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.
