The Running Order Draw was an event that took place during the contest's Head of Delegations Meeting in March. Its objective is to allocate the running order of all participating countries including the Big Four/Five, following the Semi-Final Allocation Draw that took place in January.
It was discontinued in 2013, when the running order had since been internally decided by the contest's producers.
Format[]
Prior to the introduction of the semi-final in 2004, the Running Order Draw was held in November or December of the previous year.
In 2003, all countries were placed in one single pot, with another pot containing numbers of the running order. One presenter will draw a country, while another draws the running order for that country.
From 2004 to 2012, the first country to be drawn out of their respective pots were allocated the first available slot.
From 2004 to 2007, 10 anonymous slots were added to the Final pot, indicating a country which would eventually qualify from the Semi-Final. Exact positions of the qualifiers would be determined in a draw during the post Semi-Final Press Conference.
Wildcards[]
From 2007 to 2012, the draw incorporated wildcards, where the first country(ies) drawn out of their respective pots were awarded the right to select their own positions.
The number of wildcards was set at five for the Semi-Final and three for the Final in 2007, before it was revised to three per Semi-Final in 2008, then to one per half of a Semi-Final, and one for the Final in 2010.
2013-present[]
Since 2013, the semifinal running order is decided on internally by the producers and/or the host broadcaster. Following the semifinal allocation draw, the producers arrange the semifinalists to give the audience the best show possible, trying not to place songs of similar styles or genres together. The full semifinal running order is announced sometime between March and April depending on when in May the contest is scheduled, this is to allow the organizers to prepare the rehearsal schedule, assemble the stage, begin the initial technical rehearsals with the stand-ins, and to allow all the delegations to finalize their travel plans prior to their departure for the contest.
The host country is pre-allocated their spot in the running order for the Grand Final during the Head of Delegation meetings in mid-March via a random draw. In the case of 2023 where Ukraine (as defending champion) was also an automatic qualifier, the Ukrainian and United Kingdom heads of delegation drew each other's positions in the same way.
A similar allocation draw is done for the Grand Final. The Big Five have their own draw which is conducted during the press conferences following their second rehearsal (in 2016, it was done during the opening ceremony) to determine whether they perform in the first half or the second half (in the case of a Big Five country hosting, such as in 2011, 2022 and 2023, that country is exempt from this draw). It is repeated during the qualifiers' press conferences following each semifinal to allocate the remaining 20 places. The finalized running order is announced between late Thursday night and early Friday morning CET following the second semifinal qualifiers' press conference in order to prepare for the Grand Final dress rehearsals and the Saturday live show.
In 2024, a third allocation category known as "Producer's Choice" was added, represented by a slip with no markings on it. Meaning, if a qualifier (whether automatic or qualified via a semifinal) drew that particular slip, it would allow the producers to allocate that country anywhere they wanted in the first or second half of the running order. 13 of these slips were added to the 2024 final allocation draws along with 6 for the first half and 6 for the second (there are only 25 slips as the host country was already pre-allocated).
Style[]
Some editions were presented with their own visual and/or stage designs that referenced local culture or the theme of the respective contests.
- For the 2003 contest held in Riga, the stage took the form of a beach with a ship. Countries took the form of oyster shells, with pearls indicating their running order in another pot.
- For the 2004 contest held in Istanbul, countries took the form of heart boxes, referencing the new heart-centric logo for the contest which is in use to this day.
- For the 2007 contest held in Helsinki, the stage took the form of a sauna. Countries in the Semi-Final were drawn out from a wooden bucket named kiulu, while those in the Final were contained in "snowballs".
- For the 2009 contest held in Moscow, countries were contained in Matryoshka dolls.