Amid all the drama and tension of Thursday’s second semi-final, it seems that one jury member didn’t quite give the scores she intended. It has transpired that Swedish jury member and ex-Alcazar singer Linda Hedlund became confused when entering her jury results, and ranked the songs in reverse order.
Instead of placing her top pick at one and working down, she placed it at seventeenth and worked up.
This meant that her favourite song, Duncan Laurence’s “Arcade” for the Netherlands was ranked 17th, while her least favourite tune, PAENDA’s “Limits”, was ranked first.
And this affected the points given by the Swedish jury. As the results stand, the points given in the semi-final were:
- Switzerland – 12 points
- The Netherlands – 10 points
- Austria – 8 points
- Russia – 7 points
- Moldova – 6 points
- Norway – 5 points
- Malta – 4 points
- Lithuania – 3 points
- Denmark – 2 points
- Azerbaijan – 1 point
But if Lina’s song order had been correct and new averages for the Swedish jury calculated, the new scores would been slighty different.
Without applying the EBU’s weighting system, we can guesstimate that Sweden’s results would have looked something like this had Lina voted correctly.
- The Netherlands – 12 points
- Switzerland – 10 points
- Russia – 8 points
- Norway – 7 points
- Moldova – 6 points
- Malta – 5 points
- Denmark – 4 points
- Azerbaijan – 3 points
- Lithuania – 2 points
- Croatia – 1 point
This guesstimate gives the Netherlands a deserved 12 points, while Austria would have missed out on receiving any points from Sweden. Switzerland would have dropped to second in the rankings with Russia, Norway and Malta all rising.
The one point gap between Denmark and Lithuania in the overall semi-final would possibly have widened, with Denmark due an extra two marks while Lithuania would have lost one.
Luckily for Lina, her mistake doesn’t appear to have had any material impact on the results. However, her slip up saved PAENDA some blushes. Without Sweden’s eight points, Austria would have finished last instead of Ireland.
Thankfully, the “Victorious” hitmaker mastered the system in time for the final and submitted her rankings correctly. She awarded top marks to Netherlands and Switzerland, the two countries she inadvertently placed last in the semi.
This is not the first time such an error has occurred. In 2016, Danish juror Hilda Heick made the exact same mistake as Lina. However, she did it for both the semi-final and final.
According to Aftonbladet, Lina has yet to comment.
Were in the second semi final not 18 participating countrys. Because there is standing that the least favourite should have been ranked 17th?!
i’d heard swedes complaining bout her being completely unsuitable for a jury role but nobody thought she’d be this dumb sjkhfkdad
But you can’t change it, so it should not be a matter of discussion. It is very humiliating toward Paenda to know that she would not have points. I guess that Swedish musician wants some attention.
I think it would be a good idea to consider changing the system of voting from both the juries and the televote to make it more about quality than ranking alone. Juries: Rating songs from 0-10 depending on their quality. Not every rating needs to be represented and each rating can be represented many times depending on the standard. Still, with *many* jury members (I’d require at least 10 per country), I guess overall results would still have top 10. Televote: Every vote should count. Instead of televote of 11th place and under equally receiving a big fat zero, televote… Read more »
I love your ideas, Colin, so let me add mine: I am also unhappy about the fact that only the Top 10 receive points. For me, the most logical way would be: Every jury member ranks all 26 songs with points. 1 point for “the worst” up to 26 for ‘the best” in his/her opinion. Then add the points from all 5 members. The song with the lowest score receives 1 point, the song with the highest score receives 26 points. Same in Televote. The song with the least calls receives 1 point, the song with the most calls receives… Read more »
I like your idea too.
The results should be retroactively corrected. This has happened before. The fake Belarus votes should be annulled, especially if it is determined they were given in the wrong order. Ireland did not finish last in the second semi-final – the finalized scoreboard should reflect that for the record. Back when Israel won in 1998, one country (Spain, I think) accidentally gave their 12 points to the wrong country – Germany should have gotten their top marks, but instead they got nothing. After the broadcast, the scoresheets were changed and Germany moved up a ranking. I think something similar happened in… Read more »
Spot on: “the results should be retroactively corrected”.
But you can’t send someone retroactively to the final. Not at this point. And I’m sure Polish delegation isn’t thriller about the fact that if one Czech jury member didn’t make a mistake, Tulia would have qualified for the final.
IMO this is shady AF. EBU/ESC should make sure that all jurors are properly trained/prepped by the respective broadcaster. It cannot be so hard to understand how to properly fill the voting sheet. It should be clear that the votes shouldn’t be made public until the right time, how hard is that as well? Most juries did just that. However, and this is only speculation on my part, it seems to me that ESC runners care mostly about the “right winner” and that is the right winner for ESC. So this year, the jury voting got screwed big time.
This shouldn’t happen. But anyone who knows a little about scoring in ESC knows about that high scores equals best placement. 12 points is the best and not 1 point. So your rank 1# should lead up to a score of 12.
