![](https://www.escunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Draw22-850x491.jpg)
A landmark moment in the yearly Eurovision Song Contest calendar, as this marks the official transition from last year’s host city (Rotterdam) to this year’s host city (Turin/Torino). The allocation draw was hosted by Carolina di Domenico and Mario Acampa.
The Allocation Draw
As usual, the draw took place in the upcoming host city of Turin, in the Palazzo Madama. An announcement was made ahead of time to announce the 6 pots for the allocation draw. These pots are made to divide certain countries that have similar voting patterns, in order to create a more competitive and fair split between the semi-finals. It was also a return to the original set-up, since for the 2020/21 contest, only 5 pots were in use.
In case you need a reminder, this is how the pots were split up:
Pot 1:
- ๐ฆ๐ฑ Albania
- ๐ญ๐ท Croatia
- ๐ฒ๐ช Montenegro
- ๐ฒ๐ฐ North Macedonia
- ๐ท๐ธ Serbia
- ๐ธ๐ฎ Slovenia
Pot 2:
- ๐ฆ๐บ Australia
- ๐ฉ๐ฐ Denmark
- ๐ซ๐ฎ Finland
- ๐ฎ๐ธ Iceland
- ๐ณ๐ด Norway
- ๐ธ๐ช Sweden
Pot 3:
- ๐ฆ๐ฒ Armenia
- ๐ฆ๐ฟ Azerbaijan
- ๐ฌ๐ช Georgia
- ๐ฎ๐ฑ Israel
- ๐ท๐บ Russia
- ๐บ๐ฆ Ukraine
Pot 4:
- ๐ง๐ฌ Bulgaria
- ๐จ๐พ Cyprus
- ๐ฌ๐ท Greece
- ๐ฒ๐น Malta
- ๐ต๐น Portugal
- ๐ธ๐ฒ San Marino
Pot 5:
- ๐ช๐ช Estonia
- ๐ฑ๐ป Latvia
- ๐ฑ๐น Lithuania
- ๐ฒ๐ฉ Moldova
- ๐ต๐ฑ Poland
- ๐ท๐ด Romania
Pot 6:
- ๐ฆ๐น Austria
- ๐ง๐ช Belgium
- ๐จ๐ฟ Czech Republic
- ๐ฎ๐ช Ireland
- ๐ณ๐ฑ Netherlands
- ๐จ๐ญ Switzerland
Before the decision to split the countries into each semi-final was made, another draw had to determined first, which was the draw of the BIG 5. The BIG 5 had to be split into the semi-finals as well, but not in order to compete, but rather to decide in which semi-final the pre-qualified countries (๐ซ๐ท France, ๐ฉ๐ช Germany, ๐ช๐ธ Spain, ๐ฌ๐ง United Kingdom & ๐ฎ๐น Italy) would vote in. It was announced before draw, that 2 of them would take part in the first semi-final, while the remaining 3 in the second semi-final.
This was the following outcome for the BIG 5:
Voting in Semi-final 1:
- ๐ซ๐ท France
- ๐ฎ๐น Italy
Voting in Semi-final 2:
- ๐ฌ๐ง United Kingdom
- ๐ช๐ธ Spain
- ๐ฉ๐ช Germany
Time to the move on to the more exciting draw that took place. There was no request from any broadcaster to be placed in a specific semi-final ahead of the draw. The draw did NOT determine the running order, but rather which half each country would participate in, which is shown as follow:
Semi-final 1 – First Half:
- ๐ฆ๐ฑ Albania
- ๐ฑ๐ป Latvia
- ๐จ๐ญ Switzerland
- ๐ธ๐ฎ Slovenia
- ๐ง๐ฌ Bulgaria
- ๐ฒ๐ฉ Moldova
- ๐บ๐ฆ Ukraine
- ๐ฑ๐น Lithuania
- ๐ณ๐ฑ Netherlands
Semi-final 1 – Second Half:
- ๐ณ๐ด Norway
- ๐ท๐บ Russia
- ๐ต๐น Portugal
- ๐ฉ๐ฐ Denmark
- ๐ฆ๐ฒ Armenia
- ๐ฆ๐น Austria
- ๐ญ๐ท Croatia
- ๐ฎ๐ธ Iceland
- ๐ฌ๐ท Greece
Semi-final 2 – First Half:
- ๐ฆ๐บ Australia
- ๐ฌ๐ช Georgia
- ๐จ๐พ Cyprus
- ๐ท๐ธ Serbia
- ๐ซ๐ฎ Finland
- ๐ฆ๐ฟ Azerbaijan
- ๐ธ๐ฒ San Marino
- ๐ฎ๐ฑ Israel
- ๐ฒ๐น Malta
Semi-final 2 – Second Half:
- ๐ฒ๐ช Montenegro
- ๐ท๐ด Romania
- ๐จ๐ฟ Czech Republic
- ๐ต๐ฑ Poland
- ๐ง๐ช Belgium
- ๐ฒ๐ฐ North Macedonia
- ๐ธ๐ช Sweden
- ๐ช๐ช Estonia
- ๐ฎ๐ช Ireland
The First Semi-final will take place Tuesday of May 10th, while the Second Semi-final will place Thursday of May 12th and of course the final will immediately take place on the Saturday of May 14th. At the moment of the draw, only Albania, Bulgaria and Czech Republic had selected their song and act for the contest, while The Netherlands, Greece, Georgia, Belgium & Montenegro had revealed their act.
Should you want to re-watch the draw, or if you missed it and want to see how it all was done, you can freely do so in the video above.
What do #YOU think about the draw, are there some countries #YOU think are in trouble or safe? Which countries are #YOU worried about? There is so much to discuss and you can freely do so with us on our social media sites or on our forum HERE.