The EBU has released the names of the national jury members for Eurovision 2016, and it’s full of Eurovision stars from past years. The juries include Wiktoria, Monika Kuszynska, Teo, Molly Sterling, and almost the entire cast of Objetivo Eurovisión.
While Greece are still to deliver the names of their five jury members, the other 41 countries have, and the list is looking like a who’s who of past Eurovision and national final stars.
Four out of the five members of the Spanish jury are the unsuccessful candidates from Objetivo Eurovisión. Electric Nana, Xuso Jones, Salvador Beltran and Maverick will be reunited in the Spanish jury room. Rounding out the panel is singer Coral Segovia, who placed second twice at Spain’s national finals.
Sweden has again turned to Melodifestivalen for many of its members, including 2016 breakout star Wiktoria, 2013 Melfest finalist Anton Ewald, and songwriter Anderz Wrethov, the man behind “Bada Nakna”, “Kizunguzungu” and “We Are Your Tomorrow”, as well as Azerbaijan’s 2009 song “Always”.
Poland – who is still to confirm their final jury member – includes Monika Kuszynska, who represented her country last year with the inspirational song “In the Name of Love”.
Albania‘s jury includes Kejsi Tola, who represented her country in 2009 with “Carry Me In Your Dreams”.
Belgium‘s jury includes Axel Hirsoux, the previous Eurovision act for VRT. We assume his ghostly mother won’t be part of the jury as well.
Hayko, who represented Armenia in 2007 with “Anytime You Need”, will be part of the Armenian jury.
Teo makes a comeback two years after he represented Belarus in Copenhagen – and we trust he’ll be bringing along some cheesecake for his fellow jury members to enjoy.
Kati Wolf, Hungary‘s act for Eurovision in 2011, has a place on the Hungarian jury.
Bojana Stamenov will ensure that beauty never dies on the Serbian jury.
Australia‘s jury includes singer Shannon Noll, who placed second to Guy Sebastian on Australian Idol in 2003, and Craig Porteils, who co-wrote Sakis Rouvas’s 2009 entry “This Is Our Night”.
Denmark‘s jury will include 2014 singers and 2015 points spokesperson Basim, who will be on the lookout for cliche love songs.
Lidia Scarlat – the niece of Cristina Scarlat and co-writer of her 2014 song “Wild Soul” is part of the Moldovan jury.
And proving that the Netherlands and Anouk are inseparable, the jury chairperson is Jennie Lena – Anouk’s final act in during the most recent series of The Voice of Holland.
Molly Sterling, Ireland‘s act from Vienna, is part of her country’s jury, and is also the second youngest overall jury member this year and one of only four jurors under the age of 20.
Visit Eurovision.tv to view the full list.
Jury requirements
The EBU have a number of rules when selecting jury members:
- Members of the jury must not have been part of the jury in the previous two years;
- Members of the jury must be aged of at least 16 on the day they vote;
- Members of the jury must not be employees of Participating Broadcasters;
- Members of the jury must pursue a profession in or related to the music industry;
- Members of the jury shall be citizens of the country they represent;
- No member of a jury shall be connected in any way with any of the participating songs entered and/or artists performing in the contest in such a way that they cannot vote in complete independence and impartiality.
The jury list is made public to give the public a chance to scrutinise it, looking for any potential issues. Sweden’s Wiktoria has already been criticised for her role as part of Sweden’s Eurovision preview panel discussion show.
2016 is the first time where the jury results will be delivered separately from the televote, making the public even more aware of the role that the Eurovision juries play.
Who have you spotted on the jury list? Is there anyone who shouldn’t be there? Share your thoughts below.
Here’s some changes that need to be made for 2017:
Juries increased to 12 people, or 8 at the very least.
1 member must have been a previous Eurovision entrant.
Be actual music experts- actually had at least a charting single or wrote one
Be vetted and approved by the EBU
Hey guys, in the Armenian jury, there’s someone who is only a fashion designer. OMG if u don’t have any good music professionals,borrow from other countries.
