Eurovision Song Contest: Versed for the many votes for Israel at ESC

The organizers obviously bring the strikingly large number of public points for Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest. Several broadcasters had reported on the point of dialing, the European Radio Union (EBU) said in Geneva. “We are in a steady exchange with all participating channels of the Eurovision Song Contest and take their concerns seriously,” she quoted ESC director Martin Green.

“Now that the event is over, we will have extensive discussions with the participating channels, thinking about all aspects of this year’s competition and collecting feedback. This will be incorporated into the plans of the 70th ESC in the coming year,” said Green.

Several television channels involved had questioned the vote at the event in Basel on Saturday evening. The Spanish institution RTVE announced an application to check the televoting: “Several countries will also make the same application, since they believe that televoting was influenced by the current military conflicts and this could endanger the cultural character of the event.”

When voting on the ESC victory, the votes of the audience and the voices of specialist juries flow into an equal footing. The juries consist of musicians, producers and other industry experts. This year there was a striking gap in between, which held experts and spectators from the Israeli song.

Yuval Raphael is a survivor of October 7th

Israel had sent Yuval Raphael to the ESC. It is a survivor of the massacre of Islamist Hamas and other terrorist groups of October 7, 2023. Because of the Gaza War that Israel started after the attacks, there were always protests against the participation of Israel in the ESC.

Raphael received 60 points from the specialist juries of the 37 participating countries at the final for the song “New Day Will Rise” and landed only in 15th place in the ranking (13th place).

In the favor of the audience, the 24-year-old was in first place, according to measurement. She received a total of 297 public points, which she catapulted in second place overall.

It is not unusual for juries and audiences to be apart. But the gap is rarely so clear. For comparison: ESC winner JJ from Austria received 258 points from the juries and 178 points from the audience. At Germany there were 74 public and 77 jury points. That was enough for 15th place.

The EBU refers to the company Once in Cologne, which has been coordinating televoting for the ESC for years. She had confirmed that the voting results from all countries had been correctly specified.

The coordination procedure for the ESC is “the most advanced world,” said ESC director Green. Everything is checked and verified “to rule out suspicious or irregular voting patterns.” Once confirmed the validity.

Is the current voting system fair?

The Belgian public service broadcaster VRT questioned its future ESC participation. There was no evidence that the voting count was not carried out correctly, said VRT. But the question is “whether the current voting system guarantees a fair image of the opinions of the audience and listeners”.

Among other things, the Israeli American Council had advertised Voices for Raphael on Facebook. “She sings for all of us,” it said. In addition to the audience reviews from the participating countries, there was also a section “Rest of the World” in which people could vote in all non-ESC nations. “Rest of the World” counted like the result of a country.

Complicated point system

At the audience vote, the song, which received the most votes in a country, receives twelve points, the next ten and the following eight songs get points from eight to one.

On the official EBU channel for the ESC, the Israeli singer was repeatedly seen in the recorded semi-final programs before the final in a advertising window with the call to vote for her. No other interpreter was represented in advertising star, otherwise only advertisements ran there for Fast food and internet services. Since the end of the competition, the spots with Raphael have not been seen in the records. On request, the EBU says that such advertising is not prohibited according to the ESC rules.

On paper, the ESC is a completely apolitical event, which is only about fun, international understanding and the best appearance. In reality, experience has shown that resentment, sympathy and cultural closeness in the voting of the audience play an obviously important role.