And now ranking does not equal score. But I’m just saying mistakes like this are not out of the blue. And the ranking should just have been reversed.
Wtf? Why do juries keep making these ridiculous mistakes? I feel bad for Sarah but at the same time I’m glad Paenda didn’t finish last
There’s no more place for jury voting in eurovision. Just let the public decide…
If we let the public decides, countries like Malta never has a chance as it has no neighbours.
The real crime is the low score for Austria. Such a beautiful song! Of course televoters don’t care about that art, but professionals should!
Because one Juror ranked Austria first she got 8 points instead of zero? That are too many
Poor Sara McTernan. She definitely didn’t have the worst song in this semi so I’m disappointed it went down so badly.
I agree, I even voted for her in the Semi-Final. I was hoping for Ireland to get a spot in the grand final this year as well. It may not have been everyone’s cup of tea, but it was definitely not the worst performance or song that night.
How can this happen? Maybe Ireland can sue for compensation.
How can this happen? Maybe Ireland could sue for compensation.
At least, her mistake saved Paenda from being last. At one side I’m pissed but at the same time I’m happy.
Articles like this isn’t a good way to end PED. This is such a sheer stupidity on Lina’s end.
Listen Jamie Woon Night Air
https://youtu.be/EL0pTo9Z_XU
You will see that Arcade is just bad copy
Who are all these stupid jury members? For the love of God, who stupid can anyone be? It’s plain simple, you put the 1st on the list, not the 17th!!! I think it was no mistake! Shady Sweden, they wanted more chances for John, rather for the poll’s favorite
Hur svårt kan det vara Lina?
How did the Danish and Swedish jurors know they had given the wrong scores? Were they confronted by someone and said “OH MY GOD!!! I ranked them in reverse order!!!!!!!” Or they have talked about it in public after the final? If it needs them to recognize that to make it the wrong results, is it possible some other jurors also made the same mistakes, but they just do not say it? Because, yes, it is pretty embarrassing.
Jurors have one job to do and this is what ends up happening? Ridiculous!
As a swead I get verry upset. Exactly, agree. One job, how hard could it be?
And in this case, Jon Ola Sand and team didn’t do their “one job” either
That’s why televoting is more transparent and should have more impact to the result than “juri” vote that always has some errors.
Who controls it???? Who is responsible for this “juri” vote?
Why EBU confirm the validity of result and then sits quiet of someone finds an obious mistake!
Mess. Mess. Mess.
ok, how does the Sanmarinese “televoting” really work? Isn’t it an average of some random countries? How did they give 7 points to Cyprus if Tamta was only able to collect points from Georgia/Greece and 1 from the UK? Also Greece got 10 points…
???
I would also love to know where the fake Belarussian jury votes came from. It’s ridiculous that two entire set of points are completely fake.
Why should it be strange if one country give more votes to a country that is not favorite to win?! I didn’t know that all the countries must give ten and 12 points only it the favorites..if everyone did that, then all the other out of the top ten countries would have almost zero points because noone would give them many points… . “of Tamta was able to collect points from Georgia /Greece” – I don’t understand why she shouldn’t be able to receive points from other countries and why it must be strange to get voted from another country… Read more »
I said AVERAGE ranking, so clearly those two countries wouldn’t appear in San Marino’s top 10, especially receiving high marks. That doesn’t have anything to do with the songs being favorites or not, or if I like/dislike them.
That’s why I don’t understand how they calculate San Marino’s televoting.
She ranked Moldova in front of Norway? Seriously?
Is her opinion and is valid. I disagree with her, but she’s free to have an opinion.
U HAD ONE JOB LOL
This is annoying as an Irish person. These things just simply not be happening at this stage. If they are going to be jurors then they should know the rules and that’s the end of it.
Is it any consolation that Ireland got to keep their seven wins record when Sweden were left embarrassed at the final vote?
I suppose it’s some consolation. But I think all Irish fans are resigned to the fact we’re losing that record in the next 5 years at some point.
Honestly if I was Sarah I would be pissed off
Lina shouldnt gave any points to anyone ( She shouldnt have been in jury pannel this year – she reacted to some ESC songs after Melodifestivalen so i Think its not fair …
What was that about? I’m curious.
It happened before the Melodifestivalen final IIRC, some of the finalists were asked to react to some of the ESC entries that have been announced by that time. I remember Lina reacting to Norway and Iceland.
Yes, but still ….she reacted to Norway, Austrália, CZ ( i think) Iceland and maybe France ….
There are always so many messy results from the juries and mistakes like these! Also this year, Czech juror Jitka Zelenkova maybe did her semifinal results in reverse order. She ranked Slovenia last (every other Czech juror ranked it 1st) and in the final Slovenia was ranked 6th for her. Cyprus went from 3rd to 18th with her, Estonia 14th to 4th, etc. Looks like it was mistake reversed order.
