Vienna deals the cards: Eurovision 2026 semi-finals allocation revealed
The road to Eurovision Song Contest 2026 officially began this afternoon in Vienna.
The semi-final allocation draw took place at the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, confirming how countries will be split across the two live semi-finals of next year’s contest, set to run from 10 to 14 May in the Austrian capital.
Hosting duties were shared between journalist Alexandra Maritza Wachter and Cesár Sampson, Austria’s 2018 Eurovision representative and third-place finisher. A familiar face for anyone who has been following the contest for more than five minutes.
Alongside the draw, organisers also confirmed which semi-finals will feature votes from the BIG 4 (United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany), as well as host country Austria.
As always, this is not the running order, but simply the semi-final and half allocation.
Semi-final 1 – 12 May
Voting: Germany, Italy
First half
- Georgia
- Portugal
- Croatia
- Sweden
- Finland
- Moldova
- Greece
Second half
- Montenegro
- Estonia
- San Marino
- Poland
- Belgium
- Lithuania
- Serbia
- Israel
Semi-final 2 – 14 May
Voting: France, United Kingdom, Austria
First half
- Armenia
- Romania
- Azerbaijan
- Luxembourg
- Bulgaria
- Czechia
Second half
- Albania
- Denmark
- Cyprus
- Norway
- Malta
- Australia
- Ukraine
- Latvia
With the draw now complete, the familiar ritual begins: early favourites, tricky semi-finals and plenty of speculation about who might benefit from the split.
Vienna has made its first move.
The rest is about to follow.
