Adrian Kavanagh's Blog

Adrian Kavanagh, 25th January 2016

The semi final allocation draw for the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest took place in  Stockholm earlier this morning.

Ireland Nicky Byrne (with Sunlight) will be competing in the first half of the second Eurovision semi-final on 12th May 2016.

Eurovision Semi Final 1 (10th May) – 10 countries (out of 18) will qualify for the Final:

Performing in First Half: Croatia, Finland, Moldova, Armenia, Greece, Hungary, Russia, The Netherlands, San Marino

Performing in Second Half: Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Malta, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Iceland, Austria

Big 5/Host countries voting in this semi final: Spain, Sweden, France

Eurovision Semi Final 2 (12th May) – 10 countries (out of 19) will qualify for the Final:

Performing in First Half: Latvia, Belarus, Ireland, Switzerland, FYR Macedonia, Australia, Lithuania, Poland, Israel, Serbia

Ireland’s Nicky Byrne performs in the first half of Eurovision Semi Final 2 (Nicky Byrne/RTE, 2016)

Performing in Second Half: Albania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Georgia, Romania, Slovenia, Norway, Ukraine, Belgium

Big 5/Host countries voting in this semi final: Germany, Italy, United Kingdom (same as in 2015!)

This is not a particularly amazing draw for Ireland’s Nicky Byrne (although it could of course be worse) – a sort of curate’s egg with a few more bad parts than good parts…

On the plus side:

• The United Kingdom (the friendliest Eurovision country to Irish acts) will be voting in this semi final
• Denmark (the next/second friendliest Eurovision country to Irish acts) will be voting in this semi final, as will other friendly countries, such as Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Belgium and Switzerland
• Ireland has avoided some of the “big hitters” (and regular semi final qualifiers) in this draw, including current contest favourites, Russia, as well as Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Azerbaijan and Armenia
• The already-selected, highly rated, Maltese entry (Chameleon by Eurovision 2002 runner-up, Ira Losco) will be in the other semi-final
• France (one of the least friendly Eurovision countries towards Irish acts) will not be voting in this semi final

On the more negative side:

• Ireland are drawn in the larger (19 country) of the two semi-finals (Semi Final 2)
• Ireland have been drawn to perform in the first half of that semi-final
• Italy (probably the least friendly Eurovision country towards Irish acts) will be voting in this semi final
• Malta (the third friendliest Eurovision country to Irish acts) will not be voting in this semi final, aas will be the case with other friendly countries, such as San Marino, Hungary, Finland, Estonia and The Netherlands
• Ireland has ended up in the same semi-final as some of the “big hitters” (and regular semi final qualifiers) in this draw, including Serbia, as well Ukraine, Romania, Denmark and Norway (and these last four countries are all drawn to perform in the second half of that semi-final!)
• Sweden (one of the more friendly Eurovision countries towards Irish acts) will not be voting in this semi final

At this stage, we already know three of the acts/songs that will be facing Nicky Byrne in this semi-final and these include:

• Albania: Eneda Tarfia with Përrallë
• Belgium: Laura Tesoro with What’s The Pressure
• Belarus: Ivan with Help You Fly

Belgium’s Laura Tesoro ( één, 2016)

FYR Macedonia (Kaliopi) and Georgia (Young Georgian Lolitaz) have both selected their acts, but song details have not been revealed as of yet.

Tags: Eurovision

This entry was posted on January 25, 2016 at 12:10 pm and is filed under Eurovision. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.