The EBU promised changes a few weeks ago, at the announcement (among other things) of the performances of the Big 5 + Sweden in the semi-finals, and in fact at Eurovision 2024 in Malmö there will be a change that will have a notable impact on the order of final performance.
Eurovision 2024: how the new performance order works
In a move destined to create a swarm of discussions, an official statement that appeared a few hours ago indicated that there will no longer be the traditional full first half-second half draw with subsequent order of performance of the final on the night of Thursday (after the second semi-final ) It’s Friday. Instead, there will be greater direct intervention from production.
Let’s explain in order.
From 2013 to 2023 it went like this (excluding minor variations): the organizing country drew its exit position in the final in the meeting of the heads of delegation, the Big 5 drew half of the performance in the press conference and the countries qualified from the semi-finals did so during the point with the press right at the end of Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
This year it will go like this: once the number 1 drawn by Sweden has been drawn, the draw times will be the same, but the subdivision will be as follows.
- 6 places in the first half of the final
- 6 places in the second half of the final
- 13 places decided by production (Producer’s Choice) without half constraints
Basically, almost half of the songs will come positioned as desired by the competition production: they can be placed both in the first and second half.
Eurovision 2024: the hand of Christer Bjorkman and beyond
The news was greeted, to a large extent, with visible grumbling. In fact, it is possible to imagine the intention of the EBU and SVT (the Swedish national TV, which organizes the competition). In practice, it is a question of avoiding situations like those of Turin 2022 and Liverpool 2023. In one case, a first part full of up-tempo songs was complemented by a slow-paced second part, while in the other almost all the favorites ended up in the first half.
Christer Bjorkmanwho returned to Eurovision production this year, commented as follows:
It’s about creating the best TV show possible and giving artists a chance to shine. In previous years, with only the draw for the first and second half, you could have found many ballads in the same part of the show or favorites drawn to perform in the same half. Adding the flexibility of Producer’s Choice gives me the opportunity to create an even better flow of different rhythms and an even more exhilarating ending.
It will hardly escape the careful eye that, every time we have returned to Sweden in recent editions, there has always been some relevant change that has caused important discussions. Let’s review them:
- 2013: we move from the total draw for the order of performance in the final (except for the Big 5, who did it in the heads of delegation meeting) to the order decided by the production on the basis of the first and second half
- 2016: voting is changed, with the transition to two sets of separate votes (first juries, then televoting)
- 2023: Further change in performance order
At least the way in which this year’s draws will be distributed among the various social networks also makes you smile. In particular, the Big 5 will draw their half during a Reddit AMA on Saturday 4 May, after their second test, while the fate of the semi-finalists will be known on TikTok.
Tags: discussion draw performances final
