Eurovision 2023: Handover and Allocation Draw in Liverpool - semi-final pots revealed

This year is set to be a special one for Liverpool as the city gears up to host the Eurovision Song Contest in May. The grand final will take place on Saturday, May 13 at the M&S Bank Arena, but in the meantime there’s still much to be done.

The next major event in the lead-up to the competition will be the annual Eurovision Handover and Allocation Draw. The event will be overseen by TV presenter legends Rylan and AJ Odudu in Liverpool tomorrow (January 31).

Not only will we find out the running order of the two semi-finals, but January 31 will also be the night the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest’s new look and slogan is unveiled.

What is the Eurovision Handover and Allocation Draw?

The Eurovision Handover sees the host city of the previous Eurovision Song Contest “handover” the keys to the next host city. This year’s handover will see the Mayor of 2022 Host City Turin, Stefano Lo Russo, give the official keys of the Eurovision Song Contest also known as the “Insignia” to the Mayor of Liverpool, Joanne Anderson.

You might have noticed that a lot of countries take part in Eurovision, so these countries have to be divided up into two groups who take part in semi-finals to qualify for the grand final during the Allocation Draw. The exciting event will determine which country will compete in which semi-final of the contest when it takes place in May, as well as deciding which semi-final the Big 5 (Spain, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy) and 2022 winners Ukraine will vote in.

All 31 countries taking part in the semi-finals are divided up into separate pots and are sorted based on their historic voting patterns to try and avoid countries who would traditionally vote for each other ending up in the same semi-finals. The participants for each semi-final are pulled at random from these pots, deciding the line-ups for the two semi-finals in May.

The pots have now been announced and are as follows:

Pot 1

• Albania
• Austria
• Switzerland
• Croatia
• Serbia
• Slovenia

Pot 2

• Denmark
• Australia
• Finland
• Iceland
• Norway
• Sweden
• Estonia

Pot 3

• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Georgia
• Israel
• Latvia
• Lithuania

Pot 4

• Cyprus
• Greece
• Ireland
• Malta
• Portugal
• San Marino

Pot 5

• Belgium
• Czech Republic
• Netherlands
• Moldova
• Poland
• Romania

How to watch the Eurovision Handover and Allocation Draw in Liverpool

The live draw will take place on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer on Tuesday, (January 31) from 7pm. AJ and Rylan will be assisted by young people from a local Liverpool school along with members of the Ukrainian community who have settled in Liverpool since the outbreak of the war in their country.

What will happen after the Eurovision Handover and Allocation Draw?

Scott Mills will give viewers an insight into what to expect from the semi-finals with a look back at the most memorable moments and the global mega hits from the past few years of the contest. Famous faces of Liverpool will also ‘welcome’ the world to Eurovision and the 2023 contest’s unique look and slogan will be unveiled.