RAI, the Italian national broadcaster, has revealed the full results of the public televote. They paint a very different picture to the results announced by the presenter Federica Gentile during the Eurovision Grand Final on Saturday.

The jury appears to have cancelled out the enormous lead the Italian public gave Romania’s Cezar. Whereas the results of the combined televoting and jury votes in the Final showed that Italy had given 12 points to Denmark, it looks at least suspicious to the Italian viewers – not to mention the Romanian ones – that the opera-loving Italian public appear to have voted for Cezar’s song in vain. How low in their preferences must the jury members have placed the Romanian contestant, as to almost completely obliterate his obvious appeal to Italian viewers?

Here are the voting results from the Final, if it were up to the Italian public:

Apparently, 23% of the televote equals... 1 point?
Apparently, 23% of the televote equals… 1 point?

We know that the rules of the game have changed in 2013. Until this year, the juries were asked to rank their ten favourite songs. Now they must rank all of the countries. That means Romania can be ranked much lower than 10th place—it could be ranked as low as 26th—which may account for the measly one point it got. In this case we wonder – what is the point of televoting if the juries can overturn it in such a dramatic way? Won’t this measure discourage viewers from voting in the future, knowing that the jury has a bigger voice? And, speaking of bigger voice (and bigger interests and vote rigging allegations), isn’t a jury a much easier target for bribing than an country’s public? How can the EBU guarantee that the national juries aren’t corruptible?

The same thing very likely happened with Spain, which gave Romania nul points for the first time, despite a heavy Romanian diaspora presence there. Moreover, many viewers in Spain complained—and they were quoted by the head of the Romanian delegation—that they couldn’t vote for Romania.

Update: Thanks to our Italian readers, who alerted us to the fact that the composition of the Italian jury did not comply with more than one of the EBU rules regarding the National Juries. Thus, Italian jury members Paolo Giordano (chairman), Gianni Sibilla, Luca Dondoni, Fabrizio Basso and Luigi Bolognini are all journalists and music critics, but none of them are, as the EBU rule dictates, either “radio DJ, artist, composer, author of lyrics or music producer”. Moreover, all of them are male, which violates another EBU rule: “There shall be a balance among the members of each National Jury to ensure sufficient representativeness in terms of gender, age and background.” Something is rotten in Italy, isn’t it? But how did the EBU approve this jury? That is the bigger question that needs to be addressed.

Don’t get us wrong: we don’t mean to question the results of the Italian combined vote. We are not the president of Azerbaijan. We do NOT demand a recount and we do not wish to infer that Emmelie de Forest did not deserve to win Eurovision 2013. We only wonder: What is the point of a jury that can basically annihilate the votes of the audience? Maybe it’s time to revert to the good old democratic days when the public could decide the winner. Wouldn’t you like that?

Bogdan Honciuc is a Romania-based correspondent for WiwiBloggs.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stingoo.

Photos credit: Eurovision.tv, eurofestival.ws.

131 Comments
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StillEuroFan
StillEuroFan
10 years ago

Catherine Stewart, you are right. Let’s make Eurovision a contest were national juries are serving individual interests, to make things to be clear. Why should we entertain a conflict between public and jury? Why should we encourage the jury to manipulate results in order to prove that, no matter what public like and want, “alea iacta est?” (we are talking about Rome, don’t we?) Let’s see Italian vote: 13,79% for Moldova and 23,20% for Romania=36,99% Are there 36,99% Romanians in Italy? If so, it is normal that a Romanian countertenor like Cezar, who has double citizenship (Italian and Romanian), with… Read more »

Catherine Stewart
Catherine Stewart
10 years ago

In this case, if all televoting has no importance, it should be closed and the winner will be chosen only after the jury’s decision. Why should people spend their money if they televoting does not matter? That is really theft!

Ileana
Ileana
10 years ago

Detractors of CEZAR, have you seen how many views his song on youtube has? The most of all singers in ESC 2013! The great majority leave lauding comments, and there are so many non-Romanians among them! So maanyy! From all over the world.

Ileana
Ileana
10 years ago

@GianlucaTomoe May 22, 2013 @ 13:20:30 “No Fox, you are really wrong. If Romania sends good songs to the contest, like in 2011 and 2012, they will receive their deserved points from Italy. You can be sure of that.” Gianluca, Romania had this year a better song, performance and voice than 2011 or 2012, by the way. When the song and the singer are so good why shouldn’t the Romanians living in Italy vote for Cezar and Romania? And why should their vote be annihilated by an unqualified jury composed of 5 people, who feel so responsible for the noble… Read more »

Ileana
Ileana
10 years ago

@giorgio and @Gregorio, I am happy that Italy still have men like you, who denounce the injustice made to CEZAR! Thank you!

