A shortlist of seven potential host cities has been announced.
Liverpool looks the natural choice. Paul McCartney, Kelly Dalglish and the Klitschko brothers to host.
Failing that, Ringo, Jimmy Tarbuck or Yosser Hughes.
Itâs Glasgow or Liverpool
Big news
No more ânul pointsâ for the UK? Why Eurovision is about to get a lot less sleazy
âIrregular voting patternsâ â or, countries scratching each othersâ backs â have ruined Eurovision. But a new system could change the tune
ByJames Hall22 November 2022 ⢠5:22pm
The UKâs Sam Ryder, who came 2nd in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest CREDIT: AFP
Hold my cocktail and unplug the confetti cannon! Organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest have announced sweeping changes to the voting system for next yearâs competition in a bid to eradicate vote rigging.
From 2023, juries from individual countries will be banned from deciding which nations progress from the semi-finals to the so-called Grand Final, with the qualifying countries being solely determined by a public vote. Further, viewers from countries not taking part will be able to vote for their favourite songs for the first time. In a bid to stamp out sleaze, Eurovision is essentially becoming a global reality TV competition.
The move follows the discovery last year of irregular voting among the juries of six countries during one of Eurovisionâs two semi-finals: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, San Marino. The countries had effectively all voted for each other. So organiser the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) set about finding ways to âprotect the integrity of the eventâ. Todayâs changes are the solution. They will, according to Eurovisionâs executive supervisor Martin Ăsterdahl, âacknowledge the immense popularity of the show by giving more power to the audience of the worldâs largest live music event.â
Translation: giving more power to the audience means taking power away from potentially corrupt juries. The rankings in the all-important final will still be decided by a combination of votes from viewers and points from countriesâ individual juries, albeit using a slightly tweaked formula.
The new rules shouldnât affect the United Kingdom as we are one of five countries that automatically qualify for the Grand Final every year as weâre such a big funder of the EBU. If the final as well as the semi-finals was to be decided solely on the basis of a public vote, then the UK would surely be banished to ânul pointsâ purgatory for evermore. The reason? No one likes us very much, Sam Ryderâs stellar performance last year notwithstanding. But banishment, thankfully, will not be the case.
So what are the changes likely to mean in practice when the Eurovision takes place in Liverpool next May (weâre hosting it on behalf of last yearâs winner Ukraine, which canât do it for obvious reasons)?
Firstly, the show should become fairer and more transparent. The noxious notion of countries scratching each otherâs backs or voting in blocks will be wiped out in the run-up to the final. Last yearâs vote rigging â or the emergence of âirregular voting patternsâ, in the official parlance â was so obvious it was almost comical. Independent Eurovision bodies the pan-European Voting Partner and the Independent Voting Monitor (which are like our Electoral Commission but for cheesy music) noticed within hours of the second semi-final on May 12 that something iffy was going on.
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Four of the six juries of the countries named above had placed five of the others in their top five (taking into account that they couldnât vote for themselves), while one jury voted for the same five in their top six, and the final jury placed all the others in its top seven. Alarm bells rang as most of these countries had been ranked in the bottom six by the 15 other countries in the semi-final. Go figure. The irregularities were âunprecedentedâ, the EBU said.
Secondly, the changes will mean that Eurovision fans from India and Iran to Mexico to Malaysia will be able to join in. The event is already global: last year it drew a television audience of over 160 million, and Australia now takes part. But this will broaden it further. âFans in Asia [are] absolutely thrilled by this news,â wrote one fan on Twitter about the changes in the voting system. Another wrote: âAt least five people in my family in Peru are gonna vote and there [sic] hundreds of Eurofans about Latin America.â
James Newman, who won zero points for the UK in 2021 CREDIT: AP
The inclusion of non-participating countries also tilts the balance of votes in the final. Until now, Grand Final votes have been weighted 50-50 between the juries â âDouze points from Zagrebâ etc â and votes from the public in participating countries. Following the change, votes from so-called Rest of World countries will be combined to create a set of points with the same combined weight as one participating country (are you keeping up?).
This will in turn alter the 50-50 ratio to give the general public a 50.6 per cent say in the winners, versus a 49.4 per cent say for the juries. In reality such a shift is unlikely to alter the winner. But itâs symbolically huge. It means Eurovision is a now predominantly a âpeopleâs competitionâ. Public voting of any kind was only introduced in 1997.
Thirdly, I predict that the contest will become more fun and slightly more chaotic and controversial. Fun because the music might become more diverse â there are fans in Peru to appeal to, after all. And the global element will mean that those Eurovision parties will stretch far beyond households in participating countries. Chaotic and controversial because widescale change always has the potential to be fraught.
Voters from Rest of World countries will have to pay to vote via a secure online platform using a credit card from their country, the EBU has said. Paid voting is already done via text or a phone call in participating countries (or by paid online voting in Australia). An EBU spokesman tells me the cost of voting will be published nearer the time. But some Rest of World potential voters are already sceptical. âUhmmm, credit card, really?â wrote one Manila-based fan.
Whether any of this matters to you depends on whether you see Eurovision as kitsch entertainment frippery or a series competition. But one thing is for sure: Eurovision 2023 certainly wonât be boring.
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Junior Eurovision on tg4, voting underway, tension is unrale
Armenia have knocked us off top spot but I reckon itâs going to France
4th place finish on the cards. Our minors look decent.
France have it
I caught a bit of it earlier. Our lady sang in Irish. She was brilliant.
She was a tapper
First country ever to simultaneously be champions of both the Senior Menâs Association Football World Cup and Junior Eurovision.
Not the biggest turkey weâd have sent, and Iâm not evening including Dustin in the top 3.
Jonny has Cork and Galway heritage
Aloha. Well hello there.
There is a few tunes with potential there but that ainât one of them. Sounds like something youâd produce after a batch of mushies
Siri, I want a fusion of âAshesâ by Embrace and âWe Are The Peopleâ by Bono/Martin something/UEFA and please pour a bit of extra cheese on the production.
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Or more succinctly
A classic Eurovision song
About time we had a proper Irish song contest. We need a battle hardened winner heading across on the boat to Liverpool.
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By God
This auld lad with the mohawk singing about Hawaii. Christđ