Along with the full split results of the grand final and semi-finals of Eurovision 2016, the EBU has provided a full breakdown of how each juror from each country voted. As part of the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest voting, the jury vote must be fair and independent. But as the details of the 2016 voting become clearer, it seems that one country’s jury in particular may not have followed the rules to the letter. Armenia’s jury vote shows startling consistency amongst all five jurors, across both the grand final and the first semi-final.
Armenia jury votes in grand final
As you can see, the Armenian jury awarded top points to France, followed by Georgia and Malta. On the face of it, these results are not too surprising: France and Malta were both very popular with the juries as a whole, whilst Georgia’s 10 points seems nothing compared to the United Kingdom’s jury awarding them 12 points.
The concern comes from the fact that every single juror ranked France as their #1 and Georgia as #2. Taken further, in each case bar one, the top five of each Armenian juror contained exactly the same five songs: France, Georgia, Malta, Bulgaria and Cyprus (one juror, Hayk Hakobyan, ranked Cyprus 10th and Russia 5th). In the following graphic, these results have been highlighted in colour:
It’s no surprise that the jury also ranked Azerbaijan’s song dead last in 25th. Once again, the jury vote shows consistency in that four out of the five jurors ranked the song 25th. Similarly, of course, Azerbaijan’s jury all marked Armenia last — so there is blame to share here. Perhaps the biggest shock is that jury member Erik Karapetyan placed Azerbaijan 19th in his own ranking.
Armenia jury votes in first semi-final
Once again, the Armenian jury somehow managed to come up with exactly the same first and second place across all five jurors. Other consistencies are similarly highlighted: Moldova and the Czech Republic’s rankings also seem to be particularly alarming.
The EBU has safeguards put in place to ensure that voting is legitimate and conducted in a fair manner. The example of this was that last year, the Montenegrin jury vote was excluded as it was deemed suspect. Though no explanation has been given for why, it was believed this was due to the Montenegrin jury ranking the same songs in fourth and fifth place across the board.
However, these same safeguards deemed Armenia’s vote to be wholly legitimate. It’s important to state that there are several other examples where national juries may have behaved in a manner against the rules, throughout the 2016 contest. These too were all deemed to be valid jury results. After the much publicised issues with the Russian jury, these results do not seem to do anything but add further fuel to the fire against the juries.
What are your thoughts on the Armenian jury vote? Should the guidelines for a fair jury vote be made clearer? Let us know here on wiwibloggs or through our Twitter.
nn, the jury votes from Germany I completely stand by….Hungary 2013 Denmark 2014 n Russia 2015 were all awesome songs. They may have been a little off this year.
Georgian jury votes should be (also) disqualify There were no individuals as should, they were voting as group (or as one person, i don´t know that). I noticed this, when I was comparing semi-final votes and final votes. There is judge called “Nata Natsvlishvilis”, judge number D in Georgian jury. “She” gave put countries in order like this (i took out oddest ones) Ukraine 17. in semi-final, 7. in final Belgium 16. in semi-final, 9 in final Serbia 15. in semi-final, 6. in final Poland 4. in semi-final. 17. in final Bulgaria 2. in semi-final, 22. in final “Nata Natsvlishvilis”… Read more »
Jury was unfair but this situation we can watch every year. Armenia hates Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan hates Armenia.
Belarus gave Russia 12 points because Sergey`s song is very good in this year. Last year Belarus haven`t always give Russia 12 points. It`s positive change.
To all the Armenians and Azeries, please try to respond kindly to a well written critic. Don’t always behave as victims and start pointing at the others. Omg, this article focuses on the Armenian jury and nothing else. So why can’t you not simply make up your mind on this topic before pointing at someone else. I agree that this is not a particular Armenian problem since other countries also have similar jury votes, however, I think it is not tolerbale that two countries Armenia and Aserbaijan give each other always the 25th place. This does not need any further… Read more »
why does this article smell of azeri oil ???? you better go wash your hands, maybe pockets too ….
HOW IS FAIR AND HIW IS IT ZpAiSSIBZlE WHEN JURIES VOTED FOR AUSTRALIA, PEOPLE VOTED FOR RUSSIA AND AT THE END UKRAIN WON?????
There is a petition going on and over 200,000 people already have sign it for EBU to reconsider the voting… I hope they’ll do something.
I’m fully aware of the whole Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict thing, but this always ranking each other last is a bit silly IMO.
Keep the juries, but expand them to ten or twelve people.
