 the first semi had 17 participants and the second semi had 18), and the 7th country from that pot goes to the semi that has more participants.
Oh, I see what you mean , I only just noticed EACH pot has seven countries. I don’t get it either.
Lol , the subscript is cheeky robyn
very accurate nordic group ^^
Well Australia has to be somewhere too.
yep
Well, Australia and Sweden always exchange points so it makes sense. It’s based on voting, not location. It’s just that neighbors typically vote for each other so it’s easier to call the pots based on that.
Actually, Sweden and Australia might not have a lot in common in terms of history or ethnography but they are culturally parallel, like hedgehogs and echidnas… Convergent evolution of peoples. Aussies are similar to Scandis
Australia is an ethnically diverse country, your comment completely ignored indigenous people for one thing.
Sweden is also ethnically diverse, and also has an indigenous population…