Since 2004, the Eurovision Song Contest has used semi-finals to pick some or most of the participating countries in the final. The Big 5 (Big 4 between 2004-2010), who are the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany and Italy, are exempted from participating and proceed straight to the final as they pay extra participation fees.
Single Semi Final[]
The format for 2004 was as such - the Big 4 and the top 10 non-Big 4 for countries of 2003 would automatically qualify, and the lower countries of 2003, rather than face relegation, would join the returners and newcomers in a semi-final round on the Wednesday of Eurovision week. 10 countries would qualify from the semi-final and announced in a random order. The qualification order would map onto the final running order - a draw for both rounds would be conducted at the same time, and the final would have 10 blank spaces in the running order for the qualifiers. The end of relegation enticed Monaco to return that year along with Luxembourg and Hungary planning to do so but backing out. Hungary would return for 2005, but Luxembourg has never returned to the contest, which remained true until their return in 2024.
The 2004 semi-final happened with few issues, but auto-qualifiers France, Poland and Russia, as well as RTBF of Belgium, opted out of broadcasting it. All participants had to broadcast the semi-final from 2005 onwards. The qualifiers included 2 debutants, 1 returner and 7 countries continuing from 2003. The previous year's hosts, Latvia, notably failed to qualify.
From 2004-2007, the scoreboard was oriented more towards the countries who had to go through the semi-final rather than the auto-qualifiers, who got low results and many would end up non-qualifying the next year.
It should be noted that the EBU had a fixed limit of 40 participants, and if they exceeded this limit they would pick off the worst performing countries to fit in the limit.[1] However, in 2007, they removed the limit and had 28 countries. Initially, there were talks to reduce the amount of auto-qualifiers but this did not happen. Instead, an excessive 28 countries (the most ever in a televised Eurovision round) were put into 1 semi-final with 10 spaces to qualify to a final of 24.
Austria, Andorra, Turkey, Slovenia and Latvia were all allowed to pick their running order - they all chose spots in the second half and the latter 3 qualified.
Another controversial thing was the "political" voting leading to all the qualifiers being in Central or Eastern Europe. However, none of these countries did poorly in the final, the lowest, Latvia was 16th.
Portugal and Andorra were 11th and 12th respectively and many attribute their non-qualifications to the then-present system. Portugal would finally qualify the next year, but Andorra never qualified. Croatia, Norway, Montenegro and Malta all failed to qualify for the first time, and Austria withdrew citing their low chances of success from the system. In previous years, many other fan favourites failed to qualify but came close, such as Belgium's 2006 entrant Kate Ryan.
Two Semi Finals[]
In September 2007, Svante Stockselius, the Executive Supervisor of the EBU, confirmed that a second semi-final would be added, while a record 43 countries confirmed their participation in 2008. Sorting pots were introduced to keep countries with similar voting histories in different semi-finals. From now on, only the Big 4 and the host country would automatically qualify, increasing the number of finalists to 25 (24 if a Big 5 country won). The auto-qualifiers' voting rights were sorted into different semis. From 2008 onwards, the qualifier order no longer affected the final running order.
The televoters would pick 9 entries to go to the final and the 10th would be decided by a jury - which would turn out to be Poland and Sweden that year.
The wildcard system was used again in 2009, where Finland and Croatia were saved by the juries. In 2010, it was replaced by a 50/50 of jury and televote.
In 2011, Italy returned as part of the Big 5, which increased the number of finalists to 26 or 25 if a Big 5 country hosted (like in 2011 and 2022).
With Australia's debut in 2015, it was given automatic finalist status which increased the number of participants to 27. Though meant to be a one-off participation to honor the contest's 60th anniversary, Australia's success in reaching a top-5 finish gained them an invite to the 2016 contest on the condition they must qualify via the semifinals, bringing the number of finalists back to 26.
In 2013, the running order became selected by the organizers (except for the halves of the semi-finals).
In 2023, the semi-finals reverted to 100% televote, likely due to the jury cheating scandal of 2022, when it was revealed in a report by Belgium's Flemish broadcaster VRT that 6 countries in the second semifinal (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino) had all agreed to vote for each other. Thus, their votes got tossed out for both the semifinal and the final, and replaced with aggregate scores from the other countries in their assigned semifinal pots.
Semi-Final Allocation Draw[]
Preparing for the 2019 allocation draw
The Semi-Final Allocation Draw is an event that takes place in late January. First held in 2008, its objective is to allocate the participating countries in either one of the contest's two semi-finals. The event is usually held in the City Hall of the host city or another venue of cultural significance.
The event is also held in conjunction with the Host City Insignia Exchange ceremony, where the contest makes its official handover from the previous edition's host city to the next.
Format[]
The draw is usually conducted by the presenters themselves (with the exception between 2009 and 2011) or those who would host the press conferences during the contest proper (such as Ulla Essendrop in 2014, Jovan Radomir in 2016 and Mario Acampa in 2022), and is monitored by three scrutineers, namely the Executive Supervisor, Executive Producer, and Voting Supervisor.
