Portugal will participate in the first semi-final of the 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, as dictated by the draw to define the order of performances of the countries in the competition.

According to the organization, the Portuguese representative - who will be announced on March 9th - will take to the stage in the second part of the show scheduled for May 7th.

Also competing in the first semi-final are Ukraine, Cyprus, Poland, Serbia, Lithuania, Croatia, Ireland, Slovenia, Iceland, Finland, Luxembourg, Australia, Azerbaijan and Moldova.

In the second semi-final there will be Austria, Malta, Switzerland, Greece, Czech Republic, Albania, Denmark, Armenia, Israel, Georgia, Netherlands, Norway, Latvia, San Marino and Belgium.

The competition, it should be noted, is organized into two semi-finals and a grand finale, which will take place between the 7th and 11th of May, in Malmö, Sweden. Of the total of 37 countries, 31 have to go through their semi-finals and six have direct passage to the final.

In the final, there is only room for 26 countries: 10 that qualify in each semi-final and six that automatically go to the final (the so-called 'Big Five' - Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom - and the winning country of the last edition, in this case Sweden).

The song that will represent Portugal will be chosen at the 58th edition of the Festival da Canção, which will also take place with two semi-finals and a final, scheduled for February 24th and March 2nd and 9th.

Sweden won the 'right' to organize the 68th edition of the festival, after Loreen won last year's edition with 'Tattoo', with a total of 583 points. This was the second time the Swedish singer had won Eurovision, becoming the first woman to win the festival twice. In 2012, she did it with 'Euphoria'.