@georgekirkas @sonic0201
doesn’t matter, i like both of you guys 🙂
I find it remarkable that two persons of the German Jury (Boss Hoss) were also Jurors at the Voice of Germany, where Iveta from Armenia participated. I don’t know how to feel about that.
I love that Shannon Noll is in it for Australia, he is literally the meme of Australian music industry.
Just a case and point here.
Case: I personally have studied music (a degree in music), have written and performed music and songs, and I have performed at many venues. However, my profession at the moment is in the media (Journalist/Analyst).
Point: Sometimes people with other professions may have a musical background.
damn i really liked Moldova’s entry in 2014!!!! I was the only one, but still xD
I hope EBU can potentially work with pwc in the future to make the selection and appraisal process more robust so that people can see that Eurovision is a creditable competition.
Controversy on the Australian part- I voted last year in the final at 5am for different countries many times and most of my votes weren’t counted as I didn’t receive a message back, I still had to pay for them on my phone bill! I really hope the system doesn’t crash again, it basically skews the results. SBS or the televote company didn’t explain anything and A LOT of people had this issue. The jury once again in Australia is made up of many older people, I don’t think it’s fair that half of our score relies on old people’s… Read more »
I know I’ll be voting at 5:30am 😉
I think the Aussie televote is in some way kind of like the vote of the superfans across the world, because there won’t be many casuals voting. We’ll try to do you proud 🙂
And to take a page out of Wiktoria’s book, or Electric Nana’s, my top three are Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Latvia.
Criticca is wrong.
Actually @Criticca, I’m not sure where you are getting your info as it says on the SBS Eurovision website that SBS will be broadcasting live on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday mornings and will be using 50% televote 50% jury.
Anja Veterona represented FYR Macedonia in Junior Eurovision 2010.
Axel is from the same Belgium region(they selected the act this year)as Laura so it makes sense for him to be there. Aussies can’t vote via televote again so its 100% jury for them again.
Why so much fuss? It’ a mix of people who work in the music industry and music experts who know about music. Singers are there cause they are working with the industry. Just because they don’t write their own material doesn’t mean they are less qualified to be there. And so what if Wiktoria has stated her favourites before? There’s no rule that states it isn’t allowed to speak before. This isn’t a trial where you have to shut up about it before you judge it. They aren’t meant to be absolutely neutral. Besides, Wiktoria only based opinion based on… Read more »
I find it strange that Sweden need a preview show :/ like why make up your minds 2 weeks in advance and be “told” how youre jury are going to vote and how you should vote too. Its major propaganda by SVTs part
@EugeneESCUK Thanks for the link! Good to know that it hasn’t been, and still isn’t, an explicit criterion.
Does anyone recall how that “myth” began? I feel like there was a lot of discussion about it last year.
Electric Nana posted on her twitter that her favorite entry is THE NETHERLANDS a month ago… isn’t that a reason to disqualify her as a jury member?
Not sure if this has been pointed out yet, but it looks like the jury guideline about “commercial hit potential” (or however it was worded) from last year has been removed. I feel like this is good news.
“Each jury member is asked to evaluate the vocal capacity, the performance on stage, the composition and originality of the song and the overall impression by the act, and rank all entries, except their own country’s contribution, in order.”
http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=here_are_the_judges_for_eurovision_2016
In the swedish pre-show on SVT tonight, France won by a landslide and the jury said that this will win. Wiktoria told it’s her favorite among all songs this year. Like I already predicted, France will get 12 points from Sweden in both juries and televoting!!! The song was played on the radio tonight after the show as well… Momentum builds… GO AMIR!!!
Aussie jury is not bad, although James Mathison out for someone under 30 would make it better.
Or oooops, I made a mistake. I would not like anyone in “Inför Eurovision” to be a juror in ESC, but Oscar is in that TV-show. Robin Bengtson or Ace Wilder should replace Wiktoria
@Vlad, do you have any issues with Ruslana husband? 🙂 besides that role, he is her back musician and producer, and he assisted her in The Voice Show. He’s experienced music expert.
