The voting is one of the most exciting parts of any Eurovision event, but how does the voting work at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018?
When the songs have been performed and the interval act has ended, it all comes down to the voting. The voting has been a must watch television moment at every Eurovision event. So how does it work at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest and how does it differ from its older sibling?
Online Voting
Online voting is the major difference between the Junior Eurovision and the Eurovision Song Contest. Since 2017 the Junior Eurovision Song Contest has used online voting instead of its traditional televoting method. The online voting on JuniorEurovision.tv;
- Opens on the Friday before the final at 20:00 CET and stays open until 16:59 CET, which is one minute before the final begins
- The voting re-opens during the live show for 15 minutes
- Unlike the Eurovision Song Contest you can vote for your own country
- You can also vote regardless of whether your country is taking part in the competition
- However, you must vote for between 3 and 5 countries
- Only one set of votes is accepted per device
This means that the points that come at the end of the voting procedure are determined entirely by online voting. The points that each of the countries will be given are based on the overall % of the online vote that they received. 1102 points are up for grabs, meaning that if a nation receives 1% of the vote they will be awarded 11 points.
Jury Voting
Each country is represented by a jury formed of five people. These juries determine 50% of the vote. Each jury is made up of three music industry professionals and two children aged between 10 and 15 years old. Each of the jurors ranks the performances from 1st to 18th. The jurors rankings are combined to create an overall top ten.
The results of the jury voting will be announced by the spokespersons of each of the participating nations. They will take to the stage and the 1-10 points will be displayed on the screen, the spokesperson will then announce the 12 points.
History of Voting
The voting procedure for Junior Eurovision has changed a lot of times over the last 15 years. In 2003 and 2004, televoters were the main source of votes, and it followed the same method as the adult contest. 2005 saw the introduction of the automatic 12 points to ensure to act was left with 0 points at the end of the contest. In 2008, the juries were introduced so their votes were combined with the public votes to determine the winner.
In 2012, the Kid’s jury was introduced, with one kid from each participating country on it giving their votes, this was used up until 2015. In 2016, only the jury voting was used, so for the first time there was no televoting from the viewers. This brings us up to last year and the new system that was introduced. Online voting was introduced to bring back in the viewers opinion without having to pay phone costs. 50% of the juries votes and 50% of the online votes were combined to determine the winner of the contest. The EBU have decided to use this method again in Gliwice.
