The Eurovision grand final would normally see the speculation over who would place where at the contest finally come to rest, with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) revealing the complete and finite results after the confetti has fallen. However, in 2019, the drama around the voting is still very much alive over a week after the contest came to an end. And it doesn’t seem to be dying down any time soon.
Yet another possible discrepancy in the voting has recently emerged – this time from the Italian televote in semi-final two. As a result, the Lithuanian broadcaster LRT is now seeking clarification on the matter.
So what exactly is the discrepancy that LRT is inquiring to the EBU about?
Yesterday, Italian broadcaster RAI published the full Italian televote results from both semi-final two and the grand final. Although the latter of these aligns with the results published by the EBU, the former does not.
EBU Published Results
Albania – 12 points
Romania – 1o points
Norway – 8 points
Russia – 7 points
Switzerland – 6 points
Moldova – 5 points
Azerbaijan – 4 points
The Netherlands – 3 points
Malta – 2 points
North Macedonia – 1 point
RAI Published Results
Albania – 16.08% (12 pts)
Romania – 10.39% (10 pts)
Russia – 9.92% (8 pts)
Moldova – 8.66% (7 pts)
Norway – 8.58% (6 pts)
Switzerland – 5.93% (5 pts)
North Macedonia – 5.47% (4 pts)
Azerbaijan – 5.40% (3 pts)
Malta – 4.42% (2 pts)
Lithuania – 4.13% (1 pt)
If the results published by RAI are indeed the correct televote results (Eurovision fan-site ESCXtra contacted a member of the Italian delegation who stated that they were), this would see Russia, Moldova, North Macedonia and Lithuania each gain points, while Norway, Switzerland, Azerbaijan and The Netherlands would all lose points.
The most significant of these changes is Lithuania’s jump up to tenth place and one point gain. Although this seems a relatively small change, the current overall standings of semi-final two show that the Baltic country finished in eleventh place, just one point behind tenth-place qualifier Denmark. The change in results would see both Lithuania and Denmark tie for tenth position on 94 points.
The current rules for tiebreakers associated with ties for last position in the semi-final state: “Should there be a tie for the last position in a Semi-Final (because two songs have received the same number of points)…the winner shall be the song which has obtained the highest rank from all the National Audiences [televote]”.
Therefore, since Lithuania received 77 points from the televote in semi-final two, where as Denmark received 41 points, Lithuania would win any possible tiebreak situation.
This leaves the question, should Lithuania have qualified to the grand final of Eurovision 2019 instead of Denmark?
It is possible that the EBU and their voting monitor Ernst & Young discovered some errors in RAI’s calculations that were later corrected without the broadcaster’s knowledge. However, until the EBU officially comments on the matter we can only speculate on what could have been.
LRT seeks clarification from EBU
After hearing about the discrepancy in results, Lithuania’s Head of Delegation at Eurovision, Audrius Giržadas, confirmed that the broadcaster would be formally applying to the EBU to ask for clarifications about the Italian televote result:
The situation is really interesting. We, as a broadcaster, have suffered moral and rating misconduct, and we may have enough to acknowledge the error.
Audrius also comments that Lithuania’s Eurovision 2019 representative, Jurij Veklenko, could be due compensation for the error:
The songwriter and performer could claim substantial financial compensation – when the song is performed to such a large audience, the author’s reward for playing the song twice is significantly higher than when it it is performed only once.
However, speaking to LRT.lt himself, Jurij remains unfazed by the situation and says his job is to focus on the music rather than the money:
I did everything I could, but it happened as it happened. Those who were in the finals were worthy of it, and I don’t see the point of unnecessarily hitting or depriving them of their place in the table. I think [my managers] will decide whether to take action and my job is to create music.
What if other semi-final two ‘mistakes’ were corrected?
This most recent voting discrepancy follows on from the correction to the grand final results last week, after “human error” led to the incorrect aggregated result being used for the Belarusian jury.
