The Mamas’ victory at Melodifestivalen 2020 should have been cause for celebration.
But instead the ladies’ win has been spoiled by conspiracy theories on social media.
That’s because some fans believe votes from Austria’s international jury were given in the wrong order.
SVT has now set the record straight and confirmed Austria’s votes were presented correctly.
To answer questions posted online, the #Melfest Contest Producer Karin Gunnarsson has double-checked the result with the Austrian jury and confirms to me that they have confirmed that their jury score presented in the live show was correct.
— Gustav Dahlander (@GustavDahlander) March 8, 2020
Melodifestivalen 2020 International Jury
Eight international juries voted in last night’s Melodifestivalen final.
Votes were closer than we’ve seen for a number of years. Dotter and The Mamas tied on 65 points. A further four acts also picked up the maximum twelve points.
A nailbiting televoting sequence saw The Mamas win by a single point. Once the dust settled, some fans questioned Austria’s voting, as they believed the scores were inconsistent with other juries.
Mello 1978 var det lika mellan Chips och Björn, det måste vara närmast.
Dock Gustaf! Är vi säkra på att Österrikes jury poäng var rätt? Deras siffror var väldigt motsatta jämfört med de andra. Går det att kolla om de rapporterade korrekt? I och med att det var så jämnt!
— Julle Bergenholtz-Foglander (@J_Bergenholtz) March 7, 2020
Swedish tweeter @J_Bergenholtz says:
“Are we sure that Austria’s jury score was right? Their numbers were very opposite to the others. Is it possible to check if they reported correctly? Since it was so close!”
Austria’s jury gave twelve points to Anis don Demina for his dance track “Vem e Som Oss”. The song has been streamed over 3 million times on Spotify, but fans had expected it to receive more support from the public than the juries. Fan favourite Dotter only received two points.
But the Dutch jury gave Anis 10 points and the other two acts in Austria’s top three Mariette and Robin Bengtsson both earned high marks elsewhere.
This news from SVT has now confirmed the result was accurate. Hopefully the conspiracy can now be laid to rest.
Mohombi and Méndez on the international jury
One came last and the other second last.
And fresh from defeat Mohombi and Méndez have gone on the attack. Their target? Melodifestivalen’s International Jury.
Speaking to Aftonbladet, Mohombi stressed he’s a good loser, but doesn’t like the influence of international jury’s on the result:
“This is the game…but I think it is completely wrong to let the foreign jury think what we should feel here in Sweden. In the end, it is a Swedish festival.”
Méndez shares similar sentiments:
“I have never ever thought that they should interfere with what Sweden thinks. I’m against that system to 100 percent.”
Fourth place Hanna Ferm struck a more conciliatory tone:
“I’m a little disappointed with the jury votes. But at the same time, they are very few people in the jury and the Swedish people are very many, so for me they have more weight.”
What do you think of the news? Do you like the international jury’s at Melodifestivalen? Let us know in the comments below!
I think the international juries are a GOOD idea – giving a better indication of how your song is likely to fare in the contest itself. Of course, the juries themselves need to be fit for purpose…
Well Mohombi & Mendez are just bitter because they did so poorly. In Mohombi’s case it’s kinda confusing because he did better with the juries than with the televote. Honestly it’s kinda selfish of them to crap on a system that works for Sweden just because it doesn’t work in their personal favour.
I don’t share Mohombi’s and Mendez’ thoughts on the international juries but I do feel like the Austrian jury was somewhat off. Their points were really weird, and it just doesn’t make sense to me that they would choose so differently. It obviously wouldn’t have gotten the attention it is now getting if the points weren’t so crucial for a different result…
Why is nobody talking about France juror? 0 points to Anna was even worse than only 2 to Dotter
I´m so glad for not winning Dotter….
That guy looks weird like an AI or something, way too smiley. Freaky expression.
