It’s all things Eurovision for the next little while! Thanks to Gina and Mary (who Marie has already told you is good at snooping out the latest stuff…), they are helping me keep up. Let me say right now how much I’m going to appreciate them. They are able to do what I wish I could do: watch the updates on this competition full time. 🙂 So ladies, know how much I appreciate your work on this!
To refresh all of our memories on the rules and give you as many tools as possible — to date — to keep up, read on!
~~ Kelly
Countdown Clock/Red Carpet on YouTube ~~ Thanks, Marie!
You will actually have to follow this link to YouTube, as it contains content from the EBU. We respectfully put it here to make their YouTube presentation easy for you to find. 🙂
From Eurovision.tv, here is an information sheet about the Opening Ceremony. It is in pdf format, so you will need an Adobe Reader or similar product to view it:
Click to access SC15_Opening_Ceremony_Info_Sheet_Journalisten.pdf
Il Volo’s Schedule ~~ Rock Me Il Volo; Thanks, Gina!
Watch on WebTV ~~ Thanks, Mary!
Mary has provided this link from the Eurovision Website, and believes you should be able to watch a lot of the goings on from various online devices. She’s also provided the correct, real time in Vienna so you can work out the time difference for yourself.
Watch Eurorvision on the Web
What Time Is It In Vienna?
The Rules ~~ Eurovision.tv; Thanks, Gina!
How do national selections work?
The national selections for the Eurovision Song Contest are being organized by the participating national public broadcasters.
Traditionally, in March, participating broadcasters have to come up with their entry for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest.
The EBU, main organizer of the Eurovision Song Contest, is not involved with the national selections. The EBU only requires the national selections to be fair and transparent.
When?
The national selections start already very soon after the previous Eurovision Song Contest. To get a full overview and put the dates down in your calendar, see the timetable in our calendar!
———————————————————————————————————————
The Voting Rules
Viewers in the countries of the Participating Broadcasters are invited to vote for their favorite songs (without the possibility of voting for the song representing their own country) by means of televoting. In addition, in each participating country, there is a National Jury.
With respect to the televoting, the song which has received the highest number of votes shall be ranked first, the song which has received the second highest number of votes shall be ranked second and so on until the last song.
With respect to the National Jury voting, the jury members shall rank first their favorite song, second, their second favorite song, third, their third favorite song, and so on until their least favorite song, which shall be ranked last.
The rankings of the televoting and the jury will then, in each of the participating countries, used to calculate the average rank of each song. This combined ranking will then be transformed to the well-known and popular “Eurovision system”, with the top-ranked song getting 12 points, the second-highest ranked song 10 points, and the remaining spots, from 8 points to 1 point, given to the songs ranked 3 to 10.
Voting in the Semi-Finals
Viewers at home and professional juries each determine half of the outcome of the two Semi-Finals of the Eurovision Song Contest. In each Semi-Final, 10 contestants qualify for the Final.
Viewers in all countries that are taking part in that particular Semi-Final are invited to vote via the official app, telephone and/or SMS. The voting window opens after the last song has been performed, and ends 15 minutes later. Televoters determine 50% of the outcome;
Professional juries in all countries that are taking part in or were allocate to that particular Semi-Final are required to vote. They also determine 50% of the outcome. The jury, which consists of five members (including a chairperson), is the same jury that will vote in the Final;
The EBU’s voting partner, digame mobile GmbH (digame), will determine the national result by merging these two ranked lists, and will award 12 points to the country with the best combined rank of the jury and the televoting, then 10 points to country with the second-best combined rank, etc. The country ranked 10th in the combined ranking receives 1 point;
Since traditionally only 12, 10 and 8-1 points are being given, countries ranked outside of the top-10 do not receive points. Also, televoters and juries cannot vote for the country they represent;
If there is a tie between two or more songs in the combined ranking between televotes and the jury, the song that obtains a better ranking from the televote will prevail over the other;
Based on the combined full ranking of all songs of televoting and jury voting, each country will distribute 1 to 8, 10 and 12 points;
The viewers from the host country, Italy, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany and France will also vote (as determined by draw);
The ten qualified countries will be announced at the end of each Semi-Final in the order decided by the Excecutive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest. This order does not reflect the actual ranking on the score board;
The full score board will be made available shortly after the Final on Eurovision.tv, to keep the excitement until the end of the Final.
