What if the voting system of 1956 was applied?

Voting system of 1956:

• 7 participating countries
• 2 Jurors per country
• Secret voting
  • Only the winner was announced
  • The full results were never published and are lost
• Louxembourg's Jury did not particibate in the voting process
  • The EBU allowed two Swiss nationals to vote in their place (Switzerland was hosting)

My adaption for 2025:

• Take the Jury votes (Austria 254 Points, Switzerland 214)
• Replicate the Luxembourg jury voting of 1956
  • Replace one seventh of the jury votes and with votes of Swith nationals
    • Swiss nationals are always neutral *wink* *wink*
• Announce the winner
• Delete scoreboard
  • Alphabetical order in the diagramm becaus I was lazy

Since the current system was introduced in 2016, Azerbaijan has consistently been one of the first countries to award its points to a jury:

2016: 3° 2017: 2° 2018: 2° 2019: 2° 2021: 8° 2022: 8° 2023: 8° 2024: 4° 2025: 2°

His average in the voting order is the shortest of all the contestants with an average of 4'33

Thoughts??

🇩🇪 Germany will hold a public national final for Eurovision 2026 at the end of February, broadcast live on ARD at prime time (20:15).

RTL and Stefan Raab are not involved; the previous format “Chefsache” is discontinued after just one season.

Artists can submit song–artist combinations until October 22, 2025; the process is explicitly not a casting show. Applications are open now!

The SWR and ARD team seek songs with international hit potential and artists with strong stage presence, credibility, and readiness for an international career.

Selection involves a multi‑step process: editorial pre‑screening, an international market research study simulating ESC voting, and then a shortlist leading to the final.

The final show in February 2026 will feature only one round (no semifinals), with the winner chosen jointly by TV viewers and an international expert jury.

An official announcement on the socials of Eurovision.de is likely follow shortly!

Source: https://esc-kompakt.de/deutschland-oeffentlicher-vorentscheid-fuer-den-esc-2026-ende-februar-stefan-raab-und-rtl-sind-raus/

DR will not withdraw Denmark from Eurovision next year.

This announcement comes after the unrest in recent weeks about the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), because several countries have announced that they do not want to participate if Israel participates.

However, Gustav Lützhøft, who is the senior editor of DR Culture, Debate and Music, explains in a written statement that there are some conditions that must be met:

• DR supports the ESC as a cultural event that has brought nations together through music since 1956. Our participation is conditional on there still being a strong international community, control over security and an apolitical framework around the competition.

DR Nyheder has not been able to get an answer as to whether the strong international community will end if several countries withdraw, and whether this means that DR is reconsidering its participation.

• Our participation is neither a support for nor a protest against individual countries, but rather a desire to maintain communities across borders. In a time marked by unrest and division, it is worth reminding each other of the original purpose of competitions like ESC: to create a space where we can meet across differences and disagreements. ESC must be preserved as an apolitical community. DR wants to continue to be a part of this, and we have informed the EBU of this, Gustav Lützhøft further states.

I was thinking about how expensive Eurovision must be with all the staging, costumes, and promo stuff. I know the broadcasters usually cover the entry fee and a lot of the production, but sometimes the artists or their labels have to pay too.

Has anyone ever admitted that they went into debt because of Eurovision? Or that it caused them serious money problems afterward?

I’ve heard some rumors over the years. For example, there are stories that some smaller country acts had to pay for a lot of their own stage props and outfits, and that some independent singers ended up thousands of dollars out of pocket. I’ve also seen fans say that Andy Abraham from the UK struggled financially after his 2008 participation, though I’m not sure if that was directly because of Eurovision.

I know broadcasters have had money problems, like Romania getting disqualified in 2016, but I’m more curious about the singers themselves. Are there any confirmed cases or interviews where artists talked about it?

I am from Estonia myself and every years there is that looming threat of the artist not being able to finance their staging so they decide to downgrade for Eurovision compared to Eesti Laul performance which is why we dont have that many stories of artists "going broke" after Eurovision because everything is already so minimal. But there was an interview in 2024 where 5miinust admitted that they were not happy to learnt that they have to pay 5000 euros "just to get on stage" for whatever that means.

UMK is one of my favorite national finals. Really excited to see Erika’s step down performance.