Oana
Oana
10 years ago

Razvan, thank you so much for explaining to all of us what being a Romanian means. I have been searching for an answer for years, but tonight I will finally be able to sleep with no questions or worries on my mind.

Hebbuzz
Hebbuzz
10 years ago

Totally agree with Mariska. Roughly Expert jury’s are about to judge quality, televote to judge taste and measure popularity. Both combined are the national result. Thus an expert jury does not have to reflect a national taste, just guarantee a high standard of quality. I think in all complot-theory you should make a separation between what FEELS like injustice and what in FACT IS. Injustice would be; -voting for your own country as diapora -voting for your own country by buying votes in other countries -voting for your own country through fraud/bribe -having neighbours voting for you because it’s you.… Read more »

Mariska
Mariska
10 years ago

I totally disagree with all the comments stating that the juries were introduced to punish countries that get a lot of diaspora votes. It’s not to punish them, it’s to take away the unfair advantage they had over countries without diaspora, and bring all countries back to a level playing field were only the quality of the song and performance counts. It’s not a punishment when something is taken away that you were not entitled to in the first place. The ESC is about sending in the best entry, and no country should have the advantage of automatically receiving a… Read more »

Helen
Helen
10 years ago

1. Why is it OK when Northern countries exchange their votes, year by year, and support their neighbors and is not OK when exIugoslavian countries have the same behaviour? 2. The jury should vote according to contestants’ professional performance. How on earth juries didn’t point Cezar’s performance? He is brilliant! He has a great voice, he is acting without any mistake. At the beginning, I thought he would be the favourite juries’ contestant. He is singing without demur. I had some doubt about public vote, because what he signs is special, different, but I never thought the juries will underestimate… Read more »

Some1
Some1
10 years ago

Well.. what can I say… after reading this.. I am Romanian and i live in Italy. I watched the Eurovision show from Italy on an Italian T.V. I don’t think I’m deaf: I heard the people presenting the show ( Italian people) say they liked Romania’s song… on T.V. … Don’t tell me an opera-liking country hated that song… I know there are many Romanian people in Italy, but still… and the jury members from Italy… I don’t like the new voting system. I think it’s all like a scam and nothing more. Eurovision should be just a festival and… Read more »

Eurovision sucker
Eurovision sucker
10 years ago

@giorgio How is this possible? Then they should also vote against all the other neighbouring countries of that jury !! because this is what the diaspora’s votes act like. For example, Romania has been and will always give 12pts to Moldavia, does this mean the jury from Romania should vote the moldavian entry last? Because then Italy should not have got 12 pts from Switzerland or Spain, or friendly countries…isn’t it? Same goes with all the other bloc-voting in Europe. Also, the jury voting one day before the final is useless, because we usually know what to expect from some… Read more »

giorgio
giorgio
10 years ago

Mariska! Exactly. Our giury was encouraged by Ebu to block the votes of the diaspora by voting AGAINST a country. They voted against Cezar (I also voted for him!!)because they hate romanians and they are ashamed by 12p to Romania everyear. How is it legal and corect?? Fascisti!!

Mariska
Mariska
10 years ago

@gregorio (Mariska … please tell me how 5 people (members of a jury) can express the taste of an entire nation? This is just hilarious. How can you be so sure that only romanians from diaspora voted for Cezar? It is a complete stupid system to point some people (I don’t know who does this – how are they picked) and give them the power to overturn the votes of another thousands.) Well they can’t really, but it’s the only way I can think of to diminish the effect of diaspora voting, that has been a huge problem in the… Read more »

Mariska
Mariska
10 years ago

@Maxy (@Mariska (“Just curious, how do you know the Italian jury results? The article only shows the televote results.”) Every one can see the Italian jury’s results in the first picture of this article,which in fact is a capture from tv!)

Those are not the jury results, but the combined result of the jury and televote, right?

Gregorio
Gregorio
10 years ago

Mariska … please tell me how 5 people (members of a jury) can express the taste of an entire nation? This is just hilarious. How can you be so sure that only romanians from diaspora voted for Cezar? It is a complete stupid system to point some people (I don’t know who does this – how are they picked) and give them the power to overturn the votes of another thousands.

happylife35
happylife35
10 years ago

They are EBU rules, not EBU indications: “Members of the National Juries must
pursue one of the following professions..” Moreover, they use “must”, so it’s very clear(at least on paper).
Unfortunately, there are many questions to be asked (see Azerbaijan, Russia, Montenegro). 🙁

GianlucaTomoe
GianlucaTomoe
10 years ago

Maybe those about the juries weren’t compulsory rules but just generic indications, sincerely I don’t know.

happylife35
happylife35
10 years ago

This is a good question. Why EBU didn’t say anything? Rules are rules and they should be applied. Or are they applicable just for some countries?

