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The official announcement by EBU on voting irregularities during Semi-Final 2

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Moments ago EBU released an official announcement on “irregular voting patterns” during the second Semi-Final 2022, naming for the fist time the juries of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, San Marino.

Below is the full announcement:

This year’s Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) was an enormous success in bringing hundreds of millions of people across the world together in unity and celebration.

As communicated on Saturday 14 May, the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) independent pan-European Voting Partner detected irregular voting patterns in the jury votes of six countries taking part in the Second Semi-Final: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, San Marino.

The integrity of the voting, both by the national juries in each country and the viewers voting by phone or SMS, is essential to the show’s success. It is the EBU’s duty to all stakeholders, not least all 40 participating public service broadcasters, to ensure we can deliver a valid result at the end of each of the Live Shows. Any breach in the rules is consequently taken very seriously.

In the Second Semi-Final, it was observed that four of the six juries all placed five of the other countries in their Top Five (taking into account they could not vote for themselves); one jury voted for the same five countries in their Top 6; and the last of the six juries placed four of the others in the Top 4 and the fifth in their Top 7. Four of the six received at least one set of 12 points which is the maximum that can be awarded.

The pattern in question was detected as irregular by the pan-European Voting Partner and acknowledged by the Independent Voting Monitor, as five of these six countries were ranked outside the Top 8 by the juries in the 15 other countries voting in the same Semi-Final (which included three of the Big Five: Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom). Additionally, four of the six countries were ranked in the Bottom 6 of the other 15 countries voting in this Semi-Final. A jury voting pattern irregularity of such a scale is unprecedented.

 

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As stated in the Eurovision Song Contest Rules and in the Official Voting instructions of the Contest, if votes by National Juries present irregular voting patterns (as may be detected by the pan-European Voting Partner and acknowledged by the Independent Voting Monitor), the ESC Executive Supervisor has the right to remove the votes concerned for allocating the ranks and to replace them with a substitute aggregated result calculated automatically to determine the final country result of these countries in the Second Semi-Final.

Given the unprecedented nature of the irregularity detected in the Second Semi Final, the EBU in consultation with the pan-European Voting Partner and the Independent Voting Monitor decided, in accordance with the Voting Instructions of the Contest, to exercise its right to remove the votes cast by the six juries in question from the ranking allocation in the Grand Final to preserve the integrity of the voting system. Consequently, the same procedure was followed and the automatically calculated substitute aggregate result has been used to determine the final jury results of the six countries involved, in the Grand Final.

These decisions were approved by the Chair of the ESC Reference Group, the Contest’s governing board, and the Deputy Director General of the EBU in line with the requirements of the Voting Instructions of the Contest.

The EBU has since discussed the jury patterns with the relevant broadcasters and given them the opportunity to further investigate the jury voting in their countries.

The EBU reconfirms its decision to replace the jury votes for these six countries with a substitute aggregate result in both the Second Semi-Final and the Grand Final.

The EBU also confirms the final rankings of the 40 participants in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest.

The EBU, its Members and the Reference Group will continue to collaborate closely on safeguarding the integrity and success of an event that has been a unique platform for creative talent over 66 years, and looks forward to continuing to entertaining audiences worldwide.

What are your thought on EBU’s announcement? How will the mentioned countries react? Tell us in the comments below!

Greece: Amanda is the Greek with the most monthly listeners on Spotify!

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A few days after the Eurovision Song Contest, Amanda, the Greek representative, reached 1,000,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, the Greek with the most monthly listeners on Spotify at the moment!

Die Together also reaches the one milestone after another on Spotify, as it reached 4,000,000 streams, applying for one of the most popular Greek entries on Spotify. At the same time, it appears in # 37 of the Global Viral 50 on Spotify, while it is in number 2 of the Greek Viral 50 and in # 28 of the Greek Top 50.

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Poland: The announcement of TVP on the cancellation of their jury’s votes!

