The Voting Story

For many viewers the voting is the real show. The songs take about three hours; the points take almost as long, and a result can be open until the last country has spoken. The voting has also changed more than any other part of the contest. This chapter follows it from the closed juries of the 1950s, through the 12-point scale, to the public phone vote and the later mix of juries and public. It also explains where the famous phrase "nul points" comes from and why it is now much harder to hear. The broad history is well known; exact years are flagged where they should be checked.

Juries and Secrecy

In 1956 the decision rested with juries, and the scores were not announced to the audience (Chapter 2). In the early years each country's jury awarded points to the other countries' songs, and the way points were counted changed several times. A scoreboard where viewers could follow the totals came later, along with the moment when each country was called in turn to give its points. The details of the early scoring systems differ between sources, so this course does not set them out song by song.

The 12-Point Scale

The scale most viewers know is generally dated to 1975: each country awards 12 points to its favourite song, then 10, then 8, then 7 down to 1 for the tenth. Ten songs therefore score from each voter, and every other song gets nothing from that voter. The scale has lasted, with changes to who does the voting, and the call of "douze points" (French for twelve points) has become a catchphrase in its own right.

Televoting

For decades the points came from juries. The public phone vote was tried in a few countries in the late 1990s (1997 is the year usually given) and spread widely within a year or two. From then, most countries awarded their points partly or wholly on the public's votes, and viewers at home could influence the result directly. It made the contest feel more democratic. It also made it more open to national and regional loyalties, a theme taken up in Chapter 7.

Back to a Mix

Because televoting favoured some patterns of neighbourliness, the organisers brought the juries back. From around 2009 a country's points came from a combination of jury and public vote. In more recent years the two have been counted and announced separately, which changed the drama of the night: the jury points are read out by country in turn, and the public totals are added after. In 2023 the public vote was opened to viewers in countries that do not take part, in a "rest of the world" total. These are the broad changes and the years are generally reported as given here, but check each one against the contest's official rules before quoting it.

Tactical Voting and Scandals

Whenever a prize depends on votes, people look for ways to affect the outcome. At Eurovision that has meant arguments about voting blocs, accusations that juries traded votes, and occasional rulings by the organisers. A well-known recent example is 2022, when the votes from several national juries were set aside after irregularities were reported, and a substitute total was calculated for those countries. Details of which countries were involved should be checked in a reliable source. The general point is that the system is not purely a vote of taste, and the organisers keep adjusting it in response.

"Nul Points"

"Nul points" is French for "no points", and it became the contest's most famous phrase of failure. It comes from the way scores were once announced: countries were read out in English and in French, and the results could be given in full, so a song that gathered nothing was announced as having none. Norway is the country most closely linked with the phrase. Norway is generally recorded as having finished with zero points four times (the years commonly given are 1963, 1978, 1981 and 1997), and as having finished last more often than any other country. The country has taken that reputation with good humour.

Could "Norway, nul points" be said today? The phrase belonged to the era when each jury announced its points in turn and the totals were read in full. Under the current method, with jury and public votes added, a zero in the final is rarer but not impossible, and it has happened: the United Kingdom finished with no points in 2021, and Austria and Germany did in 2015. Years should be confirmed in the official results. A zero is also announced differently, since no one reads a long list of countries that received nothing.

A Few Voting Traditions

• The spokesperson. Each country appears on screen through a spokesperson who reads out the jury's points, often with a greeting and a joke.
• Ties. Tie-break rules have been added over the years after ties for first place, most famously in the late 1960s, when more than one country shared the top spot. Check the year and the countries before quoting.
• The final reveal. The order in which points are read out, and the point at which the public totals are added, are designed to keep the result open for as long as possible.

Exercises

Next chapter: Songs, Stars & Surprises, which turns from the scores to the music and the acts people remember.