For many Eurovision viewers, the highlight of the evening is when the results are revealed, and we get to see who gets to nab the trophy – not to mention which country gets the honour of hosting next year.
The method of delivering the results underwent a bit of a shake-up back in 2016, when the jury votes and the televotes were split into two – and the same thing will happen again this year at the grand final in Tel Aviv.
But having undergone a change just a few years ago, things are changing again this year – so just how will the results be delivered this time?
Here’s what you need to know…
How will the voting system work in the Eurovision final this year?
Since 2016 a system has been implemented which splits the vote – so the first part of the voting sees the jurors from all 41 participating countries give the results of their juries.
The jury vote makes up 50 per cent of each country’s overall score, with every participating nation fielding a jury made up of music industry professionals who vote on the songs.
These votes are combined to give their scores, awarding their top ten ranked countries one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 10 and 12 points (yup, the infamous ‘douze points’).
These scores are then combined with the televote scores which are announced by the hosts, with those points making up the remaining 50 per cent of the final results.
Once again, the top 10 most voted for songs from each country get points as above, but these are all added together to make one final total which is added to the country’s total score.
So what’s different at this year’s Eurovision?
In 2016, 2017 and 2018 the points were announced in reverse order, with the country which had received the lowest score in the televote being announced first, all the way up to the country which finished first – meaning you really did have to wait till the very last moment to see who the winner was.
This year, however, the European Broadcasting Union has made a slight change – as the results will be revealed in reverse order depending on where countries finished in the jury vote.
So, that means the country that’s bottom of the heap at the end of the jury vote will receive their points first, and the first placed country won’t learn how many points they’ve received until the very end.
All of which could shake things up considerably, given that there’s no guarantee that a song which does well with the juries will do just as well with the public, and vice versa.
For example Cesar Sampson from Austria was in first place at the end of the jury voting in 2018, with 271 points – but he received just 71 points in the televote, which meant he finished in third place overall.
Likewise, Sweden’s Benjamin Ingrosso was in second place at the end of last year’s jury vote with 253 points, but scored just 21 points in the televote to end the night in seventh place.
While Salvador Sobral won both jury and public vote in 2017, 2016 also saw a few contrasts, with Australia’s Dami Im winning the jury vote but finishing fourth in the public vote – leaving Jamala from Ukraine, who finished second with both jury and televoters, scoring enough combined points to take the title.
That year also saw Poland’s Michal Szpak score just seven points from the juries but a whopping 222 points from the public to finish the night in eighth place.
So those scores really can make it that bit more exciting – and now it’s about to get more exciting still, with the country which tops the jury vote having to wait until the very end of the night to find out if they’ve won the whole thing.
We’re not sure we’ll have any nails left.
The Eurovision Song Contest grand final is on BBC One on Saturday night from 8pm.
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