The Heads of Delegation are currently meeting in Malmö, Sweden and sharing information about their entries with one another and with show producers. Among other things, they’ll each have speed dates with Swedish producers to start discussing and planning their live performances this May.
And this afternoon there was another very important piece of business to deal with: Drawing Sweden’s running order position for the grand final.
Andrew Cartmell, the executive producer of the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool, had the honour. And what did he pull from the glass fish bowl? Spot #1. That means Sweden will perform first during the grand final on 11 May 2024.
As in other years, the host country is drawn into its spot for the final well ahead of time to help avoid any conspiracy theories later.
The semi-final allocation draw back in January determined which semi-finals countries would compete in, along with whether they’d perform in the first of second half.
The Big 5 and hosts Sweden, all of whom are automatically qualified for the final, were drawn into semi-finals as well. They will vote in these assigned semi-finals.
As we learned today, each of their acts will also perform all of their song live — you can’t actually vote for them. But this is important because it lets their artists get used to the stage and gain similar exposure as the semi-finalists.
The full running order for the semi-finals will be determined by producers at a later date. The grand final running order won’t be determined until after Semi-Final 2, when producers know the qualifiers and after those qualifiers have drawn first or second half in another draw.
Vad är det för människor här seriöst? Hat, hat och åter hat. Sverige funskar hit och dit. Nä, hej då wiwi. Här kan man inte vara om man är Svensk.
These boys are super talented, they are ready for their 8th win
For those who probably don’t know how Eurovision works and downvote those who are surprised on how and why Sweden is set to open the final, I just remind how it works. It’s not a random process. The only thing drawn in advance (don’t remember if in the draw ceremony months before) is if you will actually perform in the first or second part of the final. Then the exact position in the first or second part in the final is decided by the Head of Contest, according to the musical styles mix, to the props on stage, to the… Read more »
Wonder if all these conspiracy theorists on Wiwibloggs come from countries where corruption is high and the level of democracy is low?
This might in turn have affected them to believe that cheating is something that’s equally prevalent all over the world.
Fyi Swedish companies have been involved in c0rrupt10n sc4nd4ls in countries like Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan
What has that got to do with Eurovision? And just because corruption happens somewhere doesn’t mean it is corrupted somewhere else. It’s very much a whatabout-ism argument.
I could make a case for the original comment to be such or an ad hominem fallacy too
The home of conspiracy theories. Laughable! ???
Let me ask all of you. Would you be still peddling this conspiracy theory crap if Finland was the host country?
Suspecting and questioning suspicious behavior ? conspiracy theory
The question mark is supposed to be a “is not the same as” symbol
For starters, I doubt Finland would have had the guts to manipulate the system in order to favour their own entry. Sweden, on the other hand, has had a tendency to alter things to mess up the contest format throughout the history of multiple hostings. That’s not some conspiracy crap; that’s a fact. I love that these changes happen to prevail consistently (coincidentally, for sure) in a year Sweden is hosting because then Swedish fans come to the light out whining as to “We have done nothing but change the contest! Why would you hate us for it?” People may… Read more »
Holy words, bro! I am falling in love. 🙂
They Are Melodifestivalen Sweet Hearts
lol
What a mess lol
Omg ,what a surprise! I am joking… This year that the voting system has changed,sweden has been selected to perform first!!! I think that Sweden turns to be the cancer of ESC…
The Eurovision Gods are truly on their side lmfao
The EBU will always find a way to let the entry win they want to win.
Be it running order, mixing of sound and vocals, subliminal message framing like for Ukraine before they won the last time…
It’s a fake democracy show for idiots.
It’s also a fake cool party where everybody is welcome and where everybody is very friendly and all smiles and all, but then in the end only a few ultraprivileged are allowed to shine and have fun, meaning win. And then when you complain that they have won for all the wrong reasons minus a good song, they reply you’re biased, and too aggressive, and salty, and perhaps crazy as well.
