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!
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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’).

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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.
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Using material
VIDEOS: All media is welcome to embed videos from the official YouTube channel. You are allowed to use up to 30 seconds of each video and a total of 2 minutes in your own video reports.
PHOTOS: You can also use the Press Photos in your publications. Please credit EUROVISION/EBU and the photographer.
News access
Any broadcaster which does not hold any audiovisual media rights shall be granted, upon request to the EBU, except where national law or regulation provides otherwise, a total of two minutes’ news access from each of the three Shows, free of charge for use in regularly- scheduled general news bulletins broadcast within 24 hours of the Semi-Finals and the Final respectively.
LOGO & THEME ART
The usage of the logo and the theme art of the Eurovision Song Contest is allowed for the EBU, the Participating Broadcasters and the Sponsors. Media can use them only for media reporting purposes. No commercial use is allowed.
Code of Conduct
By using your accreditation at the Eurovision Song Contest, you accept the terms laid out in the Code of Conduct.
Wireless equipment at the venue
Please understand that all use of any wireless equipment is unfortunately strictly forbidden at the venue and may result in a loss of accreditation rights.
YOU CAN FIND ALL THE INFORMATION ON Eurovision .tv