The Eurovision jury is back after the voting scandal

It is only viewers worldwide who have decided the final field in this year’s international melody grand prix.

But when the winner of Eurovision is found on Saturday evening in the Liverpool Arena in England, the professional juries of the respective countries weigh half.

Only there do they enter the competition.

– By also including juries of music professionals in the decision on the final result, all the songs in the grand final can be assessed based on the broadest possible criteria, said Eurovision boss Martin Österdahl last year.

Since 2009, it has been a mixture of juries and viewer votes that sent the participants home or further already in the semi-finals. But the vote was changed after a working group set up by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes Eurovision, scrutinized it.

It happened as a consequence of a voting scandal at the last Eurovision in the Italian city of Turin, but also to give the viewers more power in the preliminary round, it said.

The EBU found it suspicious that the professional juries in Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, San Marino and Azerbaijan gave each other significantly higher points than the rest of the countries that voted in the same semi-final last year.

Although it proved inconclusive, the EBU replaced the countries’ ratings of each other with points calculated on the basis of results from other countries with similar voting patterns.

For the first time in this year’s Eurovision, the professional jury comes to the field when the winner of the international melody grand prix is ​​chosen.

They have a completely different perspective than the viewers, explains journalist Ole Tøpholm, who for many years has commented on both Eurovision and Dansk Melodi Grand Prix for DR.

– An expert jury looks at other musical parameters than the show, says Ole Tøpholm and continues:

– If some things will seem too crazy for some, then they ignore it. They just relate to the music and the songs.

Precisely that can be decisive in this year’s Eurovision, Ole Tøpholm believes.

Sweden is fielding the Eurovision queen Loreen, who also won the international melody grand prix in 2012. This year she sings the streamlined dance number “Tattoo”.

In stark contrast are the Finnish party fireworks Käärijä and his bombastic track “Cha Cha Cha”.

– If it was a 100 percent viewer vote, just like it was in the semi-finals, it could very well be that Finland took it, just like they did with Lordi in 2006, says Ole Tøpholm, referring to the costumed heavy rock band.

– But because of the professional jury, I think the Swedes are the strongest, reads the assessment from Ole Tøpholm.

37 countries have entered this year’s Eurovision. But there is only room for 26 nations in the final. So the field has been cut down to two semi-finals. On Thursday, the viewers sent Denmark’s Eurovision hope, Reiley, home from England without a final place.

Not since 2019 has Denmark been in the final.

Six countries are all guaranteed a place on the podium. It is Spain, Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy, because they pay the largest part of the debt. And then last year’s winning nation, this time Ukraine, is also guaranteed a place.

The final is broadcast on DR1 on Saturday.

/ritzau/