An update has dropped, regarding this upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. In these days, the head of delegation meeting is taking place in Malmö, where all sorts of details that could be important for the delegations are shared. Among one of these details, would probably be these news about the change of structure for the contest this year, which has been shared publicly, and which we’ll now go into details about.
Finalists become Semi-finalist performers
To the more simple part of the story, SVT and EBU have together announced not too long ago, that the pre-qualified countries(which are as usual the BIG 5 and the host nation) will be performing in the semi-finals now.
Not just simply as in, a short clip from a prior rehearsal, which has been the thing of the past, but actually performing instead.
In 2016, when Sweden last hosted, this change was implemented, that finalists would have some inclusion in the semi-finals, so the pre-qualified countries don’t need to wait until the night of the final, to finally appear on screen. Since then, usually the finalists would however, only have their clip shown right before the qualifiers are announced, where the finalists would also get interviewed shortly, before their clip from a prior rehearsal was shown.
However, with the change of format now, the finalists won’t need to wait until this late in the show to perform, but instead the acts will be squeezed in-between the semi-finalists.
Back in January, when the allocation draw was held, it was then decided as well, in which semi-final, all the pre-qualified countries would vote in. This is now also being used, to decide in which semi-final, the pre-qualified countries will perform in as well. This means that we will see 🇸🇪 Sweden, 🇩🇪 Germany and 🇬🇧 The United Kingdom performing in the first semi-final, while 🇫🇷 France, 🇮🇹 Italy and 🇪🇸 Spain will perform in the second semi-final.
On the other hand, since we don’t know the running order yet, we won’t know until then, when the pre-qualified countries will perform, nor where exactly they will perform. The full running order is expected to be revealed later in March, when all 37 songs have been publicly revealed.
Ebba Adielsson, who is the executive producer of this year’s contest, had the following to share:
- “We think that this change gives the Big Five countries and the host country a fairer playing field in the Grand Final, as they now have the opportunity to perform “for real” on stage in the Semi-Finals. It is also a win for both the audience in the arena and the viewers at home, in that they get to see all the acts competing this year live before the Grand Final.”
Meanwhile, Martin Österdahl had the following to add:
- “Finally we get to see Europe’s largest countries and the hosts perform their songs in full in the Semi-Finals, meaning there’s even more entertainment for fans and viewers and, like all the qualifiers, the Big 5 and host country now get to perform their songs live twice on the Eurovision stage.”
Voting starts from the beginning
An old rule, will be re-introduced into 2024, that being that voting will now start at the beginning of the show. The voting window for the grand final will start shortly after the show has started, and will last around 25 minutes further, after the last song has been performed.
The idea is to level the playing field for all competing acts in the final, now with the inclusion of a “Rest of the World” voting, which was introduced last year, when the contest was held in Liverpool.
In regards to voters from all around the world, who aren’t from participating countries, an additional voting window has also been added. Now, world voters will have almost 24 hours to vote ahead of the live shows, since the additional voting window will take place as soon as the 2nd rehearsal has taken place, and will last until right before the live show starts, the following day. The second rehearsal is also known as the jury rehearsal, where juries from the participating countries will give in their votes. Despite not having jury results included in the semi-finals since last year, they will still take place, as a back-up function, should the televote in any country fail to deliver a valid result.
It is however important to note, that only for the grand final, which will be held on the 11th of May this year, is the only show that will allow viewers to vote from the beginning of the show.
The idea and rule was used back in 2010 and 2011, but was eventually scrapped due to various reasoning.
For more on this, Ebba Adielsson added this statement:
- “Voting in the final has previously opened when all 26 entries have finished singing. Instead, we want to provide the opportunity to engage the viewers from the start – if you see something you like, you should be able to vote immediately. You can also, of course, wait until the recap at the end, as in previous years.”
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“SVT has positive experience with this voting procedure in ‘Melodifestivalen’ (Sweden’s national final). In addition, there are viewers in other parts of the world who want to vote and we want to give them a better opportunity to participate in the result. Now they don’t have to set an alarm clock in the middle of the night.”
…and finally, Martin Österdahl also had this to add:
- “By the time voting opens for the Grand Final every participating song will have been performed on stage so viewers will have had the chance to see all the acts competing to win this year’s show. The Eurovision Song Contest is always evolving and with more performances and chances to vote it promises to be the most exciting edition yet!”
Overall, voting this year will remain the same as last year, with the semi-finals being fully decided by the public vote, while the final will be decided by both the public vote and juries, with each having 50% of the final outcome.
Finally, it was also announced, that another big change will soon be announced as well…
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Source(s): Eurovision.TV
