Tonight sees the long awaited Semi Final Allocation draw where we will see which Semi Final each country will be drawn into and also which half in their semi -final each country will perform. Also we will have a draw to see which Semi- Final the big five plus this year’s host country, Sweden ( who do not take part in the Semi -Finals, hence are not part of the main draw ) , will be voting in. The ceremony also includes the Host Insignia pass where last year’s host city Liverpool, officially hands over the hosting duties to this year’s host country , Malmö.

Join Eurovision Ireland as we bring you our live blog of the proceedings in Malmö, which will be hosted by Farah Abadi ( you may remember her as one of last year’s Melodifestivalen hosts) and Pernilla Månsson Colt ( who also oversaw proceedings in the allocation draw of 2013 , when Malmö last hosted the contest .) . Just to remind you of how the draw is carried out , the countries are divided into 5 pots , this is apparently to try and avoid as far as possible ,neighbour countries being drawn in the same semi final and bloc voting happening as a result . As each country is drawn into a semi final, immediately after this another draw is made to see which half of their Semi Final they will perform in.

Here are the five pots , you will be able to see which pot your country is in for the draw.

You can watch the proceedings via the Official You Tube Link HERE

LIVE BLOG STARTS HERE

Good evening Europe , Good morning Australia! In just a few minutes, we will be going to the live link to Malmö, Sweden, where the draw allocation will take place, Take your time while we wait , to get some drinks and snacks and let’s see whether you will be happy with with which Semi final your country is drawn in tonight.

Looks like we’re going through to the live link now .

Here we go …..We start with a flash back to last year’s contest in Liverpool and Loreen’s win , which is why we’re in Malmo this year . Then we get a glimpse of the city of Malmo before meeting our hosts , Farah and Pernilla .

We get a flashback of when Pernilla presented the same event in 2013 .Obviously she’s aged a bit since then !

They talk about Malmo having hosted three times now and we get Farah giving us a little tour of the city in a film and how to pronounce Malmo correctly!If you haven’t been to Malmo before, I can tell you it’s a lovely little city, having been there several times before , including for Eurovision 2013!.

Then we get a flashback to when Malmo hosted in 1992, the year a certain Christer Bjorkman represented Sweden and in 2013 when Petra Mede hosted . The hosts talk about how technology helped to improve from the 1992 presentation.

They talk about the Host Insignia ceremony, which is the official handover from last year’s host city to this years. The mayor of Liverpool will hand over the Insignia key to the mayor of Malmo . Having seen it in Liverpool last year, I can tell you it’s a pretty big key ring , with momentos from each host city .

We first of all have the draw to see which Semi final big 5 plus Sweden gets to vote in

Spain -2nd

Sweden- 1st

UK -1st

Italy -2nd

France- 2nd

Germany -1st

Before the main draw , we have a remote chat going on with William Lee Adams from WI Wi blogs and Christer Bjorkman , who used to oversee Melodifestivalen until recently.They give their opinions about which semi they think it’s best to be drawn in and which half .

We’re going on to the main event now, the Semi Final. We’re told that Israel have been given permission to be in the second semi final due to a national memorial day . They are drawn in the second half of semi 2 . draw

First

Slovenia – 1st semi , 2nd half

Iceland-1st semi 2nd half

Ukraine 1st semi , 1st half

Cyprus 1st semi,1st half

Poland 1st semi 1st half

Austria -2nd semi ,1st half

Estonia 2nd semi 2nd half

Georgia 2nd semi 2nd half

Malta 2nd semi 1st half

Netherlands 2nd semi, second half

Serbia 2nd semi ,1st half

Finland 2nd semi , 2nd half

Lithuania 2nd semi -1st half

Luxembourg 1st semi 2nd half

My apologies folks , my laptop froze up as I was writing, fear not, you will get a summary at the end of the draw .So here you go

What do you think ? Are you happy with your country’s draw? Let us know what you think by leaving us a comment below , or you can find us on our Twitter and X feeds.

Author:Sarah Rudman

Source: Eurovision Ireland, SVT , You Tube