Although the Big Five and the host country are not required to participate in the semi-finals, they are drawn to either semi-final in which they are obliged to broadcast and vote in. Beginning in 2016, the pre-qualified countries would preview their live performances during their assigned semifinals instead of clips from their music videos prior to the announcement of the results. These performances are usually filmed during the second dress rehearsal (the jury show). In 2024 however, it was decided to have the automatic qualifiers perform live during the actual semifinal shows.
The remaining countries are then split into six pots (five in 2013 and 2023), based on the voting history of those countries in previous years. Another set of two pots would determine in which half of the semi-final a country would be drawn in. The purpose of the latter set is to allow the delegations to plan ahead for their trip to the host city for rehearsals, as the rehearsals for individual halves are conducted on different days. At the end of the draw, each of the two semi-finals would have an equal number of participating countries. In the case of an odd number of countries, one of the semi-finals would have one place more than the other, which may be pre-determined or decided through a live draw.
The draw would begin with the presenter drawing out from the first pot a country that will participate in the First Semi-Final, followed by another presenter who will draw either the first or second half of that semi-final. This step is carried over to the second pot, and so on. Upon completing the draw from the final pot, the presenter would return to the first pot to draw countries that will participate in the Second Semi-Final. The cycle repeats until all countries have been drawn out.
Prior to 2013, it is announced that the running order for both semi-finals would be drawn later during the Head of Delegations meeting in March. This draw was discontinued since 2013, when the running order would be internally decided by the producers.
Special Requests[]
Special requests from participating broadcasters may be granted through the Reference Group to participate in specific semi-finals, for reasons not limiting to scheduling reasons, public holidays etc.
Requests for other countries may also come from the host broadcaster, as in the case for Sweden and Denmark who hosted the 2013 and 2014 editions respectively, requesting that their Scandinavian neighbors participate in different semi-finals in order to maximize ticket availability for both countries.
Special Circumstances[]
A full allocation draw and insignia handover for the 2020 contest was completed as scheduled. However, the event was cancelled due to the pandemic almost two months later. It was then decided by the EBU and the host broadcasters (NPO/NOS/AVROTROS) that the allocations would be carried over to the 2021 contest, eliminating the need for another allocation draw. This scenario would likely take place in the event of future cancellations/postponements.
List of draws[]
| Year | Location | Date/Time (CET) | Presenters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Beograd Stari Dvori, Belgrade | 28 January 2008 | Jovana Janković, Željko Joksimović |
| 2009 | Marriott Royal Aurora Hotel, Moscow | 30 January 2009 | Yana Churikova, Andrei Malakhov, Dima Bilan |
| 2010 | Oslo City Hall, Oslo | 7 February 2010 | Peter Svaar |
| 2011 | Espirit Arena, Düsseldorf | 17 January 2011 | Judith Rankers, Jon Öla Sand |
| 2012 | Buta Palace, Baku | 25 January 2012 | Leyla Aliyeva, Nazim Hüseynov |
| 2013 | Malmö City Hall, Malmö | 17 January 2013 | Pernilla Månsson Colt, Josefine Sundström |
| 2014 | Copenhagen City Hall | 20 January 2014 | Tine Gøtzsche, Ulla Essendrop |
| 2015 | Vienna Rathaus, Vienna | 26 January 2015, 12:00 | Andi Knoll,Kati Bellowitsch |
| 2016 | Stockholm City Hall, Stockholm | 25 January 2016 | Alexandra Pascalidou, Jovan Radomir |
| 2017 | Column Hall, Kiev | 31 January 2017, 11:00 | Nika Konstantinova, Timur Miroshnychenko |
| 2018 | Lisbon City Hall, Lisbon | 29 January 2018, 13:00 | Filomena Cautela, Sílvia Alberto |
| 2019 | Tel Aviv Museum of Art,Tel Aviv | 28 January 2019, 17:00 | Assi Azar, Lucy Ayoub |
| 2020/2021 | Rotterdam City Hall, Rotterdam | 28 January 2020, 16:10 | Chantal Janzen, Jan Smit, Edsilia Rombley |
| 2022 | Palazzo Madama, Turin | 25 January 2022, 12:00 | Carolina di Domenico, Mario Acampa[Note 1] |
| 2023 | St George's Hall, Liverpool | 31 January 2023, 20:00 | AJ Odudu, Rylan Clark-Neal |
| 2024 | Malmö City Hall, Malmö | 30 January 2024, 19:00 | Pernilla Månsson Colt, Farah Abadi |
Qualification streaks[]
Some countries were able to resist failing to qualify for years, however currently only Ukraine has never failed to qualify. Luxembourg can also gain this record, because they successfully qualified to the Grand Final of the 2024 contest. Here are the latest countries to receive their first non-qualification:
- 2016: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece
- 2018: Azerbaijan, Romania, Russia
- 2021: Australia
Sweden has failed to qualify for the final once, in 2010, and currently has the second-longest ongoing qualification streak, only behind Ukraine.
Videos[]
References[]
- ↑ Acampa replaced Gabriele Corsi, who tested positive for COVID-19 prior to the ceremony