One hit the top of the charts with “Murder On The Dancefloor” and the other will forever be an Alcastar.
But now British popstar Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Swedish dancefloor diva Lina Hedlund have something in common. They’ll both serve as members of the international juries for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Israel.
The EBU has just released the list of this year’s juries. As in years past, many jurors have a connection to the contest. You can see a list of some of the former Eurovision acts below:
Former Eurovision Stars as International Jury members
Michael Schulte who sang for Germany in 2018
Franka who sang for Croatia in 2018
Kati Wolf who sang for Hungary in 2011
Maria Olafs who sang for Iceland in 2015
The Tolmachevy Twins who sang for Russia in 2014
Geta Berlacu who sang for Moldova in 2008
The list of jurors also includes figures from the wider world of Eurovision. That includes national final stars and producers, a selection of which you can see below:
Other notable Eurovision 2019 jury members
Bruno Berberes (former Head of Delegation for France)
Julie (DMGP 2018)
Aidan O’Connor (Czech Republic Songwriter 2016)
Ula Lozar (JESC 2014)
Linnea Deb (Melodifestivalen Songwriter)
Dilan Reka who has competed in Albania’s FiK
You can access the full list of jurors here. The average age of jurors this year is 41 and there are slightly more male jurors than female ones (109 v. 96).
The professional juries will watch dress rehearsals on the Monday, Wednesday and Friday of Eurovision week. They will then place their votes, which will be combined on the nights of the live broadcasts with the votes of televoters across Europe.
Do you recognise anymore famous faces among the list of jurors? Let us know in the comments below!
At least he wrote a song…some of these other jurors….seriously, why are they there?
One of the Swedish jurors have been working with Sacha Jean Baptiste’s company. I’m guessing either Switzerland or Cyprus are going to get the top jury vote from Sweden.
hope is more neutral then that
Who are you kidding? This goes against the rules
Average age: 41.
LOL
Genuinely worried about this just because it’s already a ballad heavy year.
I hope they aren’t blatantly biased towards any given country like every year.
Robbed artist. I wanted her to qualify last year.
Really worried by some of these names being called “music professionals”.
In the last couple years, juries have been either completely corrupt or random in their choices. It’s been a while since they actually did a good job, maybe 2014? Anyway, with that demographic I expect Arcade to be the jury winner (and rightfully), but I could be completely wrong.
Linnea Deb is not merely a “Melodifestivalen songwriter”, she is a Eurovision winner!
No lisa ajax, we will miss this prestigious jury member who gave top scores to the clients of swedish record labels
She didn’t qualify last year though.
40 isn’t that old. Isn’t that the average age for Europeans? Were not getting younger..
And so what? Does that mean that they somehow will only vote for ballads and old-fashioned stuff? Nope. 40 year old listen to modern music too, especially if they are in the business. That is the same as saying 40 year old tele voters will only vote for ballads or twenty something’s only vote for up tempo dance songs. A good song is a good song in any age group..
from Israeli jury we have Shlomit Aharon, the female member of Habibi in 1981
Wouldn’t the Moldovan lady from 2008 know Tamara? The Spanish guy from ESDM from 2013 might know Nevena. Plus I’m pretty sure Maria Olaf’s knows Stig from 2015. Michael and Franks night also know Malden from Balkanika is back in the Serbian team.
I am 43 guys, watch your comments please!
I actually agree 🙂
Spain’s jury: – Sole Giménez, 56, singer and composer, best known as the former frontwoman (1983-2006) of Presuntos Implicados. No known connection to Eurovision beyond guest judging in OT 2017. – Elena Gómez, 53, music coordinator for RTVE’s Radio 3. – Ricky Merino, 32, singer, dancer and TV host, best known for finishing in 12th place in OT 2017 and subsequently co-hosting the ‘El Chat’ side show in OT 2018. – Raúl Gómez, 25, composer, singer and pianist, one of the writers of ‘Tu canción’ (Spain 2018) – David Feito, 39, songwriter and producer, former member of El Sueño de… Read more »
In Georgia there’s also former Eurovision representant – Sopo Toroshelidze (lead singer of Eldrine)
I want to trust the juries/jury system, but I really cannot. For example, the EBU clearly doesn’t look at how jurors have voted in the past. Radio DJ Ruud de Wild is in the jury for the Netherlands. He was in 2016 as well. He ranked Croatia (Nina Kraljic – Lighthouse) first in the semi-final. Then, he put Croatia in 24th (second-last) place in the final. I know, different performances can differ in quality, and there is a greater pool of songs competing in the final, but how can your favourite become your least favourite (almost) in four days? I’m… Read more »
I Stand is a beautiful song though. I voted for it
The median age of the average European is around 40 though. In Germany it’s 47.1 , i Italy it’s 45.5, in Greece it’s 44.5, in Austria it’s 44, in Spain 42.7, in Czech Republic it’s 42.1, Sweden it’s 41.2, in the UK it’s 40.5 just to name a few. The European countries with the youngest median age are Iceland (36.5), Moldova (36.7), Ireland (36.8), North Macedonia Macedonia (37.9). So an average around 40 is probably quite representative of the average European.
