How does voting work in Eurovision Song Contest? Voting system explained with jury and televotes

From voting to how results are announced - here’s everything you need to know about the Eurovision voting system
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Eurovision fans are preparing to rank their favourite new performances and decide who they will be giving their douze points to as this year’s contest prepares to kick off.

The contest is nothing without fans voting for their favourites, and casual viewers will be dying to see if anyone performs the UK’s previous nil points feat from last year.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The annual event, which is watched by around 180 million people each year, has seen changes to the voting and ranking system in recent years, with experts claiming that the new way makes the competition fairer.

But how exactly does it work - how can you vote in the contest? And how are votes calculated?

Here’s everything you need to know about the Eurovision Song Contest voting system.

The voting system for Eurovision has changed over the years - here is how it works. (Credit: Getty Images)The voting system for Eurovision has changed over the years - here is how it works. (Credit: Getty Images)
The voting system for Eurovision has changed over the years - here is how it works. (Credit: Getty Images)

How do you vote in Eurovision?

Televotes are key to the Eurovision Song Contest. These are votes made by the public watching from home.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Voting takes place in both semi-finals as well as the grand final.

For all events, voting will open after all countries have performed and will remain open for around 15 minutes.

You can vote via phone or text message. There is also an option to vote through the Eurovision app and through the BBC Eurovision webpage.

Every country, regardless of whether they made it through to the final, can vote in the final, but not every country votes in both semi-finals.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The group known as the ‘Big Five’ - the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain - are only able to vote in one semi-final which is assigned to them ahead of time.

In 2023, for the first time there will be a Rest of the World vote - meaning fans tuning in from around the globe can have their say.

What are the rules for voting in Eurovision?

Voting is fairly simple in the Eurovision Song Contest, but there are a few rules you must follow.

Even if you live in the UK and Mae Muller is your favourite, you cannot vote for your own country.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The BBC’s broadcast would usually block out any voting information relevant to the UK so that you don’t make any mistakes.

The contest used to be purely voted on by a jury of experts from each country, before televoting was introduced in 1997. (Credit: Getty Images)The contest used to be purely voted on by a jury of experts from each country, before televoting was introduced in 1997. (Credit: Getty Images)
The contest used to be purely voted on by a jury of experts from each country, before televoting was introduced in 1997. (Credit: Getty Images)

What are Eurovision jury votes?

Not only performances voted on by the general public, by a panel of expert juries from each country also cast their vote on their favourites.

This was the only way winners were decided in the contest until televoting was introduced in 1997.

Each jury is made up of six experts who rank their favourite songs, allocating 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12 points.

How are votes counted in the Eurovision Song Contest?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

To arrive at the final results in Eurovision, the countries are ranked separately - first by where they placed in the jury vote by each country and then are allocated a number of points depending on their share of the televote.

This has been the method of announcing the results since 2016.

Prior to this, the votes were combined and announced in one go.

The jury votes and televotes are weighted equally 50-50.

Often there are big disparities between the juries favourite performances and the public’s favourites, therefore experts argue that the new method of voting is fairer to the contestants.

What happens if there is a tie?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Although it is not common, there have been instances where there has not been an outright winner in Eurovision.

The most famous instance of this was a four-way tie between the UK, Spain, the Netherland and France. There was no tiebreaker decided at the time, so all four countries were given the win.

IN modern times though there are some tiebreaker rules.

As of 2016, if two countries place at the top of the leaderboard with the same amount of points, the country with the most televotes wins.

If both countries finish on the same points and have recieved the exact same amount of televotes, organisers will look to how many countries gave them votes.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The entry with the greatest number of countries voting for them will then be crowned.

When is the Eurovision final?

The grand final will take place at 8pm UK time on Saturday 13 May live from Liverpool.

It will be broadcast on BBC One.

Related topics:

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.