Sweden's broadcaster SVT have announced major changes will be coming to Eurovision 2024.
The host broadcaster for Eurovision 2024, SVT, has revealed that there will be some major changes coming to this years contest in Malmö. The two main changes involve the semi finals and the voting system, with more changes to be announced in the coming weeks.
Big 5 change in semi finals
The first change which SVT announced is that all of the big 5 countries will be performing their entries live in the semi finals. Prior to 2024, the big 5 acts would perform their entries during the dress rehearsal for the semi final, and a short clip of this performance would be shown during the semi final, after all of the other acts had performed.
This year will see Germany, United Kingdom and host country Sweden performing and voting in semi final one on Tuesday 9th May, with France, Italy and Spain performing and voting in semi final two on Thursday 9th May. Their performances will be slotted in between the competing semi finalists performances, as opposed to performing at the end.
Keen to encourage a fairer playing field to all 37 acts in this years Eurovision Song Contest, Executive Producer of Eurovision 2024 Ebba Adielsson explains: “We think that this change gives the Big Five countries and the host country a fairer playing field in the Grand Final, as they now have the opportunity to perform “for real” on stage in the Semi-Finals. It is also a win for both the audience in the arena and the viewers at home, in that they get to see all the acts competing this year live before the Grand Final.”
Executive Supervisor of the contest Martin Österdahl has chimed in with his delight at these changes: “Finally we get to see Europe’s largest countries and the hosts perform their songs in full in the Semi-Finals, meaning there’s even more entertainment for fans and viewers and, like all the qualifiers, the Big 5 and host country now get to perform their songs live twice on the Eurovision stage.”
Eurovision voting gets an extension!
In addition to the changes regarding the big 5 and host country performances in the semi finals, we also have changes being made to the voting window in the grand final and semi finals. In the grand final, televoting will open after the first song has been performed, meaning that viewers will be able to vote as the songs are being performed, rather than waiting until they have all finished performing. This has previously been trialed in Eurovision 2010 and 2011.
With regards to the rest of the world vote, fans in non-participating countries will now have nearly 24 hours to vote for their favourite songs before the semi finals and grand final begin. Online voting for the rest of the world will open immediatley after the second dress rehearsal for the two semi finals and grand final, and will remain open until the live shows begin.
Ebba Adielsson explains that this voting system has been in place in Melodifestivalen, with it being a positive experience, and hopes it can be the same for Eurovision:
“Voting in the final has previously opened when all 26 entries have finished singing. Instead, we want to provide the opportunity to engage the viewers from the start – if you see something you like, you should be able to vote immediately. You can also, of course, wait until the recap at the end, as in previous years.
SVT has positive experience with this voting procedure in ‘Melodifestivalen’ (Sweden’s national final). In addition, there are viewers in other parts of the world who want to vote and we want to give them a better opportunity to participate in the result. Now they don’t have to set an alarm clock in the middle of the night.”
Martin Österdahl is also in agreement that keeping the voting lines open for longer will have a positive impact: “By the time voting opens for the Grand Final every participating song will have been performed on stage so viewers will have had the chance to see all the acts competing to win this year’s show. The Eurovision Song Contest is always evolving and with more performances and chances to vote it promises to be the most exciting edition yet!”
For Eurovision 2024, the semi finals will remain 100% televote, and the final will still be (almost) 50% jury vote and just over 50% televote (owing to the rest of the world vote).
Prior to these announcements, a draw was held to determine where host country would be performing in the Eurovision 2024 final. Marcus and Martinus were drawn to perform in first place, and will have the honour of opening the grand final of Eurovision 2024 with “Unforgettable”.
The EBU have confirmed that there are more changes coming in due course; but until then, what are your thoughts on the changes announced today? Let us know what you think of these changes in the comments below!
2 Responses
If you change your mind later on in the semi, or final. You won’t be able to change your mind.
That’s very interesting, but would you please publish an article about the petition in the link below? It’s from change.org and is a petition for the EBU to require self-written songs for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest for the first time since 2007.
https://www.change.org/p/junior-eurovision-song-contest-2024-competing-songs-must-be-written-by-children