Monika Kuszynska for Poland. I’m glad she’s in. I have a sympathy for that girl, she knows how to sing while sitting in the chair, and she was brave to participate in the contest, and did her best to sing with her soul (and with perfect technic assuming her condition).
I 100% agree with @EugeneESCUK. I honestly don’t get the point of having juries, if they are made up of non-experts; isn’t the purpose of the juries to ‘balance’ the ‘poor’, for lack of a better word (I’m sure there is a better word, I just can’t find it ;)) ), choices of the public (that doesn’t necessarily take into consideration the artistic value of the songs, but only personal tastes)?! Having as members of the juries some singers, even talented ones, but who can’t write songs by themselves or didn’t study music ‘academically’, defeats IMO the whole purpose of… Read more »
@sonic0201
Oops, sorry! I got confused!
@georgekirkas
I think you addressed this question to @Nicky91, not to me…. but yeah, Kati Wolf’s wikipedia say she is a former “airline purser”, so there could be some truth behind it, and I might heard about it somewhere else in the past as well.
@georgekirkas
yeah, and she did x factor where she came runner-up 🙂
my favourite eurovision acts:
Ivi Adamou
Kati Wolf
Amber ( from last year, i really liked her down to earth personality)
Engelbert Humperdinck ( wow what a legend to take part at eurovision)
Pamela Ramljak from Feminnem (Bosnia 2005 and Croatia 2010).
V, No, let Ace Wilder, or the international fan favourite Oscar Zia be a juror
“Members of the jury should be citizens of the country they represent” does that mean that any EU citizen can be part of the jury from any EU country?
@sonic0201
Kati Wolf was a flight attendant? What? I didn’t know, thank you for telling me!
You missed many. Alma Cardzic from Bosnia, Stoyan from Bulgaria, Andrea Demirovic from Montenegro are all judges and former contestants.
@georgekirkas
Your welcome. @EugeneESCUK gave you a complete answer.
@georgekirkas
yeah Kati from flight attendant to singer, what a career change
i like the juries so far, let’s hope Ira and Nina can blow them away 🙂
Margaret “Cool Me Down” #74 in Sweden http://www.sverigetopplistan.se/index.html
@EugeneESCUK, @sonic0201
Thank you both for the explanation, now I understand.
@Nicky91
I love both “Playing With Numbers” and “What About My Dreams?”! However, Kati’s show in Germany was not that good and her vocals were not good, either.
SANDHJA new album available today amazing 10 songs!!
@georgekirkas
Professional = works in the industry, makes living from it.
One can be an awesome professional singer, but have little sense in writing lyrics. Can someone be called an expert if he/she has no idea about writing lyrics?…
@georgekirkas
Kati Wolf in the hungarian jury, yeah i like her 🙂
Molly Sterling, omg i really felt for her last year, she was really nervous
Wiktoria, WTF.?!??!?!!
She is spoiling her opinion in “Inför Eurovision song contest”. I can send some intresting information about that show, and who she will vote for in Eurovision, on may 7th, the day after the last program is on TV.
Kejsi and Kati <3
“Jury members must not be employees of participating broadcasters”
Viola Tami is a TV host of Swiss television SRF. Why is she a juror then?
Seriously, more national selection rejects and poor placers from previous years.
Angry bitter people judging a contest is high entertainment. Just too bad they dont have jury comments.
@Nicky91
I agree with you.
it’s Always nice to see former eurovision singers in the juries 🙂
Marjetka of Maraaya is the chairperson of the Slovenian jury.
Electric Nana. A nobody in our country and LAST in the national final, part of the Spanish PROFESIONAL JURY… Unbelievable.
Joe and Jake chatted to Lorraine this morning.
Ebu should pick the juries instead of tv broadcast. Too much singers who even can’t write a song, and there’s a lack of producers and dj’s radio. We’ll see how they will vote.
But this is looking Australia, Sweden, Italy and France as a locks for their top 5.
And then, maybe Russia, Malta, Bulgaria or Netherlands to be close to their top 5. We’ll see.
Croatia, Spain and Armenia will be down in jury voting I guess.