They’ve been on the Eurovision stage before. They’ve felt the pressure of representing their country. And at the end of the night, they enjoyed success or endured disappointment. And this year — at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 — it was their time to decide to fate of others. We’re talking about the Eurovision stars who featured on this year’s international juries…and it’s now time to see how they voted in the grand final.
A total of eight Eurovision and Junior Eurovision stars were a part of the national juries: Eurovision 2018 acts Michael Schulte (Germany) and Franka (Croatia); Russia’s Anastasia and Maria Tolmachevy (aka the Tolmachevy Twins), Iceland’s 2015 entrant María Ólafs, Moldova’s 2008 singer Geta Burlacu, Serbia’s Sanja Ilic, who teamed up with Balkanika in 2018 and Slovenia’s first Junior Eurovision entrant and EMA 2019 competitor Ula Lozar.
Hungary’s 2011 act Kati Wolf had also been announced as part of the Hungarian jury, but in the end, she didn’t take part and was replaced.
Italy’s Mahmood was the act that got the most top marks from these jurors, with three out of six (Michael Schulte, Franka and Maria Tolmacheva) placing him first. The only act that got points from all six jurors was Malta’s Michela. Here are their full votes.
Franka (Croatia 2018)
- 1 point: Malta
- 2 points: Slovenia
- 3 points: Sweden
- 4 points: Azerbaijan
- 5 points: France
- 6 points: Czech Republic
- 7 points: North Macedonia
- 8 points: Switzerland
- 10 points: The Netherlands
- 12 points: Italy
Michael Schulte (Germany 2018)
- 1 point: Azerbaijan
- 2 points: Sweden
- 3 points: Malta
- 4 points: Norway
- 5 points: France
- 6 points: North Macedonia
- 7 points: Australia
- 8 points: The Netherlands
- 10 points: Switzerland
- 12 points: Italy
María Ólafs (Iceland 2015)
- 1 point: Azerbaijan
- 2 points: Cyprus
- 3 points: Malta
- 4 points: Serbia
- 5 points: France
- 6 points: Germany
- 7 points: The Netherlands
- 8 points: Czech Republic
- 10 points: Switzerland
- 12 points: Sweden
Geta Burlacu (Moldova 2008)
- 1 point: Iceland
- 2 points: Cyprus
- 3 points: Denmark
- 4 points: Malta
- 5 points: The Netherlands
- 6 points: Azerbaijan
- 7 points: Norway
- 8 points: Czech Republic
- 10 points: Australia
- 12 points: North Macedonia
Anastasia Tolmacheva (Russia 2014 & Russia JESC 2006)
- 1 point: Iceland
- 2 points: Spain
- 3 points: Serbia
- 4 points: Cyprus
- 5 points: Albania
- 6 points: Belarus
- 7 points: Azerbaijan
- 8 points: San Marino
- 10 points: Greece
- 12 points: Malta
Maria Tolmacheva (Russia 2014 & Russia JESC 2006)
- 1 point: Malta
- 2 points: Denmark
- 3 points: North Macedonia
- 4 points: Serbia
- 5 points: San Marino
- 6 points: Belarus
- 7 points: Cyprus
- 8 points: Azerbaijan
- 10 points: Greece
- 12 points: Italy
Sanja Ilic (Serbia 2018)
- 1 point: Germany
- 2 points: Czech Republic
- 3 points: France
- 4 points: The Netherlands
- 5 points: Estonia
- 6 points: Italy
- 7 points: Switzerland
- 8 points: Sweden
- 10 points: North Macedonia
- 12 points: Azerbaijan
Ula Lozar (Slovenia JESC 2014)
- 1 point: Belarus
- 2 points: Denmark
- 3 points: Italy
- 4 points: Serbia
- 5 points: Malta
- 6 points: North Macedonia
- 7 points: Sweden
- 8 points: The Netherlands
- 10 points: France
- 12 points: Switzerland
The United Kingdom and Russia were the only countries who didn’t manage to get a single point from these jurors.
Did they vote for their Eurovision mates?
Geta Burlacu, who competed for Moldova in 2008, is the only former entrant who had a performer from her same year of Eurovision competing this year in Tel Aviv. And she awarded that singer — North Macedonia’s Tamara Todevska — her 12 points.
Four other acts competed in their edition of Eurovision alongside a composer who had a song in the 2019 competition. Maria Ólafs entered in 2015, the same as Estonia’s composer and backing vocalist Stig Rästa. Michael Schulte, Sanja Ilic and Franka also competed last year against Bilal Hassani’s “Roi” creators Madame Monsieur, whose madame Émilie Satt also provided backing vocals for Bilal.
Clearly Maria Ólafs wasn’t feeling Victor Crone’s “Storm”. She placed him 17th in the final, and 11th in the semifinal, being the only Icelandic juror who placed him out of the top 10 in the semi.
On the other side, Bilal did get some love from both Franka, Sanja and Michael Schulte. Michael and Franka placed him sixth in the final, while Sanja put him eighth. Both Germany (4), Croatia (3) and Serbia (1) awarded points to France.
