Results of the Running Order Draw!

15 March 2011 at 14:50 CET

Lots of TV-people, journalists and fans were nervously awaiting today's event: on which position would their country end up with? The draw is considered important for a good placing in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Spots at the very end of the draw are usually preferred, but during the years, songs with a low starting position have done well, too, so no general statement about the outcome is possible.

Earlier this year, the participating Semi-Finalists were already drawn either in the first or the second half of either Semi-Final 1 or Semi-Final 2. An exception was made for Israel which was automatically set for Semi-Final 2 due to a national holiday.

Today though, it was finally time for all the countries to find out their detailed starting position! The process was supervised by the Executive Supervisor, Jon Ola Sand and Thomas Niedermeier from Digame, the official voting partner. 

The draw of Semi-Final 1

In each half of one respective Semi-Final, one country received a wildcard to choose its starting position. The remaining positions were drawn afterwards.

The draw for the first Semi-Final:

  1. Poland (wildcard)
  2. Norway
  3. Albania
  4. Armenia
  5. Turkey
  6. Serbia
  7. Russia
  8. Switzerland
  9. Georgia
  10. Finland
  11. Malta
  12. San Marino
  13. Croatia
  14. Iceland
  15. Hungary
  16. Portugal
  17. Lithuania
  18. Azerbaijan
  19. Greece (wildcard)

The commercial breaks are scheduled to be after the 5th and 14th song.

The draw of Semi-Final 2

The draw for the second Semi-Final brought the following result:

  1. Bosnia & Herzegovina
  2. Austria
  3. The Netherlands
  4. Belgium
  5. Slovakia (wildcard)
  6. Ukraine
  7. Moldova
  8. Sweden
  9. Cyprus
  10. Bulgaria
  11. FYR Macedonia
  12. Israel
  13. Slovenia
  14. Romania
  15. Estonia
  16. Belarus
  17. Latvia (wildcard)
  18. Denmark
  19. Ireland

The commercial breaks are scheduled after the 5th and 14th song.

The automatic Finalists

For the Grand Final, the starting positions of the Big 5 countries (Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and The United Kingdom) were also drawn, with one of them, again, getting a wildcard to freely choose their starting position:

11. France

12. Italy

14. United Kingdom

16. Germany

22. Spain (wildcard)

 You can watch the entire draw (again) in our WebTV player.

 

The commercial break is scheduled to be after the 12th song.

Also, it was revealed today that the Eurovision Song Contest will take over the Düsseldorf Arena on the 4th of April.

The 2011 Eurovision Song Contest will take place with two Semi-Finals on the 10th and 12th of May with the Grand Final following up on the 14th.