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Telewizja Polska has published their first statements regarding the cancellation of their jury’s vote in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022.

Eurowizja.org reports that the Polish TV station has made its first comments on the jury vote in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. The six countries whose jury votes were removed from the contest and replaced by the EBU with results based on previous voting patterns are: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino.

Reactions continue over the cancellation of the voting of six juries!

TVP’s statement mentions the following:

Telewizja Polska categorically rejects all accusations made against Polish jurors as groundless and absurd. The jurors voted solely as they felt and at their discretion, without taking into account any algorithm, not even the EBU algorithm. By judging Ukraine as the highest, the jurors expressed their independence and the lack of any relationship between their scores and the votes cast by other countries for Poland.
In the coming days, Telewizja Polska will explain the situation with representatives of the European Broadcasting Union, which is the organizer of the Eurovision Song Contest. They will be presented with a TVP protest and a demand to improve the transparency of voting and the method of awarding points, so as to avoid unnecessary confusion that occurred this year in the future.
Ochman finished 12th in the grand final for Poland with the song “River”. This is the best result for Poland in the competition since 2016, when Michał Szpak placed 8th in Stockholm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRVDZ6446eM

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Source: oko.press

Reactions continue over the cancellation of the voting of six juries!

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On Saturday night, during the Grand Final, the EBU sent out a vague statement saying it had identified “voting irregularities” in six unnamed countries after the second rehearsals of the Second Semi-Final. Their jury votes were cancelled and replaced with a ” substitute aggregated result for each concerned country for both the Second Semi-Final and the Grand Final (calculated based on the results of other countries with similar voting records)”

Understandably, the above treatment caused a reaction from these countries as there had been no prior information and they ended up seeing a different score from the one they had given themselves.

Romania

On Sunday morning, Romanian television posted a lengthy statement on the official Eurovision page, which among other things said

“Romanian TV is fully committed to participate in Eurovision 2022, paying the participation fee and preparing, together with the WRS team, a project that won the appreciation of the public”

“We were surprised to see that the result of the Romanian jury’s vote was not taken into account in the final ranking, with the organisers assigning a different score on behalf of our country’s jury”

“We clarify that the Romanian jury decided to give the maximum score to the Moldovan representatives”

Furthermore, TVR, asks the EBU for the exact reasons why they made the cancellation of their committee’s score and they are able to make amends in case they made a mistake.

Montenegro

The Montenegrin broadcaster reacted in the same way

“Following the announcements made on the Eurovision website, we would like to inform the public that we have sent a request for clarification to authorised representatives of the EBU”

“Following the submission of our jury’s vote, the relevant officials stated that the RTCG vote was conducted in accordance with the normal procedure, was legally certified by the EBU, and they saw no reason to suspect any form of irregularity. We therefore await a detailed answer to the question of our vote change.”

Georgia

Georgia’s broadcaster, GPB, has issued a statement regarding the removal of the Georgian jury’s votes from Eurovision 2022

“The Public Broadcaster met all the requirements, sent the official document and received the EBU’s consent that there were no possible irregularities”

“The Georgian jury gave its highest score, the 12 points, to Ukraine. However, when the results of the Final were announced, the 12 points from Georgia were given to the United Kingdom”

“The Georgian delegation had no interest in manipulating the results. It was of prime importance for our jury to secure 12 points for a deserving contestant, which in this case was the representative of Ukraine”

The Georgian public broadcaster remains in active communication with the EBU regarding the current situation and hopes that official answers will be provided soon.

To date, the EBU has not yet clarified the exact reason why the votes of the six juries were removed.

What do you think of all this? Could much of the confusion have been cleared up if the EBU had given more specific information from the start? We look forward to reading your views in the comments below!

Source: Wiwibloggs, Eurovoix

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Eurovision 2022: Check the detailed results of the two semi-finals!