I have absolutely no wish to watch another contest hosted in Sweden. That’s why this year I am breaking a tradition started in 1989 & I will not watch the contest live. I can always watch the performances & the voting on youtube afterward. (I’m aware no one’s interested in what I will do or not. But if anyone is as disgusted as me by what the Swedish mafia have been doing to the contest, you can always do the same. #boycottsweden )
I totally agree. I was organizing the usual eurovision night at home with friends, but we are all thinking to do something else that evening. Don’t want to see the Nth Missa Solemnis organized by those who think to own the Eurovision, have a friendly Executive Supervisor and bring usually an average song that is always overrated by the juries.
So by an amazing coincidence Sweden get to go first when. Televoting starts at the beginning of the show. The juries will kill Croatia and Switzerland’s chances and rhey will probably rig it for Italy to perform last so that they only have a few minutes of televoting. It’s so depressing
Last years host entry (UK) was allocated to perform last #26, just before the voting lines opened. Was that rigged too?
Of course it was. The Head of Contest can put the songs where they want, in the first or second part (that is the only thing drawn) during the press conference, if I remember well. So the HoC can decide to put each song according the the musical mix (never two ballads in sequence), the show, the complexity of the props on stage.
No, you can wote for all 26 countrys from start.
So this year the #2 “death spot” will get more meaning than ever before…
the “owe they must hate us all………….”spot??
UK or Israel………….??
I am not surprise that we have war in Europe, when do many evil people at on this blogg
Be serious. We have war because for longtime we thought Putin was a nice charitable nice guy that was selling us cheap gas, and we didn’t really think on who actually he was despite many sings: w@rs he declared, Crim3a invaded, missiles on the Malaysian Airlines plane, etc. It’s our damn fault Europe is at war. Withna thug like Putin you need to stop ranting about peace and prepare to have armies and weapons in order to show you are not weak. But us, Europeans, like to shout “peace” also in front of an hungry wolf.
I wish them from the bottom of my heart last place with one fat 0 points! Nothing against those two guys but as a message from Europe to this swedish mafia mockery of Eurovision they’re making it into…
is everything good up there in your skull?
Oh Miko I hope you find happiness x
Bitter
Poor Miko…
How convenient. They draw the no. 1 position “by sheer luck”… Just when they had a complex staging, with those LED walls… It was clear that they would be placed first anyway, so that they would have time to arrange all that decor. Does anyone still think that these draws are “random” and not arranged in advance?
this is extremely derranged XD
And “by sheer coincidence” we can suddenly start voting once again after song # 1 has been performed and not 25 songs later when Sweden will have been forgotten about lol.
How is it luck to draw one of the worst places in the running order?
No longer one of the worst places now that the public can vote straight after the song. You could argue this is now the best place in the running order!
I think this is brilliant, I doubt many delegations can do what sweden did with sating this year on MF. I pity whoever performs 2nd, 3rd even 4th. May not be a winner (not mine personally) but a contender to get votes from both jury and televote.
Oops
It’s a good show opener actually. Semi openers lately have done well from the first position. I more dread now getting #2. The last couple years they’ve moved away from slow ballad for another uptempo song—wonder if Sweden will keep that. Same seems to be happening at Melfest. Or will they purposely put on something slow to make their song stand out.
Whatever comes after Marcus & Martinus, I wish good luck. People can dislike this song but with the staging it’s quite a banger and it will be very appealing to the voters imo. I think the #2 is the place to avoid more than ever.
They usually put the lowest ranked song with the bookmakers from the 1st half in 2nd spot…its almost a default play by the organisers…
Well, it’s not the death spot, but it ain’t good to go first.
I thought it would be amusing if Sweden had been randomly drawn in the second position, but I wasn’t expecting them to actually be so close to it.
I doubt the 2nd spot was even in the bowl for the host entry…
doesn’t matter anymore since we can vote from the very beginning
One more thing guys. As it is written in the other article talking about this change in the voting method, this system has already been tested back in 2010 and 2011. Have you seen the results from those years? In 2010 the average final place of countries that performed from 1 to 12 was 16,6th against an average of 9,7 for the second half. The country that opened the show (Azerbaijan) finished with a good 5th place but was expected to finish in the top 3. It was a big fan favorite. In 2011 the average final place of the… Read more »
2011 is a year on its very own that it’s hard to use for statistics. So unique. Voting was all over the place.
