Voting at the Eurovision Song Contest

There have been many varied voting systems at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Currently, the winner of the Contest is selected by means of a modified version of the Borda count. Each country ranks all the entries and assigns twelve points to their favorite entry; ten points to their second favorite entry; and eight down to one point to their third to tenth favorites. Countries are not allowed to vote for themselves, but they can vote for their neighbours.

The current method for ranking entries is by a telephone vote among the viewers. In the past, small demographically balanced juries were used to rank the entries. Juries are still used when televoting malfunctions or is impractical - for example, in 2003, Eircom's telephone polls system ceased to operate normally. The Irish broadcaster, RTÉ, did not receive the votes on time and instead used a panel of judges, and it was highly criticized by Russia.

The 1956 Contest did not have regional voting. The BBC had used the idea of contacting regional juries by telephone in their national competition to choose their 1956 song. The EBU later adopted the idea of contacting the international juries by telephone, and was used from the next contest, and used until 1993. In 1994, the Contest saw the first satellite link-up to juries. See below.

The presenters of the Contest connect by satellite to each country in turn, inviting the spokesperson to read out that country's votes in French or English. The presenters then repeat the votes in the alternate language. Due to time constraints in 2004 and 2005, the voting was only translated from English to French and vice-versa instead of repeating the votes that were said. To offset the extension to voting time caused by the increased number of participating countries, from the 2006 contest onwards, each country's one to seven point votes were simply added automatically to the scoreboard as that country's spokesperson was introduced, with only the eight, ten and twelve-point scores being read out.

Tie-breakers

In the event of a tie for first place after all the points have been announced, there is a tie-break procedure. It was realised that a tie-break procedure need be predetermined following the 1969 contest, where France, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom tied for first place. Since no tie-breaking system had been previously decided, it was determined that all four countries be jointly awarded the title. In protest, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Portugal did not participate the following year.

Current tie-breaking rules are to count the number of countries who assigned any points to each entry in the tie. If there is still a tie, the second tie breaker is to count the number of countries who assigned twelve points to each entry in the tie. Tie-breaks continue with ten points, eight points, and so on until the tie is resolved. Ties for other places are only officially resolved if they matter for qualification purposes.

In 1991, the tie-break procedure was put into action when Sweden and France both scored 146 points after the voting had finished. Back then the tie-break rule was slightly different, that is the first tie-break rule (the country voted for by the most other countries wins) was not yet in use. Both Sweden and France had received the maximum of twelve points four times. Only when the number of ten point scores had been counted, Sweden, represented by Carola with the song "Fångad av en stormvind" (Captured by a Love Storm), could acclaim its third victory. Thus, the French song, "C'est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison" ("It's he who speaks last that is right") performed by Amina, came second with the smallest margin ever to spare to the winner.

Nul points

Since each of the participating countries casts a series of votes, it is rare that a song fails to receive any votes at all. Under the modern rules this means that the song failed to make the top ten most popular songs in any country. When it does happen, it is known as nul points, from the practice of reading results in French as well as English during the broadcast. It should be noted, however, that the phrase nul points (nor, for that matter, any other referring to a country not having got points from other country's voters) is never actually read out during the presentation of the Contest. This sentence doesn't mean anything in French.

Entries which received nul points, since the introduction of the current scoring system in 1975 are as follows:

• In 1978, Norway's "Mil etter mil" by Jahn Teigen.
• In 1981, Norway's "Aldri i livet" by Finn Kalvik.
• In 1982, Finland's "Nuku pommiin" by Kojo.
• In 1983, two entries: Turkey's "Opera" by Çetin Alp and Short Wave and Spain's "¿Quién maneja mi barca?" by Remedios Amaya.
• In 1987, Turkey's "Şarkım Sevgi Üstüne" by Seyyal Taner and Grup Locomotif.
• In 1988, Austria's "Lisa, Mona Lisa" by Wilfried.
• In 1989, Iceland's "Það sem enginn sér" by Daníel Ágúst.
• In 1991, Austria's "Venedig im Regen" by Thomas Forstner.
• In 1994, Lithuania's "Lopšinė mylimai" by Ovidijus Vyšniauskas.
• In 1997, two entries: Norway's "San Francisco" by Tor Endresen and Portugal's "Antes do adeus" by Célia Lawson.
• In 1998, Switzerland's "Lass ihn" by Gunvor.
• In 2003, UK's "Cry Baby" by Jemini.

Since the semifinals have been created in 2004, more than thirty countries vote each night - even the countries eliminated or already qualified. Thus the nul points become rarer : it would mean, being less than tenth in every country.

However, in the 2004 semifinal, where 32 countries voted, Switzerland's "Celebrate" by Piero & The Musicstars received nul points.

Political and regional voting patterns

Regional block voting

There is academic evidence that regional block voting exists.

The three most notable voting blocks are:

• the Balkan Block, primarily the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia), along with Albania, Hungary and Bulgaria.
• the Nordic Block, comprising Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, sometimes along with the Baltic states
• and the Ex Soviet Block, former USSR countries: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and, in recent years also Moldova, Georgia and Armenia.

Pairs of countries that regularly award each other high points are:

• Greece and Cyprus
• Greece and Armenia
• Bulgaria and Greece
• Finland and Sweden
• Sweden and Denmark
• Norway and Sweden
• Iceland and Denmark
• Romania and Moldova
• Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina
• The Netherlands and Belgium
• Ireland and the United Kingdom
• Russia and Belarus
• Hungary and Romania
• Poland and Ukraine
• Russia and Ukraine
• Finland and Estonia

Diaspora voting

There is also said to exist "diaspora voting" where immigrants vote for their origin countries. These could be examples of diaspora voting:

• Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark and France to Turkey
• Netherlands, Belgium and France to Armenia
• Spain to Romania and Bulgaria
• France to Portugal, Armenia and Israel
• Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Austria, and Switzerland to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia; Hungary to Serbia or Romania
• Portugal to Ukraine and Romania
• United Kingdom to Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Israel, Greece and Cyprus
• Ireland to Lithuania, Latvia and Poland
• Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova to Russia
• Turkey to Bosnia-Herzegovina , Albania, Macedonia and Armenia
• Germany to Turkey, Greece, Poland, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia
• Greece to Albania, Bulgaria and Armenia
• Israel to Russia, Ukraine and Romania
• France, Belgium and Switzerland to Spain

Failed voting systems

One of the most notable examples of a failed voting system was the one used for the 1969 contest. This system had been used since between 1957 and 1961, and later in 1967 and 1968. Ten jurors in each country assigned gave a single vote to their favourite song. Four countries tied for first place (UK, Netherlands, France, and Spain), and there was no tie-break procedure.

Between 1962 and 1966, a voting system closer to the current system was used. In 1962 each country awarded its top three one, two and three points, in 1963 the top five was awarded one, two, three, four and five points, and from 1964 until 1966, each country awarded its top three one, three and five points. With the latter system, there was an additional rule that each country could choose not to give points to three countries, but award points to two countries (giving one a three and the other a six), or even 1965, where Belgium awarded the United Kingdom six, and Italy three points.

The 1971, 1972, and 1973 contests saw the jurors 'in vision' for the first time. Each country was represented by two jurors - one older than 25 and one younger, with at least ten years' difference in their ages. Each juror gave a minimum of one point and a maximum of five points for each song. In 1974, the previous system of ten jurors was used, and the following year, the current system was introduced. Spokespeople were next seen on screen in 1994 by satellite link up to the venue.