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The 66th Eurovision Song Contest belongs to the past with the big winner being Kalush Orchestra from Ukraine! EBU has released the detailed results of the semi-finals as well as the grand-final and this is how the semi-final qualifiers were selected:

First Semi-Final’s Full Results:

  1. Ukraine – 337 Points
  2. The Netherlands – 221 Points
  3. Greece – 211 Points
  4. Portugal – 208 Points
  5. Armenia – 187 Points
  6. Norway – 177 Points
  7. Lithuania – 159 Points
  8. Moldova – 154 Points
  9. Switzerland – 118 Points
  10. Iceland – 103 Points
  11. Croatia – 75 Points
  12. Albania – 58 Points
  13. Denmark – 55 Points
  14. Latvia – 55 Points
  15. Austria – 42 Points
  16. Bulgaria – 29 Points
  17. Slovenia – 15 Points

First Semi-Final’s Jury Results:

  1. Greece – 151 Points
  2. Netherlands – 141 Points
  3. Ukraine – 135 Points
  4. Portugal – 121 Points
  5. Switzerland – 107 Points
  6. Armenia – 82 Points
  7. Norway – 73 Points
  8. Iceland – 64 Points
  9. Lithuania – 56 Points
  10. Croatia – 42 Points
  11. Latvia – 39 Points
  12. Denmark – 35 Points
  13. Moldova – 19 Points
  14. Albania – 12 Points
  15. Bulgaria – 11 Points
  16. Slovenia – 7 Points
  17. Austria – 6 Points

First Semi-Final’s Televoting Results:

  1. Ukraine – 202 Points
  2. Moldova – 135 Points
  3. Armenia – 105 Points
  4. Norway – 104 Points
  5. Lithuania – 103 Points
  6. Portugal – 87 Points
  7. The Netherlands – 79 Points
  8. Greece – 60 Points
  9. Albania – 46 Points
  10. Iceland – 39 Points
  11. Austria – 36 Points
  12. Croatia – 33 Points
  13. Denmark – 20 Points
  14. Bulgaria – 18 Points
  15. Latvia – 16 Points
  16. Switzerland – 11 Points
  17. Slovenia – 8 Points

Second Semi-Final’s Full Results:

  1. Sweden – 396 Points
  2. Australia – 243 Points
  3. Serbia – 237 Points
  4. Czech Republic – 227 Points
  5. Estonia – 209 Points
  6. Poland – 198 Points
  7. Finland – 162 Points
  8. Belgium – 151 Points
  9. Romania – 118 Points
  10. Azerbaijan – 96 Points
  11. North Macedonia – 76 Points
  12. Cyprus – 63 Points
  13. Israel – 61 Points
  14. San Marino – 50 Points
  15. Ireland – 47 Points
  16. Malta – 47 Points
  17. Montenegro – 33 Points
  18. Georgia – 22 Points

Second Semi-Final’s Jury Results:

  1. Sweden – 222 Points
  2. Australia – 169 Points
  3. Estonia – 113 Points
  4. Belgium – 105 Points
  5. Czech Republic – 102 Points
  6. Azerbaijan – 96 Points
  7. Poland – 84 Points
  8. Finland – 63 Points
  9. Serbia – 63 Points
  10. North Macedonia – 56 Points
  11. Israel – 34 Points
  12. Malta – 27 Points
  13. San Marino – 21 Points
  14. Romania – 18 Points
  15. Georgia – 13 Points
  16. Ireland – 12 Points
  17. Montenegro – 11 Points
  18. Cyprus – 9 Points

Second Semi-Final’s Televoting Results:

  1. Serbia – 174 Points
  2. Sweden – 174 Points
  3. Czech Republic – 125 Points
  4. Poland – 114 Points
  5. Romania – 100 Points
  6. Finland – 99 Points
  7. Estonia – 96 Points
  8. Australia – 74 Points
  9. Cyprus – 54 Points
  10. Belgium – 46 Points
  11. Ireland – 35 Points
  12. San Marino – 29 Points
  13. Israel – 27 Points
  14. Montenegro – 22 Points
  15. North Macedonia – 20 Points
  16. Malta – 20 Points
  17. Georgia – 9 Points
  18. Azerbaijan – 0 Points

