USoS 2021 Semifinal Running Order Released

Welcome again to Minneapolis! On the evening of March 26th, the running order for the semifinals was determined. All states and territories that we believed to be participating this year were listed and then randomized using a website's randomizer algorithm. For the third year in a row, we will begin Semifinal 1 with a western state, and finish it for the second year in a row with a Pacific beauty. The second semifinal contains one less song, opens with the 2019 winner and closes with its northern neighbor, Iowa. After today's blog, we will begin sharing each of this year's entries in chunks of five - as quickly as we can before we open up Semifinal One voting. You can keep up with news and updates by following our blogs or following us on Twitter. Without further ado, here's this year's semifinals running order:

Semifinal 1: 1. Nevada

2. North Dakota

3. New York

4. Maine

5. Alaska

6. New Jersey

7. California

8. Idaho

9. North Carolina

10. Kentucky

11. Ohio

12. New Mexico

13. Florida

14. Vermont

15. Wyoming

16. Arizona

17. Massachusetts

18. South Carolina

19. Texas

20. Washington, D.C.

21. Oklahoma

22. Indiana

23. Hawaii

24. Pennsylvania

25. West Virginia

26. Connecticut

27. Guam

Semifinal 2: 1. Missouri

2. Rhode Island

3. Michigan

4. Kansas

5. Colorado

6. Nebraska

7. Delaware

8. Tennessee

9. Montana

10. Mississippi

11. Alabama

12. Georgia

13. Maryland

14. Utah

15. Wisconsin

16. Arkansas

17. Louisiana

18. New Hampshire

19. Puerto Rico

20. Washington

21. South Dakota

22. Oregon

23. U.S. Virgin Islands

24. Virginia

25. Illinois

26. Iowa ---- We will also continue to follow ESC's format (for the second year) and determine the running order placement for Minnesota in the Final Round. We used Google's freely available random number generator for this one, and have determined that Minnesota's home entry ("Dreamland" by Graveyard Club) will be in slot 5.

It should also be noted that it is not yet determined whether there will be only 12 songs qualifying per semifinal, or if this will be increased to 13.

What do you think? Which states are slated for a good result? Which ones are ultimately doomed? Let us know in the comments below.

Stay tuned for more song announcements!