How to watch the Eurovision 2023 Semi-Final Allocation Draw

31 January 2023 at 12:45 CET

Stefano Lo Russo (Mayor of Turin) and Joanne Anderson (Mayor of Liverpool) - Semi-Final Allocation Draw 2023 - St George's Hall, Liverpool BBC / James Stack

The Semi-Final Allocation Draw 2023 will take place on Tuesday 31 January at 20:00 CET live from Liverpool, alongside a ceremony which sees the Host City insignia pass from previous hosts Turin to our Liverpudlian friends.

The draw will be hosted by AJ Odudu and Rylan and fans will be able to watch on the official Eurovision YouTube channel (or on BBC TWO or BBC iPlayer if you’re in the United Kingdom).

The Allocation Draw will determine whether countries participate in the First Semi-Final (Tuesday 9 May at 21:00 CEST) or the Second Semi-Final (Thursday 11 May at 21:00 CEST). Also randomly allocated is whether a country will perform in the first or second half of the Semi-Final they’ve drawn.

Semi-Final Allocation Draw: How does it work?

The United Kingdom and Ukraine, as the Host Country and reigning champion respectively, along with the other 4 members of the so-called ‘Big 5’ participating countries (France, Germany, Italy and Spain) do not compete in the Semi-Finals but their domestic audiences do get to vote in one of them… so before the competing countries are allocated a place in a Semi-Final, it will be randomly determined which of the Semi-Finals the Big 5 will each be allowed to vote on.

The next part of the draw will determine in which Semi-Final and in which half of the respective Semi-Final the other 31 participating countries will perform in.

Semi-Final Allocation Draw and Handover Ceremony, St George's Hall, Liverpool BBC / James Stack

Semi-Final Allocation Pots 2023

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
Albania Austria Switzerland Croatia Serbia Slovenia	Denmark Australia Finland Iceland Norway Sweden Estonia	Armenia Azerbaijan Georgia Israel Latvia Lithuania
Pot 4	Pot 5	No Pot
Cyprus Greece Ireland Malta Portugal San Marino	Belgium Czech Republic Netherlands Moldova Poland Romania	France Italy Germany Spain United Kingdom Ukraine

Drawing countries from different pots helps to reduce the chance of so-called neighbourly voting and increases suspense in the Semi-Finals. You can get a good idea of how it will all work by watching the 2022 Allocation Draw on the official Eurovision YouTube channel.

The Eurovision Song Contest is due to take place on 9, 11 and 13 May 2023 in Liverpool, the United Kingdom, on behalf of Ukraine who won the Contest thanks to Kalush Orchestra winning in 2022.

On the night of that Grand Final, in the PalaOlimpico, the international juries announced their points first, awarding the most to the United Kingdom’s Sam Ryder with SPACE MAN (283 in total - enough to set up a second place finish overall).

When it came to the televote, Europe (and Australia) delivered a clear message: the general public got behind Ukraine in overwhelming numbers, bulldozing the scoreboard with a total of 439 points – an incredible achievement given the maximum haul possible is 468 (which would require ‘douze points’ from all of the other 39 participating countries).

Make sure you sign up to the official Eurovision Song Contest newsletter, subscribe to the official podcast, and follow us across our social media channels - YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook - to be the first to find out how to secure tickets for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023.