How will Junior Eurovision’s online voting work? The EBU reveals all the details!

For the first time in Junior Eurovision Song Contest history, fans online from all around the world will have a 50% stake in determining the winner! Last year, juries alone decided that Mariam Mamadashvili would take home the 2016 winner’s trophy for Georgia. However, following mixed fan reaction, the EBU have brought back a form of public voting.

Two rounds of voting

So how will it work? From November 24th, the final day of individual country rehearsals, previews of all sixteen performances will be uploaded to junioreurovision.tv. After watching the previews, you can vote for three, four or five of your favourite performances. In another Eurovision first, viewers in participating countries can vote for their own country. Will this give an advantage to those countries with larger populations? Time will tell!
This first round of voting will then close shortly before the live show on the afternoon of November 26th. Once all 16 songs have been performed during the live show, voting will reopen again for a further fifteen minutes. All of the online votes will then be converted into points on the scoreboard. The online vote will decide 50% of the final vote while juries will determine the other 50%.

The Melodifestivalen voting format?

While it hasn’t been fully clarified how this conversion will happen, it is probable that they will follow the Melodifestivalen format of voting. Therefore, the voting organisers will split 928 points between the sixteen countries based on the percentage of the online vote each country achieves. Therefore, a country receiving 10% of the vote will receive 93 points. The sixteen national juries will then award points in the standard 12 to 1 points format. The total amount of points awarded by the juries will add up to 928, securing the 50/50 split.
Watch the official video all about this year’s Junior Eurovision voting below, courtesy of junioreurovision.tv!

What do you think of this year’s voting changes? Are you pleased that the public will once again have their say in deciding the winner? Let us know in the comments below!