Struttura di voto

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Voting. Who hasn’t heard about the famous ‘douze points’? This page gives you both the basics as well as a detailed explanation of how the voting procedure at the Eurovision Song Contest works.

Since 2016, professional juries and televoters from each country each award a separate set of points from 1 to 8, 10 and 12. This now means the top-10 countries in both the jury and televote will receive points, adding a new level of excitement for hundreds of millions of viewers in Europe and beyond.

This video from 2016, when the new voting system was introduced, gives you a quick introduction to the voting system:

How it works — the short version. After viewers have cast their votes by telephone, SMS or using the official app, each national spokesperson from the participating countries will be called in to present the points of their professional jury.

After the presentation of the scores from the juries, the televoting points from all participating countries will be combined, providing one score for each song. These televoting results will then be announced by the presenters.

In 2019, the presentation of the votes changed slightly. The order in which the televoting results are revealed is determined by the ranking of the jury result. The announcement of the televoting results will start with the country receiving the fewest points from the juries and end with the country that received the highest points from the juries. The presenters shall announce the sum of points that each song has received from the votes of the televote across all participating countries.

For those wanting to know how their country has voted, the televoting and jury scores from each participating country will be available shortly after the Grand Final on Eurovision.tv.

The voting rules — the long version. Viewers in the countries of the Participating Broadcasters are invited to vote for their favourite songs (without the possibility of voting for the song representing their own country) by means of televoting. In addition, in each participating country, there is a National Jury.

With respect to the televoting, the song which has received the highest number of votes shall be ranked first, the song which has received the second-highest number of votes shall be ranked second and so on until the last song.

With respect to the National Jury voting, the jury members shall rank first their favourite song, second, their second favourite song, third, their third favourite song, and so on until their least favourite song, which shall be ranked last.The rankings of the televoting and the jury will then, in each of the participating countries, be used to calculate the amount of points awarded, using the well-known and popular “Eurovision system”, with the top-ranked song getting 12 points, the second-highest ranked song 10 points, and the remaining spots, from 8 points to 1 point, given to the songs ranked 3 to 10.

This means there will be two separate sets of votes awarded; the points from the juries and the points from the televote.

Voting in the Semi-Finals. Viewers at home and professional juries each determine the outcome of the two Semi-Finals of the Eurovision Song Contest. In each Semi-Final, 10 contestants qualify for the Grand Final.

  • Viewers in all countries that are taking part in that particular Semi-Final are invited to vote via the official app, telephone and/or SMS. The voting window opens after the last song has been performed, and ends 15 minutes later. Televoters determine 50% of the outcome;
  • Professional juries in all countries that are taking part in or were allocated to that particular Semi-Final are required to vote. They also determine 50% of the outcome. The jury, which consists of five members (including a chairperson), is the same jury that will vote in the Grand Final;
  • The EBU’s voting partner Digame mobile GmbH (Digame) will determine the national result by adding up the televoting points from 1 to 8, 10 and 12, and the jury points from 1 to 8, 10 and 12. This means each participating country will award two sets of points;
  • The ten qualified countries will be announced at the end of each Semi-Final in the order decided by the Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest. This order does not reflect the actual ranking on the scoreboard;
  • The full scoreboard will be made available shortly after the Grand Final on Eurovision.tv, to keep the excitement until the end of the Grand Final.

Voting in the Grand Final.

  • In all participating countries, televoters and professional juries will each award 1 to 8, 10, and 12 points.
  • Televoters can vote via the official app, telephone and/or SMS. The voting window opens after the last song has been performed, and ends 15 minutes later. These votes determine 50% of the outcome and are gathered by the EBU’s voting partner Digame;
  • The professional juries will determine 50% of the outcome. The jury, which consists of five members (including a chairperson) is the same jury that voted in one of the Semi-Finals. They will watch live and rank all songs based on the second Dress Rehearsal, the so-called Jury Final;
  • These national ranking will then be used to determine the amount of points allocated. The song ranked first by the jury will receive 12 points, the country ranked second will receive 10, etc. The country ranked 10th will receive 1 point;
  • After the televoting window has closed the results of the juries will be presented in the usual format with national spokespersons. During this time the EBU, its voting partner and an independent observer will gather and verify the televoting results;
  • After all the jury points have been awarded, the total points from the televote for each country will be added up. These totals will then be added to the scoreboard, starting at the bottom and working up to the top. The country at the top of the scoreboard will be declared the winner;
  • Televoters and juries cannot vote for the country they represent;
  • Only for the purpose of solving tie situations, a combined national televoting and jury result will be calculated. In any situation where a tie occurs, this combined country result is considered, the winner shall be the song which has obtained points from the highest number of countries;
  • The full result, including the televoting and the jury result in every participating country will be published on Eurovision.tv after the Grand Final.