Thats called a czech taste of music not mistake
That’s tragic, because I just figured out that with the mistake Poland would have made the final and Belarus not.
Lucky for her, it didn‘t affect anything.
Imagine that Lithuania scored one or two more points because of her, Jurij would‘ve been in instead of Denmarks Leonora.
Exactly, the EBU make such a feature of the closeness of the 10th/11th, yet they’re not making sure the result is accurate in the first place.
Where are the trolls who say that music professionals are the best? Hahahahah and also how we know it was accidentally? Bjorkman always has a plan
Hes in hospital so why you say such things when he dont feeling good? Fans like you should be banned
Are you related to him somehow?
Being sick doesn’t make him a saint
how do we know she made that mistake if she did not explain it yet,?
In my country’s language we have a animal name panda. i don’t understand why a person give panda name to their daughter???
Her real name is Gabriela. Her stage name is Paenda.
She explained that friends nicknamed her like this because when she gets up in the morning she sometimes looked like a Panda. To give it a special touch, she added the “e” to it.
If she’s not the first to make this mistake, the instructions may not have been clear. It would be nice if we were shown (for fake) how juries record their votes. (In any case it would be more interesting to see rather than a song missed by Madonna).
Otherwise there is a reliable and impiratable system, it’s called a pen and paper.
There were 205 jury members (5 persons * 41 countries). With that Danish woman a couple years ago, that’s 2 people making a mistake over more than 1,000 jury members… So it’s not the instructions. I’m sorry but how hard is it to rank items from 1st to last?!
Oh my god… She is so stupid. She had one job
Dozy mare, between Lina and Lisa I don’t give a f**k Ajax bet that jury is a right hoot
JURY SHOULD ONLY MAKE A LIST OF TOP 10 SONGS. NOT 26. When 1 person dont like for example Norway, will put in26th postition, then Norway will have 0 points. If could not put any place, another part of jury can give a points for Norway and change this story
JURY SHOULD ONLY MALE A LIST OF TOP 10 SONGS. NOT 26. When 1 person dont like for example Norway, will put in26th postition, then Norway will have 0 points. If could not put any place, another part of jury can give a points for Norway and change this story
The system is not based on average, it’s more like a hyperbola. This means that if 1 jury member places a song last but the others let’s say place 5, it wouldn’t result in that country getting nothing. It’s very mathematical and I’m not good at it but it makes sense I think.
Why juries are so clueless… Professionals…
Professional jury my ass…
the televoters ranked San marino 10th in the final. Televoters my ass. Both have flaws
You’re right – Sweden should have been 10th.
If the public has flaws, and the jury is trash, who is right?
Which is further proof that the juries need to be larger so that one juror cannot sway the vote so much. I think there should be at least 12 members rather than just 5 This would help guard against errors, prejudices, corruption and, hopefully, some of the disgraceful bloc voting we saw from some juries this year.
Why would a Juror Rank Limits dead last? Thats nuts. Televote zero, i get it. but jurors, gimme a break
Belarus Jury vote used the bottom 10 Not the top 10 from the other countries im their allocation pot. Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and georgia had Israel on their last Place. Yet Israel was awarded 12 points. This is insane. With the correct backup votes, sweden would be 5th, North Macedonia 7th and the Jury winner, Serhat 19th and Germany 25th.
Accidentally. Yeah right. The same way that Austria is now “accidentally” in a crisis. And honestly, with that awful vocal performance Austria should have come last. I don’t even think it’s that big a stretch to assume the Swedes wanted to prevent The Netherlands from winning their semi. After everything we have seen…
This makes no sense at all. They gave The Netherlands 12 Points in the grand final. Why would they try to prevent The Netherlands from winning the semi-final then go and try and make them win the grand final? This is one jury member out of 5. If they truly, as a group, wanted to mess up the placings (as you hint to them doing) ALL jury members would’ve had to be invovled and not just one person. Sweden being evil and scheming in ESC is just something fans on here pushes to be true and not an actual fact.
oh god you don’t need to be smart to rank songs, i mean cmon…
Well, since Ireland received their worst placing ever, maybe it would be a decent thing to do for Sarah to retroactively adjust the score on Wikipedia. Personally, I prefer Austria’s song to Ireland’s, but this would be a right thing to do.
And they say blonde is the dumbest one…
Maybe something similar happened here but this time with EBU…. (about the random belarusian jury results) https://twitter.com/euro_bruno/status/1130171800221044737
This is extremely interesting. I hope there’s a way that the EBU addresses that.
Basically it says that if you aggregate the rankings of the juries in Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the bottom 10 of the ranking is the countries Belarus gave points to. I wonder if that’s a mistake or a way to make sure it doesn’t affect the overall result.
Seems more of an error caused by ascending/descending order. Should’ve been more careful, but at least she fixed it for finals.
No comment. “Professional jury”
No comment. Televoters had San marino to Q….. when it was one of the worst
Yes, cancel the televote, we need only jury consist of such professionals.