Do you agree with these former Eurovision stars’ votes? Whose picks surprised you the most? Which Eurovision act would you like to see in a jury next year? Tell us in the comment section below!
I like that former ESC stars actually (mostly) didn’t vote only for neighbors and many of them have taste. I am glad that Geta and Michael (one of my 2018 winners) didn’t snub Norway. Just to clarify – THEY are not the ones I complain about being incompetent. They (mostly) did their job right, even if (of course) I don’t share all of their opinions. But, heck, even my mother had different taste than me. 🙂
PS. Sanja – best Serbian entry of the decade singer – giving 5 points to Estonia makes me happy!
his voting is really interesting. it’s all over the place which means he appreciates all kinds of genres, or at least vote based on artists’ merits, like they all should. and that makes me happy 🙂
what does not make me happy is all 5 jurors giving 12 points to montenegro in first semi. so unprofessional. thankfully they didn’t have that opportunity in the final too.
Franka has taste
now go stream Crazy and S Tobom to avenge our fallen queen
Thèse jurors have taste
Why didn’t you mention Shlomit Aharon who represented Israel in 1981 as the lead singer of Habibi? Is it because she’s over 25?
Sanja is 68 so
I am s o o s o o and I have been banned. The only way for me is to cure Post Eurovision Depression by doing this.
How can so many former Eurovision contestants have such bad taste? San Marino?… Switzerland?… Really?… The best ones were Franka and Michael, the others revealed knowingn nothing about music.
Everybody knows something about music, this is why should be 100% televote, and is enough.
I agree with you guys. This model of jury needs to be changed ASAP. As the scores are public, of course a jury member would like to be recognized as a voter for Italy or Sweden, and not Norway or other of the “less quality” songs. EBU should change the model and select a group of 10-20 people at least, from the music industry but also representative of other industries. This year the jury kind of ruined the whole experience…
Yep. Norway had not a good song. I’m glad they didn’t sin Thanks to the jury.
They SIN all right, and Europe liked it.
Why did Michael Schulte give Norway points then? I guess you would not consider him somehow connected to this kind of music, yet he rewards the song for being good at what it wants to be good at. Somebody just has to make sure that the jurors are qualified and independent people who judge only based on the music, without prejudices and block voting.
Geta Met Tamara in 2008, that’s why she gave her 12 points smh
Both Russia and Israel also didn’t get points from any of those jurors.
Israel didn’t get points from anyone, not even from Belarus.
Alright, you know what? The Tolmachevy twins are fine in my book. Thanks for the 8 and the 5!
Blah, blah… not only UK and Estonia, Russia’s Lazarev didn’t get any points from them. And his song was one of the best and his singing and his performance. Thanks to the public votes he’s got his 3d place in the end. This is more than disgusting. They were doing their work to put Netherlands on top as the first place was decided before Eurovision song contest even started.
Sergey 100% robbed : the Belarus jury dismiss, the wrong recap part, the running order. All rigged
Agree 100%! Already wrote that in another discussion, but nobody would listen… Guess that’s a dead end and Russia will have to deal with that crap on their own, as usual.
Actually Switzerland would have come closer to Russia if the Belarusian voting would have been correct, and Italy would have been further away. Agree on the recap part though.
to put the Netherlands 1st place ?? you must be joking Duncan did not even come 1at in both jury and tele vote. well a piece of advice for you stop your hate towards Duncan its beginning to get your face wrinkeld
his voice is painfully nasal and he struggled to hit high notes…also, the performance was too much. He should be very happy with the result.
what can I say? some people have taste, and some just don’t.
But in the juri voting it shouldn’t be a taste that matters, but professional mark for the song… composition… vocal… music… presentation…
The taste is something that people have or not. Anyway it should be an issue in public vote, not the “juri”.
Not many judges understands that.
It will be better without jury at all, let the tele viewers decide everything !!
How much vodka did you drink to think that San Marino was the 3rd best entry, Anastasia?!
Not everybody listens only songs for funerals. Tastes are different, but people like this slogan only when it favors the song they like.
Look. If a viewer at home wants to vote for San Marino, fine, go for it. If a juror puts it on 8th/9th/10th place, fine, that’s their taste.
But if a ‘music professional’ puts it on freaking 3rd(!!!) place, I’m seriously questioning if their ears are even functioning.
Next year you must be hired as super-expert, to tell music professionals how they are supposed to vote.
They wanted sabotage some countries ( favourites to win)
You seem to indicate that San Marino was not a “song for funerals”. And yet it’s ironic how it made me want to kill myself.
Why didn’t you?
Classy. 😉 Lots of love, relax.
PS: I was obviously joking; that being said encouraging suicide (including online) is a felony. In my country, you could be prosecuted for second-degree manslaughter for what you just said and you’re easily trackable with your IP address. I’ll leave this here, just for this time. Tl;dr: Don’t be a terrible human being.