Just wanted to let you all know, that these types of suspicious voting is widely popular among MOST if not all countries. I have been looking at the results from especially 2014-2015 and even 2016 you can find huge consistencies and similarities. That is because everyone has their interests, agenda.
Therefore, it is quite unfair and dishonest to pick up one country and write negative things about it. That goes to the author, by doing so he essentially approves others for doing the exact same thing. Very unprofessional.
These particular Armenian jury votes actually don’t look too bad compared with the scores from other countries. While I appreciate Chris Halpin’s attempts at raising the issue, a more balanced article would have been preferred. I would like to see the comparisons with the questioned scores from the Czech Republic, Moldova and the UK rather than just look at Armenia seemingly being picked on.
Results of juries in all countries are much better than last 2 years. Looks like EBU and national broadcasters left them to judge more with their heads.
Armenian jury results are a little to similar throughout the songs, probably they talked too much with each other before giving the marks.
Surprisingly, an Armenian juror didn’t give Azerbaijan dead last place in the Grand Final. Also, the Azeri televote didn’t give Armenia dead last place in Semi-Final 1.
The writer of this article really sickens me. Instead of bashing Armenia for no relevant reason, why don’t you focus on the fact that HOW COME, JURIES VOTED FOR AUSTRALIA, PEOPLE VOTED FOR RUSSIA AND AT THE END UKRAIN WON????? Halloo, this is not a rocket science! One must be dumb not to realize that everything is unfair with the whole voting process. ALSO, Armenian jury did well compared to Azeri juries. Just take a look! They all ranked Iveta 25th. Really?? And of course Ukraine won for political reasons… Now I’m thinking that Iveta did absolutely the right thing… Read more »
Dear all ! Juries of 20 countries among 41 gave 0 points to this! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3KTV0jdCpQ
2016 was not Eurovision Song contest, that was Eurovision Political Contest!
Armenia won’t withdraw from the contest in all likelihood, in 2012, not only was the contest going to be held in Baku (and so it was very likely that a prospective representative was going to be seriously in danger for their life) but they also failed to qualify in 2011.
Given that Armenia placed seventh, I can’t see them not participating…
What I find surprising is this: the only “issue” Armenia has brought so far is the issue related to Nagorno Karabakh.. they didn’t make a huge deal when Azeris arrested people for voting for Armenia nor did they care when their number was blocked off, or the fact that Azerbaijan was handing cell phones to people in diff countries, or that they never ever ranked any Armenian song higher than the lowest place… at the end of the day, Armenians come to terms with their reality and that is that Azerbaijan will not change its attitude.. Oh, why has all… Read more »
@Pollaski 3: Rise of the Machines Agree. This is theory of probability. But I have calculated the probability of such an event to happen statistically (aking into account standard deviation and coefficients of variation from last years) and the probability is 1:55,000. I don’t say that it is statistically impossible, however it is quite suspicious. As to the Armenian voting, it is not suspicious, it is totally impossible. France (1,1,1,1,1), Georgia (2,2,2,2,2). It is even impossible to have the following matrix: France (1,1,1,1,1), Georgia (2,2,2,2,x), where x is any number in range (3,25)
The votes are clearly irregular but they managed to hide it pretty well. Since not all five jurors ranked the same, and it wasn’t only one juror making different rankings there’s really nothing you can do.
Weird how they voted Cyprus as number 15 in the semi final and then suddenly give it 6 points with a fifth place in the final…
Both juries are not doing their work properly, but I think is kind of reasonable that Armenia rank Azerbaijan last (that girl can’t sing a note) but to put Armenia in 25th place that’s just isn’t impartial. Armenia was not my favorite but judging originality and staging, definitely she’s not near the bottom.
Our jury is usually terrible!!! But seriously this year they did ok, I see the same things mentioned here in other countries’ jury votes but it’s only eastern european countries that have suspicous voting right? lol pleaseeee
I agree with others here, the jury shouldn’t be just 5 people, more like 50.
Wiwi, I enjoyed your coverage of esc this year and thank you for that. But please make a post analyzing ALL the strange jury voting.
The Armenian jury vote was deemed valid, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth further scrutiny. Any decent human being would trace down irreconcilable voting patterns on both the first semi and the final. Other juries’ voting patterns and conflict of interests should also be brought into light, but it seems as though the Armenian jury vote is the most explicit example of what’s unethical and unscrupulous with the current 5 member jury format. This issue is discussed in the court of public opinion and suspicions of jury coercion and peer pressure are an unfortunate by-product of the amount of… Read more »
The only difference is this year, that Armenia was completely correct in having Azerbaijan last amongst its jury members.
