I really can´t understand why fans think it´s going to be a huge downfall for Eurovision - I mean, each chance will bring something new and it´s not always good or well-received, for sure....
But... let´s have a little faith when it comes to the televoters.
They haven´t made Silvia Night qualify in 2006.
They haven´t made Dustin The Turkey qualify in 2008.
They haven´t made Gipsy.cz qualify in 2009.
"Songs with a big "appeal to televoters" such as Russia 2012 or Norway 2022 - which had been mentioned as examples for this rule to be a bad move - would have easily qualified if it had been 100% jury voting in the semifinal anyway.
Eurovision has become more popular amongst the general public and even though we still have voting blocs and diaspora effects, countries such as Ukraine, Poland, Serbia, Armenia, Greece have all been voted out by the public before - whilst the juries prevented a country like Switzerland from qualifying 3 (!!!) times and saved Azerbaijan 3 (!!!) times.
Smaller countries & Western European countries still have the same chances to (not) qualify as before.
Granted, we will be losing a "quality entry" now and then but who cares? - It´s not like they would have made a big difference in the GF, anyway - and since only 1 qualifier per semi final would have been different in recent years - why are so many fans thinking of Eurovision´s quality to suddenly and immediately go downhill because there´s one or two "The Voice"-esque entries without ethnic entries and entirely performed in English less.
Since juries will still be part of the Grand Final, we should expect some countries to still try to appeal to them.
I have never heard any fans complaining about the "quality" of 2010, for example - That´s a year after 2009 in which we saw the same "procedure"/"voting system" as in 2023.
We might be seeing a few countries to universally and only appeal to televoters - but still, if they end up being in the bottom 5 in the GF or lower half, the entry will probably be forgotten soon. Songs still heavily rely on juries to perform well in the end.
And as already stated above, the taste in music of the televoters have changed a lot over the years.
What makes you guys believe that they will finally start voting for "fun, camp" entries only?
Even back in 2004, when the semi finals got introduced, a "quality entry" ballad (
) finished inside the Top 5 (televoting) and easiliy qualified to the final whilst four former Ex-Soviet countries failed (
was the only country to advance to the final and "Wild Dances" was winning material).
Denmark and Finland didn´t make it - despite the "Nordic voting bloc".
We saw The Netherlands reaching the Top 6 instead.
Clearly, there will be some sort of shift (more televoting-friendly/leaning) but in the last years, there hasn´t been huge differences at all.
Usually, televoters have also been more "up to date" and didn´t downvote genres or musical trends juries hadn´t been ready for (like Dubstep in 2013). Portugal 2019 was #12 in the televoting whilst being dead last in the jury vote.
I don´t think that I will be entirely wrong about this but let´s just have a little faith in the televoting.
The 00´s are long over and they haven´t really been "that bad" - The music landscape has changed a lot and Eurovision has evolved a lot.
Eurovision could never in the 20s.
] will also perform better off.
