As part of our ‘Voting Quirks’ series, ESCXTRA.com has been analysing the results of the televoting at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. One of the most interesting cases to study was the televote score for Moldova, looking at the semi and the Grand Final. Following a number of fans and journalists scrutinising suspicious patterns in the votes Moldova received, both the EBU and a representative for the team behind Moldova’s entry have responded.
As Nick pointed out in our feature, a hefty televote support for Natalia Gordienko in semi-final two all-but-collapsed on the night of the Grand Final. This has lead to calls to the EBU for the votes to be investigated.
In light of these allegations, both the EBU and a representative for ‘the Dream Team’ have responded.
Response from The EBU
Tobbe Ek from Sweden’s Aftonbladet’s asked the EBU whether they will be launching an investigation into the voting inconsistencies, to which a spokesperson responded:
All votes from juries and the public in the Eurovision Song Contest were checked and verified by our voting partner Digame and auditors EY and we are satisfied we have a valid result.
EBU representative to Aftonbladet
This year, Executive Supervisor of the contest, Martin Österdahl decided to keep the identities of jury members under wraps until after the Grand Final. Previously, they had been revealed ahead of time. Österdahl claimed that this was a necessary step “to protect the integrity of the event and to allow them to vote independently without any outside interference or pressure.”
Response from ‘the Dream Team’
After the publication of the article, Aftonbladet updated the article after receiving a statement from a representative of ‘the Dream Team’:
For many years we have proven our love for this contest. Why would we now all of a sudden start trying to manipulate televotes? These accusations are absurd. For example in Portugal there’s a large diaspora from Moldova. And Greece always tend to support our projects.
Representative for ‘the Dream Team’
They also responded to the allegations about vote rigging in certain televoting countries in the semi:
I’m not surprised that Russian diaspora in for example Latvia and Estonia would have voted for her in the semi since there was not Russian artist to vote for.
Representative for ‘the Dream Team’
Natalia Gordienko ended up placing 13th in Saturday’s Grand Final, with scoring 62 points from the televote and receiving 53 points from the juries.
Did the EBU make the right decision? 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! Also, be sure to follow us on Spotify and YouTube to see our reactions to the news in the run up to the 2022 national final season!
That is the most stupid excuse I ever heard. By matter of chance everybody in Greece and Serbia vote for Moldova in the semifinal and suddenly they totally disregard it in the final. And conversely nobody votes for them in Albania and Georgia in the semifinal and suddenly they do it massively in the final.
It does not happen with any other country. Only with Moldavia and in several cases.
Not only they cheat, they also do it so bad that is clear they just bought the votes.
I actually believe that because in the semifinals usually the very fanatics vote many people voted Moldova so that they see her in the finals. But actually we don\’t know the real number of votes in semifinals and the final. Because for example we could see like Greece having Moldova 1st in their ranking with 3000-4000 votes and in the final watching Moldova getting 2000 votes, but finishing much lower in the final. But actually the televote results for Moldova seemed very suspicious.
If actually Moldova bought votes this is really unfair for Denmark who got many televote points rightfully and got bashed by the juries, but they could reach the Final if Moldova got their \”real\” result