Jury voting. The rules for the juries are as follows:

  • The jury voting is always monitored by an independent notary in each country;
  • The EBU’s voting observer EY has the right to send an additional independent observer to the jury session;
  • The jury consists of a variety of members in terms of age, gender, and background;
  • All jury members must be citizens of the country they are representing;
  • None of the jury members must be connected to any of the participating songs/artists in such a way that they cannot vote independently. The participating broadcasters must send a letter of compliance with the voting instructions together with signed declarations by each jury member stating that they will vote independently;
  • The names of the jury members must be revealed by the relevant participating broadcasters during the Grand Final;
  • Each jury member of each national jury must rank all songs in the show;
  • The combined rank of each country’s jury members determines the jury result of that particular country;
  • By judging each song each jury member will focus on the vocal capacity of the artist(s), the performance on stage, the composition and originality of the song, and the overall impression by the act.
  • To increase diversity, music industry professionals can only take a seat in a national jury if they have not been in the jury during one of the previous two editions of the contest.

Jury member selection criteria. All jury members are music professionals. They are being asked to judge:

  • vocal capacity
  • the performance on stage
  • the composition and originality of the song
  • the overall impression by the act

The EBU looks into each jury member together with Digame and EY, to assure they meet the requirements to take seat in a national jury. The following criteria is applied in the selection of the jury members:

  • Members shall not have been part of a National Jury the preceding two years.
  • Members of the National Juries must be music industry professionals
  • There shall be a balance among the members of each National Jury to ensure sufficient representativeness in terms of gender, age and background.
  • All members of the National Juries shall be citizens of the country they represent.
  • No member of a National Jury shall be connected in any way with any of the participating songs entered and/or artists performing in the Eurovision Song Contest in such a way that they cannot vote in complete independence and impartiality

Judges signed a declaration stating they will vote independently.

About the televoting system. The Germany-based company Digame mobile GmbH has been the EBU’s long-term voting partner since 2004. The company gathers all televotes and jury votes in all countries and is closely monitored by two independent observers from EY. Its systems are built to handle all incoming votes according to the Rules of the Eurovision Song Contest, and can detect and exclude any kind of unwanted or unusual voting behaviour.

What if a country cannot deliver a valid televoting result? Both jury and televoting award 1 to 8, 10, and 12 points in each country. In order to secure the 50/50 balance between jury and televoting a national jury result cannot be used as backup result for the televoting. Therefore, if – for whatever reason – a country cannot deliver a valid televoting result, a substitute result is calculated by the audience result of a pre-selected group of countries. These groups and their composition have been pre-approved by the EBU and the Reference Group.

What if a country cannot deliver a valid jury result? Both juries and televoters award 1 to 8, 10, and 12 points in each country. In order to secure the 50/50 balance between jury and televoting, a national televoting result can’t be used as backup result for the jury. Therefore, if – for whatever reason – a country cannot deliver a valid jury result, a substitute result is calculated by the jury result of a pre-selected group of countries. These groups and their composition have been pre-approved by the EBU permanent services and the Reference Group of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Televoting data protection notes. Thefollowing information is intended to provide you as a participant in the Eurovision Song Contest televoting (Televoting) with an overview of the personal data we collect and process about you when you vote by call and about your rights under data protection law.