So we can let them have their win now? Don’t see Dotter spreading hate, lame conspiracy theories and acting all childish and bitter because she didn’t win. No, she’s being nothing but respectful. Once again this proves it’s not the artists that act childish and bitter and can’t get over a loss…it’s the so called ‘fans’. So your favourite didn’t win? So what? Sometimes they don’t. My favourite didn’t win the contest last year – oh well never mind, he still came 2nd. End of story, you move on. You don’t have to like the entry or the song but… Read more »
While we’re speaking about national finals, I just had an idea for yet another hypothetical one, possibly for a smaller country like San Marino: a Eurovision-themed All Together Now. Maybe not precisely 100 people, but this year’s crop plus a few retirees, so let’s say two representatives from 48 countries (Monaco never sent anyone actually from there and Morocco competed exactly once). All people with relevant Eurovision experience, preferably competitors but really anyone with some experience. Maybe if they’re long-runners, they could have one recent contestant and one from a little further back (for example, Austria’s duo could be Gary… Read more »
I think i understood pretty much 0% of your idea
As a hypothetical, it sounds like a lot of fun, Joe! The booking and support costs, as well as the scheduling, for 100 Eurovision stars would be tricky though, especially if you wanted a smaller country to run the idea. I’ve always liked the idea of a Eurovision All Stars Song Contest, with 26 finalists who previously made it to the final but never won. I’ve hosted a few parties at home based on this idea, with an edited 2-hour video comprising an opening and flag ceremony, postcards and performances, interval acts, and live voting with each “jury member” revealing… Read more »
It would be better if San Marino NF is the Andra Chansen of ESC. Every country sends it’s second and the winner represents San Marino.
I think San Marino would not want to compete with another country’s sloppy seconds. I would prefer seeing Sanmarinese talent represented (especially when their Italian language efforts are by far the two best songs they’ve ever sent to the contest).
I don’t understand a single word of how you are thinking. Lol
Maryon (2004) was actually from Monaco.
It sounds fun, but I don’t think I’d like to see those names you mention demean themselves in that way. It was bad enough seeing Alexandra from Jalisse humiliated on The Voice of Italy. Also, the emphasis in national finals should be on the song – not the singer.
I’ve never seen All Together Now. I know Michael Rice won the UK one, but that’s about it. Maybe it’s not as bad as I think.
The people who did well with the juries have no problem with it. And the people who did bad have a problem. SHOCKER.
any criticism of the jury system only has relevance if it’s before the results are announced.
Always feels weird to see any Swedes criticising international juries. 😉
😀
Ooh the usual hurt over juries. Sweden hasno control over juries in other countries
The whole point of the competition is to pick the best song for the Eurovision Song Contest, not the best song for inside Sweden. So the artists do not want a international jury for a song that will be selected to be judged by international jury’s. what a bunch of idiots.
Results aren’t everything. Georgia seem to send songs that represent themselves best, they don’t care about international juries. They are representatives of their country, so it is important that their own country likes them. International juries are the reason we have so many similar, boring songs this year.
Yes, but that’s exactly the reason why Georgia rarely qualifies and it’s going to be another NQ this year.
We can see that Georgia does not care as they send weak songs every year
Yes but it also above all a contest where Europe judges you. You might like what you send but you are not voting for it.. I think too many countries fall in the trap of thinking “oh we like it”. that is enough”. What they should think is “it is a good song but is it really for competing”?
Exactly!
It’s confirmed!!
The mamas got more popular votes than Dotter in total. That means Dotter needed two more points to win. The mamas would have won if they got the same number of points from the popular votes.
https://blogg.svt.se/melodifestivalen-expertbloggen/historiskt-jamn-final-i-melodifestivalen-2020-men-inte-den-jamnaste-nagonsin-sa-mycket-avgjorde-mellan-the-mamas-och-dotter/
Doesn’t say anything basically. I want to know voting numbers for each artist without age groups.
What a bunch of sore losers. The Mamas won the public vote too, and only tied on the jury. And those two cry babies lost both by a lot. They should have shut up and accepted the results without whining.
On the flip side, I just watched Wiwi’s post-show interview with Dotter, and she is an AMAZING sport. Not only is she not disappointed, she thinks finishing as runner-up was deserved and is happy for the Mamas. Perfect attitude. Here’s hoping she comes back even stronger.
She’s a wonderful artist. I wish her the best, with melodifestivalen or without.
