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Voting at the Eurovision Song Contest
The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is determined by a positional voting system. The most recent version of the system was implemented in the 2023 contest. Each participating country awards two sets of 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points, based on their ten favourite songs from other countries. One set of picks comes from their professional jury, and the other from televoting in their country. Only the set from televoting is used in the semi-finals, while both sets from jury and televoting are used in the final.
Small, demographically-balanced juries assembled by each participating broadcaster and made up of ordinary people had been used to rank the entries and award the points from each country. After the widespread use of telephone voting in 1998, the ranking resorts to juries only in the event of a televoting malfunctions. In 2003, for example, Eircom's telephone polling system malfunctioned. Irish broadcaster RTÉ did not receive the polling results from them in time, and used the backup jury instead. Between 1997 and 2003, the first years of televoting, lines were opened to the public for only five minutes after the performance and recap of the final song. Between 2004 and 2006, the lines were opened for ten minutes. From 2007 to 2009, they were opened for fifteen minutes. As of 2025, the voting is open for approximately 15 to 25 minutes after the end of the last performance in the semi-finals, and analogously for approximately 25 and 40 minutes after the end of the last performance in the final; the "Rest of the World" vote additionally runs for 24 hours before each show in order to accommodate for time zone differences. Viewers may cast up to 20 votes per show, for each phone number or payment method.
In 2010, 2011, 2024 and 2025, viewers were allowed to vote during the performances. Since the 2004 contest, the presenters will start the televoting window with an invitation: "Europe, start voting now!" was used until 2014, "Europe and Australia, start voting now!" (due to Australia's debut) between 2015 and 2022, and "Europe, Australia, and the rest of the world, start voting now!" (due to the introduction of the "Rest of the World" vote) since 2023. At the end of the voting period, the presenters will tell viewers to stop with a final countdown, along with the phrase "Europe, Australia, and the rest of the world, stop voting now!". The United Kingdom is not able to vote via SMS or the smartphone app, due to legislation implemented after the 2007 British premium-rate phone-in scandal. San Marino has never been able to use televoting because it does not have a telephone network independent of Italy's.
In the first contest in 1956, only the winning song was announced at the conclusion of the event, with the results of the remaining participants unknown. Since 1957, a spokesperson, appointed by each participating broadcaster, was contacted by telephone to reveal the points or votes from its country. This method continued to be used until 1993, except for a few occasions in which the international juries were located in the host country and voted directly on screen. Since 1994, the spokespersons have appeared on screen through a live satellite link.
To announce the points in the final, the contest's presenters invite each spokesperson to read the country's points in French or English. The presenters originally repeated the points in both languages, however, since 2004, the points have only been translated due to time constraints. To offset increased voting time required by a larger number of participating countries, since 2006, each spokesperson only read out the top three scores of their respective country's vote: 8, 10 and 12 points. Points from one to seven were added automatically to the scoreboard, while each spokesperson was introduced.
The scoreboard displays the number of points each country has received, and, since 2008, a progress bar indicating the number of countries which have voted. In 2016, as part of a new voting system that was being implemented, it was decided that only the 12-point mark would be read aloud, meaning that points one through eight, as well as ten, were added automatically to the scoreboard. The televoting points were combined and the presenters announced them in order, starting from the country with the lowest score and ending with the country with the highest score, from the televoting. Beginning with the 2019 contest, the televoting points are announced by the presenters based on the juries' rankings, in reverse order.
The most-used voting system, other than the current one, was last used for the 1974 contest. This system was used from 1957 to 1961 and from 1967 to 1969. Ten jurors in each country, each cast one vote for their favourite song. In 1969, this resulted in a four-way tie for first place, between the UK, the Netherlands, France, and Spain, with no tie-breaking procedure. A second round of voting in the event of a tie was introduced to this system in 1970.
From 1962 to 1966, a voting system similar to the current one was used. In 1962, each country awarded its top three 1, 2 and 3 points. In 1963 the top five were awarded 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 points. From 1964 to 1966, each country usually awarded its top three 1, 3, and 5 points. With the latter system, a country could choose to give points to two countries, instead of three, giving 3 to one and 6 to the other. In 1965, Belgium awarded the United Kingdom 6 points and Italy 3. Although it was possible to give one country 9 points, this never occurred.
