One of the favourite days of the year for statistics freaks and playlist-makers is here: the running orders for the two semi-finals of the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest have been released!
The first semi-final on Tuesday 18 May will kick off with The Roop from Lithuania, whose “Discoteque” is on many people’s radars for a good result in Rotterdam. While first spot in the running order isn’t always seen as ideal, songs predicted to do well have been placed there in a semi-final before: Robin Bengtsson in 2017 and Aram Mp3 in 2014 spring immediately to mind, and The Roop should similarly have no problems making it through to the grand final – whereas Ana Soklič from Slovenia, who is on second, will surely face something of an uphill battle.
At the other end, there are a lot of female up-tempos in the second half of the semi-final but it’s perhaps predictable that Destiny from Malta should be chosen to close the show – while the consecutive run of Israel, Romania and Azerbaijan perhaps suggests that the producers know the staging choices are going to be sufficiently different to stop that section of the draw from feeling a bit samey.
And we know we aren’t the only ones smiling at “El Diablo” and “Fallen Angel” being placed back to back…
The full draw for semi 1:
| 1. Lithuania 🇱🇹 2. Slovenia 🇸🇮 3. Russia 🇷🇺 4. Sweden 🇸🇪 5. Australia 🇦🇺 6. North Macedonia 🇲🇰 7. Ireland 🇮🇪 8. Cyprus 🇨🇾 |
9. Norway 🇳🇴 10. Croatia 🇭🇷 11. Belgium 🇧🇪 12. Israel 🇮🇱 13. Romania 🇷🇴 14. Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 15. Ukraine 🇺🇦 16. Malta 🇲🇹 |
Viewers of the second semi-final on Thursday 20 May will quickly find out whether Flo Rida has been persuaded to join Senhit in Rotterdam, because San Marino will start the show with their “Adrenalina” – before Uku Suviste from Estonia gets to be the (un)lucky one in second slot.
Elsewhere in the draw, social media darling Daði from Iceland gets about as good a draw as he could have hoped for, while two of the slow songs that are riding high in the betting right now – Bulgaria and Switzerland – are well positioned towards the end of the show. Finally, proceedings will close with an explosion of 1980s glitter from Danish duo Fyr & Flamme!
The full draw for semi 2:
| 1. San Marino 🇸🇲 2. Estonia 🇪🇪 3. Czech Republic 🇨🇿 4. Greece 🇬🇷 5. Austria 🇦🇹 6. Poland 🇵🇱 7. Moldova 🇲🇩 8. Iceland 🇮🇸 9. Serbia 🇷🇸 |
10. Georgia 🇬🇪 11. Albania 🇦🇱 12. Portugal 🇵🇹 13. Bulgaria 🇧🇬 14. Finland 🇫🇮 15. Latvia 🇱🇻 16. Switzerland 🇨🇭 17. Denmark 🇩🇰 |
This means we now also have a running order for our line-up check series, so stay tuned for that!
0 Comments