Eurovision Voting

Why Eurovision Voting is broken

This year’s “shock result” of a very political non-political song romping home in first place after the public vote is the perfect example of why the Eurovision voting system can never return the best song.

The problem with this system is that unless there is an entry which is dramatically better than any other entry, in the opinion of every voter then their second or third place entry will end up winning.

By way of example, consider three Eurovision songs imaginatively called ‘Song A’, ‘Song B’, and wait for it ‘Song C’.

In the opinion of the Eurovision panel, ‘Song A’ is by far the best and so that comes out with the highest score and in the case of this year’s Eurovision that was Australia (yes, not even a European country but then when was Eurovision ever straight forward).

The Public Vote

The general public voted, some ranked ‘Song A’ as their favourite, some ranked ‘Song B’ as their favourite and yet no one ranked ‘Song C’ as their favourite but gave it some points out of sympathy as it is a small country that has been bullied a bit (allegedly) by a much bigger country.

This made the vote for the ‘best song’ split between ‘Song A’ and ‘Song B’ which means that ‘Song C’ doesn’t have to score too many points to win. .  look at this. .

Country 1 awards A-12, B-6, C-10

Country 2 awards A-4 B-12, C-10

Country 3 awards A-8, B-12, C-10

Country 4 awards A-12, B-6, C-10

Totals A-36, B-36, C-40 yet C was never the top choice for any country even though A or B were top songs for all of the countries.

Summary

As a song contest, Eurovision is unique. It is simultaneously a resounding success and a complete failure.

It  brings together about 24 countries is a musical competition where all that should matter is the song. Cultural differences clearly affect these songs and so what appeals to one nation may not appeal to another, a uniformally fantastic song is probably unattainable, the holy grail of song, a position only so far held by “Happy birthday to you. . .”

Yet the politics of voting are blatantly obvious, one country may not vote for another because of some political tensions, it has more members that Europe itself yet despite all of this the contest works.

It is unique, entertaining, funny and cringeworthy all in one go.

Long may it last.