We also don’t know detailed voting from these years. Like how every televoting and jury voted.
Very true, 2011 was a weird year with no clear favorite and a lot of fan favorites ended up being in the bottom of the scoreboard (hello Estonia and Hungary). But still I wanted to point the fact the apparently performing early wasn’t of great help.
Also the year, on only their fourth attempt, Azerbaijan succeeded in cheating their way to victory. Which obviously played havoc with the reality of the scores.
About performing early it depends.
In 2011, we had Bosnia performing 2nd and still did amazing with televote regardless (as probably they had a big name which helped)
In contrast, there was Finland, who opened, but did much worse than its Semifinal where they came 3rd with public behind Greece and not far from Azerbaijan who ended winning televote in the final. I don’t know. We may find a case for everything.
And I have to say that, as sweet as the boy was, I never understood how he managed to pull a top 3 in semi final. He kinda got the same thing that the austrian girls got last year.
As you said the sweet factor. He was likeable and there was nothing similar in that Semifinal if I remember. Also running order in the SF was good for a cute ballad unlike in the final.
Similar scenario for Belgium one year earlier (even tho that song was much better).
The song is ok. Much better than many many more this year. The beat is top. They’re entertaining. They’re hot yet cute.
What’s your problem guys? I thought such show business professionals like you will enjoy watching cool modern stuff and just have fun. It’s a show and Swe always suites good and you know it.
I didn’t know we had so much conspiracy theorists in here xD Let’s be honest, this system won’t change much.
People who will watch the semi finals will already know the countries for which they want to vote in the final so it won’t change much for them. And I guess most of the lamda viewers who will only watch the final will be patient enough to vote at the end (if even they vote because usually they don’t care enough to spend money on this contest).
Well, this just happened. I was in a supermarket and I heard over the intercom, Arcade. No joke, and it was the original solo version that won Eurovision, not the duet version that I’ve heard sometimes. It’s more astonishing because this is in America where eurovision isn’t as big.
2 weeks ago I went on holiday in Switzerland and one evening I went to eat in a restaurant. What a surprise it was to hear the 2014 Netherlands song (Calm after the Storm) playing on the radio. I come from Belgium and never in 10 years I heard it on the radio…
It’s not even the first time I have heard arcade played in an American grocery store. I even once heard violent thing playing, was from the canceled 2020 Eurovision! I’m Always amazed when I hear something from Eurovision playin America.
Oh I loved Violent Thing!
It’s especially weird to hear the songs that aren’t hits on the scale of “Snap” or “Arcade.” I heard Ben and Tam’s “Yes” over the speaker in a Chicago liquor store just a couple of months ago.
Last year I thought Loreen should have started the show since in the end we know Austria also finished 2nd like Loreen from their semi finals + we needed breaks to put that scenary so at least one less break will have been possible if she had gone first but nope she had a sweet spot after 1st break instead of starting the show. Now at least Sweden gets a bad spot but it’s only because of random order. How I wish the whole order was random too rather than being influenced by odds/producers that you can’t say it’s unbiased.
“And first up, some brothers singing for Sweden.” That was 1984 (and they won).
M&M should definitely wear those golden shoes. Ahh it’s all just a little bit of history repeatinnngggg.
“The history book on the shelf…. is always repeating itself”
The Shirley Bassey reference was of course appreciated, but this is a Eurovision site after all.
Shirley Bassey trumps EVERYTHING!
She should represent her home country, Monaco, if they ever come back.
So on the year that televoting will run through the whole show, Sweden gets to go first. Nothing suspicious there much is there?
yes because people who sit through 4h of show want to desperately vote for the first appearing song and do not intend to wait till last song to cast their votes that are also not free.
Yes people are THAT desperate and impatient to spend their money.
You guys who come up with this would seriously rival flat-earthers for their madness.
Do you know the difference of correlation and causation? I’d recommend you look it up….
