The news hit waves among Eurovision fans.
EBU, together with the reference group, has decided on changes to the voting system of the contest.
The main changes are:
- The professional jury won’t be part of the vote in the semi-finals. This means that viewers will be the ones to determine the qualifying countries for the final.
- Online voting will be added for non-participating countries. This decision was made due to the virality of the contest all over the world.
- The grand final results will still be determined by a combination of a professional jury and televoting
- Voters from the rest of the world will be considered as one additional country (by weight of the vote).
- Audiences in all participating countries will still be able to vote by SMS, phone or via the Eurovision Song Contest app. Those watching in the rest of the world can vote via a secure online platform using a credit card from their country.
Martin Österdahl, the Eurovision Song Contest’s Executive Supervisor commented:
Throughout its 67-year history, the Eurovision Song Contest has constantly evolved to remain relevant and exciting. These changes acknowledge the immense popularity of the show by giving more power to the audience of the world’s largest live music event.
In 2023 only Eurovision Song Contest viewers will decide which countries make it to the Grand Final and, reflecting the global impact of the event, everyone watching the show, wherever they live in the world, can cast their votes for their favourite songs.
By also involving juries of music professionals in deciding the final result, all the songs in the Grand Final can be assessed on the broadest possible criteria. We can also maintain the tradition of travelling around Europe and Australia to collect points and ensure a thrilling voting sequence with the winner only revealed at the very end of the show.”
The members of the reference group are:
- Dr. Frank-Dieter Freiling – Chairman (Germany)
- Martin Osterdahl – Eurovision Song Contest Executive Supervisor (Sweden)
- Carla Bugalho – Eurovision 2018 Executive Producer (Portugal)
- Yuval Cohen – Part of Eurovision 2019 broadcaster (Israel)
- Astrid Dutrenit – Part of Eurovision 2021 broadcaster (The Netherlands)
- Sietse Bakker – Part of Eurovision 2021 broadcaster (The Netherlands)
- Simona Martorelli – Part of Eurovision 2022 broadcaster (Italy)
- Claudio Fasulo – Part of Eurovision 2022 broadcaster (Italy)
- David Tserunyan (Armenia)
- Felix Bergsson (Iceland)
- Alexandra Wolflast (Germany)
Over the years, the Eurovision voting system has changed several times.
For example, the jury was included in the vote from 2009 and later on.
At the beginning of the contest, jury panels determined the results with a weight of 100%.
We can see some examples where jury and televote didn’t have the same qualifiers:
In 2022, Azerbaijan qualified for the final with 0 points from the public, thanks to jury support:
Albania were in the televote’s top 10 of Eurovision 2022 semi-final 1, but failed to qualify due to lack of support from the jury:
What do you think about the changes?
Will it help specific countries to advance for the final?