(Source Countries by Median Age 2018 at http://worldpopulationreview.com)
I bet the 16-year-old juror will give 12 points to the singer who is the hottest, according to her.
They should vote on the show we all see.
Wasn‘t Julie from DMGP 2019????
So they are to blame.
I agree it’s high, but isn’t it a requirement to aim for a jury with music experts from all different ge groups? So in that case 41 would be ideal I guess, having a 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60-year-old juror would have an average of 40.
As soon as I saw Lina Hedlund is on the Swedish jury, I knew this is going to be a nightmare. Yeah she was on the Swedish jury back in 2015 and ranked Il Volo quite low. I have no confidence in her appreciating anything artsy or non-mainstream. She will vote for Cyprus and Estonia, wait and see. And as always, you don’t have to have good taste to be on the jury. You just have to know the right people. Eurovision juries used to be somewhat professional, nowadays they are just an annoying addition to the contest, messing up… Read more »
Depends on if they make the final.
tea. they were only introduced so that the ebu could solve the neighbor/diaspora voting problem, which was indeed huge in the late 00s, but now neighbor/disapora voting is a lot less impactful so the juries are a mere system to ‘control’ the eurovision result from the ebu. see 2016 as a blatant example (that didn’t work hihi).
The neighbouring problem is just accentuated in some cases. For example, Moldova gives Romania 12 points with all the jurors every year. That’s certainly not a jury duty. The Nordic states are pretty much doing the same, while we all know the Armenia-Azerbaijan problem, which is not normal for a song contest. But I guess that anyway Eurovision is much more than a song contest and that’s why these things are being accepted.
Greece and Cyprus the same.
Good taste is hard to be defined. I think you have to be able to point some objectives criterias to be a good juror and be able to get rid of your preferences.
IIRC there are four criteria the jury needs to consider. How objective they will be about that objective criteria is another issue.
You know not everyone liked Il Volo right….
i am betting that she will give cyprus, switzerland and estonia high scores.
If i was a jury member i could never put a song last if my country were at war with a country, if a singer sang false could never put it high, if i know the person or its a artist in my record label i could never put it high just because of that
Greece and Cyprus voting is a cry to HAVE the jury. Some jurys are tasteless and some televoters are. It have always been like this. You can qualify with a good amount of taste from the televoters and jury 🙂
And what is good taste? Your taste? According to most people in Europe the whole competition represents bad taste at it’s worst! You cannot decide what is good or bad taste!
Lina has a really great LOVE fore the competition though. That should Really count for something cause I doubt that goes for every jury
kati wolf omg one of my eurovision faves, can’t wait for her to serve absolute taste as i expect x
Oh no, there goes Iceland’s chances if Sophie Ellis-Bextor has got onto the jury. As an exponent of exceedingly bland pop, I dread to think what she will vote for. Now, there really will be murder on the dance floor as any decent song’s chances get butchered!
Get a grip, sweetie. It’s one juror out of about 200 – and so what if she doesn’t have the same music taste as you?
One jury member is not going to destroy any country’s chances. Hatari would get the same amount of points even if Sophie gets replaced by anyone else.
I saw a ‘ismaili’ in North Macedonia‘s jury, I‘m hoping for points for Albania lol
Interesting that one of the Croatian jurors works for the broadcaster(not allowed) and has already given his opinion on 3 songs publicly on his show (not allowed)
I see you mister Turkalj.
i Think they changed that rule. One of the jurors is now allowed to work for the broadcaster.That’s how I interpret it.