And she was kinda worried of winning and to travel to Eurovision because of corona. She has astma.
Sweden is cancelled for choosing the worst winner ever! Bulletproof would have been iconic the light show! In Rotterdam and would definitely and out . But no Sweden decided to send a similar song like last year where’s the originality ? And they won’t even win bye Sweden you just lost your chance.
Sweden flopping in Rotterdam
After the final: omg we could have sent Dotter!!
I think it was their best option. The song itself is better, bulletproof was relying on a staging gimmick (and not a very original one, if very well executed).
Ok so they didn’t deserve to win but that doesn’t mean they are the worst winners
They should check the results again.
This is an unfair conspiracy. To suggest that The Mamas’ win is illegitimate is so grossly unfair. They won fair and square. Sweden chose their winner!
The Mamas are so good that Sweden hasn’t move on the betting odds since yesterday where with Dotter Sweden would certainly be now in the top 3 of the betting odds.
Right cause we should always care more about the betting odds? They are the gospel and a true measure of Eurovision success?
Actually Sweden just dropped in the odds out of the top 10.
The problem is giving points within age groups. The winner of the televotes has not automatically been given the most votes. It’s the song that works best among all ages. I bet Dotter got the most votes if we take away the age groups. I think she got many votes in a specific group/groups. But perhaps the older generation preffered The Mamas, but didn’tvote as much. This can turn into problem each year if there isn’t a superiour act/song. The song that got 3rd with the amount of votes can win the people’s vote. Insane. Can’t explain it better. I… Read more »
It’s the same for the Eurovision final – the song who wins the televote did not necessarily get the most votes either. Except with Melodifestivalen we have age groups instead of countries.
The one recieving the most televotes no matter what age you’re in should win the public vote. Not the average voters choice. Period. It has worked so well in the past.
It makes more sense to have a system where each country has the same rights than to balance the results because of age. otherwise we would have the same countries winning year after year and Eurovision would die. I think the age thing is ridiculous.
I agree Milla. It’s already complicated enough to have jury and televotes, and for them to be presented separately. But to introduce age group elements as well? Whose bright idea was that?
They should probably save the votings from different age groups (excluding minors) for their government elections instead.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0NmWbjAQOyE
Azerbaijan 2020
Farid Mamadam
I still remember in Melodifestivalen 2012 when Euphoria was in the competition and the Belgian and French jury gave it 6 points each. Not the case at Eurovision though where Euphoria scored 12 points from both countries.
I’m sure it would have been the same for Dotter tbh, the jury would have supported her in May. That’s weird.
It is quite lame to scapegoat the Austrian juror for the failure of the fan favourite Dotter. Why she did not have more televotes? What if the other fan favourite Anna Bergendahl would have been defeated this closely? All eyes would be on France now, which gave her a big fat ZERO. The IJ were all over the place which means Sweden was not in it to win it from the getgo. Compare 2019 when John Lundvik ran away with the jury vote and got each set of 12 points, Austria and France included. Bulletproof had lazy lyrics and similar… Read more »
Oh, the French boycott of Anna was equally awful. And weirdly, I think the dude was a HoD at a time where France sent a lot of songs I still like very much. They of course did poorly but at least they were French.
Second year in a row France is boycotting Anna, and with the same jury.
I don’t have a problem with juries in theory, it’s just that they are in practice, alomst every year, completely biased and corrupt and they are never true professionals, they are people who happen to work with music in some way and there is no criteria for actual talent and it ends up being the same friends of the producers over and over again. This years Melodifestivalen jury vote was a real mess. They could have randomized the points and the result would be just the same.
My thought about international juries is that they should probably be used…BUT, don’t have the juror be their Head of Delegation. Maybe they have totally pure intentions. Maybe they don’t. But the optics are weird no matter how you slice it. If it’s a former HoD like Bruno Berberes, that’d be one thing, but a current HoD wouldn’t be the person to ask in my opinion. Do what they do for regular Eurovision juries: scout for music professionals, Eurovision fans, former contestants, and songwriters. You’ll either get a view outside of the bubble or from well-informed people within the bubble.… Read more »
(Or at the very least, get the HoD of a smaller, less-represented country. Rather than making poor Paul Clarke and Christer Bjorkman zip around Europe, let poor Alessandro Cappichioni or Natia Mshvenieradze have their say.)
