The semi-final allocation draw for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 is set to take place tomorrow, 26th January from 13:25 CET. Whilst some consider it to be a very minor event in the Eurovision calendar, fans from across the continent will be taking time out of their working Mondays to tune in to the draw, which is streamed annually on the official Eurovision WebTV. This year, the two semi-finals are scheduled for Tuesday 19th and Thursday 21st May.
Due to the majority of this year’s entries not having yet been selected or released, the draw bears little competitive significance for the participating countries. Nevertheless, nations that are notoriously successful in making it to the final will be watched closely for their placings, along with those whose songs are already known. The countries that fall into this latter category are Albania, Belarus, France, FYR Macedonia, Georgia, Malta and The Netherlands.
Regarding the format of the allocation draw, it remains unknown whether or not the host broadcaster, ORF, will internally determine the running order of the semi-finals, as SVT and DR did for the 2013 and 2014 contests respectively. However, it has been revealed that whilst countries will be divided into performing in the first and second halves of each show; the exact running orders will not be known tomorrow – implying that “deliberate” song ordering is a real possibility.
Furthermore, nothing has yet been reported about countries requesting a position in a specific semi-final. This happened most recently in the light of the 2014 edition; Sweden and Norway were assigned to separate semi-finals before the draw took place, and Israel was granted a place in semi-final 2 due to the date of semi-final 1 coinciding with the country’s Independence Day.
As it does every year, the draw will also see the semi-final voting allocation for the Big 5 countries (France, Italy, Spain and the UK) and the host country, Austria. Big 5 member Germany has requested and been granted approval to vote in the second semi-final. All of these countries are guaranteed participation in the grand final, which will take place on Saturday 23rd May.
