The Allocation Draw will be held on January 12th, determining which acts will compete in each semi-final
Now it’s official! The Semi-Final Allocation Draw for Eurovision 2026 and the traditional handover of the keys ceremony to the host city will take place on January 12th. This event marks the first official step in the Eurovision season each year and is organized by the national broadcaster of the host nation – this year, ORF of Austria.
During the draw, the participating countries will be split between the two semi-finals. It will also reveal which countries will perform in the first semi-final on May 12th, and which countries will perform in the second on May 14th, as well as whether the performance will appear in the first or second half of the evening. The details were published by representatives of Vienna on the city’s official website.
Eurovision 2026 Draw Details
At this stage, the list of participating countries in Eurovision 2026 has not yet been made public, so the number of entries per semi-final remains unknown. The full list is expected to be released in the coming week.
Each country can vote only in the semi-final in which it is competing. Before the allocation draw takes place, countries are divided into five or six pots, based on historical voting patterns from previous contests. For example, nations from the former Yugoslavia – Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia – are often grouped in the same pot. Countries within each pot are then evenly distributed between the two semi-finals to minimize bloc voting that could influence the qualification results.
Allocation Rules and Voting Rights
Once each country is assigned to a semi-final, a second draw determines whether it will perform in the first or second half of the show. Additionally, the draw decides which semi-final will be broadcast and voted in by the “Big Five” nations – Italy, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Austria, the 2024 Eurovision winner.
According to EBU rules, these automatically qualified finalists must air and vote in their assigned semi-final and will also appear on stage with a live performance or feature segment during the broadcast.
The Handover of the Keys: Continuing a Eurovision Tradition
Alongside the draw, the official handover of the keys ceremony will take place, symbolizing the transfer of hosting responsibilities from the previous host city to the current one. This event has been a Eurovision tradition since 2007. During the ceremony, each former host city adds a token representing its identity to the bundle of keys – a symbolic gesture celebrating the contest’s continuity and heritage.
Eurovision 2026: The 70th Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Austria, following the country’s third historic win with the song “Wasted Love” performed by JJ. This will be the third time the contest is hosted in Austria, after 1967 and 2015.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +972-50-9441919
Maor Heumann has been writing about the Eurovision Song Contest and following it for over three decades. He has attended five contests and has found something to appreciate in almost every possible musical genre — from the sugary pop entries that finish last in the semi-finals to the quirky avant-garde pieces that even the competition’s juries struggled to connect with. He usually prefers original languages and songs with depth over Swedish-produced English clones — though he doesn’t promise to stick to that rule.
He grew up on the kibbutz of Sara’le Sharon, who instilled in him a love for music and created his first connection to the contest back in 1993 — before most of the current editorial team was even born.