However, this is not the first potential mistake in the results of the second semi-final. It was earlier reported that Swedish juror, and former Alcazar singer, Lina Hedlund had ranked the songs in the reverse order – putting her favourite song, Duncan Laurence’s “Arcade” for the Netherlands, last and her least favourite tune, PAENDA’s “Limits”, first.
This affected the points given by the Swedish jury. If Lina’s song order had been correct and new averages for the Swedish jury calculated, the revised guesstimate of the Swedish results (without applying the EBU’s weighting system) would see Denmark gain two points and Lithuania lose one.
If this possible error was also corrected, in addition to the discrepancy in the Italian televote results, then Denmark would remain in tenth position, with 96 points. Lithuania would instead be three points behind on 93 points and still in the non-qualification eleventh place.
It is important to note that neither Lina, Swedish broadcaster SVT or the EBU have commented on this matter.
Therefore, like the discrepancy in the Italian televote, this ‘mistake’ is still not official. Although highly unlikely, maybe the “Victorious” hit-maker really did have a complete change of heart in the two days between the second semi-final and the grand final, which resulted in her placing The Netherlands last in the former and first in the latter.
Update (15:50 BST 28/05/2019)
Further reports suggest that a Russian juror may have also ranked the semi-final two songs in the reverse order, putting Denmark first instead of last. If this potential error was also corrected, the revised guesstimate of the Russian jury votes would see Denmark lose the three points it was initially awarded. Adding this change to the others noted above would result in Denmark falling to 93 points. Thus, Lithuania and Denmark would once again be tied for tenth place.
As always, until the EBU officially comments on the matter and confirms any errors, any ‘mistakes’ are purely speculative.
What do you make of this latest voting discrepancy? Are you annoyed that there appear to be so many mistakes in the results? Let us know all your thoughts in the comments below!
The EBU need to investigate and correct the scores and if it is the case tht lithuania should have gone to the final, then they should be given a pass to next years final and Lthiuania should internally select Jurijus. It is the only way to make things right.
I think jurors liked Zena song ….and they took a biit seriously “Lets break the rules” …(Belarus, Sweden, Italy, Russia)
Well, in concluciom, Denmark deserved the final spot more because it had less countries to get diaspora votes from in this semi final and the song was better. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Lithuania this year but the semi final was sooo strong that many good songs had to be lost in the semis. Maybe Lihtuania would have qualified from the 1st semi. There were less countries to get diaspora votes from but it was so much weaker.
Juries didnt want to running with lions …
They must be happy that they didn’t go the finals, otherwise they would have ended 20-24th place or something.
It doesn’t matter what place they would’ve gotten. The fact is that Lithuania SHOULD HAVE BEEN in the final.
I don’t know as an artist, would it be happier to qualify but placed 26th, or not qualify but miss the final only on tie-break rule.
Qualification is still qualification after all, right?
Its better when u stay in semi or go to the final and complaining that neighbours counries didnt voted for me ? ( Serb.**), A***bai*an)
It would have been fitting if the song ‘Beautiful Mess’ appeared in this year’s Eurovision Contest!
Maybe EBU should check the points by all countries again. Just to be on the safe side.
The corrupted Ola Sand should retire. Just because of their mistakes Lithuania didn’t pass the semifinal and EBU’s darling (Sweden) was 1st on the juries vote, when in fact North Macedonia should’ve been. Too many “mistakes”….
The executive supervisior *
Why are you not mentioning the Russian juror who voted backwards in semi-final 2? His backwards voting gave Denmark 3 points. If that got corrected, Denmark would’ve gotten 3 points fewer and Lithuania and Denmark would’ve gotten the same amount of points. Lithuania then would’ve qualified for the final with more televoting points.
For God’s sake, the juries are supposed to be here to avoid drama and complains, not to provoke it. My father, who was a big non-crap giver, would be like ‘Stuff it, let’s void it all. Sorry, Duncan lad, but pack the trophy and the folder and send it to the Norwegians.’