Voting in the Final
In all participating countries, the televoting and jury voting result in two ranked lists of all songs;
Televoters can vote via the official app, telephone and/or SMS. The voting window opens after the last song has been performed, and ends 15 minutes later. These votes determine 50% of the outcome and are gathered by the EBU’s voting partner, digame;
Professional juries are also required to vote. They determine 50% of the outcome. The jury, which consists of five members (including a chairperson) is the same jury that voted in one of the Semi-Finals. They will watch live and rank all songs based on the second Dress Rehearsal, the so called Jury Final;
The EBU’s voting partner, digame, will determine the national result by merging these two ranked lists, and will award 12 points to the country with the best combined rank of the jury and the televoting, then 10 points to country with the second-best combined rank, etc. The country ranked 10th in the combined ranking receives 1 point;
Since traditionally only 12, 10 and 8-1 points are being given, countries ranked outside of the top-10 do not receive points. Also, televoters and juries cannot vote for the country they represent;
If there is a tie between two or more songs in the combined ranking between televotes and the jury, the song that obtains a better ranking from the televote will prevail over the other;
Based on the combined full ranking of all songs of televoting and jury voting, each country will distribute 1 to 8, 10 and 12 points; The combined results of jury voting and televoting will be presented on air during the Final by spokespersons in all participating countries. As usual, the points 1 to 7 will appear on screen. The spokesperson will then reveal 8, 10 and 12 points.
The full result, including the televoting and the jury result in every participating country will be published on Eurovision.tv after the Grand Finale.
Jury voting
The rules for the juries are as follows:
The jury voting is always monitored by an independent notary in each country;
The EBU’s voting observer, PwC, has the right to send an additional independent observer to the jury session;
The jury consists of a variety of members in terms of age, gender, and background;
All jury members must be citizens of the country they are representing;
None of the jury members must be connected to any of the participating songs/artists in such a way that they cannot vote independently. The participating broadcasters must send a letter of compliance with the voting instructions together with signed declarations by each jury member stating that they will vote independently;
The names of the jury members must be revealed by the relevant participating broadcasters during the Final;
Each jury member of each national jury must rank all songs in the show;
The combined rank of each country’s jury members determines the jury result of that particular country;
By judging each song each jury member will focus on the vocal capacity of the artist(s), the performance on stage, the composition and originality of the song, and the overall impression by the act.
To increase diversity, music industry professionals can only take a seat in a national jury if they have not been in the jury during one of the previous two editions of the contest.
Jury member selection criteria
All jury members are music professionals. They are being asked to judge:
vocal capacity
the performance on stage
the composition and originality of the song
the overall impression by the act
The EBU looks into each jury member together with Digame and PwC, to assure they meet the requirements to take seat in a national jury.
The following criteria is applied in the selection of the jury members:
Members shall not have been part of a National Jury the preceding two years.
Members of the National Juries must be music industry professionals
There shall be a balance among the members of each National Jury to ensure sufficient representativeness in terms of gender, age and background.
All members of the National Juries shall be citizens of the country they represent.
No member of a National Jury shall be connected in any way with any of the participating songs entered and/or artists performing in the Eurovision Song Contest in such a way that they cannot vote in complete independence and impartiality
Judges signed a declaration stating they will vote independently.
About the televoting system
The Germany-based company, digame mobile GmbH, has been the EBU’s long-term voting partner since 2004. The company gathers all televotes and jury votes in all countries and is being closely monitored by two independent PwC observers. Its systems are build to handle all incoming votes according to the Rules of the Eurovision Song Contest, and can detect and exclude systematic bulk votes (also referred to as ‘power-voting’).
Eurovision.tv uses cookies to provide a better serviceI understandLearn more about cookies
How to take part?
Have you ever wanted to take part in the world’s biggest entertainment event – the Eurovision Song Contest? Here you can find out exactly how to pursue that dream!
The basics
First of all, all the entries and singers are picked by the Participating Broadcasters. These are the Members of the EBU that take part in the Eurovision Song Contest. Why? Because at the Eurovision Song Contest, not countries but broadcasters take part in. For example, in the UK this is the BBC, in Germany it’s NDR, in Sweden it is SVT and so on.
The organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest cannot pick any entries but only make sure all entries and performances are according to the Rules. This all means that you need to contact the broadcasters if you want to have information on how to take part in the contest.
IMPORTANT: Contact List of the Heads of Delegations at the Broadcasters (PDF).
How do they pick the entries?
Each Participating Broadcaster has a right to choose their entry in the format they choose. This means that in some cases, the entries are picked internally, in some the artist or the song are picked by the broadcaster while the public in that country decided on the eventual representative.
In the majority of the cases, though, both the song and the performers are picked for a show called a national selection. There, the decision is usually up to the viewers and/or a jury.
