Juries return in Eurovision voting shake-up

Juries are to return to next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, it has been announced, following criticism of tactical voting by former eastern bloc countries.

The world-famous contest has been labelled a politically-motivated farce because of the decision by some countries to vote together.

Now it has been announced that the 2009 final, due to take place in Moscow, will feature votes from viewers as well as a jury.

In this years contest Russia received the maximum 12 points from former Soviet states Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus and Armenia, as well as Israel.

Ruurd Bierman, chairman of the Eurovision reference group, said: “We strongly believe in televoting as a way of measuring the opinion of our millions of viewers across Europe.

“After the public debate about neighbour and diaspora voting, we decided to give the national juries a say in the outcome of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.”

Svante Stockselius, executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, said: “Nothing is more democratic than the vote of the public.

“But a jury takes the opportunity to listen to the songs several times, before they make up their minds. In Belgrade, we saw a difference in judgment of the public and the back-up juries, and we believe a combination will make the show more interesting.”

The exact form of the jury/public vote split is yet to be decided.

Until 1997, national juries were responsible for allocating Eurovision votes.