Netherlands 498 points, Norway 331 points. And you think Norway should get the trophy for getting 167 points fewer than the Netherlands?
What does this article have to do with juries?
the televote published by rai seems more realistic. there’s NO way moldova only got 5 points from our televote considering our voting history with it, mainly due to the over 300k moldovan residents here.
The huge Romanian diaspora votes for Moldova too, not only for Romania, after all Anna is Romanian from Moldova.
What a mess! I can remember 2007 & on when the scoreboard in the Final only contained the big 5, maybe 1 country in western-Europe/Scandinavia and the rest was from Eastern-Europe/Caucasus region (a lot). There was no diversity and it was all predictable which countries would be on the left side. Luckily (partly) due to the juries that doesn’t occur that strongly anymore. Juries sound good in theory. Howeeeeeveeeer what we have seen now is a BIG MESS. Juries are supposed to judge aspects which the regular viewer doesn’t take into account. In that case the 12 points would go… Read more »
People, are you serious with the “diaspora-thing”? Lithuanians are one of the smallest nations in Europe. Don’t be ridiculous xD
Then how else do you explain the tele votes in the semis in the pre qualified countries. Locals don’t care to watch or to vote, since their country isn’t competing in it. Of course the result will be diaspora driven. And you don’t even need great numbers of people voting, they only have to be very active.
They still got many diaspora votes from Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Ukraine, and United Kingdom. Small countries does not mean small diaspora
Lithuania has a large diaspora only in Ireland, Norway and the UK. Not in Estonia, Latvia, Poland or the Ukraine.
Do you even know what a diaspora is? It has nothing to do with the size of the country (for example, Armenia is a small country of only 3 million people, but there are 8 million Armenians living abroad – a huge diaspora). Lithuania has a very large diaspora, especially in other small countries like Ireland, Latvia, Denmark, Iceland, etc. (and if you look at Lithuania’s voting history, these are specifically the countries that have given Lithuania the most points). In Iceland, Lithuanians represent 10% of the European immigrants, which is more than enough to have a significant impact on… Read more »
No, in this semi Lithuania gets the most diaspora points (aside from Russia) FROM 3 COUNTRIES – UK, Norway, Poland and ponts from Latvia. Usually a country gets diaspora points from 1-2 countries. So it does matter here.
Lithuania doesn’t have a diaspora in Poland. Poland has a diaspora in Lithuania.
After reading the majority of comments clearly some people don’t have a clue about it. Forget about the diaspora, forget about bad song and performance. If you don’t like it – fine. The rules apply same to everyone. If Lithuania and Poland had to be in the final then they have to get automatic qualification for next year, if they don’t get it then the national broadcasters and artist producers can ask for big compensation. And I feel like it could be a big one
Unfortunately that won’t change anything in the results. But the EBU should indeed make sure it doesn’t happen next year. The EBU should also give a clear guideline to all jurors how the ranking works. It’s not the first year that jurors do the complete opposite in choosing their favourites.
The solution is obvious – Lithuania 2002 singer Aivaras must be able to perform Happy You at some point during the 2020 ESC. One of the most underrated ESC songs ever!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz1FJq8yaJk
Angus. You look wrecked. Not a pretty Eurovision face. Are you coked out of your face?
while you guys can compare eurovision entries, I compare telemoveis to ” the man with the child in his eyes!, by Kate Bush.
He should have never won the national final let alone qualified to the grand final. Be grateful you didn’t come last and be done with being a waste of musical space this year.
Ehm, did you read the post before commenting? Jurij himself said that he doesn’t care about the voting possibly being wrong and that the entries that did qualify were worthy of doing so. How did that in any way make him seem ungrateful? It’s the delegation that’s upset by it, not the artist.
I was referring to Lithuania as a whole.
