The EBU have just released the different pots RTP, aso organising broadcaster, will be using in 2018 when drawing which country will perform in which semi-final.

The philosophy behind having these pots is as following:

The 37 Semi-Finalists have been allocated into six pots, based on historical voting patterns as calculated by the contest’s official televoting partner Digame. Drawing from different pots helps to reduce the chance of so-called neighbourly voting and increases suspense in the Semi-Finals.

The Big 5 (France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy) and host country Portugal are not included in this as they are pre-qualified to the final already.

This is 2018’s pot division:

We have ‘Pots’ of news for you today! Details on the semi-final allocation draw, PLUS who’s excited for some EuroClub news?! https://t.co/Xq2hMN64uo pic.twitter.com/fJmezFiobn

— Eurovision (@Eurovision) 12 januari 2018

The procedure will be no different from previous years, but for a refresher, watch this little video!

Due to the fact that there’s an uneven amount of semi-finalists (37) this year, the semi-finals will have an uneven amount of competing countries. The EBU and RTP have decided that the first semi-final will be the one containing 19 countries, while the second one will see 18 battle it out for a ticket to Saturday’s Grand Final.

The ceremony will take place in the City Hall of Lisbon. The mayor of Kyiv, last year’s hosting city, Vitali Klitschko will be present to hand over the Host City Insignia to Lisbon’s mayor Fernando Medina. The whole afternoon will be hosted by Sílvia Alberto and Filomena Cautela, who form half of this year’s hosting quartet.

Both the Host City Insignia ceremony and the semi-final allocation draw can be followed live via this link (Click!) on the 29th of January from 13:00 CET.