Eurovision 2020: The host Insignia Handover Ceremony & the Semi final allocation draw
Just minutes ago the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 semi final allocation draw took place and the official Host Insignia Handover Ceremony at the Rotterdam City Hall.
Things are gearing up towards the next Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam as this afternoon the semi final allocation draw took place. Now each one of the 35 semi finalists countries know in which semi final it will compete and in which part of it (first or second half).
Both the Host Insignia Handover Ceremony and the semi-final allocation draws will be presented to us by the Eurovision 2020 hosts Edsilia Rombley, Chantal Janzen and Jan Smit.
THE SEMI FINAL VOTING ALLOCATION FOR THE BIG 5 AND HOST COUNTRY
Before the semi final allocation the countries that qualify directly in the final , the Big-5 (France, Germany, U.K, Spain and Italy) and the host coutry (The Netherlands) found out in which semi final they will be voting.
THE SEMI FINAL ALLOCATION DRAW
In order for the allocation draw to take place the 35 countries were distributed in 5 groups with 7 counties each one. This is to avoid block and neighbouring voting among countries that traitionally trend to vote each other. Thus the allocation pots appeaed today as following:
| POT 1 | POT 2 | POT 3 | POT 4 | POT 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albania | Australia | Armenia | Bulgaria | Belgium |
| Austria | Denmark | Azerbaijan | Greece | Ireland |
| North Macedonia | Estonia | Georgia | Cyprus | Israel |
| Switzerland | Iceland | Belarus | Malta | Latvia |
| Croatia | Norway | Moldova | Portugal | Lithuania |
| Serbia | Sweden | Ukraine | Romania | Poland |
| Slovenia | Finland | Russia | San Marino | Czech Republic |
Once the draw was completed the semi final allocation developed as following:
SEMI FINAL 1
SEMI FINAL 2
Host Insignia Handover Ceremony
Before holding the semi final allocation draw the traditional host insignia hadnover Ceremony took place at the Rotterdam City Hall.
During the ceremony The Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv , Ms. Zippi Brand Franke officially handed over the keys to the Mayor of Rotterdam, Mr. Ahmed Aboutaleb. Rotterdam will take over from the previous host city of Tel Aviv. Present at the event will be EBU’s Executive Supervisor Mr. Jon Ola Sand .
In case you missed out you can wathch the whole event in the folowing video on the official Eurovision Song Contest Youtube Channel:
A total of 41 countries will compete in the 65th Eurovision Song Contest, which will unfold on the 12,14th and 16th of May, 2020 in Rotterdam. The semi final running order will be determined by the producers and will be revealed by the end of March.