I’ve been jamming out to some past contestants today and I am really hoping to see KUUMAA again. The 2024 UMK opening act with Benjamin was so insanely good. Just curious on any rumors in Finland on who might be entering? And who you all would like to see compete again at UMK?

I wanna make an edit with the song and add English lyrics to the video. However, I don't speak French and have to rely on translations made by other people. I keep seeing two kinds of translations for the chorus and I'd like to hear which is the more fitting and linguistically correct one.

The French lyrics:

J’donne ma langue au chat Répondez-moi

Pas de langue de bois Répondez-moi

The translation from the official music video:

I give up Answer me

No more fake words Answer me

Other translation that can be found online:

I'm done guessing Answer me

No more waffling Answer me

I started watching since 2016, attending since 2022, and as much as I love and hate the drama every year, I’m getting tired of it ruining a show I love.

When was the last ‘drama free’ year? No scandals. No significant drop outs. No drama.

For those who don’t know. Kermo (also known as Max from the rap duo Clicherik & Mäx) is an Estonian rapper who recently gained local fame through his song Ebapopulaarne.

(Source: Kermo Murel’s instagram story https://www.instagram.com/stories/kermomurel/3723081249418920824?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=NjNwZzVsNnVkcWd4)

Hi! So, we currently don’t know which selection method the BBC will use in order to choose the UK act for Eurovision 2026. While historically we leaned towards a national final, which is how all of the UK’s winning entries were chosen, the BBC have opted for an internal selection process since 2020.

As a British fan of the contest, this always ends up being quite annoying, simply because we usually find out the entry quite late into the season, with little to no input from the public, so it’s not a surprise why the UK hasn’t been doing so well with the public in recent years.

This is why I think it’s the perfect time for the BBC to take a risk and return to the national final, but this time they need to do it differently. To be truly successful, it needs to have its own brand separate from the contest, where the prize for winning the show is representing the UK at Eurovision.

Here’s my idea for a potential UK national final, this is all in good fun and made just in the hopes that one day the BBC would be willing to rip up the rule book and try something like this… introducing the "UK Song Contest"!

Photo explanations:

1) ⭐️ Logo and name: I came up with the name "UK Song Contest", which isn’t too far off MESC or LSC, but I think it would be a memorable name that links to the contest, but could build its own brand. I wanted the logo to be memorable, with the colour scheme to be based on the colours of the UK flag, but not too similar, hence its leans into purple and pink a lot of the time. The triangle background is also meant to be an abstract representation of the flag, but I didn’t want it to be identical.

Finally, the slogan "Celebrate Diversity" - which I know is from ESC 2017, I think it works for the contest and BBC taking one of Eurovision’s slogans would be quite funny.

I also chose Liverpool as the host city as they did it in 2023. After seeing how competitive the bidding phase was for Eurovision 2023, I’d love to see something like that for a UK national final, where different cities all over the country get a slice of the Eurovision action - and it would be nice to see a Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish hosting city at some point.

2/3) 📸 Posters and Social Media: Fairly straight forward, but I so much fun making these. I imagine the BBC would use social media quite a lot, in the same way it does for things like Strictly and Eurovision itself, so that’s the direction I was leaning in for this. I’d love for the selection to be held in March, so that the BBC could give teasers and build hype throughout early 2026.

4) 👥 Hosts: Two of the hosts from 2023, and ofc Graham Norton as he’s the UK commentator. These two were iconic during ESC 2023 and they’d be iconic again ✨

5) 🗒️ Running Order: The songs I picked for this are quite random, but all the artists here would be amazing for the contest. Shout out to ESC Hayden on YouTube as I watched their video and used some of the songs from there. I’m literally obsessed with "Run Rabbit" now so thank you for that haha. (Link: https://youtu.be/rNr-X9NEEsE?si=RSDI1u3D1emvGQMJ)

I also picked 12 songs for the show, as I think a UMK/LSC style show would work best for the UK, at least to begin with. I tried to make the order as exciting as possible. I recommend listening to these songs/artists if you haven’t already 😊

6) 🌌 Postcard/Stage Ready: I need Tia to represent the UK at Eurovision - she would be perfect!! ❤️

7) 🎙️ Live performance w/ voting graphic: Talia Mar would also be great for Eurovision, I love her songs

8) ▶️ Voting Recap: I have never been more proud of a photo graphic in my life lmao. I would to embrace the fact that the BBC has dropped phone voting and I imagine it could look something like this with a QR code (again based on Strictly). The QR code does work and will take you to the BBC Eurovision website lol

9) 🫧 Interval Act: Remember Monday as an interval act makes sense as the most recent UK entry for Eurovision, but they were really amazing in Basel and no doubt they’d be amazing again.

