So far very few countries already have their song ready for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, but today 37 of the participating countries were allocated a spot in one of the two semi-finals. At the same time Light My Fire was presented as theme for this, the 57th contest.
The two draws that takes place in the months up to the Eurovision Song Contest are met with a lot of exitement. First the large majority of countries that will need to go via a semi-final in order to make it to the final will be divided into the two semi-finals. This is the so-called allocation. Later a running order draw will take place.
Today’s allocation draw was shown live on TV in some countries and was otherwise available to watch online.
A draw decided that the second semi-final will be the one with 19 countries leaving 18 countries to compete in semi-final 1.
Below you can see the result of the allocation draw where the countries were given a spot in either first or second half:
| Semi-final 1 – Tuesday the 22nd of May 2012 | Semi-final 2 – Thursday the 24th of May 2012 |
|
Montenegro |
Serbia |
| Iceland | The Netherlands |
| Romania | Portugal |
| Albania | FYR Macedonia |
| Belgium | Belarus |
| Latvia | Malta |
| Switzerland | Ukraine |
| Finland | Armenia |
| Greece | Bulgaria |
| Hungary | Lithuania |
| Ireland | Norway |
| Israel | Slovakia |
| San Marino | Turkey |
| Russia | Estonia |
| Denmark | Slovenia |
| Austria | Georgia |
| Moldova | Sweden |
| Cyprus | Croatia |
| Bosnia & Herzegovina |
As we come closer to time the exact starting positions will be drawn at the so-called running order draw. As usual the host country plus the 5 largest countries are automatically qualified for the final of the Eurovision Song Contest and will as such not be participating in the semi-finals. This counts for Azerbaijan, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
Italy, Azerbiajan and Spain will vote in semi-final 1.
United Kingdom, France and Germany will vote in semi-final 2.