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Voting at the Eurovision Song Contest
The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is determined by a positional voting system. The most recent version of the system was implemented in the 2023 contest. Each participating country awards two sets of 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points, based on their ten favourite songs from other countries. One set of picks comes from their professional jury, and the other from televoting in their country. Only the set from televoting is used in the semi-finals, while both sets from jury and televoting are used in the final.
Small, demographically-balanced juries assembled by each participating broadcaster and made up of ordinary people had been used to rank the entries and award the points from each country. After the widespread use of telephone voting in 1998, the ranking resorts to juries only in the event of a televoting malfunctions. In 2003, for example, Eircom's telephone polling system malfunctioned. Irish broadcaster RTÉ did not receive the polling results from them in time, and used the backup jury instead. Between 1997 and 2003, the first years of televoting, lines were opened to the public for only five minutes after the performance and recap of the final song. Between 2004 and 2006, the lines were opened for ten minutes. From 2007 to 2009, they were opened for fifteen minutes. As of 2025, the voting is open for approximately 15 to 25 minutes after the end of the last performance in the semi-finals, and analogously for approximately 25 and 40 minutes after the end of the last performance in the final; the "Rest of the World" vote additionally runs for 24 hours before each show in order to accommodate for time zone differences. Viewers may cast up to 20 votes per show, for each phone number or payment method.
In 2010, 2011, 2024 and 2025, viewers were allowed to vote during the performances. Since the 2004 contest, the presenters will start the televoting window with an invitation: "Europe, start voting now!" was used until 2014, "Europe and Australia, start voting now!" (due to Australia's debut) between 2015 and 2022, and "Europe, Australia, and the rest of the world, start voting now!" (due to the introduction of the "Rest of the World" vote) since 2023. At the end of the voting period, the presenters will tell viewers to stop with a final countdown, along with the phrase "Europe, Australia, and the rest of the world, stop voting now!". The United Kingdom is not able to vote via SMS or the smartphone app, due to legislation implemented after the 2007 British premium-rate phone-in scandal. San Marino has never been able to use televoting because it does not have a telephone network independent of Italy's.
In the first contest in 1956, only the winning song was announced at the conclusion of the event, with the results of the remaining participants unknown. Since 1957, a spokesperson, appointed by each participating broadcaster, was contacted by telephone to reveal the points or votes from its country. This method continued to be used until 1993, except for a few occasions in which the international juries were located in the host country and voted directly on screen. Since 1994, the spokespersons have appeared on screen through a live satellite link.
To announce the points in the final, the contest's presenters invite each spokesperson to read the country's points in French or English. The presenters originally repeated the points in both languages, however, since 2004, the points have only been translated due to time constraints. To offset increased voting time required by a larger number of participating countries, since 2006, each spokesperson only read out the top three scores of their respective country's vote: 8, 10 and 12 points. Points from one to seven were added automatically to the scoreboard, while each spokesperson was introduced.
The scoreboard displays the number of points each country has received, and, since 2008, a progress bar indicating the number of countries which have voted. In 2016, as part of a new voting system that was being implemented, it was decided that only the 12-point mark would be read aloud, meaning that points one through eight, as well as ten, were added automatically to the scoreboard. The televoting points were combined and the presenters announced them in order, starting from the country with the lowest score and ending with the country with the highest score, from the televoting. Beginning with the 2019 contest, the televoting points are announced by the presenters based on the juries' rankings, in reverse order.
The most-used voting system, other than the current one, was last used for the 1974 contest. This system was used from 1957 to 1961 and from 1967 to 1969. Ten jurors in each country, each cast one vote for their favourite song. In 1969, this resulted in a four-way tie for first place, between the UK, the Netherlands, France, and Spain, with no tie-breaking procedure. A second round of voting in the event of a tie was introduced to this system in 1970.
From 1962 to 1966, a voting system similar to the current one was used. In 1962, each country awarded its top three 1, 2 and 3 points. In 1963 the top five were awarded 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 points. From 1964 to 1966, each country usually awarded its top three 1, 3, and 5 points. With the latter system, a country could choose to give points to two countries, instead of three, giving 3 to one and 6 to the other. In 1965, Belgium awarded the United Kingdom 6 points and Italy 3. Although it was possible to give one country 9 points, this never occurred.