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The Jury Returns to Eurovision

Yes, here’s the post that many of you have been waiting for all week – my thoughts on the national voting for the Eurovision Song Contest.

A quick recap. Since 1997, every country entering the Eurovision Song Contest has conducted a national phone vote (either by direct calling or recently by the addition of SMS voting) to determine the allocation of points. Arguably this has worked well, with the contest having had 11 different countries winning in the 11 years since the change away from juries… (and actually no repeat winners since 1995) but there are many who feel that the current national voting is too easily swayed by diaspora voting and shared cultures in Eastern Europe.

I’m not one of them – there have always been ‘block votes’ and influences, but generally the best songs will rise to the top of the table, and the poorer songs will drop to the second half of the results. So why am I so happy that the juries are back?

Because the perception of fairness and a level playing field is just as important (perhaps more so) as having a fair voting system. In the 2008 Eurovision Dance Contest, the jury had 25% of the final vote, and placed Poland as the winner. So did the general public, and the final table ensured that Poland did in fact take the trophy. For this year’s Junior Eurovision, the 50%/50% split was in place. I’ve not seen a breakdown of the voting to see if the split voting generate the same winner compared to giving the public 100% of the vote, but the winning entry was accepted by many.

Let’s be honest, people can see patterns in anything, especially when there are no patterns there. The voting patterns of the countries in Europe is a case in point. But if this is what it takes to get the political sniping under control, then I think it’s a wonderful idea and I’m for it 100%.

December 15, 2008; Eurovision;

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Comments

One Response to “The Jury Returns to Eurovision”

  1. Zaphod Camden on December 31st, 2008 19:06

    Despite me coming to this post a fortnight late, just thought I’d add my two (euro) cents in here…

    …rumour has it that the televoting process was spurred on by the seemingly permanent lock that Ireland had on the Eurovision Song Contest in the 1990s – this turned a lot of people off (including myself, which led me to missing the last UK win…pif!)

    A 50-50 split would be a good compromise – I doubt that the televoting will ever be completely retired, it earns far too much money for the EBU for a start and we’ve all become used to voting for our favourites through shows like the X-Factor etc… and there’s no way to stop people voting for neighbours (and what constitutes a “neighbour” anyway? Are the UK and France “neighbours” or does the sea and the language barrier get in the way?) but as you said, if the re-introduction of the juries help to dispel the feeling that “it’s just a fix” then it’s a good thing. Particularly if the breakdown of the results are widely available on the net for those who care about such things.

    I bet Greece and Cyprus will still give each other 12 though :)

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