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The Eurovision Song Contest semi final draw
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Follow the draw live at www.eurovision.tv. Add your comments below in the reactions section. The draw will only determine which countries appear in which semi final, NOT the running order of the shows. The six pots are shown below.
Semi Final One: Tuesday 20th May 2008 (in alphabetical order)
- Andorra
- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- Belgium
- Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Estonia
- Finland
- Greece
- Ireland
- Israel
- Moldova
- Montenegro
- The Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Romania
- Russia
- San Marino
- Slovenia
- Germany (voting rights, will not participate)
- Spain (voting rights, will not participate)
Semi Final Two: Thursday 22nd May 2008 (in alphabetical order):
- Albania
- Belarus
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- FYR Macedonia
- Georgia
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Malta
- Portugal
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- France (voting rights, will not participate)
- Serbia (voting rights, will not participate)
- United Kingdom (voting rights, will not participate)
The 38 countries have been divided into six pots based on voting patterns over the past four years:
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 |
| Albania | Denmark | Belgium |
| Bosnia & Herzegovina | Estonia | Bulgaria |
| Croatia | Finland | Cyprus |
| FYR Macedonia | Iceland | Greece |
| Montenegro | Norway | The Netherlands |
| Slovenia | Sweden | Turkey |
| Pot 4 | Pot 5 | Pot 6 |
Andorra | Armenia | Azerbaijan |
| Ireland | Belarus | Czech Republic |
| Latvia | Georgia | Hungary |
| Lithuania | Israel | Malta |
| Portugal | Moldova | Poland |
| Romania | Russia | San Marino |
| Ukraine | Switzerland |
Before the draw, we are treated to a video promotional video of the sites of Belgrade, Serbia whilst listening to the 2007 winning song, Molitva in english. On the set, women with big hair pose provocatively over the all-important pots.
The first three countries pre-qualified for the final to be drawn will broadcast the 2nd semi final. The fourth and fifth will broadcast the first semi final. After the pre-qualified countries have been drawn, Zelko Joksimovic, who represented Serbia & Monenegro in 2004, performs his entry, Layla. The statuesque posing ladies from the pots spring to live as the backing dancers.
The first four pots have six countries, the last two have seven countries. Three from each of the first four pots are split between the semi finals equally. The spare country from pot five will participate in semi final one, the spare country from pot six goes to semi final two (determined by envelope draw).
A country from each pot will first be drawn to semi final one in a round-robin format. Thhen the next round of one country from each pot will go to semi final two. This will continue until the counties are all drawn.
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The way people are talking about this is as if neighbourly/diaspora voting affects everything. I mean, come on, the songs themselves play more than a small part too! If they didn't we would see the same results every year when in fact they are always changing. This is the Eurovision Song Contest, yet it seems people are forgetting that.
Jacob Teglbjærg [30645]
Mon 28 Jan 2008 21:19:35
Lithuanian HASN'T WON in 2006!!!
Why are you so happy to see Turkey and Azerbaijan in different semi finals?
I hope both of us will reach the final 
And then you will see:
Azerbaijani 12 ponts go to Turkey
Turkish 12 points go to Azerbaijan
Good Luck to all countries! Let it win the best song
I have narrowed it down to 11 of the countries I think we (Uk will give points to)
Belarus
Cyprus
Denmark
FYR Macedonia
Iceland
Latvia
Malta
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Ukraine
Here's who I think will get through from SF 1:
-Armenia
-Azerbaijan
-Bosnia-Herzegovina
-Greece
-Ireland (Yes, yes I know, we came last in 2007 but we have a far better selection system this year)
-Israel (I have a feeling...)
-Norway
-Poland
-Romania
-Russia
As for the final, I think there's going to be a huge upset again with political voting but I do feel like a Western or Scandanavian country will win (although not France, Spain or Germany) to the suprise of everyone.
Yeah i m so happy becouse i will sure not hear in semifinal :and 12 points from cyprus goes to greece and oposite.at least!and i think that this is not over before we hear the songs. go macedonia in final 2008
It's a step in the right direction, and to be applauded.
But it won't make any difference to voting patterns in the Final, of course. Bring back juries for the Final! - there really is no fairer system that I can think of. And yes, juries have their prejudices and their 'favourite' countries too, but they would at least be made up of people who care about the Contest and not just general members of the public, and so they might be more willing to put aside nationalistic tendencies for the sake of Eurovision.
Winners from the draw:
S1 - Mainly Russia
> Bosnia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Russia,
> Moldova, Romania, Poland, Russia
> Also, Estonia, Finland, Norway
S2 - Mainly Ukraine
> Albania, Bulgaria, FYR Macedonia, Serbia
> Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine (Baltics - points from Sweden too etc...)
> Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine,
> Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, (Sweden should get some points from across the Baltic sea too)
> Turkey, Cyprus and Malta should see the UK points heading there way - well, if they sing in English anyway. Turkey should also benefit from France.
Also - expect UK points to go to Latvia and Lithuania - thanks to the nationals working here.
Losers:
S1 - Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Israel,
S2 - Portugal, Switzerland
So - I still expect that Eastern countries will dominate in the qualifying. Though I think Sweden and Turkey should make the final looking at the draw alone. This is before the contest or all the songs are known. It's simple maths and geography.
Nice try - but the final will end up in the same voting pattern emerging.
In my opinion, Turkey is the big loser: no Azerbaidjan, no Germany, no Netherlands, no Bosnia and no Belgium = aprox. 55 points lost.
Bad year for chosing an entry in Turkish language...
Sorry but this system will not solve anything in terms of friendly voting. There are too many ex-USSR and ex-Yugo countries to vote for each other. It will only strengthen their votes for each other. The only losers will be Greece-Cyprus duo and Turkey-Bosnia-Azerbaijan trio being in different groups.
Note that Armenia-Estonia-Moldova-Russia will vote for each other in first semi final and Belarus-Bulgaria-Georgia-Latvia-Lithuania-Ukraine will vote for each other in second semi final.
Can Cyprus and Turkey surprise us by voting for each other :-)
It seems pretty good. But now I really hope that the songs in the second semifinal will be shit, because I can't vote for them if I like them.
Not a good draw for Cyprus. Czech Republic, Belarus and Switzerland already have nice songs while Sweden, Ukraine and Turkey is highly possible to send a nice entry.
Not a good draw for Cyprus. Czech Republic and Switzerland already have nice songs while Sweden, Ukraine and Turkey is highly possible to send a nice entry.
I guess, we (Bulgaria) can kiss the final for good bye now.
Sad, because we just made our first "sure final" last year.
But maybe that is step in more fair direction. The song from every year, will not have to get privilege from the last year song.
With the new system I also thinks some of the charm disappears in the final. Many years, I've sat and watched the scoreboard and trying to figure out who was out and who was in at the following year's final (including my own country, Denmark), and felt sorry for those countries missing out with just a few points. I can't do that anymore, as everyone except the winner will go to the semis.
Whether or not east vote for east and west for west, is an unfair discussion.
For many years the juries favoured French and then English language songs, and that's why the language rule was changed. If they had stuck to every country singing in their own language, the voting would most definately look different, as many countries would have to sing in languages few understand. For example Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 2001, 2002, and 2006. Would they have won/qualified for the final if they had used their own language?
I doubt it.
In a way EBU is to blame for the current situation.
The case is a bit different for Turkey, as many Turks live abroad.
Besides, why can't the eastern European countries be allowed to win? First of all, they take the competition more serious than us in the west, and second of all, most of them is part of the European Union by now, so most certainly a part of the "new Europe"
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Damir M.
you can watch draw at:
www.youtube.com/serbiarimad
cheers!
Wow thanks for the link...it`s not possible to split Ex USSR And Yugo countries even in 2 semi`s properly so we shall see if they raise to the top....but I look forward to hopefully this being a fairer way this year...cannot wait
Very good. I'm quite happy about this.
@ Khalid GR
IMO Estonia is more friendly with points towards Russia than Finland... But -of course- it´s always depending on the song. Atleast in my naive opinion.
But, this is the first time we experience this in ESC, it will be exciting to see what happens!
@ Melina
Finland will be benefited because it will definitely get points from Norway and Estonia and if the song is good it can get more points from western countries.
this weekend we will get 5 new songs - 3 of which will be in semifinal 1 (slovenia, Azerbadsjan and Estonia) and 2 of which will come in semifinal 2 (Denmark and Lithuania). But all are not very interesting countries this year.... many bad songs. so far i think that the quality in semifinal 2 is way better than the first one and i dont think that will change after this weekend.
@Glen :
on ESCTV I think
@Björn :
The show was a eurovision song contest semifinal draw...broadcast live in 2 or 3 countries...What can I say more ?
Wooo, great news for Sweden ;D we're in the last semi-final, which is good because people will remember the song for the final. And also, all the so-far decided songs are no good - and they're in semi 2! haha. Fantastic.
is there anyway we could see it again?
Besides Moldova and Romania, Russia and Armenia, Sweden and Denmark, and France and Turkey voting in the same semi as each other I think that this is as fair is it can be made.
I'll wait and see if it works though. I hope it does!
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Norway will win this year, with Eastern Wind Finally 
if we look statistically how the votes were given the past few years , there are the top 9 countries in Semi 1:
Russia, Greece, Romania, Finland, Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Moldova, Poland, Norway...
Azerbaijan, Israel, Slovenia, Netherlands, Montenegro could make it with a good song....
Things are very difficult for Andorra, Estonia, Ireland, Belgium and San Marino
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