The EBU is investigating a Periscope video of the Russian jury viewing the jury rehearsal of the first semi-final last night. The video shows one jury member’s notes, and another jury member can be heard saying she will favour Armenia as her husband is Armenian.
While Sergey Lazarev was delivering a stand-out performance at the jury rehearsal, the jury members for his country were hard at work in Russia, watching the semi-final and making choices for their jury votes.
The seven-minute Periscope video, made by jury member Anastasia Stotskaya, shows the five jury members sitting around a table, watching a closed broadcast of the jury semi-final, a typical jury viewing situation.
https://youtu.be/4wrXZhMtaIk
As Douwe Bob performs his song, Anastasia films the TV screen, her voting paper, and frequently winks and pouts at the camera.
In one shot, there’s a glimpse of a jury voting form. The juror is covering her handwritten, but fans have seen notes that mark down Hungary and Moldova and mark up the Netherlands.
The video continues into the next song, “LoveWave”. Russian-speaking Twitter user @Satine_Danielle says that one of the jurors state that she’ll support Armenia as her husband is Armenian.
@wegottheflow @ESCSamuel … Performance "kinda cute but dull", then another judge says "I'm for Armenia. My husband is Armenian". WTF?
— Dani (@Satine_Danielle) May 9, 2016
The content of the video has raised concern amongst both Eurovision fans and media. The European Broadcasting Union have responded, saying they will look into the situation, with further information to be released this afternoon.
Reports about Russian jury vote video @Eurovision being looked into Further information Tues afternoon #Eurovision pic.twitter.com/MvzmLzhIap
— EBU (@EBU_HQ) May 9, 2016
Russia, Russia, Russia how much can you fiddle and if you win they are all sh.. scared of you. 14 points to Russia
@ESCArgy: Being against a 100% televote system is the finally the one thing you’ve said so far that makes perfect sense … someone who despite loving the Russian crap .. does not want other types of crap to arise from the ashes of the televoting stupidity. Thank God!
@Xenia, do you see the same? Russian vk group became closed and no one can see their posts?
look at the singer label on Lazarev video. is it from closed jury stream? looks similar. anyone have the idea what is it?
power b,
that article is 5 days old. could be everything is sorted already? I haven’t seen any statement about it.
BiloxiBlue Not only Russia. I do not know how
http://vk.com/escworldclub?z=video-17978924_456239637%2F0cc6132b05e5eabed6%2Fpl_wall_-17978924
Long time lurker, first time commenter.
Can someone explain why Russia’s semi-final performance is all over Youtube?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0ZZh63JAPM
@Anastasia: Aye! It certainly isn’t Sergey’s fault. But things like this going on behind the scenes usually have the potential to ruin it for their entry. The people can’t hold the jurors responsible; so they punish their entry. He is my #7 at the start of this contest.
What is the fault of Sergey for this? Like what was the fault of Ovidiu Anton for TVR’s debts? Hope EBU does not go cuckoo again. She was born in Kiev in 1982 where she lived for 10 years, in 1992 she and her family moved to Russia. No conspiracy though because of her Ukrainian origins in my opinion, more likely her attitude is due to the fact that she is a diva-like singer with musical, cabaret roles. Wouldn’t be surprised if she is one of next years singer for Russia in ESC. Now that she has become famous all… Read more »
Keep Calm
Even if I don’t have Armenian hubby (but I do have Armenian granny) I will definitely vote for Iveta. Talking about translations in famous video – Oscar said that it sounds winning for me. That’s it.
Lol people understanding Russian can clearly hear that that woman, saying Armenian husband thing,was not even serious so chill.
How can you discuss that and not pay attention on Douwe Bob’s and Iveta Mukuchyan’s performence?? I mean Dayum I got goosbumps O.o
Lol when Douwe Bob stopped singing for 10 seconds , jury members were like ” Was he lip syncing ? Did the audio turned off? xD
Bye Stotskaya! Lol
http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=ebu_issues_statement_about_jury_voting_in_russia
Russia should be disqualified. When the Romanian broadcaster did not pay the fee the singer was not allowed to participate, then on the same line the Russian broadcaster made a huge mistake which is even worse then the Romanian one in my opinion, they chose incompetent juries. Russia should be disqualified.
Danielle led astray people! It was a joke and nothing more.