Then I was just a bit confused that you to first mention him in subjective form (“he”) and then suddenly jump to the whole of Lithuania by “you” which is an unmarked pronoun 🙂 anyways, truth should be something we all strive for, even if it might not change anything. If they feel a mistake has happened they should seek retification, no matter what your personal music taste is.
Can we please cancel the worst Eurovision in decades and move on? Can’t wait for 2020…
I absolutely agree. I hope that the Netherlands is a start of a good decade and leave 2019 burried.
Poland and Lithuania automatic qualifier for 2020
What happened with Poland?
Nothing happened with Poland. One of the Czech jurors didn’t vote in line with the other 4 (if she had, Poland would have been in the top 10 in its SF), so people assume that there was a mistake. But 1) neither the EBU, the Czech broadcaster or the Czech jurors reported any irregularity, 2) all the jurors vote independently, so there’s nothing shady if their rankings are different. People just love to make up stories and believe in them.
i wanted to see Poland or Hungary in the final …but its after the contest its over ! injustices are every year !
The Czech juror admitted herself that she hade made a mistake, so stop being a typical Swede that can only hate other countries.
“A typical Swede”, lol?
1) I’m talking to you from Hoboken, NJ.
2) I literally just googled it again in case I missed some news: there is absolutely no trace of that Czech juror saying there was a mistake. Unless news come from the Czech broadcaster or the EBU, there was absolutely no issue with the Czech vote. You’re literally making stuff up.
3) Why is your first reflex to attack me on my country? That behaviour has a name, and it starts with an R. And, you’re also inventing which country I’m from.
‘Should Lithuania have qualified to the grand final of Eurovision 2019 instead of Denmark?’
Short Answer: No
Long Answer: Noooooooooooooooooooooo
The pdf from RAI Wiwi links to even states that 3,89% of the votes weren’t valid. In the final that percentage was a staggering 19,05%.
This years votibg is a disaster, if I were Poland and Lithuania I would withdraw because of the voting errors. (Poland got screwed in semi one cause of cobfusion in how to vote.)
ok bye
Italian broadcaster RAI published the full Italian televote results last week, not yesterday. Does anyone noticed this before?
With all those mistakes coming to light it seems that we’re soon gonna find out that in fact Montenegro should win this year.
jajajajaja or Portugal, maybe jurors were wrong and thinking montenegrian song is Potugal
Or Ireland (41st overall)
As they should. It really should be in the bottom three of the semi as it was one of the most uninspired performances of the semi final, but a spade is a spade. Do not let the EBU get away with this, Lithuania – and Poland, inquire about your qualification too.
What’s the point? What will it achieve?! The only reason reason it got thaposition in the first place is because of favourable immigration voting. It’s an uninteresting song song..
Lithuania need to up their game with selection then we’ll Listen
Well said Kiwi<3
No hate
welp so we didn’t even have duncan in our televote top 10 in the semi skjsakdas either way lithuania didn’t deserve to qualify as more than half of the points they got (sets of 12 from ireland, norway and the uk + 10 from latvia + 7 from sweden) were purely from diaspora.
Congrats to our diaspora in italy we win the televote every year in italy.Italy love albania
If all this is correct m,Lithuania should go straight to the final in 2020 together with The Netherlands and the Big 5. That’s only fair.
Yes Lithuania’s material isn’t always final worthy
I think being an AC is a step too far, but I believe both Lithuania and Poland (IF the investigation proves they were supposed to qualify) should be able to negotiate their SF slots regardless of random draw. A ”pimp” spot or something like that.
Now i getting closer to u …..yeah yeah yeah yeah ..feel the rain of re – vo – lu -tion…
Maybe a good spot in the semi final running order is a better solution?
Which spot is the EBU-officially-recognized good spot?
