Earlier today, Eurovision Director, Martin Green CBE, released an official statement, which he describes as an open letter to the Eurovision community.
The letter aims to address some topics that have been raised recently, including the voting results.
National broadcasters, Eurovision fans, and different media channels directed the criticism.
First, the EBU has once again officially confirmed that the public voting was valid.
The voting includes multiple independent validation checks:
- The official voting partner, Once Germany GmbH, ensures smooth delivery of the votes to the central system. There, the voting was monitored by at least 4 employees.
- The voting system features anti-fraud components.
- More than 60 individuals in Cologne, Vienna, and Amsterdam verified the results of each voting country and maintained direct contact with telecommunication and broadcasting partners globally.
- One of the leading firms, EY, oversees and authenticates the results. They are also in charge of the points calculation.
In his letter, Martin Green spans some of the reasons that might impact the motivation of voters: personal attributes, back stories, geographic affiliations, and current affairs. The same happens in music reality shows all over the world
What’s Next?
As in every year, the governmental body of Eurovision (The Reference Group) will have a meeting in June, where the data of Eurovision 2025 will be presented and its members will make recommendations on any available actions to the contest rules.
Moreover, regarding the funded ads and marketing campaigns, he added:
EBU will be looking at is the promotion of our acts by their delegations and associated parties. Such promotion is allowed under our rules and acts to celebrate the artists, increase their profile and launch future careers – it’s very much part of the music industry – but we want to ensure that such promotion is not disproportionately affecting the natural mobilization of communities and diasporas we see in all entertainment audience voting.
Some changes may be applied to the voting system in the future. Currently, each voter is limited to 20 votes per payment platform.
What do you think about the EBU’s statement?
What changes will you apply to the current voting system?
