How does the voting work, precisely?
It’s difficult. Till just lately, voting comprised a mix of tallies from the juries of particular person nations with a component of public voting. Nonetheless there was a giant shake-up to the voting system this yr after irregular voting patterns have been found among the many juries of six nations throughout a semi-final final yr. Basically Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino have been all suspected of voting for one another.
So this yr, for the primary time, juries from particular person nations are banned from deciding which nations progress from the semis to the Grand Ultimate. Slightly, that is now be decided solely by a public vote, as occurred final evening (favourites Sweden and Finland acquired by way of, Eire was knocked out). And for the primary time too, viewers from nations not collaborating (so-called Remainder of World nations) are capable of vote for his or her favorite songs (they’ll should pay €0.99 per vote for the privilege). Readers could have observed that UK audiences weren’t capable of vote in final evening’s semi. Why was this? It’s as a result of the six nations with a bye to the ultimate are solely allowed to vote in a single semi every. This was randomly allotted earlier this yr – and the UK acquired Thursday’s semi-final.
However that’s simply the semis. The rankings within the all-important Grand Ultimate will nonetheless be determined by a mixture of the factors from nations’ particular person juries (“douze factors from Sarajevo” and many others.) and votes from viewers. Every particular person can vote as much as 20 instances however can be unable to pick out their very own nation’s entry. Nonetheless there’s a tweak this yr (are you maintaining?). Till now, votes within the last have been weighted 50-50 between juries and the general public vote. However votes from new Remainder of World nations will now be mixed to have the equal weight of 1 taking part nation. This can alter the 50-50 ratio to offer most of the people a 50.6 per cent say within the winner, versus a 49.4 per cent say for the juries. Which implies that Eurovision has principally change into a Individuals’s Competitors. Knotty isn’t it? And also you thought it was only a tacky singing competitors. In fact, the brand new guidelines nonetheless received’t wipe out political voting: the juries from Greece and Cyprus will nonetheless most likely give one another most factors.
Who will announce the outcomes?
Comic and Physician Who actress Catherine Tate can be this yr’s Eurovision spokesperson, which means she is going to announce the outcomes of the UK’s nationwide jury reside from the Liverpool Area on the last on Saturday. “It’s very thrilling to be asserting the long-lasting ‘douze factors’ at Eurovision,” she mentioned and joked: “It’s only a foot within the door actually as subsequent yr I hope to be the UK entrant.” Different
Do performers sing reside?
Sure, all lead vocals should be reside. This contains any over-dubs by the singer that observe the music’s melody. Performers can select between pre-recorded backing vocals, reside backing singers (both on or off stage) or a mixture of reside and recorded backing vocals. Songs should be authentic compositions and not than three minutes lengthy. Not more than six performers are allowed on stage throughout anybody music.
Pre-recorded backing tracks have been first allowed in 1973 as long as all of the devices that have been pre-recorded have been additionally seen being “carried out” – or mimed – on stage. This rule was made redundant by the daybreak of digital music and scrapped in 1997, the yr after Gina G’s band needed to cart huge computer systems onto the stage to carry out Ooh Aah… Simply A Little Bit as a result of these have been the devices on which the music was partially created.