GianlucaTomoe
GianlucaTomoe
10 years ago

happylife35, if EBU didn’t say anything bad about the composition of our jury, before or after the contest, it means that it’s perfectly valid, don’t you believe?

happylife35
happylife35
10 years ago

@GianlucaTomoe
You forget something: the composition of the Italian jury did not comply with more than one of the EBU rules regarding the National Juries: diversity(backgrounds, age, so on…). If you don’t respect some basic rules, how can you provide transparency and unbiased results? Allow me to have some doubts.
Taking into consideration my personal experience( I did an International Master in Italy) I can assure you that I had a lot of issues regarding the principles of justice and fairness in Italy.

Maxy
Maxy
10 years ago

@Mariska (“Just curious, how do you know the Italian jury results? The article only shows the televote results.”) Every one can see the Italian jury’s results in the first picture of this article,which in fact is a capture from tv!

GianlucaTomoe
GianlucaTomoe
10 years ago

No Fox, you are really wrong. If Romania sends good songs to the contest, like in 2011 and 2012, they will receive their deserved points from Italy. You can be sure of that.

Fox
Fox
10 years ago

@GianlucaTomoe I lived to see her on this… “Italy is under occupation, with minority population, they living on the edge but thanks to text messages sent by Romanians, they manage to gather forces, pull strings and show their muscles”… So whatever you put the problem it seems that Romanian performers will never ever get points from Italy even if will be the best songs from competition, meaning… does not matter if most of your Italian peoples vote for Romania and many from diaspora among them, just because … hmm ! nope, suspicious thing, to many votes here, most likely all… Read more »

alex
alex
10 years ago

I have an idea for a better voting system – let’s have a unique Eurovision call number, no more country votes and let all Europeans vote.

To not penalize small countries – we can then weigh the raw votes with the population of the country where the singer is from – i.e. if the average population is 20 million then the Russian would be divided by 10, the German one by 4, etc.

That way you cancel out regional voting, diaspora voting, rigged juries who are bought by the music industry or have a political agenda.

Mariska
Mariska
10 years ago

Ben,

Just curious, how do you know the Italian jury results? The article only shows the televote results.

Ben Gray
Ben Gray
10 years ago

But the televotes can overturn the jury in the same way, can’t they? The jury ranked France first but got hardly anything from the public. There’s nothing wrong here. This system was clearly designed to reduce the effects of diaspora voting. 12 points from Italy to the eventual winning song should be seen as nothing less than a successful execution of the system.

Mariska is Eurovision zombie

Pretty laughable that you think they count votes AFTER they get them… When will you fucking realize that it’s not important who casts votes but who counts them?? We will never find out the true numbers because we are dealing here with Eurovision mafia and big money is at stake.

Mariska
Mariska
10 years ago

“Maybe it’s time to revert to the good old democratic days when the public could decide the winner. Wouldn’t you like that?” No, no, no.no. defenitely noooo. Than we would go back to Turkey and Armenia automatically landing a spot in the top 3 of at least 5 western European countries. Romania automatically getting the 12 points from Italy and Spain, and so on, and so on, every single year. All this regardless of the quality of the songs they send. That is not wat the ESC is about!!!!!! As long as people keep voting for their country of origin… Read more »

Mariska
Mariska
10 years ago

This is such nonsense. The juries voted a full day before the public did, they had no way of knowing what the public would vote and no opportunity to interfere with that by purposely giving a low placing to the top scorer of the televote. There votes were already communicated at that point. The fact that Romania scored 23% doesn’t matter in the new system. It’s the ranking that counts, and if a song for example gets ranked 25th by the jury and 1st by the televoters, it will not end up in the overall top ten or just barely… Read more »

Meryem
Meryem
10 years ago

i would like to decide again the winner in a correct mode.

lee gilford
lee gilford
10 years ago

Of course, it’s a bullshit! 🙂
It should be fun! But, it shouldn’t be a fraudulent funny bullshit!

floyd
floyd
10 years ago

come on ppl, eurovision its a bullshit, every year norway vote for sweden, denmark, finland, iceland and baltic states, countries from ex yugoslavia the same vote themselves , countries from russian area also, this “contest” its a fking joke, as a country i would not even bother to participate at this circus so chill my friends and dont waste ur energy with this crap 😉

Roger
Roger
10 years ago

Note that the jury does not judge the same performance as the public.