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Eurovision 2022: The Family Show Of The Grand Final! (Updated)

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The big day is finally here and the Grand Final is taking place at the PalaOlimpico. The family show of the final has just started! It is addressed, as the title says, to families. Αll entries will once again perform their song, with the show being used more as a warm-up, a final rehearsal for minor corrections before the TV show, tonight!

We are at the press center and will bring you live everything that happens here in real time. We remind you that the jury rehearsal took place yesterday, with 50% of the total score having already been judged. Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for the family show.

The show

The program begins with a large group of people singing “Give peace a chance“! Then we see Mika and Alessandro Cattelan on stage and Laura Pausini songs are performed accompanied by a percussion group.

The parade of countries follows!

Then the presenters of the night appear  and give us all the details about the night that will follow and the voting process.

Czech Republic

We are Domi and “Lights off“  opens the grand final with an energetic performance. We can tell that the singer is  holding back a bit so she can be 100% on point for the final show today! Apart from that, the stage looks great and they can bring a decent result on the final today!

Romania

WRS is bringing the heat on the Eurovision stage this year! For many it came as a surprise that he advanced to the final but he delivers a great performance on stage with not as much differences from what we saw on the 2nd semi-final!

Portugal

Third act for today is MARO with an atmospheric perfomance! Vocally is great and she receives a big applause from the audience in the middle of the song!

Finland

After the soft and calm performance of Portugal, The Rasmus are rocking the stage with a great show! We don’t any differences from the semi final and Lauri delivers good vocals for one more time! The arena seems to love “Jezebel” as they sing a long and they received big applause!

Switzerland

Next up on the stage is Marius Bear with an emotional performance. He delivers great vocals but is hard for him to surprise the audience and have a good result on the grand final!

France

A song that the press center and the crowd on the arena  love and may have a great chance have a good results on tonight show! The staging is beautiful, the vocals on point and France can be the surprise of Grand Final!

Norway

From evocative and mysterious France we go to a party rhythm. Also a participation that can stand out both due to appearance and due to dancing.

Armenia

After the party song of the wolves of Norway we continue with a snap! Armenia delivers good vocals and she really seems to enjoy her performance! The arena claps along the whole song but the running order might be a hard place for her to shine on tonight’s show.

BREAK

Mika and “Laura” show us some shots from the semifinals. Then the presenters are in the green room and talking to us about the plants that surround it.

Italy

The Italian duo are doing an amazing job and they seem like they are back for another great result for Ιtaly! The vocals were improved and the arena went crazy!

Spain

One of the fan favourite to win the show is coming to the stage to bring the party back! Chanel did not gave the energy we know she can deliver and we are sure that tonight can be a great night for Spain after many years!

The Netherland

S10 managed to impress the audience with another captivating performance! She was great vocally but will this be enough after Spain and before Ukraine performances?

Ukraine

The booking favourite to win this year edition is making a great rehearsal with good energy and the receive a big applause from the audience inside the arena!

Germany

One of the calmest entries of this year is undoubtedly that of Germany, with Malik Harris being excellent vocally, but with a weak song. For another year, Germany seems to be heading for the bottom of the standings. Another “bell” for the leaders of the German radio and television, the most powerful in the Old Continent.

Lithuania

Lithuania’s turn to take the stage, with Monika appearing in a different dress compared to the semifinals. It will be difficult, however, to see the maintenance of this dress in the evening show as well. A song with an atmospheric character that is unlikely to be supported by the average Lithuanian viewer. Particularly probable is the end of the last ten of this year’s competition.

