Eurovision voting – how it works and this years big change to the rules

The Eurovision song contest is officially set to be held in Liverpool tonight after last year’s winners Ukraine were left unable to host due to their ongoing war with Russia.

The much beloved singing contest, which is set to be presented by British stars including Rylan Clark, invites viewers to vote for their favourite acts.

After each participating country performs their chosen song, a series of points are awarded by the other European countries participating.

One set of points is awarded based on the number of votes from the general public in that nation, while the other is decided by a professional jury.

The professional juries, which are made up of six people, are appointed by the broadcaster in each participating country and were initially designed as a backup in case televoting systems failed.

Points are awarded to the top eleven countries voted for or chosen by the jury.

12 points are assigned to the winner of either the public vote or the jury’s verdict, while ten points are awarded to the runner up, nine to third place, eight to fourth and so on.

To put it simply, at the end of the night the country with the most points overall ends up victorious.

However, British fans hoping to give the UK act a leg up in the public voting are very much out of luck, as you’re not allowed to vote for your own country.

There are three ways to vote – by telephone, by text message or via the official Eurovision App.

Only one vote per phone number or account is allowed and, while voting in the App is free, rates for texts and calls may vary according to your provider.

There has been one big change to the voting system this year – although it only applies to the semi-finals.

This year, for the first time ever, the public vote alone will select the countries that go through to Saturday’s grand final.

This means that hopeful singers won’t have to face the professional juries until the final and will qualify based on popularity alone.

Five countries will, as normal, progress automatically due to being the biggest contributors to the European Broadcasting Union.

These are Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and France.

Ukraine will also automatically qualify after winning last year’s competition and the show is set to be littered with tributes to the country.

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