Junior Eurovision 2017 is just over two weeks away, and hype is beginning to build as Tbilisi gets ready to welcome Europe. Even the JESC 2017 wiwi jury has started!
And now the EBU has released a video detailing exactly how the online voting system for this year’s contest will work. While a number of these details were revealed earlier in August, some new information has also come from yesterday’s announcement.
Voting will start on Friday 24th November via the junioreurovision.tv website. Viewers will be able to vote from anywhere in the world. So for those outside of Europe who are normally unable to vote in either the Junior Eurovision or Eurovision, then here’s a chance to finally have a say!
Junior Eurovision 2017 online voting details
On the official website, voters will be shown a preview of each of the 16 performances. In August it was stated there would also be an option to watch longer one-minute clips of each participant’s rehearsals. There is no mention of this in yesterday’s video, so it remains to be seen if this is still the case.
Viewers will then be able to vote for either three, four or five of their favourite entries. If a viewer only like one or two of the songs, then they will have to have to choose one or two others to vote for as well.
Perhaps most surprisingly, viewers will be allowed to vote for their own country. This is most likely because of the technical limits involved in preventing such an issue when using an online system. The EBU may believe that if everyone votes for their own country then it could cancel each other out.
However, the decision hasn’t gone down particularly well with fans, with the majority of comments below the YouTube video noting the possible unfair advantage this gives to those countries with higher population sizes. Who knows, maybe Dmitry Shepelev’s 2015 voting gag could now become a reality!
Online voting will close on Sunday 26th November, just before the start of the live show at 4:00 pm CET. Voting then reopens for 15 minutes once all 16 songs have been performed, giving viewers one final chance to vote for their favourites.
This public vote will count for half of the overall score, with the other 50% coming from a jury. Details on exactly how the jury will vote, or how many points a country will earn based on the number of public votes they receive, were not explicitly given.
However, the video does show a jury member revealing a traditional set of one to 12 points. And since the total number of available points from the public will equal the total given by the jury, it is possible that the public vote will be presented in a similar way to Sweden’s Melodifestivalen, with each country earning a certain percentage of the public points based on the number of votes they received.
The current voting system in place for the Eurovision Song Contest will most likely not feature, as the public votes will not be counted for each specific country, since viewers can vote from countries that are not taking part.
With voting now possible from anywhere in the world, the EBU will be hoping this new voting system increases the number of public votes received. They have been falling in recent years, before being scrapped altogether for the 2016 contest. With public voting now being reintroduced, the EBU will also be aiming to improve upon the recent decrease in viewing figures for the contest.
What do you think of the new online voting system? If you live outside of a participating country are you excited to get the chance to vote? Do you think it’s fair that you’re able to vote for your own country? Let us know all your thoughts in the comment section below!
This system will not last even one year. It’s that obvious it’ll fall on its arse.
For your information, the new voting system will NOT “fall on its arise”, and Junior Eurovision is a permanent member of the Eurovision events family.
this is terrible. this just gives a boost for poland, armenia and russia..
WRONG! It’s not terrible, and the curtain is NEVER falling on Junior Eurovision. However, I do want Eurovision Young Musicians to have a closed curtain next year.
this bad experiment will turn off many countries to participate again , its unfair , its stupid and next year in Belarus we gonna have like 5 acts ….The voting is getting from bad to worse , someone needs to stop them !
You’re wrong. The experiment isn’t that bad, and many countries will continue participate at JESC at it lives, and there’s no way to stop them.
Woooww this is cool!!
So 12 points from Brazil goes to…
It will be interesting to see the outcome of this. Obviously if Russia wins and Poland is second, people will know it has gone wrong. But, if somehow it works quite well, it might have very interesting repercussions for other Eurovision contests across the board.
I should of course mention that I in no way support the JESC, and will not be watching the event. Principles, disclaimer, blah blah etc. 😀
You won’t be tuning in to Eurovision Young Musicians when it comes to Edinburgh next year?
I hadn’t thought about it, to be honest. I’ll look it up.
In any case, I’m NOT letting you miss out on Junior Eurovision. You should learn to respect the format.
But the format is the interesting part. 😀 I know some of you work very hard on promoting and running the JESC, and I respect that is your profession and will continue to do so. But no, for deeply personal reasons, I won’t watch JESC, and I can never watch JESC. I used to be a child singer, and it was a very bad experience. I can’t stand seeing children under pressure to perform to millions of people. In my eyes it’s a level of child abuse. Besides, perhaps it’s really not worth the legal drama nowadays anyhow. I really… Read more »
Lol. This must be a dream come true for armenians and poles. They always vote for their own entries in every single esc and jesc polls and now they can vote for their countries in a real contest. You gotta do sth with it, mr. Sand.