Wtf people, really? http://eurovoix.com/2016/05/05/ukraine-jurors-state-favourites-ahead-contest/
People are amazed that Russians are corrupt? This is nothing new..
Most voting have some sort of scrutineers, why isn’t there one here? Innocent until proven guilty, but I don’t know what this is
Though we be footling ourselves if we think EBU will do anything about this. There will be no consequences whatsoever for Russia, Sergey or the juries. They will let it pass. Cause unlike Romania and Portugal Russia is very important for EBU, and they won’t do anything to upset them .Even if they should. Russia’s show alone pay off the fees for EBU
AlexTheGreat
A video was reported
No surprise that many trolls are involved in this circus. This is pure russian mentality. This immature girl took away the tiny credibility I had left with russia. Now it’s emptied. She destroyed it. 0 points.
@Charles
You blame other people for not having good english skills, but it’s actually you who didn’t understand. I said that Russia can vote only with their televote, just like FYROM and Montenegro did last year. I am completely against an 100% televote system, which is another subject…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u45p3kT83dc Full video leaked…now please don t tell me sombody is playing dirty
@ Oxana
I completely agree with you, the Armenian Odds are fully blue since this reveals. This is a proof this had an effect on bookies and all other Juries will have time to see it before grand final.
This is the reason why Italy didn’t win overall last year despite getting first place with televoting. The juries….
This lady filming is so immature. It is also dissapointing to see they don’t pay much attention to the songs. But it would be unfair for Sergey and his team to pay the price. No artist who has worked hard deserves to pay other peoples’ stupidity. And one wonders. Is it just the Russian jury or is pretty much everyone so unprofessional? Jury voting cannot be 100% credible and televoting will always include some neighbour or diaspora favoritism. Period.
@Jr esc nl, ok, could they heard it prior the broadcast. but the questions are:
1) do they have rights to express their sympathy to other jurors while their job is to give unbiased score to contestant?
2) do they allowed to stream video where they say “it’s a winner” on Armenian song? I mean, they just said it, and look at the bets for Armenia! shining blue miracle.
what do you think? can they claim something is about to win, while people and bookies watching closely the thing?
As Ukraine sing in 2006. Russia godbye. IF Russia not follown the rule, I dont WANT you in ESC.
@oxana
Maybe the jury members had heared the songs before so she knew the song sounded like a winner.
@James Adam
“One jury can not change a thing.”
That’s the wrong attitude. It’s OK to have one biased/corrupted/incompetent jury member, because the others will surely do their job right? No, it’s not OK!
One jury may not change anything at the end, but it can also possibly decide the winner! And it can easily affect the position of lesser entries, where 1 or 2 jury points might decide 1 or 2 position up or down.
The Russian jury votes should be excluded without any hesitation.
And sadly, it could be the same with many other juries, since no one is watching them how they work.
I really hope nobody bought votes since I wish for this to be fair. That doesn’t mean that *my personal* top 10 needs to pass in the finals, but rather those most people want to see. For instance, I can live with songs like Russia or Latvia passing finals despite not being my favorites because I know how many people like the song. But if a country buys votes, it should be disqualified. This is, in it’s core, still just a big game and fixing the results is unfair, unfriendly, unsporty and childish as well.
To all our dearest Russian friends: OK, we are a little upset but we are not angry at you. And of course Sergey may sing his sing and don’t need to be disqualified. Although it will take a long time for us to get over this pain…as our queen Maxima would say’ dat was een beetje dom’. But nevermind, you lovely Russian people could make it up a little to vote for us tonight and hopefully Saturday so that we get the 12 points from Russia and we can smile a little in between our tears. 🙂 🙂 from the… Read more »
Sergey is very professional, talented, polite and kind person. As a Russian, I hope the results of non-professional jury will be cancelled. In my opinion, the jury should consist of dozens of people in order to reduce the percentage of morons.There are many fans of Eurovision in our country. Don’t judge the whole country because of a few clowns with the addiction to fame.My favorites are Italy, Serbia and Bulgaria and i hope they will be in the top10 in the Final. Enjoy our amazing participant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmGNlV3gWyI
Ukranian jury too http://eurovoix.com/2016/05/05/ukraine-jurors-state-favourites-ahead-contest/
Lol while you all concetrate on this leaked video..azerbaijan pays some money to jury members and countries to vote for them..Samra will be in final with her horrible vocals…That’s the problem.
I mean voting system always had awekward moments.
