Today, host broadcaster SVT presented the visual design for the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest along with the slogan, the innuendo-laced “Come Together”.
Immediately afterwards, the allocation draw for the semi-finals was held at Stockholm City Hall. As in recent years, the countries had previously been divided into “pots” based on their voting history with the aim of ensuring a balanced spread across the two semi-finals. To allow the delegations to make their travel plans based on the preliminary rehearsal schedule, the participating countries were also assigned to either the first or second half of the respective show.
The draw was as follows:
| SEMI-FINAL 1 | SEMI-FINAL 2 |
| First half | First half |
| Croatia Finland Moldova Armenia Greece Hungary Russia Netherlands San Marino |
Latvia Belarus Ireland Switzerland FYR Macedonia Australia Lithuania Poland Israel Serbia |
| Second half | Second half |
| Azerbaijan Cyprus Malta Bosnia & Herzegovina Estonia Czech Republic Montenegro Iceland Austria |
Albania Bulgaria Denmark Georgia Romania Slovenia Norway Ukraine Belgium |
The “big five” countries, who are already qualified for the grand final, and host nation Sweden were also assigned to the semi-finals that they are required to broadcast and vote in:
Sweden, France and Spain will vote in the first semi-final on Tuesday 10 May.
Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom will vote in the second semi-final on Thursday 12 May.
As in the past three years, the exact order of performance will be decided by the producers once all the entries have been chosen, the aim being to create a varied and interesting running order.
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