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Televote and jury: 50% each
EBU confirms 50/50 vote for Eurovision Song Contest
The need to bring back a jury vote as a means of putting an end to what has become seen as obvious political or diaspora voting has been clear for some time. The perception of biased voting has led to a decline in reputation of the Eurovision Song Contest in Western Europe as a fair music competition and led Sir Terry Wogan to resign as the UK commentator after almost four decades of coverage.
In a bid to bring back credibility to the competition voting method, the EBU moved earlier this year to annouce the return of the jury. Since then the reference group have been investigating different voting methods and at last, the final details of how the voting system will work has been announced.
In line with improving the result credibility, the Eurovision Song Contest reference group will determine this week how the juries will be composed and what can be done to avoid deal making between participating counties. A spokesman for the EBU told esctoday.com:
"This Wednesday and Thursday, the Reference Group of the Eurovision Song Contest will meet in Moscow to decide upon the exact way the national juries will be composed, and to discuss rules to assure a fair jury vote".
How it will work
- esctoday.com believes that following the performance of the 25 songs in the Eurovision Song Contest final, the televote will take place as usual. At the same time, the jury results will be compiled.
- Each country will then add their 1-12 points for the televote and jury together, to create their national scorecard.
- The highest placed country will receive the '12 points, second placed country will receive the '10 points' and so on.
- Where countries are tied for points, the one with the higher televote position will be given the advantage and the additional point.
The semi finals of the Eurovision Song Contest are unaffected by the change in voting. Once again, the televote will determine the first nine qualifiers from each semi final. The highest placed country on the back-up jury score board that has not already qualified will be awarded the tenth and final qualification spot from each semi inal.
Related polls
- Norway: Vote for your favourite song in the final of Melodi Grand Prix
- Azerbaijan: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Milli Seçim Turu
- Hungary: Vote for your favourite act in the final of A Dal
- Iceland: Vote for your favourite song in the final of Songvakeppni Sjonvarpsins
- Malta: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2012
- Hungary: Vote for your favourite act in the second semifinal of A Dal
- Norway: Vote for your favourite song in the third semifinal of Melodi Grand Prix
- Sweden: Vote for your favourite act in the first semifinal of Melodifestivalen
- Malta: Vote for your favourite act in the semifinal of Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2012
- Bulgaria: Vote for your favourite act in the Bulgarian national final 2012
- Latvia: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Eirodziesma 2012
- Belarus: Vote for your favourite act in the final of EuroFest 2012
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Shame on me? Why? Because I told the truth?
And why are you even upset? I didn't treat anyone bad.
Shame is for people who delete messages here just because they don't agree with other's opinions.
Night elf and 1000 stars i totally agree with u 10 ppl who decides for a country is such a shame.%100 televoting is the bestand fair way. love from poland
I agree with Chris P. This isn't going to be as big a change as some people here expect. Some posters here seem to have ignored the fact that the juries will only have a 50 per cent say. it will not be '10 people deciding for one country': televoting (including DNP televoting) will still have a huge influence. So the likes of Kalomoira will still go well, I think (plus I thought Secret Combination was a pretty good song in its genre). Also, this is a pop music contest, not Cardiff International Singer of the Year, or whatever. Ultimately the juries will have to take that into account, otherwise their votes will drag the ESC back into the musically irrelevant days of the mid-90s. This is an excellent compromise position, and I think we should give the new system at least one year to see how satisfactory it turns out to be.
I think this is a positive move by the EBU. People still get to have their say, and we still get some moderation of large-scale, regional trends (voting patterns). It's not going to radically change things I think. I am looking forward to ...and Cyprus gives to our dear neighbours Greece, 10 points... That's when I know it will have worked 
@Night Elf
ESC is an artistical competition, like, for example, a Literature award (not so serious maybe). A professional jury could judge better the quality of a song than a group of immigrants that will only vote obsesively for their homeland whatever its representative would do!
I see the problem is people from some countries like Russia, Greece, Turkey etc etc are afraid that they could lose their advantages of having large diaspora across Europe and loyal neighbours on the side, because with the 50/50 system they know it's impossible that cheesy acts like Kenan Dogulu or Kalomoira will reach a top-ten again.