It is important to also know that only some broadcasters accept foreign authors.
IMPORTANT: Follow the dates in each of the countries through their websites or any other communication channels. Also, you can often get the deadlines and conditions right here, on Eurovision.tv.
How do I contact them?
You can contact the Heads of Delegations – the people responsible at the broadcaster’s side for the Eurovision Song Contest – for information on their selection method.
IMPORTANT: Contact List of the Heads of Delegations at the Broadcasters (PDF).
Can you help?
As said before, the organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest do not choose any of the entries. We urge you to contact the delegations.
What basic rules does my entry have to follow?
As is the case at every contest, there are rules to be followed. The Eurovision Song Contest is not an exception in this. If you want to find out more about the rules, please check it on our Rules page.
–
Just watched them on the Red Carpet…LOOKIN GOOD!!!!!
Did you know that the people in Italy will not be able to vote for Il Volo? That will really hurt them since they have not toured many of the European countries represented in The Eurovision Song Contest. That must be why they have been giving interviews and singing Grande Amore in Germany and other competing countries. I am so disappointed. Now I know what my friend in Scotland meant when she said she no longer watched Eurovision because of all the trading of votes between countries. I did see a comment on one of the blogs saying, “I will vote for — from your country if you will vote for — from my country. 😰😰😰 Maybe this is common knowledge to most of you but it is something I did not realize.
Someone please tell me if I am wrong.
I did get to watch the opening ceremony. I went to Eurovision.tv, but had to load an “octosphere” program before I could watch, so I agreed and then my computer said it would not load it because of malware and had to remove the threat, so I went to YouTube and it worked. I will try the Eurovision.tv again later.
There was not much coverage of Il Volo, they did look good, but I was disappointed with the small amount of time given to them.
There is so much corruption everywhere, that I would not doubt what Mary is hearing. I read some comments on the Eurovision.tv webpage – some are crazy about Il Volo and some are not. We can only wish the best for them and stay positive.
Linda, When you tried to watch the red carpet ceremony on your computer did you click the “No Thanks” option on the Web TV screen. I finally did and was able to watch the ceremony on my computer. I had You Tube Streaming on my iPad going at the same time in the event there was a failure on either device. I also was disappointed with the coverage of Il Volo. The female commentator was busy talking about (her words “Gossip”) that when they cut back to the ceremony Il Volo was only on for a few seconds for their photo shoot. Did not see them arrive and get out of their bus or whatever vehicle they came in as was shown of the others. Bummer!
I did not hit the no thanks button but I will the next time. I had already wasted time waiting for computer to remove the malware, so went to you tube quickly so I wouldn’t miss them. I wanted to see them arrive and was disappointed – only a few seconds of them and then they cut away quickly to go on to something else. Everyone else had at least a minute or two. I didn’t care for the commentary either. The woman seemed shocked that they are good looking. Apparently, she had not seen them before this. How can you moderate an affair like this without knowing what you’re talking about.
Hopefully the rest of the contest will be better.
Linda, you are right about the commentator. I can’t believe I was correcting her out loud on some her statements. She said the young contestant from I don’t remember where was16 and I corrected her that she was 17. She made several mistakes about who was who. I printed out the schedule of the arrival times by country which she must have had. I hope the sound quality of the singing of the contestants we hear on web-TV our you tube is better than what we have heard so far. Oh well. I should stop complaining and be happy that I can view the contest on my computers and iPad.
Loved their live Press conference. They are so happy and relaxed and hope they stay that way till the end. The comments on their first rehearsal were great but several commented that Piero looked “lost or scared”. You can not tell from the short clip. He seemed just fine at the “Meet & Greet”. I believe many think Il Volo should win because of the song and their performance but country loyalties come in and it will be a determining factor. AS much as they praise “Grande Amore” they always have to bring up the word “Opera” which seems to say it is an “impossible dream” to win.
I was able to watch both the conference and “Red Carpet” on You Tube. Sometimes you have to click several times before it comes to life.
I do not know much about “Streaming Live” and watching RA ! but someone posted a while back not to click on any advertising.
As of yet I can not get the answer what a EUROVISION song is. Constantly the commentators and critics keep saying “it is not an Eurovision” type of song.
Everywhere I read or listened to critics STAGING seems to appeal to Eurovision.
The more the better. The songs and staging I did not like seemed to appeal to the young critics. I know age of the critics and fans will make a difference in what the outcome will be. NO MATTER WHAT WE LOVE THEM AND I KNOW EUROPE DOES TOO.