Lol Robyn. I say it unashamedly, ‘rain of revolution’ was my favorite song of Eurovision 2017, my favorite Lithuanian Eurovision song ever, and my favorite Baltic Eurovision entry ever. Come on, Viktorija Ivanovskaja was everything! That sass, that outfit, that bun, those nails, that strut, those “yeah yeah yeah yeah’s”. And the staging was great too (although I kinda wish they ended with actual pyro, instead of the LED images of pyro). There have definitely been worse songs that automatically qualified for the grand final (e.g., Austria 2015, France 2014, UK 2010, etc.). In addition, Lithuania have sent a whole… Read more »
I agree with the OP. If Lithuania was supposed to make it to the final, they should be compensated some way. Either through an automatic qualification or something else. It doesn’t matter how bad the song is, fair is fair. There is no guarantee that the big five and the host country songs are going to be good but they automatically go through every year.
I really don’t hope that same mistakes was in the years before. Maybe then Greece 2018, Serbia 2017, Norway 2016 would have qualified
I can understand your Serbia 2017 example, but Norway and Greece? You realize they both came 14th in the semifinal, right? Then 3 other songs from each year would’ve qualified, too…
The tie-break would be unfair tho…12 pts from UK, Ireland and Norway + 10 from Latvia…
yeah. Lithuanians seems to be the worst voters. They always vote the SAME year after year after year. I dont know how they are thinking? is that really well spent money for them if you dont like the song?
you really do hate Lithuania lol
He hates everything else besides his country Sweden.
haha no. How can ypu vote the same for 4 years in a row then`? Isnt it strange to ypu?
the fact that you come from sweden doesnt make you capable of shading other countries. Your country might have the fate of Lithuania next year 😉
Yesterday: Fake belarussian voting.
Today: Italian Voting invalid
Tomorrow: Mahmood is the real winner.
Milan 2020!
Verona or San MArino 2020
According to the 2.3.3 rule the LIve Winner of ESC remains and even if the results change. But Netherlands is a deserved winner!
yeah like Azerbaijan in 2011 ( just kidding) …i also like Duncan 🙂
If this turns out to be true Lithuania and Poland should automatically qualify for the Grand Final next year along with the host and Big 5
BIG NO!
Then Eurodrama will be on for real
Ireland, UK, Norway have given Lithuania 12 points in televoting the last 4 years. Do someone after that REALLY thinks 100% televoting would be a good choice again? I DONT!
uh the televote is still far less biased than the jury vote. there are some cases of diaspora voting but they’re far less than in the 00s whereas juries stay voting for their neighbors
So 4 years in a row for the same is okey to you?
Oh… cry me a river…. How about Greece/Cyprus bromance?
https://youtu.be/Qk93aWUurNg
Can we reach 1.5K views until tomorrow midnight??
????
Pls!
The entire system needs simplifying so that it is easier to spot errors, and less easy to make them. Right now we have instructions for jurors which the jurors don’t understand, a jury vote reveal which is so rushed the spokesperson can only give one score, and a televote reveal which is spoilable by anyone who can perform subtraction. Not to mention scrutineers who don’t know one end of a Belarusian ranking from the other.
You are a fan of conspiracy theories, aren’t you? Because that’s kind of absurd
With no disrespect to the Netherlands, i think we all need to have this years Eurovision wiped from our memories and start again next year!!! This year is just one disaster after another.
Well said. Great knowing someone feels the same.
Resign Björkman and Sand? haha NO. I dont want russians,turkish or Azerbaijani in charge of Eurovision. Do you? They cheat to much or have not good opinions of some people. I trust EBU as it is now. Mistakes can happen. Are you perfect? no.
But Spanish maybe, We can produce good music events.
And we are even Equal with the voting 😉
Germans are coming, Bjorkman and Sand are already going home hahahahah
I think the best thing for Sweden in this case is to have Björkman removed from the ESC all together. I think he’s good at what he does, but it’s not worth it. There’s so much hate and dislike within the community towards Sweden and their entires already and to have a swede (who’s highly involved in said country’s own national selection) do work for EBU as well fuels the fire even more. He’s basically become EBU’s own scapegoat. Belarus voting gone wrong – blame Björkman! Sweden doing well with juries – blame Björkman! I sure wouldn’t want to be… Read more »
As a Lithuanian I agree that the song and the performance was poor. However if this pans out to be true I feel like Lithuania and Poland deserve their place in the final next year. What kind of compensation can they ask? 50k? 100k?
