
The semi-final allocation draw is now over, and now we know in which semi-final that 31 semi-finalists will compete in. It was also decided that 15 countries will compete in the first semi-final and that 16 will compete in the second semi-final. Finally, it was also decided in which semi-final the pre-qualified countries will vote in. Let’s now go through it all.
The 2025 Semi-final Allocation Draw
Each year, the upcoming host city hosts a ceremony, which officially is considered the handover of hosting duties. This is symbolized with the huge keychain, which contains a symbol of all past hosting cities since 2007. This makes Basel officially the 2025 host city, who now takes the honor from last year’s host city, Malmรถ. However, in a small twist of events during the ceremony, a gift was instead given to the city of Basel, which will be the new way of awarding the host duties. The EBU has even announced, that this marks the end of the keychain, which has been gathering symbols between 2007 and 2024.
It’s not just a ceremony, but is also the moment that decide where all the participating countries will have a role, in the two semi-finals. First, the 6 pre-qualified countries, which are the BIG 5 and the host country, that being ๐ซ๐ท France, ๐ฎ๐น Italy, ๐ช๐ธ Spain, ๐ฉ๐ช Germany, ๐ฌ๐ง United Kingdom and ๐จ๐ญ Switzerland, were placed into one of the two semi-finals to decide in which semi-final these countries will vote in.
Then afterwards, all the remaining 31 countries were either placed in one of the two semi-finals as well, which decided who would also be voting in those semi-finals, as well as competing in them. With all that said, below is the results of the allocation draw.
Semi-final 1 – May 13th
- First half
- ๐ธ๐ช Sweden
- ๐บ๐ฆ Ukraine
- ๐ธ๐ฎ Slovenia
- ๐ฎ๐ธ Iceland
- ๐ช๐ช Estonia
- ๐ต๐ฑ Poland
- ๐ต๐น Portugal
- Second half
- ๐ณ๐ฑ Netherlands
- ๐ฆ๐ฟ Azerbaijan
- ๐ฆ๐ฑ Albania
- ๐ธ๐ฒ San Marino
- ๐ง๐ช Belgium
- ๐จ๐พ Cyprus
- ๐ญ๐ท Croatia
- ๐ณ๐ด Norway
The 3 pre-qualified countries that will vote in this semi-final are: ๐ฎ๐น Italy, ๐ช๐ธ Spain and ๐จ๐ญ Switzerland.
Semi-final 2 – May 15th
- First half
- ๐ฆ๐น Austria
- ๐ฑ๐น Lithuania
- ๐ฆ๐ฒ Armenia
- ๐ฒ๐ช Montenegro
- ๐ฌ๐ท Greece
- ๐ฎ๐ช Ireland
- ๐ฆ๐บ Australia
- ๐ฑ๐ป Latvia
- Second half
- ๐จ๐ฟ Czech Republic
- ๐ฎ๐ฑ Israel
- ๐ฒ๐น Malta
- ๐ซ๐ฎ Finland
- ๐ฉ๐ฐ Denmark
- ๐ฑ๐บ Luxembourg
- ๐ฌ๐ช Georgia
- ๐ญ๐ท Serbia
The 3 pre-qualified countries that will vote in this semi-final are: ๐ซ๐ท France, ๐ฉ๐ช Germany and ๐ฌ๐ง United Kingdom.
If you feel like re-watching the ceremony and the full procedure or if you were busy and missed the show, but still wish to see how it was all done, then the ceremony can be re-watched in the video below.
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