As it has been for the past few years, result of Eurovision 2019 will be decided for 50% the televote, and for 50% by national juries – groups of music industry professionals. This morning the EBU have revealed the 205 jury members who will vote in this year’s semi-finals and Grand Final.
While viewers vote on the entries based on their live performances on the night, jurors cast their votes based on the final dress rehearsals. These take place an evening prior to each of the live shows. For each of the Semis, only the jurors representing the countries participating in the show can vote, plus a randomly-allocated set of three countries from ‘the Big Five’ (plus the host country). The same applies to the televote.
This year, jurors and televoters from Spain, France and Israel will vote in the first Semi-Final. Meanwhile, the juries and viewers in Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom will vote in the second Semi-Final. All 41 juries and all viewers from participating countries will be able to vote in the Grand Final.
Familiar faces
It is often the case that among the 200+ jurors, some familiar faces from Eurovision past pop up. Here are just some of the notable names you may recognise among the jurors:
- Azerbaijan — Leyla Quliyeva (Eurovision 2012 presenter)
- Croatia — Franka (Eurovision 2018)
- France — Bruno Berberes (former-Head of Delegation)
- Germany — Michael Schulte (Eurovision 2018)
- Hungary — Kati Wolf (Eurovision 2011)
- Iceland — Mária Ólafs (Eurovision 2015)
- Russia — the Tolmachevy Twins (Junior Eurovision 2006; Eurovision 2014)
- United Kingdom — Sophie Ellis-Bextor (pop star and former You Decide judge)
Voting criteria
Each national jury consists of five ‘music industry professionals’ — four members and one appointed chairperson. The jury members are asked to judge entries and allocate scores based the following:
- The vocal capacity of the singer
- The performance on stage
- The composition and originality of the song
- The overall impression of the act
Each jury member ranks all entries (in each semi-final they are voting in and the 26 entries in the Grand Final), obviously excluding their own entries. To keep the process fair, the EBU’s independent observers at EY reserve the right to pay ‘surprise visits’ to the jury panels in order to ensure that the voting is being conducted in accordance with the rules of the Contest. For transparency, full voting details are released after the Grand Final on May 18th.
You can download and view the full list as a PDF here.
What do you think of this year’s jurors? Are the right checks in place to ensure fairness? What changes would you like to see to the process? Let us know! Be sure to stay updated by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter, @escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates! We’ll also be posting plenty of content on our YouTube in the run up to Tel Aviv!