That man. He looks like a Bond villain.
This is so cynical, Mohombi and Mendez should be the least ones to complain about foreign jurors, both have heritage outside sweden and Mendez’s song isn’t even entirely in English. They both are just salty their songs are obnoxious. THE AUDACITY, both of them have had the chance to come back, so now that the jury doesn’t help them, they want to dismiss them, bug off. Also Mohombi got I think the second to last higher score from the public so yes your song was trash. And hannah, instead of jumping on the train blindly, look at your performance, you… Read more »
Bunch of bad losers can’t accept their beloved Dotter wasn’t the outright winner and not a major favourite. And I say this as a Dotter fan who isn’t to fond of Mamas winning, accept and move on. Support or don’t support Mamas but don’t say stuff like her crown was stolen, she never had it. The Mamas are not to blame..
The big question is – can you ever be confident that the intentions of an international jury are good?
That’s a big no-no. People who vote only for what they truly like are needed. It’s doubtful that people involved with other countries’ acts all have pure intentions.
Their job is to vote for what they think would work best in esc. But many vote after personal taste and can’t be objective. Then the point of international juries is pretty useless. We have the public for that job.
And I really doubt the Austrian guy really thought Vem e som oss would do best at ESC.
Why is Mohombi kicking up so much fuss when the Swedish public gave him less points than the international jury did. And Mendez who received just about the same from each.
I think that shows how authentic his response is then… Like, he’s not just saying it because the televote would have favoured him.
Because they are bad winners, and they are both CANCELLED.
Such a coincidence that Mohombi song is called winners, yet he is a terrible loser. And also Mendez whose song is in Spanish called out the jury in favor of letting swedish pick, you aren’t even swedish. They are both disgusting and should never be allowed to perform again.
So they double checked that Austrians are of a bad taste… What’s the name of the Austrian guy who gave the points last night? I want to tell him something on Facebook…
Marvin Dietmann is the Austrian juror!
Please keep it classy!
RotterDaMamas
Mohombi: Winners
Also Mohombi: I’m a good loser
Mendez… what did you expect with that crappy electrolatin song? Better to lose now than to NQ in May. It’s not that you did much better with the televote.
So thanks to Belarus last year every time someone doesn’t like a result we are going to be told that a county presented their results back to front.
I think the only thing that concerns me with the Swedish system is the division based on age. If eurovision functioned that way as well I wouldn’t really give it a second thought, however this is unique to the Swedish system. It didn’t cause an issue last year when John won both the most amount of votes numerically AND the highest number of votes based on age splitting. in a year like this, I can see how a scenario (in which for example) Dotter were to obtain a numerical plurality of votes while the mamas gained a one point advantage… Read more »
Another difference is the App thing let you to vote for all acts. It is free. Eurovision is all about passion vote and voting for your favourite and the stand out.
Not to mention televoting is still going on when juries are announcing their points. I will never understand that.
Rebecca Karlsson got 9,000 more votes than Lina hedlund in deltavling 3. The age thing took Lina directly to the final while Rebecca went to AC where she was also Knock Out by Arvingarna.
People who say they dont like international jurors. Remember who wanted Elvana in Albania to win? What did the albanian jurors do? haha so they SHOULD STAY!
Welp then, guess the mamas are officially our winners !
People would do everything when their favourite loses except for accepting it and congratulating the winner
Deal with it, not only did The Mamas win, they also won the televote
The majority, even if by 1 point, wanted them
Move on with your life and just be nice towards them
She my crush, my heart hurt so mutch …
Hanna honey, everyone knew you’d sink in jury votes lol.
Austria… I’m sorry. ZERO points for destroying Dotterdam. (As if their song is relevant enough to qualify…)
Hanna was only 3 points behind to win televote tho. Not a bad night for her.