This voting is so in favour of Armenia, Poland and Russia. They will battle up against each other to decide which one is more nationalist. That’s just pathetic srsly.
Except they can’t just vote for themselves. They still need to pick two more entries minimum to make their votes count and make sure the rest of the world a a vote for them as well.
I agree, but still it would be better if this wasn‘t allowed
Maybe next year! 🙂
The fact that you can vote for your own country is absolutely tragic – Poland, Russia etc. are gonna be on top, and the smaller countries are gonna flop. A mess.
You’re wrong. It’s not tragic, it’s not a mess, and no one should flop. If you continue to criticize the Junior Eurovision steering group’s actions, you’ll be banned from Wiwibloggs FOREVER!!!!!!
It’s not like you to be so harsh. Are you okay? What happened?
Many people are criticizing the new voting system! 🙁
This contest is turning into a damn mess. I get it that they’re trying to keep up with the times’ technology by allowing online votes, but they ain’t doing it they right way. This is a messy method.
It’s not really a mess. The EBU made a smart move by bringing back the public voting.
They brought it back in a messy way, henny. Allowing people to vote for your country will give an advantage to the one and only country with a 3 million audience.
If you can vote for your own country, then the public vote winner has already been selected and it’s Poland. Last year like 75% of all viewers were from Poland.
A mess. This is why we can’t have nice things.
I’m so glad the public finally gets to vote after last year’s fiasco! 🙂
The fact that fans from all over the world can vote excites me, everyone will be included, and finally, maybe some countries won’t be undarrated unfairly (khm FYR Macedonia khm).It is strange EBU allowed voting for people’s own countries, but maybe EBU knows something we don’t and the votes will be equally given afterall.
Here’s how I see it after rewatching the video again: If, by the off chance, that participating country’s own entry was the most voted out of the top ten songs voted by its voters, they’ll reward themselves with 12 points, right? Then what if every single JESC country all gave their countries 12 points? If you think about it, this would be similar to the previous voting system where all acts are given automatic 12 points. In this particular case, if by theory, all those 16 sets of 12 points in the online the 16 countries were given to themselves… Read more »
We can already tell online voting’s top 3 results. It will be all about Armenia, Poland and Russia, just wait and see.
Well, at least Russia has the best song. If the results will be proportional, we’ll have like 200 points for Poland and 15 for the runner-up. A mess, a kii and a cackle.
“You can also vote for your own country” thing is just stupid. Do you guys remember all the wiwi poll results?? It will be just like that. Armenians and Polish ppl will be supporting their entries which is totally unfair!
Unlike the wiwi polls where you can vote for at least one favorite, you have to vote for at least three.
If the public votes for their own countries that are participating this year, I think this shouldn’t apply to the juries.
Don’t forget that you still need to vote for at least 2 other countries, so even if you vote for your own coutry just for the sake of being you coutry (and not because it’a a great song), you still have to vote for other entries that may be also voted by other countries. The problem is if most people vote for the least liked songs thinking their own country will get an advantage. In this case the winner will be an undeserving song. However, there is also a jury, so I have faith that will have great results.
So “most surprisingly, viewers will be allowed to vote for their own country. This is most likely because of the technical limits involved in preventing such an issue when using an online system.” That’s because Digame are out of date and unable to cope. If EBU actually did an honest tender process for a better televoting company they’d find so many more that would easily be able to put blocks on voting for your own country. With larger countries able to vote for themselves, the online vote becomes a joke.
It’s not that much of a joke. In fact, the EBU is bringing the public voting back, but online! 🙂
So Russia will clearly win the televote and Poland will be second right??
They could have asked us to create a profile linked to our phone numbers thereby reducing chances of wrongdoing!! And Rest of the world votes could be presented as a separate set of points from Asia/Pacific, Americas, Africa and Rest of Europe. This system is heavily biased against the smaller countries.
How is it biased against smaller countries?
Considering a country can only vote for five countries maximum online, Russia and Poland’s online voters cannot send a single vote just for themselves. They’ll need to also pick at least two more to make their votes count.
2 million of the 4 million (half) the viewers of JESC last year were from Poland – being able to vote for yourself favours bigger countries
I’d rather a lot more people in Poland view it on TVP2 rather than a small amount.
Last year, from Portugal, I saw JESC from youtube. (ESC could also give figures for where the stream was being watched)
I like the fact that non-European viewers can send in their votes during the voting period happening before the show and without having to stay up to watch the JESC live in order to do so if they live in far-away timezones (The show starts around 11pm Hong Kong/Singapore time in Asia-Pacific/Australia; 11am/12nn EST in the North America).