Düsseldorf – The Heads of Delegation of the 43 participating countries at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 will meet in Düsseldorf next week to discuss the last details before thousands of fans will arrive and the rehearsals will begin in May. On March 15 the running order of the semi-finals and the big final will be determined by (almost) random draw. Why almost? In each semi-final two countries, one from the first half of the show and one of the second half, are allowed to choose their position in the running order. The draw which countries will perform in which half of the semi-final was already held in January when allocating the countries to one of the semis. One of the Big 5 countries in the final will also have the right to decide its position.
March 14 also marks the last day countries are allowed to change or select entries and songs. Which means that by March 14 we should have all 43 songs participating this year (if Ukraine doesn’t… but whatever). The EBU will also check wether all of the songs are in keeping with their rules. We should especially follow their decision on Belarus (due to the too early publication) and Portugal (due to the possibly too political text).
The running order draw will be held in the Esprit Arena at 13:00 CET on March 15 and will probably be broadcast by eurovision.tv
can’t wait to get the actual draw!
I guess it will help us to find out who will qualify or not…
I really hope that The Netherlands get a good draw in the 2nd semi. That 2nd semi is going to be such a difficult battle. There are going to be some great songs missing out to poor songs because they’ll get through semi 1.
I also wish (fingers crossed) that UK gets to pick a good spot (hopefully if not the ability to pick, they will be drawn near the end).
Roll on the draw!
but then again Sertab won televoting going at #4 so i guess we’ll never know for sure especially with juries now and the fact we can vote throughout the show… I do hope for a good running order for Amaury, already Kaas gave me high expectations results wise and going 3rd really saddened me i hope it wont repeat now that France is so high in the bookies
I know that there have always been exceptions to the rule,,,, who knows how it will go this year. I suppose we have to wait a few years to identify patterns in winning performance and position in relation to the new voting procedure.