Eurovision 2020 Trivia: Jury voting VS Public Voting in national final results
Although this year’s Eurovision Song Contest was cancelled due to the covid-19 outbreak, the national finals that took place the time before selecting this year’s hopefuls show trivia interest regarding the Jury and public vote outcome. In which cases did they agree and in which did the split results contradict each other?
In this year’s edtion 41 nations had confirmed their Eurovision 2020 participation. From this number a total 24 countries used some kind of national selection format where jury or public voting influenced the final result. From these 24 national finals, Albania determined its Eurovision entry only via jury voting selecting through Festival i Kenges 2019, Arilena Ara , while Latvia chose it’s hopeful through the Supernova 2020 format according to which only public voting declared Samata Tina the country’s ESC 2020 hopeful.
Juries and public agree on the final winner
Among the rest 22 countries Moldova, Serbia, Sweden, Lithuania, Ukraine, Slovenia , Israel (act selection) , Romania (song selection), Poland and Iceland and Demark saw the two categories of vote results in harmony. Specifically :
Moldova: The country selected Natalia Gordienko and her entry “Prison” which received maximum 12 points from jury and public voting. In this national final the harmony in the results determined the 2nd place too, as Pasha Parfeny received 10 points from both votings.
Serbia: The verdict here for the female group Hurricane and their song “Hasta La Vista” was unanimous as they received 12 points from both voting bodies.
Sweden: Melodifestivalen 2020 resutls this year were a total thriller. With the International juries giving a tie between Dotter (Bulletproof) and The Mamas (Move) the public voting overturned the bookies’ favorite and gave the victory to The Mamas with one point only ahead.
Lithuania: The Roop put “On fire” the national final stage achieving to receive maximum 12 points from the jury and public. Here the jury and public agreed also on the 2nd place by giving both 10 points to Monique.
Ukraine: Vidbir 2020 final saw six contestants battle for the ticket to Rotterdam. The acts were awarded points according to a scale from 1 to 6 points. Go_A left no doubt about who the clear winner was, as both the jury and public awarded them with the maximum 6 points.
Slovenia: The country sticked with its tradionanl EMA National final format, which saw the jury award maximumt points to Ana Soklic advancing her to the Super final round where the public voting crowned her winner with 53,54% over Lina Kuduzović who received 46,46%.
Norway: The country held once again Melodi Grand Prix in order to determine its Eurovision act. Although the weren’t any official details released on the jury voting ,to know if Ulrikke had qualified to the Superfinal round coming first in jury votes, she did however prevailed in the public voting and won the national final.
Israel: The Eurovision 2019 host nation selected its Eurovision act through the talent show HaKokhav HaBa L’Eurovizion (“The Next Star for Eurovision”). After been saved in the first round of the final by the viewers, Eden Alene, achieved to top the jury and public voting and win the right to represent Israel in Rotterdam.
Romania: TVR held a national selection for the song as Roxen had already been internally selected as the country’s hopeful. Among 5 candidate entries , the song “Alcohol You” composed by Ionuț Armaș, Viky Red and Breyan Isaac received the highest acceptance by the jury and audience.
Poland: The Polish hopeful was selected through the talent show Szansa na Sukces – Eurowizja 2020. During the final show Alicja Szemplińska and her entry “Empires” won the national final among a total of 3 finalists, by topping both voting.
Iceland: Daði & Gagnamagnið achieved to top the jury and public vote and qualified to the Superfinal round of Söngvakeppnin 2020, during which the audience crowned them winners.
Denmark: Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2020 was used once again to determine the country’s representative. Without having details about the jury voting we know that the duo Ben&Ten dominated the televoting in the superfinal round.
The Jury and the Public voting at different wavelengths
In the following 10 national final cases the verdict wasn’t the same for the jury and the audience. Lets go and see one by the obe the countries:
Armenia
Athena Manoukian came 3rd in the public voting (50 points) of the national final of Depi Evratesil but achieved the to win the national final with the points by the jury which placed her first by a wide margin after receiving 118 points. In the televoting the big winner was Vladimir Arzumanyan with What’s Going On Mama who received three times more points from the second entry.
Australia
Montaigne the overall winner(107 points) came first in the jury voting (54 points) but second in the televoting (53 points) which saw Casey Donovan with her song Proud take the first place with 60 points but not enough to secure her the victory.
Belarus
The winners of the national final, VAL, didn’t top any of the votings but came second in both voting categories by getting 10 points from each voting body enough to give them the ticket to Rotterdam. First in the jury came Yan Yarosh while first place in the public the group CHAKRA.
Croatia
The winner of Dora 2020, Damir Kedzo came first in the public voting but second in the jury vote with 12 and 10 points respectively. The opposite exactly happened for Mia Negovetic who topped the jury vote but came second in the public vote. (10 pts+12 pts =22 points). The overall score came to a tie but since the public vote prevailed Damir won the ticket to Eurovision 2020.
Israel ( Song Selection)
Eden Alene was selected as the country’s representative but her entry was determined through a national selection with 4 songs. Here the results had a reversed outcome. While the song Roots came first in the jury voting with 136 points and 69 from the audience and Feker Libi came second , in the public vote things were reversed with Feker Libi first and Roots second. Feker Libi however was the winning entry as it got more points on the overall score with 282 points (128+154 points).
Czech Republic
Another case of contradicting results between the jury and the public. National final winner Benny Christo came first in the public ( 12 points) and second in the jury (10 pts) where the first place was won by Barbora Mochowa who scored only 2 pts in the public vote. (12+2=14).
Estonia
Uku Suviste qualified second in the Super Final round of Eesti Laul 2020 (4th in the jury but 1st in the public) while in the final round he received the smashing 68,2% of the public vote. Anett & Fredi won the jury vote with the song Write About Me in the first rounf of votes but in the Super Final received only a 15,6% of the public vote.
Finland
Aksel Kankaanranta came second in the public vote and first in the jury voting with 76 and 94 points respectively. The public had a different opinion and place first Erika Vikman with Cicciolina (58+99=157 pts).
Italy
Sanremo 2020 winner , Diodato, built his victory by coming 3rd in public (23,93%) , received 36,33% by the experts jury and 57,87% by the press jury. adding all up to a 39,32% . On the other hand the runner up, Fransesco Gabbani received 38,67%, 24,16% and 38,85% accordingly, reaching the 2nd place with a 33,94% overall.
Portugal
The winner of Festival da Canção 2020, Elisa, came second in both votings receiving 10 points from each category but were enough to give her the ticket to Rotterdam. On the other hand, Barbara Tinoco with Passe-Partout won the public vote while Filipe Sambado and his entry Gerbera amarela do Sul topped the jury voting. Neither the public nor the jury winner managed to win the national final.