Note that the percentage of public votes does not matter to my understanding.
Total ranking order = Jury Ranking order + Public ranking order

In Swedish Melodifestivalen it does (nowadays)
Points = Jury points for song + Total_public_points*(public vote percentage for song) where Total_public_points = Total jury points for all songs.

ESC could make use of the Swedish system as a public favorite never can end up without points.

Danutz
Danutz
10 years ago

The fact that the juries voted one day prior to the final doesn’t mean anything… The Italian jury certainly knew, based on the televoting from previous years and the large Romanian diaspora there, that the Romanian entry would be very high in the public televoting, so they knew exactly what had to be done 😉

Catalina
Catalina
10 years ago

Why should people vote for their favorites in ESC next editions? Just for the fun of it? To make profit for the telephone companies??? We vote, we spend money and finally, 5 jurors can divert the results, can change totally the ranking??? I believe there’s no reason for the countries to spent time, money, invest hopes to participate in a contest with winner known in advance and strange/unclear voting rules that leave room to ….. ! Why would they do this? Good bye Eurovision!

Isabelle
10 years ago

@FEDE OGAE90

Italy: only 7th place, with 126 points? With 60.000.000 Italian immigrants around the world?

„There is still an Italy outside Italy. There are 60 million (60.000.000!) Italians outside (in Romania are 130.000 Italians)” – said Mario Cospito, ambassador to Romania, former counselor in the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

GianlucaTomoe
GianlucaTomoe
10 years ago

No Nirgal, the juries at ESC vote one day before the televote, in the jury rehearsal, so they don’t know how the televoting results will be.

Patricia
Patricia
10 years ago

CEZAR FROM ROMANIA WAS GREAT ! FUCK EUROVISION !!

Piksey
Piksey
10 years ago

I never trusted the jury. And now it is pretty clear that they manipulate with the points. The bribers(we all know who those are) work their dirty magic.

claudia
claudia
10 years ago

we can change what is wrong cezar is the real winner

FEDE OGAE90
FEDE OGAE90
10 years ago

Nearly 1 million of Romanian immigrants live in Italy! How can you say “Italians” wanted to give Cezar 12 points? It’s shame that immigrants (not only Romanians of course) keep on voting only for their origin country, whatever they sing. I am happy that the expert jury has landed Cezar: a ridiculous performance! Opera singer don’t have to behave the way Cezar did in Malmoe.

Harriet Krohn
Harriet Krohn
10 years ago

@And zero points go to…: Your comment has nothing at all to do with mine, so I’m not sure why you address me. The generalization I was talking about was of the kind I quoted, namely people saying everyone they know voted for a certain country, so if that country didn’t get any points, the voting must have been rigged. Surely everyone must be able to see that a generalization like this isn’t possible or valid?! Birds of a feather flock together, so it’s hardly weird if all your friends have similar tastes. Last year, I watched the contest with… Read more »

Nirgal
Nirgal
10 years ago

So, ¿The jury knew in advance how the public would vote?

I find it weird to say that the jury has a bigger power than the televote when results from both are given exactly the same weight when they’re combined.

karina
karina
10 years ago

Desde España hemos votado como en todo los años por Rumania!el cancion de Cezar EXCEPTIONAL,MAGNIFICO!!!!Nos han robado los votos!!!solo hemos podido votar con el telefono fijo con el movil NO se podria votar!!!gastamos un monton de dinero para que…….El año que viene no vamos a votar mas si nos da igual 0puntos.LA MEJOR VOZ Y UN SHOW FENOMENAL!!!THE WINNER para nosotros CEZAR!!!

lala
lala
10 years ago

I was suspicious of the Italian Jury… from the very beginning when I saw the results.

Cavendish
Cavendish
10 years ago

“…that the opera-loving Italian public…” …Yeah, I guess the concept of “sarcastic voting” escapes you, right? It’s somethig called “voto simpatia”, basically meaning “voting for the funniest one” (just like what happened with the Russian grannies in a past edition). Maybe it’s because we were out for a decade, but I thought people watched it because the whole thing is hilarious (not to say hysterical) and you just want to laugh and vote for the worts, craziest guy on the stage. I mean, the Lithuanian guy was clearly drunk at the final, Azerbaijan had a mime in a glass case,… Read more »

Alexander
Alexander
10 years ago

@Han Ess Excellent comment. I say get rid of the voting system altogether, and make Eurovision into a festival instead of a contest. The jury voting is suspicious, and the public voting is just neighbor and political voting.