Austria didn’t destroy anything. Dotter only needed to win televoting to win that. It was a close race which was exciting. Results were fair
You can keep downvoting but it is what it is. Shading others is not the way
Dotter’s song didn’t deserve only 2 points tho.
Sound like Ramadan haha
My suggestion is to scrap these “international juries” in every national selection. They are pointless and usually spoil the televote results.
NO. we need them.
they are pointless indeed, when you’re choosing your NATIONAL representative it should be all about the decision of people from the very same country. i’d hate italy’s entry to be decided by “international juries” that have nothing to do with my country. just set up a national jury if you really want it lol
You mean like in Supernova 2020? lol
Countries that rely on international juries only show that they are not able to choose by themselves / don’t want to be held accountable for who and what they send to Eurovision / appear to be kinda cowards.
Downvote all you want, but don’t forget to help yourself with a cup of my freshly brewed tea.
I’m not talking specifically about the mamas (and I like them anyway), so your comment is completely unnecessary thank you
Albanias own jurors sabotaged for Elvana ¨. All international gave her the highest. how do you explain that? really want to know:).
Your comment as well has nothing to do with what I’ve just written gosh y’all can’t read man. I said international juries should not exist and I think that each country should choose by themselves. Reading comprehension: 0 points.
in that case Elvana would have come even lower. your point is bad.
It was only 2 jurors. With 9 albanian jurors nobody knows the outcome.
In the meantime, North Macedonia’s song was released- and It is awesome! They are certainly in it to win it.
Haha, then we didn’t hear the same song. Because the song I’ve heard is terrible ? To win? More likely to win the bottom of their Semi Final.
Better bottom than top – thats the N. MACEDONIAN spirit
I really can’t understand why a comment, which is only mentioning an opinion in the most polite and positive way, is being downvoted, while at the same time, a comment reacting to the above unnecessarily mean, is getting so many likes. Come on people, are you Eurovision fans or just trolls?
They are trolls. I do not care a bit when i am downvoted nowadays
it’s just so funny how moBOMBED came last with a song called “winners”
Karma
Victor Cronevirus should have earned that place instead.
I understand the point of international juries – in the Eurovision, Swedes can’t vote for their own act either. But they still have 50% of the say. And why do the two acts critisize the system afterwards? The system was known before, if they didn’t like it, why did they even enter the competition? Pretty sure their opinion would be different if they scored higher.
Finally some artists who have the guts to criticize this non-sense of international juries. Why a small bunch of random foreigners should decide who will represent a country at Eurovision ??
It makes sense, though. The Swedish public should have a say in who represents them, but let’s not forget that Swedes aren’t the ones on the juries or making televotes for their entry at Eurovision.
Joe, but I don’t think the taste of an individual would represent the taste of a whole foreign audience. For example, the votes of an Austrian juror will be cast according his personal taste, it doesn’t mean the votes of an Austrian audience (televote) would go to the same songs.
Each jury group has more than one member so it’s more of a compromise than individual taste.
What about… the fanvote? It’s a slightly bigger bunch of people who still know what usually does well at Eurovision.
What did Albanias OWN JURORS do for Elvana? and what did the international jurors do? have you forgot already? haha.
And where you find a final with only 2 jurors ? nobody knows what would have happened with a full jury of albanian.
And 5 jurors only should be banned by the EBU, at least 9 should be mandatory.
Seeing some diversity with jury votings is fine to me. At least it doesn’t look they all talked behind the doors you know. It’s good to have different opinions.
Its not a thing though
Pardon me mam
Never expected my Tweet to Gustav (in Swedish!) to be quoted here 😉
Honestly though, big kudos to Gustav/SVT for answering fans about this quickly so it could be laid to rest. The Mamas were worthy winners and this was a good way of solidifying that.
he is nice. i asked him this year why there was no jokes and fun in the script. Usually Melfest is a fun show. But lately it have been like a funeral. No jokes, no fun. He answered that SVT dont want fun, they want people to feel warm inside. I dont think thats THE REAL REASON. Its that SVT are afraid to offend anyone. really silly. miss the fun and jikes.
You were wrong about 1978 though. 1969 was closer. Judy min vän and Hej clown tied, and they did a second round of voting to determine the winner.