Don’t start talking about death, if you can’t handle the answer, snowflake!
well, it’s kind of your fault. you used suicide as a joke, and now you are angry at someone’s comeback (which was horrible btw). suicide is not something to joke about, why make jokes about it in the first place?
also, where do you live? jesus, that’s harsh. you cannot protect people from words, that’s just not how the world works. if someone tells you to do something it’s up to you if you want to or not, you cannot blame other for your actions.
Bella is a snowflake from a first world country, where the only job people have is being offended. And to think next year ESC will be hosted by these fragile people. We must watch our words otherwise we will be in jail. I miss Israel and their decent attitude about H a t a r i .
maybe she’s from the uk, i know that they are arresting people for controversial/”controversial” tweets. ofc those who regulates words decide which pov is controversial. long live censorship, i guess. thankfully my fourth world (are we fourth or lower? help, i’m from serbia) has more important issues than regulating words. political correctness has changed nothing anyways, if i want to insult someone i’ll just be more creative and that’s that. also, wherever bella’s from i doubt anyone would laugh at her “joke”. i don’t think it matters but just wanted to add that i’m a woman, not a man (toxic… Read more »
@Ksenija
I’m a woman too, and from Romania. My username comes from “so so” (indifferent).
People forgot about politeness and dignity that needed no written laws. Now is just pure censorship.
You want to talk about politeness and dignity? Don’t tell people to kill themselves and don’t insult them for being from another country. That would be a good start. You’re literally the opposite of polite and decent.
Girl, stop watching Fox News! It’s not doing you any good. Maybe try listening to some NPR and you might actually develop some brain cells.
BTW, you might also want to do some research before you spread lies about a culture you do not understand. When it comes to interpersonal communication, the Dutch are probably the most direct and ruthless western European culture. They take social injustices very seriously, yet at the same time they will tell you how ugly, fat, or dumb you are with a straight face.
Don’t ever call them fragile again.
@Hatari2020
Maybe I don’t know the culture from The Netherlands, but what can I say is that I never knew what noise pollution is until I’ve heard that in The Netherlands is a reason to be fined.
I don’t know if it’s good or bad, I’m just saying.
Are you seriously praising Israel for free speech? Like, SERIOUSLY? You can’t mention Pale stine in Israel (you can’t even do it on these forums or you’ll have a herd of angry Israelis on your back) and the way they freaked out about Hat ari raising one flag says a lot about what you’re allowed to say or not. They even started a petition to banish Iceland from Eurovision, lmao. You seem to be very angry and aggressive, you’re literally shooting at everyone for no reason, your comments are extremely hostile and I’m not even sure why. Calm down.
I’m from the US, but also it has nothing to do with “first world countries”. A little girl in Malaysia literally just committed suicide after people told her to kill herself in an Instagram poll (all those who voted will be held liable and could even face death penalty) – it was all over the news last week, google it. Humanity and decency are not limited to “first world”, thank god. Unfortunately when people are just horrible human beings (as evidenced by the comments soso is leaving – encouraging suicide, spreading hate, insulting “first world”, the Dutch for literally no… Read more »
you cannot prevent that, no matter what. she was a fragile human being and her parents should have raised her, not the internet. what’s the next step? ban mobile phones because people film bullying? banning everything isn’t solution. so so and i live in completely white countries (we never enslaved or colonized anyone and our economies are poor to attract other foreigners; in my country’s case it was the other ways around: we were for over 350 years under ottoman’s rule (turks/muslims) (white people, i know), just in case you call us racists); tell me, has banning certain words decreased… Read more »
oh, and i didn’t call you a snowflake, it was soso.
@Bella
The little girl from Malaysia was failed by her parents. You can place the blame on others, but parents are at fault. People on internet can be drunk, drugged, pedo…do you leave your child’s fate on strangers? World was always full of dangers of any kind, with or without internet. Parents must be parents, and I’m saying with all good intentions, I don’t know why you see the worst in my comments.
lmaooo not u actin like the victim when u said his comment makes you want to KiLl YoUrSeLf, girl please, make it make sense
@Polegend Godgarina, the voice of reason as always. I am s o s o but I have been banned by PC police. I had to change my name many times. What weird times Europe is living. I’m from eastern Europe and we don’t take censorship after our older siblings and parents died for freedom 30 years ago.
My comment was a joke, and btw it’s pretty standard language to say “I wanted to kill myself” when something not that bad happens to you (like a bad song, a long meeting at work or whatever). It’s purely rhetorical and obviously doesn’t mean more than that. Her answer was clearly malevolent and purposely hurtful. It was not about the song anymore, she just wanted to spit out pure venom. Not that I care, but someone more fragile could genuinely be hurt by such insults and we should not tolerate them.
i assume you don’t use the “stop crying like a girl” phrase, it’s pretty standard language too. practice what you preach, that’s all i was trying to say.
having said that i think that soso’s reply is distasteful, and she shouldn’t have said it(to you or anyone else).
Thank you, I agree and that’s all I wanted to say. 🙂
michael schulte’s GODLY taste omg lemme go stream his new single
I know right! To me he’s like Salvador Sobral, except that he doesn’t trashtalk Pop songs. He appreciates all kinds if they’re good.
If it invokes feelings, they’re good.