Eurovision 2024: Martin Österdahl discusses the major changes to the contest!
The Executive Supervisor of the EBU, Martin Österdahl, spoke about all the recent changes introduced to the contest over the past two years.
In an interview with Billboard, Martin Österdahl, revealed the idea behind the changes introduced in this year’s edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, especially regarding the voting process.
Österdahl began by explaining the decision to have the Big 5 and the host country perform normally during the semi-finals.”
We have felt from time to time that the Big Five perhaps had a disadvantage. We’ve looked at ways to correct that. The Big Five have been doing much better recently, but still we feel the time is right to make this change now.
According to Österdahl, the voting system is quite outdated, involving SMS, telephone voting, and a two-hour wait for viewers to cast their votes for their favorites.
If you see something that you like, you can cast your vote, which is something that is more in line with the behavior of young people today, who are used to interacting straightaway with the shows.
This leads us to another major change introduced last year – the Rest of the World voting. This type of voting was introduced for the first time during the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Warsaw, during the Covid-19 pandemic when delegations couldn’t attend the event in person.When we saw the online voting come in, it was a real eye-opener for me, because there were 12 participating countries as opposed to 40 in Eurovision and it’s a kid show.
We saw the votes coming in from 180 countries around the world on this European kids’ show. It was amazing, so I thought, “We need to tap into this.” My expectations are high when it comes to the engagement here.
When we saw the online voting come in, it was a real eye-opener for me, because there were 12 participating countries as opposed to 40 in Eurovision and it’s a kid show.
We saw the votes coming in from 180 countries around the world on this European kids’ show. It was amazing, so I thought, “We need to tap into this.” My expectations are high when it comes to the engagement here.
The Rest of the World voting will be adjusted this year as well, with a dedicated voting window open 24 hours before the live shows. This will give fans around the world the opportunity to vote for their favorites independently.
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Source: Billboard
EBU
Αυτός πρέπει να εξηγήσει γιατί η ΕΒU κρατάει άνισες και πολιτικότατες αποστάσεις και αποκλείει τη Ρωσία ενω δέχεται το Ισραήλ στο διαγωνισμό.