The members of the juries from the 39 nations competing in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 will be revealed on May 22.
A total of 195 jurors will vote at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, which will be held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. This year the jurors will not be revealed until the night of the Grand Final of the contest.
Since a change in the rules of the contest in 2014, the members of the jurors from all of the competing nations have been revealed ahead of the competition. This reveal has traditionally taken place two weeks before the contest takes place.
The reveal of the jurors before the contest is meant to ensure transparency ahead of the competition. The reveal of jury members ahead of the contest had led to some jury members being changed before the shows take place.
What Do the Jury Members Do?
Each of the nations taking part in the competition has a jury formed of five persons. These jurors vote on the dress rehearsals which take place the night before each of the Semi-Finals and the Grand Final.
The rehearsal is broadcast to the juries via satellite, with jurors normally watching at the studios of the broadcaster of their nation. The scores of the jurors then determine 50% of the results. The results of the jury voting are disclosed in full after the Grand Final.
What Checks are in Place?
The European Broadcasting Union works with PwC to supervise the jury voting procedure. PwC reserves the right to make unannounced visits to jurors voting on the shows to ensure that they are adhereing to the rules.
The EBU and PwC work to check the jury results once they are submitted by the broadcaster. In the event that any irregularities are found the jury results of the offending nation can be declared invalid.
In 2019, the EBU banned the Belarusian jury from voting in the final after the jury members partially revealed their results in an interview after the first semi-final. In order to provide a Belarusian jury result for the final, the EBU compiled an average of countries with similar voting records. However, it was revealed that the EBU incorrectly caluclated this average.
Eurovision 2021
The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 will take place on May 18, 20, and 22 in Rotterdam. A total of 39 countries will take part in the contest. Eurovision 2020 was due to be held in Rotterdam after Duncan Laurence gave the Netherlands their first victory since 1975 with the song “Arcade”. After the cancelation of the 2020 contest, it was decided that Rotterdam would host the 2021 contest instead.
Image Source: NPO/NOS/AVROTROS, Nathan Reinds / Source: EBU