Azerbaijan

Next on stage comes the clipped Nadir, who once again is to the point vocally. His voice led him so far and his voice will lead him until two in the evening and the announcement of the final results. Most likely to end up in the top ten.

Belgium

One of the qualifiers-surprises of this year’s competition is Belgium, which many expected to be left out of the final. Nevertheless, Belgium is here, it will compete in the grand final and most likely end up in places 16-25. Moderate response from spectators inside the stadium.

There is a break between Belgium and Greece with Mika and Laura Pausini promoting the official Eurovision 2022 CD and at the same time snapshots from the two semifinals are shown.

Greece

The last rehearsal of Greece before the grand final tonight is next. Amanda once again gives her best, more focused than ever on her goal. Everything went perfectly, with the audience singing with her at the peak of the song in the finale. No special differences compared to the previous days and with the audience adoring Amanda.

Iceland

Greece is followed by one of the surprises of this year’s final, Iceland. A country ballad, which, however, is dug by its presence between our country and Moldova. Their presence is almost certain between 18 and 25.

Moldova

The whole stage on foot for Moldova, which is one of the biggest winners of recent days. A participation that has stood out due to its diversity and its ethnic elements that are so much missing from the grand final. Their impact on the public at night is certain, it remains to be seen what the opinion of the juries will be.

Sweden

The series now has one of the big favorites of this year’s competition, Sweden. Cornelia Jakobs once again raises the crowds at PalaOlimpico, being determined to bring the best possible result for Sweden. Once again in the finale of the song she brings out a crown, which did not exist until yesterday in her appearances.

Australia

Sheldon performs “Not the same” perfectly once again. First male ballad in a series that follows, but the overall result was breath-taking!

 

The presenters are in the green room and talking to various representatives.

United Kingdom

Probably the best male voice of the year. Another favorite for this year with an epic setting on stage and a performance that is simply riveting, especially towards the end of the song with the guitar. A very warm reaction from the audience. This song will probably do very well, especially on the juries.

Poland

Third consecutive male ballad and another very good interpretation. Will all three ballads go equally well?

Serbia

Konstrakta may be one of the biggest surprises from this edition of Eurovision! She delivers a great performance and she will definitely be high on the televote on tonight’s show!

Estonia

Last act from the final is Stefan with “Hope”! He seems to enjoy his time on the stage and the audience love the performance!

The three presenters tell us how we can vote for our favorite songs and see the tab with the phones.

Voting begins!

First recap of the songs.

Interval Act

We are now ready for the interval act of the final. The Maneskin (to be precise their replacements) appear on stage and perform their new song, supermodel (in this rehearsal we only hear the music). Alessandro Cattelan then invites them to the stage where he asks them about their experiences after their victory and then they perform their new song from the movie Elvis that will be released in June.

Laura Pausini then introduces Gigliola Cinquetti, winner of the 1964 Eurovision Song Contest.

Last but not least, Mika makes an appearance on the stage to perform his greatest hits!

Then countdown to closing telephone lines! 

Voting begins with the juries. Then the televoting points are added.

 

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Malta: Aidan Cassar revealed as the spokesperson of the country!

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Today PBS revealed who will announce the 12 points for Malta. The Maltese jury’s results will be announced by Aidan Cassar.

Aidan was the favourite to win MESC 2022, Malta’s national final, with the song “Ritmu”. In the final, he ended up second behind the winner, Emma Muscat and the song “Out of Sight”.

