The Icelandic Head of Delegation and Reference Group Member, Felix Bergsson, has expressed his support for the return of jury voting to the Semi-Finals.
Speaking to The Euro Trip, Felix Bergsson has shared his support for the return of jury voting to the Semi-Finals of the Eurovision Song Contest. Mr Bergsson, who is the Head of Delegation for Iceland, is also an elected member of the contest’s Reference Group, which is involved in organisation of the contest and its format.
He told The Euro Trip that:
“I would like to change it back, but I’m one voice within the Reference Group.
I think it will be changed back at some point. I think what happens is that the countries with the biggest diaspora in Europe have a bigger chance of getting through to the final.
We feel that we have less of a chance; a small nation like ours that doesn’t have the support.”
Juries have not voted in the Semi-Finals of the Eurovision Song Contest since the 2023 contest in Liverpool. Juries were removed after it was determined during the 2022 contest that six countries juries had voted irregularly. This brought the voting method back to that used between 2004 and 2008 when the public had a 100% say in the results in the Semi-Finals.
Juries were re-introduced in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009 where in the Semi-Finals the highest placing jury act outside of the top nine in the televote was awarded the 10th qualification spot in the Semi-Final. In the Grand Final the result was determined by 50% televoting and 50% jury voting, where the combined points from each ranking formed the top ten.
Jury voting at the time was introduced following a view among broadcasters that televoting alone had been heavily influenced by politics and diaspora. The introduction of the jury vote was viewed to have made the contest fairer and brought back some countries to the contest, including Austria.
Image source: EBU | Source: The Euro Trip
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