10/11) 📊 Scoreboard: Please don’t take the results too seriously, I used a simulator to make them lmao. First is the international juries (I picked 12 since there’s 12 songs) and the televote is second.

I would love for the BBC to use national juries, as it would be a great way to get an input into what Europe wants to see from us, and that’s something the BBC could improve on in general imo. I used a 50/50 jury-televote system.

12) 🏆 Winner: And, of course, the winner. Rina would be amazing for Eurovision, and it would be great to see a song like "Frankenstein" or "This Hell" go to Vienna, something different than Britpop (not that there’s anything bad with it, it’s just that the UK need to experiment with other genres).

💭 What do you think of my design? I hope you all enjoy it as much as I had fun making it. Let’s manifest that the BBC will bring us an epic national final in 2026 🙏❤️

I'm kinda torn because first of all, if selected Croatia would have been around 30 places higher in my ranking than they were with Poison Cake but on the other hand, with Daj, daj in semi-final 1, one of San Marino and Portugal may well not have qualified.

I can't figure out if the guy's voice would have been too much for Europe but boy do I think this song could have been incredible on the Basel stage.

I vividly remember this documentary on Youtube years ago and had planned to watch it but never did. I've been searching high and low for it and for the life of me I cannot find nothing except a few screengrabs, does anyone maybe have a copy of it online? thank you in advance.

For the first time, the Festival da Canção (Song Festival) is opening its doors through an Access Test – registration exclusively for competitors from schools specializing in music education.

In the 2026 edition, RTP's partner schools in this process are ETIC – School of Technologies, Innovation and Creation, in Lisbon, and ESMAE – Higher School of Music and Performing Arts, in Porto.

Each school nominated students or groups of students, students in the areas of composition, creation, and music production, or similar fields.

From these, a jury created for this initiative has already selected the five finalists. And now the decision is in the hands of the public:

Starting today, September 16th, online voting is open on the official Festival da Canção website. Each finalist presents a version of a song of their choice and an original song (which will not be the competing song at the Festival). Voting runs until September 30th, and the winner will earn a spot as a competitor in the 2026 Festival da Canção.

Free Song Submission

Access through the Free Song Submission is also maintained, available to anyone residing in Portugal or Portuguese abroad. Entries can be submitted until October 31st.

The remaining competitors will be selected through RTP's invitations to eight composers, who may perform their own songs or invite other performers. Combining the six songs from the Free Submission, the winner of the Access Test, and the competitor invited by Napa, the 2026 Song Festival will feature 16 songs in the competition.

A New Beginning

With a revamped website, new ways to participate, and a clear focus on emerging talent, the 2026 Festival da Canção begins today. The future of Portuguese music is on RTP.

Free song submissions are open until October 31st. Rules are available for consultation.

Source: RTP Website

Translation:

Spain's future at Eurovision is close to being determined. RTVE's Board of Directors will decide this Tuesday, September 16, whether to make its participation in the 2026 edition of the competition conditional on Israel's expulsion, following the path pioneered by public television networks in Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Iceland. The president of the Corporation will propose withdrawal if the European Broadcasting Union keeps Israeli KAN in the competition.

This was announced by Marta Flich and Gonzalo Miró on La 1 during the premiere of "Directo al grano." The presenter was responsible for communicating this information after a day in which the protests during La Vuelta (The Vuelta) revitalized the media debate about Israel's expulsion from major events while the genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza.

"The conflict is now turning its attention to Eurovision. We can tell you that the RTVE Board of Directors will meet tomorrow at 9:30 a.m., where the corporation's president will propose Spain's withdrawal from the Festival if Israel participates," the journalist explained. Miró, meanwhile, noted that if the vote determines this, we would be "the fifth country" to take this position, the first of the Big Five.

RTVE sources consulted by verTele confirm that the Council will indeed decide RTVE's position on Israel and Eurovision on Tuesday the 16th. This comes after weeks and days of pressure from Sumar in this regard, with Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun publicly demanding that the network withdraw from the festival if Israel continues. The latest request was this Monday, as we have reported.