Why do all Lithuanians abroad vote for them selfes no matter if the song is good or bad? Isnt that stupid haha? I would never do it
Exactly. I personally would feel quite bad voting for my own country… it’s immoral
All of Europe does it. Guess why Serhat for example made it to the final ? because of turkish people around Europe. Don’t really get it why you are so salty about it.
Yes that’s very clever 😉
Beautiful mess
“””Beautiful”””…
It would be fitting for this song to appear in this year’s contest!
If Madonna was the interval act for ESC 2019, then why not Jurijus and Tulia in ESC 2020? Still might be 1000 times better than the „world star“ and would kinda get sort of compensation without an advantage for their countries respectively a disadvantage for all the others
Maybe a Run with the Lions/Pali Sie mash up? (Mixed by Darude^^)
Yeah maybe if the budget is tight..
and Maruv
Interesting idea. What if we have reunions of some alumni from each of the last five years? You may ask Sergey and Serhat, that would make at least two years reunions.
pls not …oh my ..
only Maruv and Tulia remix lol
If Lithuania deserved to place 10th, they should indeed asked for clarifications. That being said, their song was terrible and would have probably placed somewhere between 22nd and 26th in the grand final… So, at least getting eliminated in the SF saved them 3 expensive hotel nights for all their staff.
Omg…I’m so sad…it’s terrible what has happened this year…I’m big Eurovision fan since last year…and I was really looking forward to this year’s Eurovision…so much mistakes this year…but now we have the winner and we can look forward to next years competition…i really wanna see next beautiful songs and performances…the whole world unite together…I’m proud that I can be Eurovision fan…what do you like the most about Eurovision?? Greetings from the Czech Republic 🙂 🙂 🙂
For me this is the 1st year. Until 2019 i was living in darkness 🙂 . Now i cheked my country´s jurors and their votes to neighbours- not exactly given politically, but there are obvious connections ( music business )between some jurors and our neighbour country jurors/singers.
I remember how i watched my first ever Eurovision last year and since then i became huge fan of this amazing event…it’s fantastic to find out that Eurovision exist…thank you for your message 🙂
Una thank you for your nice message…I absolutely agree with you…I really love this community on wiwibloggs…and I’m looking forward to next the Eurovision song contest
…I love the feeling when someone reply to me 😉 🙂 …so thank you Una 🙂
Let’s face it. Lithuania would have qualified only because of its diaspora… Can’t people see that they get high televote points from the same countries every year? Of course it’s because of their diaspora. You know, in 2017 when they had a horrible song, they still received 12 televote points from Ireland and 10 from Norway (where their diaspora is large)…. Estonia, Ukraine and Belarus gave them just 1 televote point…. and other countries didn’t give points at all. So maybe it shows something….
Just like everyone else, y’all acting like Lithuania is the only one who gets diaspora/neighbor votes. Scandinavia exchanging votes, Ex USSR exchanging votes, Balkans exchanging votes, Greece-Cyprus etc… Even Turkish diaspora voted for Serhat this year.
Turkish and Russian diaspora are huge, true. But apart from those two, Lithuania gets way more diaspora points than other countries
then why the ~hatrid~ they got 11th?
Another day and another error from Eurovision 2019.
Yeah 2morrow we will see that again some jurors nd televote didnt count and Latvia, Ireland And Montenegro should have been in the final ….
Lithuanian song was boring and mediocre as Danish. It was more sad for me, that stupid Belarus song qualified instead of great Polish song with only 2 pts.
So basically, because of the very many voting screw-ups this year, Lithuania and Poland should’ve been in the final instead of Denmark and Belarus is what I’m getting.
…I feel extremely cheated because I like Lithuania and Poland more than the other two.