Sweden will get the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest off to an uptempo start this year, with Robin Bengtsson set to open the first semi final with ‘I Can’t Go On‘. This is Sweden’s first time opening a semi final in the modern Eurovision era – and their first time opening any Eurovision show since 1994, when Roger Pontare and Marie Bergman kick-started that year’s one-night contest with ‘Stjärnorna‘.
Since 2013, running orders for the Eurovision Semi Finals and Grand Finals have been determined by producers. Beforehand, the draw was random – which put all songs on a level playing field, but could make the show vulnerable to long periods of similarly paced or low quality songs – as anyone who sat through the first half of the 2006 Grand Final will attest.
High energy songs are generally favoured as show openers, with Serbia set to open the second semi final in similarly uptempo fashion. With later draws generally considered more favourable to the contestants, Latvia and Israel would appear to have been handed the ‘pimp slots’ – in that they will be closing their respective semi finals. The last time a semi final closer failed to progress to the finals was in 2013, when Serbia’s Moje 3 fell just six points short of the qualification threshold.
As ever, ESC Insight have provided a full analysis of the Semi Final running order, courtesy of our stats king Ben Robertson. You can read his rundown of the winners and losers here.
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