I was hoping for Iveta Mukuchyan as Armenian jury CAUSE…
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D2hzknGWkAEPgjN?format=jpg&name=small
I guess that every year the average age is around 40, because this is what EBU says: different ages must be in jury, also men/women as equal as possible (if there are 5 jurors, it can’t be perfect equality men/women).
Pawel Rurak-Sokal represented Poland at Eurovision in 2004 as a member of Blue Café. Dominika Gaweda is Blue Cafe’s vocalist now, back in 2004 it was Tatiana Okupnik. Rafal Brzozowski participated in Krajowe Eliminacje in 2017 (and his song was quite horrible IMO). Now he’s mostly known for being a host of a TV game show and the worst part of the show is him singing. Really, many people find his performances awkward and cringy and he’s basically a meme now.
Yet he was 2nd behind Kasia Mos and almost went to Kyiv as Polish entrant.
Anna Wyszkoni has a successful solo career but she became known as vocalist of band Lzy (Tears). In 2004 they placed 2nd in Polish national final with “Julia, tak na imie mam” right behind Blue Cafe. Maciej Durczak was their manager back then, I believe.
Wait, are both the Tolmachevy Twins in Russia’s jury? The average age is high but I don’t think it will affect the overall results. I support the juries at ESC but I would like 10-15 jurors instead of just 5 per country.
Yep, both are there as separate jurors.
On one hand, I know that juries are important, but looking at some of the names makes me wonder, if it makes sense at all… Some of them are singers and musicians, who don’t even have any hits or fail miserably in their countries’ national selections. I don’t want to be disrespectful, they are professionals after all and maybe they have some musical education that most of people are not aware of, but I just can’t trust someone to have a good taste, if they don’t have any decent songs themselves…
Oh, Sweden… Linnea and Lina Hedlund… dated voting at sight. I can see them voting for Cyprus.
On the other hand, I’m very happy with the Spanish selection. I can tell Raul Gómez (composer of “Tu canción”) will give top points to The Netherlands. Also, Ricky Merino was a contestant in OT 2017. He will go for Cyprus, though I hope I’m wrong. He might go for Switzerland.
Italy has a modern and good song. I won’t say how much beachside that’s something that differs from one person to another. I’m sure it’s going to be at the top 10 (if not top 5) at people’s vote. However with the average age of jurors at 41 years it won’t go well at the jury vote which means that we probably won’t see Italy wining this year
I’m afraid you are right 🙁 Hopefully a good placing for Mahmood thanks to the televoters.
italy’s entries in 2015 n 2018 catered to an older demographic n the juries sabotaged us anyway, so…
It’s weird that the juries loved Italy in 2011 and then totally turned on them after that.
Slovenia has a juror called ‘ Mate Bro ‘
One of Cyprus ka juror works for CyBC . By EBU rules this shouldn’t be allowed. But what do I know ?
Hi. It clearly states on the EBU announcement notice that jurors and chairperson(who does also vote) shouldn’t be an employee of the participanting broadcaster. One of Cyprus’ jurors job description itself is CyBC senior official , I’m like duh!
Funny story they have updated the rules in the last 3 hrs to now say 1 juror may be the employee of the broadcaster.
Stefan Airapetjan (Estonia) was in Eesti Laul this year and last year if I’m not mistaken
Shlomit Aharon said yesterday on TV program that Armenia is her favorite
france is ok and another female singer is also her favorite
link (in Hebrew): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iZyzNj9tdw (from 25:51)
I will say Israel doesn’t vote in Armenia’s semi
The youngest 16yo juror from Malta is Nicole Frendo who was the X-Factor finalist along with Michela.
Adele Roberts is everywhere at the moment (UK). Go on big brother 3!!!
Wait, is that also the same Matay from Portugal who was just in Festival da Canção?
Yes, also Portugal has Ana Claudia from FdC 2019.
That’s what I thought too seeing the average age of the jury. Be ready for conservatives votes.
Shlomit Aharon from Israel represent Israel and participated In Esc in 1981
https://youtu.be/2U1Bdm5LAlc
Oh yeah! Hakol Over Habibi! The guys that turned down Hallelujah!
David Feito is going to be a jury for Spain, and it is a member from El Sueño de Morfeo, who went to Eurovision on 2013.
Raúl Gómez, also from Spain, is the composer of “Tu canción”, last year’s spanish song.