Eurovision Song Contest 2023: The voting system, how it works and who can vote
The Eurovision Song Contest is famous for delivering nil points, but how does the voting system work and who gets to cast the important vote?
The outcome of Eurovision is determined in a 50/50 split by a jury of music industry professionals and viewers.
There are some changes to the voting system this year as Liverpool hosts the international event.
For the first time viewers watching around the world can vote for their favourite songs, and determine the outcome of the competition.
Viewers in all countries can vote using the official Eurovision App or go directly to www.esc.vote – the new voting hub for the Eurovision Song Contest.
People watching in the participating countries can vote by telephone and/or SMS.
The jury system
A Professional Jury is appointed in each country taking part consisting of five members who must have a proven musical background.
Each jury meets during the second Dress Rehearsal of each round where members watch the live broadcast of the rehearsals and rank each song from one to 12 - excluding their home country.
The ranking given to each song is converted into a score, with the total of the score from the whole jury making up the final national jury ranking.
A national spokesperson from the participating countries will be called in to present the points of their professional jury.
This year, only the viewers votes will decide who makes it to the Grand Final, meaning acts won’t have to face the judges until then.
The votes from juries from the participating countries in the semi-finals will only count towards the final vote of the semi-final if there is no valid audience vote.
Viewer's votes
Voting takes place in both semi-finals as well as the grand final.
Voting opens after all countries have performed and will remain open for 15 minutes.
Fans can vote over the phone, by text or via the Eurovision app, with each person can vote up to 20 times but voters will be unable to select their own country’s entry.
The share of the vote will again be converted into a score, with the top 12 from each country given the points.
What has changed this year?
As of 2023, only viewers’ votes will decide which countries qualify onwards from the semi-finals stage.
This means that acts will not have to face the judges until they reach the grand final stage.
For the first time in the competition’s nearly seven-decade history, people from countries outside the contest will be able to vote online and on the app.
Their votes will be converted into points that will have the same weight as one participating country in both of the semi-finals and the grand final.
Voting in the Semi-Finals
For the first time only viewers at home will determine the outcome of the two Semi-Finals of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Viewers in the 15 countries taking part in Semi-Final 1 can vote along with three of the countries pre-qualified for the Grand Final - France, Germany, and Italy.
Viewers in the 16 countries taking part in Semi-Final 2 can vote alongside three of the other countries pre-qualified for the Grand Final - Spain, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.
Voting will open after the last song is performed for approximately 15 minutes.
When the vote closes the Top 10 most popular songs in each participating country will be allocated points
The 10 songs that have received the most votes from the “Rest Of The World” will be allocated points using the same scale and have the weight of one additional voting country.
The Audience in each participating country will award a total of 58 points (1 – 8, 10 and 12)
The Audience voting online from non-participating countries will also award a total of 58 points (1 – 8, 10 and 12)
In the event that a valid national audience vote cannot be recorded in a participating country the points allocated from that country will be determined using an aggregated result which shall be calculated automatically on the basis of the results of a pre-selected group of countries.
In the unlikely event that an aggregated result is not available, it will be replaced by the results of the National Jury of the country concerned.
When all the points from the Audience are added together the 10 countries with the highest number of points will qualify for the Grand Final.
Voting in the Grand Final
Viewers in all 37 countries taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 can vote for the 26 songs in the Grand Final
Those watching can vote from home. Voting will open after the last song is performed for approximately 40 minutes.
When the vote closes the Top 10 most popular songs in each participating country will be allocated points from 1 to 8, 10 and 12 points.
The 10 songs that have received the most votes from the “Rest Of The World” will be allocated points using the same scale and have the weight of one additional voting country.
The Audience in each participating country will award a total of 58 points (1 – 8, 10 and 12). 37 countries x 58 points = 2,146 points from the from the national audiences of the participating countries.
The Audience voting online from non-participating countries (Rest of The World) will also award a total of 58 points (1 – 8, 10 and 12).
The total number of points that will be distributed from the Audience will be 2,204 (37 participating countries + 1 Rest of the World “country”).
The Jury in each of the 37 participating countries will also award a total of 58 points (1 – 8, 10 and 12)
Each Jury will watch and cast their votes based on Dress Rehearsal 2 which will take place in the evening of Friday 12 May.
After viewers have cast their votes, a national spokesperson from the participating countries will be called in to present the points of their professional jury – which range from the maximum 'douze points' (12) to zero.
After the presentation of the scores from the juries, the public points from all participating countries will be combined, providing one score for each song.