What is the Semi-Final Draw?

35 broadcasters will be taking part in the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in May.

The Draw to determine which Semi-Final our participants will compete and vote in will take place at Vienna's city hall, Wiener Rathaus, on Monday 12 January at 19:00 CET.

You'll be able to watch it all unfold live by streaming the Draw on the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel.

What happens?

The Semi-Final Draw for Vienna 2026 will decide whether broadcasters participate and vote in the First Semi-Final (Tuesday 12 May at 21:00 CEST) or the Second Semi-Final (Thursday 14 May at 21:00 CEST).

Also randomly allocated during the Semi-Final Draw is whether a broadcaster's artist will perform in the first or second half of the Semi-Final they’ve been drawn to compete in.

The Semi-Final Draw also impacts our automatic Grand Finalists, too!

Austria, as the Host Country, along with the EBU member broadcasters of the so-called ‘Big 4’ participating countries (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) do not compete in the Semi-Finals but their domestic audiences do get to vote in one of them.

So, as well as the competing countries being allocated a place in a Semi-Final, it will be randomly determined which of the Semi-Finals each of the Big 4 and Austria will be voting in.

The Semi-Final Draw pots of 2026

Ahead of the Draw, our 30 Semi-Finalists have been divided into five different pots from which the allocation will start. Drawing countries from different pots helps to reduce the chance of so-called neighbourly voting and increases suspense in the Semi-Finals. 

These are the allocation pots for the 2026 Semi-Final Draw:

Pot 1: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Switzerland

Pot 2: Australia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Sweden

Pot 3: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Israel, Poland, Ukraine

Pot 4: Belgium, Czechia, Luxembourg, Moldova, Portugal, Romania

Pot 5: Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, San Marino