The Song Festival Eurovision is celebrated next May 11 in the city of Malmö, located in the southernmost part of Sweden. In total, a total of 37 countries will participate in this edition of Eurovision and it is estimated that some 600 million viewers will follow the artists’ performances.
This year, furthermore, controversy has been sown, since, given the harshness of the war in the Gaza Strip, there have been many voices that have opposed Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. A situation that has been compared to the war between Russia and Ukraine and for which the country led by Putin no longer participates in the contest. But what is the Eurovision voting process like?
Two votes: the public and the jury
The festival’s vote in its grand finale is divided between the public vote and the professional jury vote. In addition, in the three galas, the audience from non-participating countries will be allowed to vote via the Internet, their vote being counted as a group as if it were another country. This will mean that the weight of the televoting in the final is 50.6%while the jury’s vote is reduced to 49.4%.
This year, as a novelty, voting for the final will begin just before the first song is performedas was done in the 2010 and 2011 editions. In this way, viewers will be able to cast their votes as the groups take the stage, without having to wait for everyone to have performed.
In the Eurovision final, each country will divide its vote between the popular jury, which will give its evaluation in the rehearsal the day before, and another by televoting. In both votes, countries will provide scores of 1 to 8, 10 and 12 points.
On the other hand, in the semifinals the names of the 10 classified countries will be announced in random order. The first of these phases will be held on May 7th, in which 15 countries participate, which in turn have the right to vote. Additionally, Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden will perform and vote during the semi-final.
