In a letter sent to Eurovision broadcasters, and read by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the EBU announced its intention to reform public voting in the Eurovision Song Contest. The organisation is exploring a move to a full online vote with new rules, and hopes to be able to implement it in time for next year’s Contest.
Online voting and spreading the votes
In its letter, the EBU explains that they are exploring two changes to the public voting for Eurovision 2027:
- A requirement for people to vote for more than one entry (eg. for their three favourites)
- And as such, moving the voting entirely online
Indeed, it is extremely complex to enforce the first change without going through the second one. SMS and telephone voting force viewers to vote sequentially (sending one text per vote, one at a time). Assuming a system where, for example, viewers had to spread up to 10 votes for 3 different countries, you would need to tally how many countries are receiving votes from each phone number, with the votes remaining invalid until three are present (but then you would also need to stop counting any vote beyond the tenth, and to make sure only the first ten are taken into account, etc.).
A move to the online “esc.vote” platform could give the EBU a much bigger flexibility to enforce more complex rules, such as spreading 10 votes between at least 3 entries, spreading votes between a minimum and a maximum number of entries, ranking entries (in a top 3, perhaps), etc. Such moves already took place for some national selections and for other Eurovision events (Junior and Asia), with different formats.
Efforts to open online voting to more and more countries have been made in the past few years, with almost every 2026 country using it (either on its own or in addition to traditional televoting), compared to less than half in Malmö 2024 (16 out of 37 at the time). The EBU will keep on reviewing national legislation regarding voting processes for TV shows in each country to determine whether the project is feasible, and plan on implementing it in time for Eurovision 2027, which will be held in Burgas.
A confirmation of “persistent” and “concerning” bloc voting
The letter justifies the change by acknowledging the existence of a “persistent” issue with “mobilised bloc voting”, which is seen as deeply concerning by “many”. The letter recognises that the current state of geopolitics is boosting support for entries “for reasons that have very little to do with their performances”, something that has always been present at Eurovision but which has now taken a new dimension.
Even without major paid campaigns, and with a voting system that we can vouch for, it has become clear that today’s geopolitical climate is driving votes for certain artists for reasons that have very little to do with their performances. This is nothing new in Eurovision history – we’ve seen it happen before – but this time it’s persistent, and for many it’s deeply concerning.
EBU Letter to broadcasters, as reported by Aftonbladet
[…]This work [to move the public vote online] is already underway, with the hope of having it ready by 2027. We believe that these changes will increase engagement and the willingness to vote and help dilute the effect of mobilized bloc voting, without compromising fairness or trust
Among the “many” who are concerned are of course Eurovision fans, but also broadcasters, with a few of them asking for more transparency of process reviews after the 2024 and 2025 editions. These obviously include the five broadcasters that withdrew from the Contest ahead of Vienna 2026 (from Iceland, Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and The Netherlands), as well as current participants such as VRT from Belgium, YLE from Finland or NRK from Norway.
Changes were already implemented for 2026, with the maximum number of individual votes lowered to 10 per payment method (from 20 before that) and the return of juries to the semi-final. As we got closer to the actual shows, the EBU also clarified that official promotion and marketing could encourage people to vote for a country but could not encourage them to spend all of their votes on that country, with the EBU doubling down on this with many mentions of “spreading the love” when voting, from social media posts to the script of the TV hosts in Vienna.
How do you feel about these potential changes? Will they really dilute the geopolitical voting witnessed these past few years? What would be the best format for implementing such an online vote? Tell us more in the comments below!
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