Photo: Magnus Liam Karlsson/SVT and Janne Danielsson/SVT
It’s starting to become real! The semi-final allocation draw is due to take place at 19:00 CET on January 30. All 37 countries will be involved, with the 31 semi-finalists finding out when they will perform.
The allocation draw will be livestreamed on both the official Eurovision YouTube channel and SVT Play.
Eurovision 2024 Allocation Draw: What is it?
The semi-final allocation draw determines in which semi-final countries will compete in. It also decides which semi-finals the six automatic qualifiers will vote in.
The “Big 5” — France, Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom — receive an automatic pass to the final on May 11. They will also be joined by this year’s winners Sweden.
As for the other 31 participating countries, they must battle their way through one of two semi-finals to book a spot in the final. The allocation draw determines which semi-final they will compete in, as well as which half of that semi-final they will perform in. The exact running order will be determined at a later stage.
The draw will take place in Malmö on January 30. The event is usually held at an iconic location in the host city and also involves the host city insignia exchange — where the host city adds an insignia to the giant host city keyring. The venue is expected to be announced at a later date.
Swedish SVT announced today that Pernilla Månsson Colt and Farah Abadi will host the draw. As part of the event, the mayor of 2023 host city Liverpool will hand over the keys to the mayor of Malmö, the 2024 host city.
In a press release from SVT today, Pernilla Månsson Colt and Farah Abadi said:
“It will be so much fun fun to kick off Sweden’s Eurovision-year from Malmö. The draw is more important than one would think for the competition later on. We hope that it will be both exciting and fun to watch the program”, says Pernilla Månsson Colt, who also ws the host Malmö last time hosted Eurovision in 2013.
“This is the start for Eurovision and it is extra fun to be able to do the program together with Pernilla, but also that it is in our hometown Malmö”, says Farah Abadi.
How the draw works
In the first part of the draw, the pre-qualifiers will be assigned one to the two semi-finals to vote in, three in semi-final one, three in semi-final two.
Next comes the pots. Ahead of the draw, the 31 semi-finalists have been assigned their respective pots based on historic voting patterns (usually around six pots). This is to help ensure each semi-final is not saturated by countries with high chances of voting for each other. Each pot contains six countries (except for one that will contain seven countries), half of which will be allocated to the first semi-final and half of which will be allocated to the second.
First or second semi-final – does it matter?
Choosing the semi-final halves at this stage lets countries start to plan and budget for their travel. Performing in the first half of the first semi-final means arriving three days earlier for rehearsals than someone performing in the second half of the second semi.
Some fans believe that performing in the second half of a semi-final gives the act more of an advantage, but statistics show that on average, equal numbers of acts tend to qualify from each half.
Are you excited for the draw? Will you watch the livestream? Let us know in the comments below.
I swear swedes are the most attractive people in the world? do any ugly people live there?
As a swede I must say that I consider norweigans to be the most beautiful people on earth. Especially women..
It would be more exciting if they did that when all the songs are already known, because to see only countries being shared in 2 semi is really meaningless and boring without knowing the competition.
I guess they do it before most songs are revealed so that they have more time to prepare and see how the show will look when it all comes together. As soon as an entry is revealed, they can already start planning where to put it in the running order and have an idea how the staging will look (each country has a different deadline to submit their staging draft). It could also be to avoid even more conspiracy theories about rigging the draw in favour of one or another country.
I hope Farah Abadi will be the official host of ESC 2024 ?
Is she good as a presenter? Idk , I just want Petra back.
I don’t think anyone could do a better job than Petra.
Petra has major back problems and won’t be back unfortunately.
Well she hosted Mello twice and that is always a test for ESC.
Plus she hosts 4 shows for SVT right now
At first glance I thought they would host the main event.
Shame, I really thought Farah would host ESC. At least she gets this. I wont be watching it cause I don’t really care about allocation draw but good for her!
Wiwi needs to ban those anti-israel bots… thanks! 🙂
but the unicorn bots are fine, obviously. 😉
And the Noa stans
Too busy reporting the Israel drama that it took you several days to publish this article… I’m sorry but this was news like one week ago haha
This was announced today. The hosts of the allocation draw atleast
Farah Abadi is Pa1estinian. I’m suprised the Israeli’s haven’t shot her dead yet.
then she shouldn’t be allowed to host this allocation draw
WTF! Did your parents drop you as a child or are you always this evil?
Definitely a deliberate political move
Excuse you? It always baffles me that it’s way more difficult for people to be kind than hateful. You’re an example and should definitely not be proud of yourself. Seek a therapist.
Bruh, she’s Lebanese
No Bruh, at last years Melfest, Farah was chatting to Loreen. Loreen was trying to guess Farah’s ethnicity and assumed Farah was Moroccan. After Farah disclosed she was Pa1estinian, Loreen starts singing an Arabic song to Farah.