How to watch the Semi-Final Draw for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025

27 January 2025 at 12:45 CET

The Draw to determine which Semi-Final our participants will compete and vote in will take place live from Basel, in a ceremony that will see Host City status officially passed on from Malmö to our new Swiss hosts.

On Tuesday 28 January we're heading to Basel, Switzerland, for the Semi-Final Draw of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest. And you can watch the whole thing unfold over on our official YouTube channel, from 12:30 CET.

The Semi-Final Draw will determine whether countries participate and/or vote in the First Semi-Final (Tuesday 13 May at 21:00 CEST) or the Second Semi-Final (Thursday 15 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.

The set of the Semi-Final Draw live from Basel Chris Fox

Jennifer Bosshard and Jan van Ditzhuijzen will be our hosts for the event, which will also see a representative from last year's Host City Malmö arrive in Basel and mark the official handing over to the new Eurovision Song Contest Host City.

Anyone who's been keeping an eye on preparations for Basel 2025 might already be familiar with Jennifer Bosshard; the Basel-born presenter also hosted the press conference in December which revealed the stage design for the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, as well as its visual and audio identity.

Jan van Ditzhuijzen, who is joining Jennifer on hosting duties, is another Basel native. He is a former student at the University of Applied Sciences Graubünden, where current students are collaborating with Swiss broadcaster SRG SSR and the Host City on a number of projects related to the Eurovision Song Contest (which you can read more about at the bottom of this article).

The Semi-Final Draw: How does it work?

Switzerland, as the Host Country, along with the 5 members of the so-called ‘Big 5’ participating countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) 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 participating countries will perform in.

You'll be able to watch the whole event live on the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel. Be seated and ready for 12:30 CET on Tuesday 28 January!

Semi-Final Allocation Pots 2025

Drawing countries from different pots helps to reduce the chance of so-called neighbourly voting and increases suspense in the Semi-Finals.

These are the allocation pots for the 2025 draw:

To keep up to date on everything leading up to the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, bookmark our Basel 2025 page and follow us on socials!

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