OMG, people are crazy. No one thinks being number one to start this contest have been a good idea before but suddenly some people thinks its a conspiracy anyway. This ”sweden-complain” are so ridiculous?
You said it.
Well, it’s a bit odd that in the very same year when the voting lasts for an entire evening, not just the last 10 minutes, Sweden happens to perform first. As in, gets enough time to fish for votes. Multiple coincidences, obviously.
But why would the Swedes be so desperate to succeed? They did well with televoting; why should they be so unsure now?
They saw what happened to Austria last year
You can’t be more obvious than that..
First time I see that in person! The host country opening the show!. Will Sweden break the curse of the countries performing early in the show and not getting a good result? Largely possible.
Brothers representing Sweden have even WON from the first spot before.
Effectively, if one country could break this curse it’s definetely Sweden.
And that was 40 years ago, so it’s a neat co-incidence. Which I predicted straight after Melfest, if anyone cares.
Sweden also opened (with a duo) 30 years ago!
Oh Yeah, I know who you’re talking about
Soneone born in Norway represented Sweden FIFTY years ago! It never stops.
So that’s why they’re opening the voting at the start of the show
Can we just enjoy the show.? All this conspiracy bull is not relevant even if it was!!? It’s a fun show. End of story. Vote, don’t vote, dance, don’t dance. Watch, don’t watch. I’m guessing the changes are about keeping audiences interacting as without an audience there would be no show. Says more about what they think about audience than pushing Sweden or anyone else to win
Sorry, but Sweden ruining and undermining everything that makes ESC ESC doesn’t let me enjoy the show
The automatic qualifiers will also perform their entries during the semis, that’s actually the biggest change imho. Well, I’ve always thought it was a huge disadvantage for them that they lacked an opportunity to build momentum, so I guess they should be very happy with this change. It will be kind of weird though to see songs performed which you’re not able to vote for.
The low numbers of countries this year maybe prompted that choice.
I didn’t think of that. But then, why didn’t they do that last year when we had the same number of 37 countries?
Maybe that was what made them put it on their to-do list. Same way as I think Teya and Salena, a big favourite flopping, made them re-think when voting lines opened.
That could have been a factor to change things up and maybe this had been in the making for a while,. It’s just unfortunate that it was announced at the same time that Sweden was drawn to open the final that people are making conspiracy theories. At worst, it’s an awkward coincidence to me.
We’ll all get over it. Especially after the results come in.
Yeah, it will blow over. Fans sometimes make a big deal over nothing.
If it was only sometimes…
In 2014 also only 37 countries took part. Why did big 5 not perform in the semis there? Has nothing to do with the numbers
Host country should not draw. They should pick the order number they want.
The whole point of the host country doing a random draw is to avoid bias in the running order.
Voting is really opening from the start again? Oh no. I hated when the number flashed up during every song ruining the hard work of every camera person and stage director, circa 2010.
I agree with you there.
i hope they will find another way cause those flashcards were awful
They came right at important parts of the song, awful indeed
They’ll probably figure out something to make it not as obnoxious maybe a thinner text box?
Or just not flash it up at all, give us the numbers beforehand or let the commentators tell us.
Yeah, I agree! Nobody watches on mute anyway… Btw it’s so childish to think every lottery ball was number 1…? Stop hating on countries, Sweden and others!
The song would be already forgettable 🙂
The anti Swedish conspiracy theories already began lol. Admit it : Eurofans hate Sweden because it takes esc seriously and provides credible entries to the contest and not the joke acts you so much love (see cha cha chas and rim tig tagi dims etc). Remind me how much did the opening act benefit in the early 2010s when they first implemented the voting change? Not at all. But don’t let that stop your racism against Sweden again. Supporting M&M fully (my 2nd behind Switzerland) and will vote for them in the final because they offer amazing pop quality. Keep… Read more »
Rim Tig Tagi Dim or whatever it’s called is far more serious entry than Forgettable. It actually has interesting composition and a message bigger than “I’m drunk and horny”. Yes, it’s covered in a disguise of a joke entry but there’s actually a lot of substance. And no, I don’t hate Sweden. I loved many of their entries, I was to Cornelia’s concert last year and I consider 2016 to be the best production of the ESC in history. That doesn’t change anything about the fact that this entry is incredibly mediocre, generic and forgettable. This notion that anyone who… Read more »
Im drunk and horny sent me istg
I personally really like Marcus and Martinus. I loved AIR last year and I think they will deservedly do well this year too There is no denying however, that there is a jury bias in Sweden’s favour. Its been like that for quite a number of years now. When they put Sweden in death slot 2 then we can talk.