Also, Eurovision 2022 spokespersons have been announced for the following countries:
  • Austria – Philipp Hansa
  • Belgium – David Jeanmotte
  • Bulgaria – Janan Dural
  • Croatia – Monika Lelas Halambek
  • Finland – Aksel
  • France – Élodie Gossuin
  • Georgia – Helen Kalandadze
  • Greece – Stefania
  • Iceland – Árný Fjóla Ásmundsdóttir
  • Ireland – Linda Martin
  • Israel – Daniel Styopin
  • Italy – Carolina Di Domenico
  • Lithuania – Vaidotas Valiukevičius
  • Malta – Aidan Cassar
  • Montenegro – Zombijana Bones
  • Netherlands – Jeangu Macrooy
  • Portugal – Tatanka
  • Serbia – Dragana Kosjerina
  • Slovenia – Lorella Flego
  • Spain – Nieves Álvarez
  • Sweden – Dotter
  • Ukraine – Kateryna Pavlenko
  • United Kingdom – AJ Odudu

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Source: eurovoix.com

Eurovision 2022: Jury Show of the Grand Final!

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The Jury Show of the Grand Final took place today. Twenty-five finalists performed their song once again in front of the experts and audience.

One of the hosts – Laura Pausini opened the show. Right after her performance we witnessed the famous flag parade where all twenty-five acts showed up with their flags when their country’s name was announced.

Here’s the review of all performances:

Czech Republic

Excellent vocals, confident performance. A very jury-friendly song, so juries should’ve definitely paid attention to this. In terms of results, this is probably gonna get a similar result to Cyprus 2021, could be 2-3 places higher or even lower.

Romania

WRS was very happy with his qualification and you definitely could see it, he was happier than ever. The crowd sang the song at the same time with him. Unfortunately, he is performing under statistically the worst slot, so I doubt this will be high enough tomorrow. Not sure juries liked this or not either.

Portugal

Juries should DEFINITELY like this one. So soothing, professional, just wow.

Finland

There were issues vocally as per usual, but it looks effective. Knowing juries pay attention to the vocals, I don’t think juries have ranked this one high, although many jurors could have received nostalgic vibes from the performance and from them as a very famous band.

Switzerland

Marius added some vocal changes and was much better this time. Should definitely come top 10 with the jury voting, even though the televise is gonna rank this one down.

France

Visually excellent, however vocally – lowkey not good. This one is definitely relying on the televoting.

Norway

Professional and slick performance from Norwegian wolves. On other hand, this should be loved by juries since they appreciate quality production, on other hand, this is not ‘jury bait’. Somewhere in the middle with jury voting and relying more on televoting.

Armenia

Rosa was a little bit nervous, but overall a strong vocal performance. Unlike Finland, France and maybe Norway this should be appreciated by professional juries.

Italy

Vocally on the same level as Finland. Atmospheric, the beginning looked fascinating. The outfits were completely different from the rehearsals. As a song, it’s jury bait, but I don’t think it’ll be liked by juries that much.

Spain

First winner vibes here. Nothing else to say.

Netherlands

A very emotional performance from S10, absolutely magnificent. First candidate for jury top 5 maybe?

Ukraine

Their best performance BY FAR. HAS to do well.

Germany

Very emotional, personally enjoyed it a lot. Impressive, but juries won’t go for a rap song.

Lithuania

Excellent! Juries have to have this in their top 10!

Azerbaijan

Everything was on point. Juries should like this one!

Belgium

Jeremy delivered a great performance, even though visually it’s kitschy.

Greece

The jury winner so far. Touching performance, the vocals were astounding! Has to come top 5 overall. Good job, Ellada!

Iceland

This one stands out a lot in the lineup. After so many vocal challenging songs in a row, this feels like something we exactly needed to hear. Probably won’t do that well.

Moldova

FUN!!! However, juries definitely won’t like this one!

Sweden

Professional and slick. Remember, how bookies underestimated Moldova before the rehearsals and how high Sweden was in the odds. Well, it was kind of boring to watch that performance after Moldova. Nevertheless, juries will go crazy about this one. Top 3 contender.

Australia

Sheldon delivered an amazing performance. Kind of worse vocally compared to his other performance but a lock top 10 with juries.

United Kingdom

An obvious jury winner.

Poland

Ochman’s one of the best vocalists of this year’s Eurovision. Only for his vocals alone he should be in the top 10!

