The allocation draw for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest has taken place.

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:

The “big five” countries, who are already qualified for the grand final, and host nation Portugal were also assigned to the semi-finals that they are required to broadcast and vote in:

Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom will vote in the first semi-final on Tuesday 8 May.
France, Germany and Italy will vote in the second semi-final on Thursday 10 May.

As has been the case since ESC 2013, 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.