News from SVT? It must be Thursday! The Swedes will be receiving the Host City Insignia, and then broadcasting the semi-final draw live on the SVT website.
Eurovision.tv confirmed the time and date of the draw last week, and now SVT have confirmed that the draw will be streamed live for fans to follow online at svt.se/melodifestivalen (yes, with a cunning bit of promotion for their National Final into the bargain).
The draw will decide who is in which block for each semi-final, split down the middle of the running order. This is important from a logistics point of view as the first day of rehearsals in Malmo (now scheduled to be Monday May 6th) consists of the first half of semi-final one, Tuesday the second half, with Wednesday and Thursday mimicking the order for semi-final two.
The draw will also decide which of the two semi-finals Sweden and each of the Big Five countries (France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom) will be voting in.
What will not be decided at this stage is the running order of the semi-finals. This year the order will be determined by the production team, and until all the songs are selected and their final versions submitted (along with notes on staging and lighting) the most entertaining order cannot be put together.
But we’ll have more on the running order changes on Monday.