Juries give us some great winners ... YES !! But they also give us the worst winners ever. U can never predict will jury vote fair or not, and there will always be conspiracy that juries are corrupted..
I am also not thrilled with idea that 10 ppl should decide for millions of viewers, and I don't think ppl would be interested that much in show in which they cant take part...
This is no 60' or 70' anymore...
Mario Mir
So what are you saying 10 ppl deciding for one country is more democratic that all ppl be able to vote ???
i dont think juries r fair televoting is better in my opinion
I can't understand the criticism about democracy in ESC.
Are Nobel Prizes democratic? Fortunately not!
Are Olympic Games democratic? Could people vote for the notes in gymnastics or synchro swimming? Evidently not!
ESC worked really fine in the 60s and 70s, being then totally decided by juries.
It was democratic last ESC? Absolutely not, because PAY-PER-VOTE IS NOT DEMOCRATIC IN ANY WAY (richer people could vote more times).
So stop about the demagogy about democracy in a musical contest. Democracy is something more important than a simple contest!!
@ Michael UK
I know that she is Bulgarian. My post was meant to be ironic ... The West doesn't vote fair either: Spain / Andorra, the Nordic countries, if you ignore the immigrant vote Belgium / The Netherlands ...
Unfortunately, people aren't fair anywhere ...
Actually 1000 stars, Israel won twice in the jurydays. That is still twice as much as Austria, Belgium and Germany. And exactly the same as Spain and Italy. The first contest was held in 1956, Israel made it's debut in 1973, Greece in 1974, Turkey in 1975. So those countries weren't in almost every contest. So please don't rewrite history.
And I agree juries have no place in the contest these days. And I also dislike the nagging about east and west. But please check your facts about the past. True it was not fair, but the juries weren't in favour of the west, they were in favour of songs sung in English. That's why the UK has a record of finishing second, and that's why Ireland won so much.
i bet the juries will have 1 to 8 points and the Televoting would have the 10 & 12 points and there be news in the uk about telephone problems 2
Again: Democracy is a POLITICAL system - ESC is NOT! So televote can NEVER EVER be a democratic act.
Furthermore:
There is no decision to be taken from you, since you still can vote as many times as you wish (also not very democratic, right?). And your votes are still counted. So If you don't like the juries decision, just hang onto your mobile phone and give a gazillion votes for your favorite. It will cost you a fortune and still it will not bring "democracy" to the ESC - BECAUSE IT DOES NOT BELONG THERE!
Besides: repeating that eastern countries were ignored in the past is no argument that they should win now. There is no right to win because you didn't win in the past. What kind of arument is this.... If that was true, any other winner than Portugal in 2009 (before even knowing the song) would be the most unfair decision.
if a jury decide for me and for others it doesnt mean democracy ithink it is so simple to understand! public must decide TOTALLY even u like the results or not but u have to respect public's decision.and some ppl called juries cant take my right.u r saying there werent eastern countries in past .israel greece and turkey were almost always in this contest and how many times they won during recent 40 years? really west is so selfish and not respectfull .i told u im a western too but i can see truths. west must send good songs instead of always complaining and trying to change voting system . u will all see if juries or televoting is more politic lets disuss it after seeing results
Again, 1000 Stars seem to confund ESC with democracy. Show me ONE single state with a working democracy where you can vote more than one time for a candidate. So is the ESC a democratic institution? By no means! So please stop comparing them. Democracy is all about ruling - ESC is all about FUN. And believe me, I did enjoy the contest also in times of pure televote, as I did in times of pur jury. So I surely will enjoy it in times of mixed voting.
This said, I agree with some posters here, that this east-west thing is ruining the idea of Europe. It should bring to our knowledge music from other countries and therefore promote the european spirit, not deviding the countries. I appreciate for instance songs from countries sung in languages of other countries, like Cyprus did with Evridiki or Latvia singing in italian. In the austrian finals there have been songs in croatian and even in turkish (what a shame they were not chosen!) If every country chose the language of another (and not all the time english) this would lead to a more of "togehter" instead of "against". And I would think it would be even more fun, having a spanish performer singing russian, an armenian, singing danish and so an. Just an idea....