And I could also say “I am for The Netherlands. My wife is Dutch”
I mean she just gave extra information, she did not say I vote for Armenia becuz my husband is Armenian..She said “I am for Armenia .(period) My husband is Armenian”….Not a huge problem tho .One jury can not change a thing.
Before I start expressing my opinion, I have only one question: Isn’t there a EBU supervisor present with each and every national jury out there? Can they intervene in cases like this, and if so, why didn’t they? Now, how much of a jealous EU-freak one must be in order to condemn an entire nation based on the action of only 5 people? I mean, there are juries and there is tevelote, so how can these 5 people represent the opinion and attitude of 170 million, who are about to make their decision about the songs tonight? The only right… Read more »
This happens with all juries so if you all think this is russia’s problem then you are mistaken. People saying disqualify Russia are plain jealous as he’s the winner….and it’s not gonna happen!!!!
I think Sergey will pay the consequences ! GOOD FOR FRANCE UKRAINE AND ARMERIA 🙂
Do they even have time to change the juries after all this?
@Georgie, according to wiki, Stotskaya has been born in USSR and moved to Russia in 1992 (at the time USSR collapsed), I doubt she ever had anything in common with Ukraine, as she never showed her nose here and worled only in Russia (btw her facial features and surname of her parents are not Ukrainian, it’s rather Russian, so maybe she not native Ukrainian, and it can explain why she and her brother called Russian in wiki). On the contrary, wiki page states that she co-worked with Philip Kirkorov. and here I have another question. what if you’re looking into… Read more »
And just to shut-up all the people who are now bashing Sergey: STOP! He is not responsible for this. I don’t even like that song that much and couldn’t care less if he fails to qualify by fair voting. However, of course he should compete and anyone who wants to take it out on him is being unfair and mean.
Russian media already approached Anastasia Stotskaya who leaked the stream, and she said she does not feel guilty, as long as they haven’t leaked voting results, they are fine and she surprised to learn that this stream caused the fuss.
how arrogant is that?
What a scandal! Like Romanian forced withdrawal wasn’t enough!
Fact: These five people aren’t credible jury and should be disqualified.
Concern: What if many more juries are just as disinterested and lazy, only not dumb enough to film it?
Possibility: This *might* give slight advantage to Armenia and Netherlands, while giving slight disadvantage to Moldova and Hungary.
Douwe Bob reacted this morning when he heard the news at first hand by saying that its very disappointing and that the leak is a silly and bit dirty trick. He added that Sergey in general is a great guy and that the viewers are now better prepared to the epicness of his performance and staging 😉
Brain damage due to excessive use of alcohol for generations.. That is the real problem creating the basis for agression. Not only in Russia.
Hopefully the behaviour of the Russian juri will not be stigmatized to believe EVERYBODY in other countries do the same bs … neither televote nor the jury vote are perfect. We have people like this Russia like this famele singer acting like a twat … and we have people at home voting only for the neighbouring country just because … or an immigrant voting for his or her own country regardless the quality of the country’s song but pure patriotism … How fair and musical-oriented is that? Oh right … it doesn’t matter … well if it doesn’t matter …… Read more »
6 hours before the show, wtf is going on?
First of all, I’m disappointed by the fact how they all seem to give literally zero fu**s. This is what a professional jury looks like? I sincerely hope this is not the case with many more countries. It’s a disgrace that such people determine 50% of the overall result! And how stupid does one have to be to actually stream/upload the video? Jury disqualification would probably be the appropriate consequence, but then again, how are they going to substitue the votes? Not at all? The average of some other countries (which is the case for San Marino’s televoting results)? By… Read more »
I consider this a proof of how faulty and corrupt the jury system really is. I feel so sorry for Sergey though – he’s a very hardworking, talented singer and a genuinely nice guy, he doesn’t deserve all this drama.
@ESCArgy: And that is what Russia wants … 100% televote to make sure their craps get those 12 cuz they believe dumb blonds and ears on mute are easily distracted by the stage circus ,,, and I can only imagine how boring it must be for all those Russian juries to listen to music from countries that never belonged to their dead “Mother” … but how cool is to listen to songs representing countries where their relatives live. How lovely!!! Stalin must be having a ball in his grave …
MTD
It’s hardly a matter of sexuality, MTD.
So you think it’s okay for the Russian jurors to behave so umprofessionally ? That gives us a good insight to your own low standards.