But this won’t happen because the death spot is reserved for bad song and Sweden doesn’t give that…
That being said, the running order should just be randomly generated.
I think it is more to do with the manipulation and cheating.
Always so convenient lmao
Good. Get that boring song out of the way first before the interesting ones come, I guess. Let’s hope it’s just another lucky coincidence for Sweden to perform 1st when Sweden (let’s not kid ourselves, EBU rule changes basically are Swedish rule changes) decides to open the voting with the first song. I don’t think this will be a televote hit anyway and the juries will push it regardless of when it performs, so whatever.
All the balls said number 1
Sweden introduce new voting system
Guess what Sweden get the best draw
The whole show COULD come down to a lottery draw. That’s really bad.
This contest needs a true strategical overhaul
The best draw? Number 1 is crap, nobody wants to be number 1…
The voting opens after the first act. Keep up
I’m aware, and it won’t have such a big effect. 20-26 is the best draw.
Not in Malmo. Artists will hope this year to draw the first half of the show to get as much time for fishing votes as possible.
Now I don’t know which half I’m hoping certain countries to get for the best result possible period
You’d think just because they’re first in the running order all 170+ million people would vote for Sweden.
Their peak audience isn’t even when the show begins lmao pls.
I thought it’d be amusing if Sweden got randomly drawn to the number two slot, but I didn’t expect to be so close to mr prediction. Now the conspiracy theories will think that the new procedure of opening the voting from the start is meant to help Sweden do better in the Televote despite being very early.
A lot of negativity as usual concerning everything Sweden, what else is new?
Interesting letting the host start, last time was in 1970. Starting the party off with a banger, why not?
It will be a good opening act
Come on, you know that a big portion of this fandom has an anti-Sweden bias. No matter what they’ll do, they’ll bash it.
Yes, that is what I meant . Even if it was drawn at 13th people would scream conspiracy theories. Or if it was drawn last people would still go ” oh is it random” or whatever.
Good thing casual viewers, who are the ones voting, are less toxic and petty
‘Sweden, from televotes… You received… 21 points!’ vibe.
Thats less likely scenario considering they are huge in Scandinavia and will probably get 12 from all 4 other Scandies, plus pts from so many others…
They’re hasbeens in Norway and unknown anywhere else… so yeah, a low televote score is completely possible, especially considering how lame the vocals/performers are. I don’t expect something as low as 21, but I don’t expect anything more than what Tusse had either.
I don’t think that Sweden would be able to receive any 12 points with this bland average song
Since Sweden is opening the show, it should have been Circus X. It would have been perfect. Nee poetic.
Sweden open show at 1. Well in 1984 they open show in Luxembourg and won from that position as did The Netherlands in 1975 and UK in 1976. So it can be done if you have a good song.
That’s easier to achieve when there’s fewer countries competing, not likely in this day and age with 26 finalists.
Still think good songs rise to the top
Yeah, being 1st in the running order is so competitive no one has won from there in 40 years …
Ah, so that explains why the voting window has been extended…
And so the conspiracy theories begin
C’mon, you have to admit this stinks.
Most likely just pure coincidence, but maybe bad optics alright.
An awkward coincidence I say. This was probably in the works for a while but I announcing it at the same time of Sweden’s random draw was a bit of bad timing
Bjorkman still pulling the strings by the looks of it…
Well, yeah, he is literally contractually contest producer this year.
That subtitle was genius.
Corruption at its finest. I’m almost ready to quit this sheetshow for good
Please do it, we could really do with less negative people in the Eurovision-fandom
We could also do with less people who applaud everything Sweden does too