@Darren Perhaps if EBU had their sh*t together and followed up with their policies and enforced them not when it pleased them but as soon as they saw irregularities regardless of where they came from, we wouldn’t be having a discussion about the so called “flag policy”. First they ban “all regional flags”, then they classify them in the same category as the ISIS flag (a massive insult to all sovereign, democratic self-governed regions, including Negorno-Karabagh) and then they “ease the flag policy” for some regions but not for the others. Would it have been okay for Iveta to wave… Read more »
@Zara You are saying that you want politics out of Eurovision and yes, I would agree with that, BUT bare in mind that Armenia, along with Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Russia are the reasons that it has become so political. Maybe if Armenia stopped being so provocative with their flags, songs, etc then maybe people wouldn’t be ganging up on them like wolves. But I agree with you about Ukraines song, that was political too, Jamala even said it was, I don’t agree with that either and I would say the same thing about it. Armenia sends stunning songs that do… Read more »
i don’t think the result is that fishy but ok.
props to the 4th jury for not ranking azerbaijan last, btw.
@Pollaski
Thank you for your kind comment, but come on!!!! It’s not about the position, it’s about the moral behind it. Maybe he should have written it in more generalized way, not singling Armenia out. What about other 42 countrie?
All you big shots talking big;) Soon a lot of countries will withdraw, including Armenia because we don’t need any two faced Europeans in Armenia trying to influence us, we are extremely civilized and one of the ancient people living in this planet before any of you nomads; you think you are cool???? Judging and putting Armenians down??? Look at yourselves in the mirror, I am truly sickened by Europeans, Armenia is wise to stay with Russia than immoral EU. Is this what you are all about??? Are you that intimidated by Armenians??? GOOD!!! You should be, because we are… Read more »
Armenia is already set to be sanctioned over the flag incident and now this? It does look a tad suspicious but them and Azerbaijan have been allowed to constantly mark each other last every year so I’m sure the EBU will overlook this again as well as the jury all having the same top 5. Armenians attitude in ESC is starting to become tiring.
But, as a number of people have already stated, Belarus giving Russia 12 points always happens too, as well the the Ex-Yugoslav nations. So I’m positive the EBU won’t make a big deal out of this.
@Zara
LMAO. You guys finished 7th
But… but… Europe hates us!!!!
He raises legitimate questions that are worth thinking about- he’s NOT accusing the Armenians of collusion. Calm your sh*t
@CHRIS HALPIN, I think it’s about time we investigate your biased and discriminatory articles trying to discredit Armenian Nation. As far as I am concerned, maybe we should scan your pockets to see where the money is coming from to write such articles. I used to be wiwibloggs fan because of William others who regarded Iveta professionally without being biased, but I say “No More”. I am not watching anymore Eurovision and there is a huge decline in Armenian fans of Eurovision especially after this year. I hope Armenia spends their money wisely and doesn’t participate anymore, we don’t need… Read more »
Thy should be kicked out of the contest….CHEATERS!!!!!
I was all shocked as I had seen that the Armenian jury gave only 2 points to Russia and 0 points to Ukraine. I get it better now, while they were ranking songs with average potential to win the contest, they had the only idea in that way Armenia would have chance to win and nobody would recognise it since they’re also not the worst. Wow. Well done xx very tricky haha. I would want both Azerbaijani and Armenian juries to give points each other but it is ok since their political situation worse than hell. 🙁 but I remember… Read more »
While you are at again on Armenia/Azerbaijan, you should start researching in depth about the other juries, as well, as pointed out in the comments bellow. You can even write a book on that subject. Hah!
Hah, while you are at again on Armenia/Azerbaijan, you should start researching in depth about the other juries, as well, as pointed out in the comments bellow. You can even write a book on that subject.
Or the Swedish jury, where Lisa Ajax put Azerbaijan first, when 1) she’s signed to the same record label, which promoted AZ entry PLUS it included the same choreographer, who did her MF 2016 performance. Another jury member, Anderz Wrethov was a co-composer of Always (AZ 2009) and put AZ 2016 as his #6. Swedish televotes ranked AZ as their #24. Maltese entry “Walk On Water”, written by Swedes was #4 of the jury and #23 by the televotes and Poland was last by the Swedish jury and second w the SWE televotes. And then they say Eastern countries are… Read more »
juries fuc*ed up this contest big time, lets move on
@Marmelade
The odds of being killed by lightning in a given year, according to the USNWS, is 1:6.5 million. That makes it 1:87,000 for a total lifetime. Not sure where you get your numbers from.
