By: eurovisionunion
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Results of the Semi-Final Allocation Draw + 2016 Logo!

At the City Hall in Stockholm, this year’s Eurovision hosting city, an important event took place yesterday, that being, the semi-final allocation draw. Before looking at the results, let’s first look at what this actually is, and how it will affect the acts.

The Semi-Final allocation draw is a process used to determine which semi-final each country will perform in, and then it is also decided which half of the semi-final the country will be a part of during the show.

The first part of the process was to determine the allocation draw pots. These pots contain all 37 semi-finalists for this year, and they were spread into 6 pots. The way these countries are allocated into a pot is through historical voting patterns, which are calculated by the contest’s official televoting partner, Digame. The reason this process is done is to attempt to reduce the chance of ‘neighbour’ voting, and aims to increase the suspense in the semi-finals.

The draw this year was hosted by SVT hosts Alexandra Pascalidou and Jovan Radomir, Pascalidou being the Greek commentator for Eurovision in 2005 when Greece won the contest, and Radomir has presented the Swedish points in 2004 and 2006, and also wrote the English lyrics for Serbia’s winning 2007 entry, Molitva.

Here’s a bit of a run-down of the process: the first part of the draw is where the six pre-qualified countries (which are France, Spain, Italy, UK, Germany and the host country, Sweden) are allocated a Semi-final in which they will have to broadcast and will be allowed to vote in. The first semi-final will have 18 acts, and the second, 19. Then, as mentioned above, the countries will be allocated a semi, and a half however the exact running order will be decided by the producers, which will be done at a later date.

Two requests were made to the EBU, the first was that the German broadcaster ARD wanted to broadcast and vote in the second semi, which was approved by the EBU, and the second was that Israel will compete in the second semi-final, as the first semi-final clashes with the nation’s Memorial Day. This was also approved.

Now let’s get to the results.

First Semi-Final

First Half

  • Armenia

  • Finland

  • Greece

  • Croatia

  • Moldova

  • Netherlands

  • Russia

  • San Marino

  • Hungary

Second Half

  • Azerbaijan

  • Bosnia and Herzegovina

  • Cyprus

  • Estonia

  • Iceland

  • Malta

  • Montenegro

  • Czech Republic

  • Austria

Second Semi-Final

First Half

  • Australia

  • Ireland

  • Israel

  • Latvia

  • Lithuania

  • FYR Macedonia

  • Poland

  • Switzerland

  • Serbia

  • Belarus

Second Half

  • Albania

  • Belgium

  • Bulgaria

  • Denmark

  • Georgia

  • Norway

  • Romania

  • Slovenia

  • Ukraine

DrawResult2016

SVT also revealed the slogan and themed logo for this year’s contest. The slogan is ‘Come Together’, and here is the logo:

logo 2016