As joint data controllers, We, The European Broadcasting Union jointly with the Participating Broadcasters and the Host Broadcaster

L’Ancienne-Route 17A
1218 Le Grand-Saconnex, Genève, Switzerland
(the EBU)

And

digame GmbH
Schanzenstrasse 38
D-51063 Cologne
Germany
(the Company)

are committed to protect your personal data and respect your privacy in compliance with applicable data protection laws notably the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) and the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG). We will not process your personal data for any other Purposes that the ones set below.

The EBU and the Company have executed specific and separate joint controllers’ arrangement pursuant to Article 26 of GDPR, the key content of which is available on demand at the premises of either the EBU or the Company.

What categories of personal data are being processed? We will process only the personal data which we receive when you cast your vote either by call or by texting SMS message (whether sent directly or via the ESC App) using connections provided by your landline or mobile network provider.

When doing so, we will – depending on your country of origin – gather the following categories of data from you if applicable

  • Your mobile telephone number (MSISDN – Mobile Station Integrated Services Digital Network Number)
  • The date and time at which you participated in Televoting
  • The song number you voted for
  • The name of your landline or mobile network provider
  • The type network provider contract which you have (prepaid, contract).

What are the Purposes of processing and what is the legal basis for this? We collect your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6 Para. 1 (f) GDPR) to generate the official results determining the ranking of the songs entered in the ESC and the winner thereof.

Your participation is voluntary and by taking part in the Televoting, you consent that we process your personal data (listed above) for the Purposes of:

  • calculating and generating valid and official results of the ESC on the basis of the votes casted by the audience (including yours)
  • generating aggregated statistics on the voting in the ESC
  • publishing aggregated and anonymized results

Who will have access to your personal data? To participate in the Televoting, you are using a telecommunication service facilitated by your national telecommunication carrier and/or aggregator who may forwards part or all of your personal data to the Company to enable the calculation of a valid audience result.

Inside the Company your personal data will be made accessible to the departments which need it to fulfil the Company’s contractual and legal obligations. Service providers and vicarious agents working for the Company may also receive personal data for such purposes provided that they undertake to maintain, in particular, confidentiality and integrity. Such recipients could, for example, be IT service or telecommunications providers.

There will be no transfer of personal data to recipients outside the Company. Whilst the EBU is joint controller with the Company with regard to the Televoting, the Company will not transfer your personal data to the EBU which will receive from the Company only anonymised results for the purposes listed above. Only the aggregated and anonymized results will be published.

Will personal data be transferred to a third country or an international organization?

Votes cast outside of Germany will be transferred to the Company in Germany in order to process them and no further transfer will be operated. The Company will not transfer personal data to third countries outside the European Economic Area.

How long will my personal data be kept by us?

The Company will process and store your personal data for as long as required to fulfil our contractual and legal obligations.

Once the personal data is no longer required to fulfil contractual or legal obligations, it will regularly be erased unless its further processing – for a fixed period of time – is required for the following purposes:

  • Fulfilment of commercial- and tax-law related storage obligations,
  • The German Commercial Code (HGB), Tax Code (AO), Money Laundering Act (GwG). These laws generally specify storage periods for archiving and documentation purposes ranging from two to ten years.

What are your rights?

You have the right to access your personal data, and to request that they are corrected in the event of inaccuracy or deleted in the event that they are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected and processed.

In some cases, you have the right to ask for a restriction of processing, for data portability or to object to processing. Any consent you give to the processing of your personal data by us may be withdrawn at any time. Please note that the withdrawal of consent will only apply for the future. Processing which took place before the withdrawal of consent will not be affected by it.

You may exercise your rights by sending your request by mail at privacy@digame.de.

If you consider that the processing of your personal data constitutes a violation of the data protection law(s), you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of the European Union of your usual place of residence, your place of work or the place where the violation occurred.

How can you contact our Data Protection Officers?

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Notice you may contact:

The Company’s Data Protection Officer at privacy@digame.de

EBU’s Data Protection Officer at dpo@ebu.ch

Effective date and Changes. This Privacy Notice is effective from 11 February 2021

We reserve the right, at our complete discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions of this Privacy Notice at any time.