Major changes to how the voting in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 will work have been announced by organizers, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Report informs referring to the EBU website.
The countries that qualify from the two Semi-Finals, 10 from each, will now be decided solely based on the votes cast by viewers of the competition, rather than a combination of a jury and public vote as has been the case since 2009.
And, for the first time ever, those watching in countries not taking part in the competition will also be able to vote for their favorite songs online.
Their votes will be added together and converted to points that will have the same weight as one participating country in both of the Semi-Finals and the Grand Final.
Professional juries, made up of those working in the music industry, will continue to contribute to the result of the Grand Final along with viewers in each country taking part and those voting internationally.
Audiences in all participating countries will still be able to vote by SMS, phone or via the Eurovision Song Contest app.
Those watching in the rest of the world will be able to vote via a secure online platform using a credit card from their country.
Following the unprecedented nature of the jury voting irregularities seen at the 2022 Contest a working group of EBU Members was established to look at ways to protect the integrity of the event. Its recommendations were then approved by the Reference Group, the Contest’s governing board and the Executive Board of the EBU.