The pots for the Semi-Final allocation draw of the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest have been revealed by the EBU. The draw will be held on January 25 and will decide in which semi-final each country will participate. Host city Turin will hold the draw at the Palazzo Madama.
The pots
With 41 countries participating and the Big 5 automatically qualifying, 36 countries total will compete in the semi-finals. They have been evenly spread across 6 pots based on historical voting patterns. These patterns were determined by official televoting partner Digame in order to reduce the effect of neighbor voting and increase suspense. The 6 pots are:
Pot 1:
- Albania
- Croatia
- Montenegro
- North Macedonia
- Serbia
- Slovenia
Pot 2:
- Denmark
- Australia
- Finland
- Iceland
- Norway
- Sweden
Pot 3:
- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- Georgia
- Israel
- Russia
- Ukraine
Pot 4:
- Cyprus
- Greece
- Malta
- Bulgaria
- Portugal
- San Marino
Pot 5:
- Estonia
- Lithuania
- Latvia
- Moldova
- Poland
- Romania
Pot 6:
- Austria
- Belgium
- Switzerland
- Czech Republic
- Ireland
- Netherlands
What happens at the ceremony
The draw will be held on January 25 at 12:00 CET from the Palazzo Madama e Casaforte Degli Acaja in Turin. The ceremony will be opened by handing over the Host City Insignia, with the mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb, handing it over to Mayor of Turin Stefano Lo Russo. Then the Big 5, who automatically qualify, will be allocated the semi-final they will be voting in. This will be followed by the semi-final allocation draw for the remaining 36 countries. The draw will determine whether a country competes in the first (May 10) or second (May 12) semi-final. It will also be announced in what half of their semi-final they will perform. The draw will be hosted by television presenters Carolina di Domenico and Gabriele Corsi.
Eurovision Song Contest 2022
Turin was announced as the host city for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in early October. The announcement came after a highly anticipated battle between Turin, Milan, Bologna, Rimini and Pesaro to host the Contest.
Eurovision 2022 will be held in Turin, Italy after Måneskin won the Contest in Rotterdam in 2021. The band scored 524 points with their song “Zitti e buoni”, scoring highly in the juries and coming first in the televote.
Are you looking forward to the draw? Who do you want your country to share a semi-final with? As always, let us know in the comments or on social media. Be sure to follow THAT Eurovision Site on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
News Source: EBU
Photo Source: EBU
Tim J 
Jazzi Dibben