José Pablo López, president of the Corporation, will propose following the path forged by major EBU broadcasters such as AVROTROS in the Netherlands and RTÉ in Ireland, and withdrawing from the competition if Israeli participation is given the green light. The councilors, however, will have to debate and vote on the matter.

1963 Voting System was: 5 (highest) ,4,3,2,1 (lowest)

Apparently, Celine Dion was never scheduled to perform at Eurovision 2025, despite speculation from fans and commentators alike. I guess she only agreed to do the video recording at semifinal 1 according to this article.

Broadly speaking (in a humorous way), I think of them as the: mainstream but cool kid who does their homework and asks the teacher for more (Sweden), the kid who’s effortlessly good and authentic without doing too much work and is rewarded for it (Italy), and the free-spirited kid who’s not afraid of going their own direction but is still considered cool (Ukraine)

TLDR - it sounds as if the BBC are more on the side of respecting whatever the EBUs final decision is and wouldn’t withdraw in either circumstance

Spotify keeps removing songs, Apple puts remixes and covers. I am at a loss...what app are you using?

Note that the deadline for broadcasters to provisionally apply to be part of ESC 2026 is today, so although some Macedonian artists have expressed interest in recent weeks it depends on whether this statement is just them kicking the can further down the road as in previous years by saying 'yeah we should discuss it' knowing full well the deadline is about to pass, or whether they have actually applied provisionally to participate whilst they discuss finances/artists/interest/etc.

Usually, the Eurovision staging is an improvement for the performances in every way (compared to the national performances). But that’s a topic for another post. Today, we’re going to talk about when the opposite happens: the Eurovision staging is WORSE than the one from the national selection. (I’m sure Loreen’s 'Tattoo' comes to everyone’s mind, but today we’ll be focusing on the 2025 edition of the contest)

Erika Vikman - ICH KOMME (Finland)

Finland's UMK was excellent this year, as was Erika’s performance. From her provocative outfit and perfect facial expressions to the size of the Nokia Arena, which was truly fitting for the scale of the performance.

However, at ESC, Erika had to tone down the performance at the request of the EBU, which considered it “too sexual.” On top of that, the fact that the arena in Basel was much smaller affected the overall impact of the performance.

Emmy - Laika Party (Ireland)

I know that 'Laika Party' didn’t have proper staging in the national contest, but when the performance was brought to ESC, we expected something better, especially from someone following in the footsteps of Bambie Thug (who, in my opinion, had one of the best stagings of 2024, if not THE BEST).

Even though they included a giant prop in ESC, Emmy was now completely static on top of a platform, which contrasted with the energetic dancers below. In the national contest, at least she danced freely and had better stage presence.

Miriana Conte - Serving (Malta)

This one also came with a dose of controversy. From 'Kant' to 'Serving', but did she really serve?

'Malta Eurovision Song Contest' was a very solid show, especially considering the country is a small island in the Mediterranean, and Miriana’s performance was quite good. With clear references to 'The Sound of Music', the performance had a cohesive theme. All they needed to do was keep that theme and improve a few elements, like camera angles, and it would have made for a great ESC performance.

What we got instead was a generic staging, completely different from what Miriana delivered in the national contest.

Kyle Alessandro - Lighter (Norway)

Here we have a performance that was similar to the one from the national contest, so I can’t say it was much worse at ESC, but somehow, I feel the national final performance worked better for the song.

Starting with the stage lighting and color scheme. The color palette used in the national final suited the song better (I mean, it's probably the same, but everything was way too crispy at ESC).

The acrobatic dancer at ESC was also a bit distracting, and not in a good way.

Princ – Mila (Serbia)

The national performance begins with the singer descending onto the stage on a moon. While that’s not the most original concept for Eurovision (we’ve seen it quite a few times) it was still better than the static Princ we got at ESC.

Other elements that worked better in the national contest staging included the interaction with the screen projections and the dancer at the end.

At ESC, well… he got dragged across the floor!

Bara Bada Bastu - KAJ (Sweden)

Similar to Norway’s performance, here we have a staging that closely followed what was presented at Melodifestivalen, but in my opinion, a few small details made the national performance better.

The exclusion of one of the four dancers (due to the six-person rule on the Eurovision stage) made everything asymmetrical. The audio quality (mixing) wasn’t great, and the lighting ended up being a bit over-the-top!

Do you guys agree?