Serbia

Winner vibes, but I don’t think juries will support it as much as tele.

Estonia

Everything is on point! Excellent closer.

Prediction of the Jury Voting

Winner: United Kingdom

Top 3: Greece, Australia

Top 5: Sweden, Spain

6-10: Ukraine, Poland, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland

11-15: Portugal, Belgium, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Norway

16-20: Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Serbia, France,

21-25: Moldova, Iceland, Finland, Romania, Germany.

Eurovision 2022: See the results of the fifth day of Press Poll!

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As we informed you in our article, Press Poll 2022 has begun. After all countries have had their three technical rehearsals, it is now time for the accredited to vote for the countries that will advance to the two semifinals, as well as the country that believes she will be the winner of the 66th Eurovision Song Contest.

Below are the results of the semifinals and finals of today’s 13/5 at 21:00:
First Semifinal

Second Semifinal

Grand Final

In the vote for the winner, UK leads, Sweden is second, and Greece is third!

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Source: Ogae International

Eurovision 2022: President of RAI talks about Eurovision and Russia’s ban from the contest!

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Italian state broadcaster RAI’s president Marinella Soldi, who is a former CEO of Discovery Networks Southern Europe, has a longstanding rapport with the Eurovision Song Contest. It’s the show on which she remembers first seeing ABBA, one of her favorite pop bands, “with their white flares.”

Soldi more recently was mesmerized by Måneskin and the swagger of the Italian glam-rock band, which by triumphing last year at Eurovision, against all odds, caused RAI to be host broadcaster of the 2022 edition of this massive event.

In a rare interview, Soldi talked about the politically heated lead-up to this year’s contest and the European Broadcasting Union’s decision to ban Russia from competing at Eurovision after the country’s invasion of Ukraine. She also noted that, though the war is causing pain and suffering in Europe and throughout the world, Eurovision’s audience still has a “fundamental human right” to joy.

Do you think banning Russia was the right decision?

It’s so hard to know what the right answer is, but I think it must stay non-political. And the decisions that were taken were taken with plenty of ponderation and great timing. And that’s why they are not part of this event.

Simply put: how big of a deal is this year’s Eurovision for RAI?

Massive! For all sorts of reasons. They say that winning the Eurovision contest is a poisoned chalice, because on the one hand you celebrate; on the other you think: ‘that’s us next year, having to organize it!’ It’s massive, but fortunately the Sanremo Festival  is a great school. We are an EBU case study as to how this year Sanremo managed to attract its highest ratings in 23 years. But of course doing it in an arena, involving 40 delegations coming in, and in a new location. It’s a big deal from that perspective.

Of course, it’s the first Eurovision being held fully in-person without limitations since the pandemic struck.

Yes, there is this zeitgeist around it. We first experienced this at Sanremo. That is the whole notion of actually being able to hug people, dance with people and just be around people. It’s like lifting the lid off a pressure cooker. There is this great need for this! Possibly because it’s so international, it also has a travel element to it. It’s also people coming from all over. And being able to arrive from all over. Suddenly we are back to hearing that Babel of languages that makes one sigh with relief and say, “Ok, maybe we are going back to normal.”

Before last year’s Måneskin victory, how big was Eurovision in Italy? My impression is that local enthusiasm was quite muted. What types of ratings are you expecting for the show in Italy this year?

For me Eurovision is an absolute “must-see.” But in Italy, Sanremo has way outshined it. It hasn’t been so central. But everything changed last year with Måneskin. It’s not just the victory of Italy. It’s Måneskin themselves and the incredible success and exposure that they’ve had. From a focus perspective it positions RAI as more inclusive to the younger generation. Without a doubt that is a challenge for all public service broadcasters.

Do you expect the ratings in Italy to be better than they were last year?

Yes, we had had a 25% audience share last year, which was its highest ever…Of course it will peak during the Måneskin performance.

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Source: variety.com