I´m in favor of the jury. I support the jury. Long live the jury.
Yeah 1000 Stars, I think Ukraine should have won in 1965, and it is so unfair that the song from Armenia was so overlooked in 1971. And those mean juries were so unfair against the Baltic states in the eighties. So unfair that the songs from Belgium (Flanders) were always the big favourites of the juries. And Portugal, Spain, Austria, Denmark, Germany, how many time have these countries won in the jurydays? I believe Denmark won three times in a row in the eighties. And who can forget that massive victory by Austria in 1976. And damn those juries for favouring Germany so many times in the nineties.
The only thing this means is that Armenia, Turkey, Azerbaijan & Georgia will get less votes from West Europe.
The rest will probably be same old same old....
Cláudio Silva
Shame on you to speak with such hard tongue...I really don't get your message....and let me remind you a slight detail: THE CONTEST HAVE BECOME MORE AND MORE POPULAR in the RECENT YEARS, escpecially after Dana's victory! Remeber that? Back in 1998? The former "Eastern" countries have been here for good I think...
It won't work.
Jury could be as much biased and politicaly affected as televoting!
SORRY, the return of juries don't put an end to political voting or diaspora voting because the juries may be corrupted
Why is evryone making a big deal about this? You havn't even seen how this will work! And didn't Finland win in 2006 and Greece in 2005? Didn't Malta come 2nd in 2005 etc.?
Also the 50/50 voting system DID work for JESC! Malta came 4th and the reason why Belgium and Netherlands didn't do well was that this was a JUNIOR contest, and kids were watching it. So clearly it was the Netherlands and Belgium's fault for sending an adult song! Georgia, had a cute kid song and won! Having the highest average in whole ESC and JESC history! With 10.???? points average and they even got 12 from Russia which they were fighting!
Also another good example is Greece giving (FYR) Macedonia 5 points. Thats a clear point that Jury is working.
I don't know how they mix Jury and Televote together but lets say it was like this:
Ukraine Voting:
Televote:
Russia: 12
Georgia: 10
Armenia: 8
Israel: 7
Moldova: 6
Norway: 5
Lithuania: 4
Estonia: 3
Portugal: 2
Latvia: 1
Jury:
Israel: 12
Norway: 10
Armenia: 8
Portugal: 7
Moldova: 6
Georgia: 5
Latvia: 4
Lithuania: 3
Russia: 2
Estonia: 1
Together:
12. Israel: 19
10. Armenia: 16
08. Georgia: 15
07. Norway: 15
06. Russia: 14
05. Moldova: 12
04. Lithuania: 7
03. Portugal: 9
02. Estonia: 4
01. Latvia: 5
As you can see, I only used 10 countries and only 3 western or no neighbouring countries (Portugal, Israel and Norway)
Now not all westerns will have a good place (Portugal) and not all eastern countries will have a bad place (Armenia and Georgia) but you can see that will only 3 western countries there are 2 of them in the top 4 and thats only 3 western vs 7 eastern so I think YES it might work.
There will still be eastern in the top 10 because all together, there are more easterns in the contest BUT now at least 4/5 western countries can be in the top 10 and possibly win.
ONLY ONE WAY TO FIND OUT! WAIT UNTIL ESC 2009! 
Kivar
Netherlands won in 1975 actually. Sweden was the host country.
london calling
Actually in the final the real British vote was to Norway as there is Latvian and Lihuanian Diaspora in the UK and Ireland.
50-50? i'm not in favour....
and the reason is that 5? 10? 15? people of a jury CANNOT have a say upon millions! Where is the democracy after all?
Anyway, let's see how it will work, but i will NOT sent an sms or calls in the final. sorry EBU.
I just sow the prices of tickets... OMG they are 4 times more expensive than i Belgrade...
And I wanted to go 
This is not really democratic and I do not believe in the objectivity of the jury unless they are musical professionals. I think that jury is often much more biased than the audience.
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