The odds of four consecutive voting slots having the exact same items in them in a random draw is 1:303,600. Again, that’s random. You have two like minded judges with four songs that proved quite unpopular in various people’s minds, the odds are much lower. You’re trying to associate random probabilities with something that’s not random by any stretch of the imagination.
djofdf9 hey hi there our retarded turk or aze.. whatever.
@CHRIS HALPIN, Leave Armenians alone. Focus on other nations a little bit now. It’s getting too old already. You and your cheap articles with unfair and biased “facts” are getting too boring. I’m not defending the Armenian jury now, but if you want to write something about juries being fair or unfair, list all of the results please and let us decide who’s fair and which jury is unfair. Your hatered for the Armenians is remarkable from miles away. You can continue hating but do not spread biased and false accusations and raise arguments. It’s sickening how desperate you are,… Read more »
I agree with Charles. During the voting we instinctively know already who will give votes to which countries. Each region has their preferences and dislikes. No one is exception: Baltic/Scandinavia, Balkans, Mediterraneans, Caucasus, CIS, Easternh Europe etc. The votes corresponds to their political linkages. And besides all this, there is one general trend which is conditioned by EU big politics. And by the way, concentrating only on Armenia, especially this year, sounds strange, as they are already waiting another decision.
armenians always lie,just like armenian genocide lie
Armenian jury is probably the least corrupt and the least suspicious one out of all. When blaming Armenia for suspicious activity, one must compare sll nations jury votes, such as sold the Scandinavian countries. Then also, Azerbaijan, Belarus, who always give their 12 points to Russia noooooo mater what.
Peter really? Please explain why?
Why Armenia is worse than Azerbuyjan with its hideous cases such interrogating people who voted for Armenia.., blocking numbers on screen to prevent voting for Armenia, buying the sim cards in Latvia and other countries etc. to get votes.
And what about Sweden? Have you seen how the Swedish jury voted? How come they gave such high points to Azerbuyjan, Malta and Lithuania? Maybe because these songs were written by Swedish composers? You find normal?
Or what about Ukraine and their ultra political entry?
Think twice morons before commenting.
Croatian jury members Pamela Ramljak and Kim Verson have voted in a similar way awarding bottom 4 points to the same entries – Germany (25th), Georgia (24th), United Kingdom (23rd), Austria (22nd). In case of impartial and free voting, the possibility of such an event is very low, especially taking into account the fact that Austria was the 5th most popular entry according to the viewer. However this event is not considered statistically impossible with probability 1: 303,600 (the probability of being killed by lightning is 1:135,000 i.e. More than twice as probable as the outcome of the Austrian jury)
(Long comment) I really do appreciate how this article is phrasing it as, “…national juries MAY have behaved in a manner against the rules,” acknowledging that none of this is proof that there is any “corruption” going on. Could they be corrupt? Sure. Or could they just have similar opinions? That’s entirely possible too. As of now, there isn’t any actual proof that there is any rule-breaking going on. And I really do wish people would stop acting like there is. And the same goes for the accusations of “bias” (i.e. consistently finding entries from a particular country enjoyable does… Read more »
Albanian jury members Flamur Shehu and Nisida Tufa have voted in a similar way awarding top 11 points to the same entries with 4-11 places being exactly the same countries which is statistically impossible. Both jury members have awarded 1-3 places to France, Australia and Italy, 4th place to Spain, 5th place to Malta, 6th place to Bulgaria, 7th place to Russia, 8th place to Ukraine, 9th place to Hungary, 10th place to the United Kingdom and 11th Azerbaijan. The last place for the both is also the same country – Georgia. The probability of such an event in case… Read more »
@Marmelade
Look dude: I don’t spread any Ukrainian propaganda or hatred. I just said that I’m happy Ukraine won the contest and not Russia. And that’s because I love the Ukrainian song. I am referring to THE FREAKING SONG, I don’t care about politics in the country. So I didn’t even take a look at your link.
By the way, I love this site. Thanks to all the wiwi team for giving their free opinions and comments, for giving a lot of information, for creating rigged polls (is it very difficult not allowing voting for your country?), for creating debates, lots of love to the people commenting below (different points of view, great ideas, support, dramas etc). I enjoy it a lot.
@ESCArgy instead of spreadin Ukrainian propaganda and hatred watch how LGBT community is beaten in Kiev streets. I can share thousands of other videos if Nazis walking in your streets, priests being killed in vhurches, monuments being broken down and so on and so forth https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h_1IIjOPaic