How Does The Eurovision Voting System Work?

Heading into tonight you may be a bit confused about how the Eurovision Song Contest voting works, but we’re here to explain it all.

The results of the Eurovision Song Contest have been decided by 50% televote and 50% jury voting since the Final of Eurovision 2009. This system is meant to limit the impacts of diaspora’s voting in countries and limit the effect of “neighborly voting” which caused a large number of complaints during the late 2000s.

Who are on the juries?

The juries are formed of five people in each of the fourty two competing countries. Jury members are made up of music industry professionals. They are asked the judge the songs based on:

• vocal capacity of the singer
• the performance on-stage
• the composition and originality of the song
• the overall impression of the act.

They must rank of the all the performances excluding their own countries song. The rankings of each of the five juries are averaged to create a top 10. This top ten is then converted into points from 1-7, 8, 10 and then 12 points for the act the jury liked the most.

How is the public vote calculated?

In each of the 42 competing countries excluding San Marino, the public will be able to vote for their favourite song via SMS or telephone. Each associated phone number is allowed to vote up to twenty times.

The results of each televote is verified to ensure a valid vote, the televotes are then added up to create the televoting results in each country. These results are transformed into the points 1-7, 8, 10 and 12 points for the song that the public in each country liked the most.

But what about San Marino?

San Marino does not have a televote due to the country sharing its telephone infrastructure with Italy. The results of the San Marinese televote are calculated by averaging the telephone results of around 5 to 7 unknown nations across Europe.

How are the results announced?

The results of the Eurovision Song Contest have been announced in two parts since 2016, with the jury vote first and then the public vote.

The first results to be announced will be the results of each of the forty two national juries. Spokespersons from each of the countries will be called upon via satellite link to reveal the jury results. The points from 1-7, 8 and 10 points will appear on screen, while the spokesperson will reveal who their countries 12 points will go to.

Once all of the jury points have been revealed we will know 50% of the results. Then the public televoting results will be announced. The televoting results from all of the countries will be added together. The two hosts tonight will then reveal the points going to the country who got the 26th highest amount of televoting points to the country that received the 11th highest amount of televoting points.

The hosts will then reveal who placed 10th to 5th with the televote in a slower speed. When we reach the final four countries whose points have not been announced, then the tension builds. Slowly but surely the points will be announced for the final four countries.

If the results this year are anything like last year in Stockholm, Sweden we will be waiting until the very last points to be announced before we know the winner.