The Norwegian Head of Delegation has called for the jury voting system to be re-evaluated.
Following on from Eurovision 2023, the Norwegian Head of Delegation, Stig Karlsen, has called for a re-evaluation on the way the jury voting is conducted in Eurovision.
“The jury system in Eurovision must definitely be evaluated, and the debate is very welcome. There has been a distance between the jury and the people in the past as well, but this year it became extremely clear. The people obviously had another winner. The fact that a jury of 185 people should have as much power as millions of TV viewers is questionable.”
Eurovision 2023 saw Loreen grab a second Eurovision win, and a seventh win for Sweden. She was the convincing jury winner with 340 points and 15 sets of 12 points. She had an impressive 163 point lead over second placed Israel who received 177 points.
With the televoters though, it was a different story. Käärijä of Finland was the convincing televote winner with 376 points and 18 sets of 12 points. He has achieved the joint second highest televote score in Eurovision (along with Salvador Sobral in 2017). Loreen on the other hand finished in second place with 243 points.
What are your thoughts on the jury voting system in Eurovision? Do you agree with Stig Karlssen that the system needs to be re-evaluated? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
One Response
I fully agree with Stig Karlsen. 185 people just can’t have as much power as the public opinion. Something really needs to be done. It seems the public is good enough to pour money in expressing their opinion by televotes (1 €/vote in my country), but not good enough to be really heard. This year definitely made it so obvious. There were many good singers that were left without notice by the jury. The gap between 1st and 2nd after the jury vote being 163 points has nothing to do with the singers’ or songs’ quality, and I can’t even imagine where the jury have had their ears while rating Tattoo’s originality (the total lack of it), which is supposed to be one of their criteria. EBU can either change the balance between jury and public vote or turn the whole ESC into a pop museum that won’t interest anyone in a long run.