The draw that decides in which semi-final the countries participates is always an exiting moment. It is from that moment speculations on who might win the Eurovision Song Contest begins. To achieve that you first need to qualify for the final. A good draw can help you some of the way – who had that luck in today’s draw?

Of course you need to have a good song – or at least a song that has something that appeals to people around Europe, but it is a fact hard to chance that some some are more likely to vote for others and as such a good draw can help. First you need to end up in a semi-final with quite a lot of those countries likely to vote for you and after that you need some more luck to get a good starting position.

Today the allocation draw for the semi-finals at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest took place together with the draw that decides in which of the two semi-final the 5 automatically qualified countries will vote in. As usual the host country, Norway, is guaranteed a place in the final together with the so-called big4; United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain. The remaining 34 countries have been divided into 5 pots based on previous voting pattern and geographical location. 

The five pots are:

Pot 1: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland
Pot 2: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden
Pot 3: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Israel, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine
Pot 4: Armenia, Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Malta, the Netherlands, Turkey
Pot 5: Bulgaria, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia

Results from today’s draw:

• Norway, United Kingdom and France will vote in the second semi-final.
• Germany and Spain will vote in the first semi-final.

Serbia will be in the first semi-final as one of the first 8 countries

Finland will be in the first semi-final as one of the first 8 countries

Russia will be in the first semi-final as one of the first 8 countries

Greece will be in the first semi-final as one of the last countries

Slovakia will be in the first semi-final as one of the first 8 countries

Switzerland will be in the second semi-final as one of the first 8 countries

Lithuania will be in the second semi-final as one of the first 8 countries 

Georgia will be in the second semi-final as one of the last countries

Turkey will be in the second semifinal as one of the last countries

Ireland will be in the second semi-final as one of the last countries

Bosnia and Herzegovina will be in the first semi-final as one of the first 8 countries

Iceland will be in the first semi-final as one of the last countries

Moldova will be in the first semi-final as one of the first 8 countries

Malta will be in the first semi-final as one of the last countries

Portugal will be in the first semi-final as one of the last countries

Slovenia will be in the second semi-final as one of the last countries

Sweden will be in the second semi-final as one of the first 8 countries

Ukraine will be in the second semi-final as one of the first 8 countries 

The Netherlands will be in the second semi-final as one of the last countries

Bulgaria will be in the second semi-final as one of the last countries

FYR Macedonia will be in the first smi-final as one of the last countries

Latvia will be in the first semi-final as one of the first 8 countries

Belarus will be in the first semi-final as one of the last countries

Belgium will be in the first semi-final as one of the last countries

Poland will be in the first semi-final as one of the last countries

Croatia will be in the second semi-final as one of the last countries

Denmark will in the second semi-final as one of the first 8 countries

Azerbaijan will be in the second semi-final as one of the first 8 countries

Cyrpus will be in the second semi-final as one of the last 8 countries

Romania will be in the second semi-final as one of the first 8 countries

Albania will be in the first semi-final as one of the last countries

Estonia will be in the first semi-final as one of the first 8 countries

Israel will be in the second semi-final as one of the first 8 countries

Armenia will be in the second semi-final as one of the first 8 ccountries 

As you can see the countries have only been placed in first half or second half of their semi-final. It will later via another draw be decided exactly which starting position each country will have.