What changes do you want introduced to the rules/format?

[A-lister]

Discuss!

These are my proposals:

• Abolishment of pre-recorded backing vocals.
• Increasing the maximum amount of people allowed on stage from 6 to 8 (or 10 even), I think it's a good compromise between only allowing live vocals and still make it possible for dancers to do their thing. Also, it's long overdue tbh, 6 has been a very low number for years now and is just and odd number in this time and age.
• Acts and songwriters/composers need to have a proven connection to the music market of the country they represent, no more shopping around for entries! The concept of Eurovision is entries representing their countries, I feel like we diverged from that. It doesn't mean that all songwriters/composers need to come from said country, but at least they need to be an active part of that music scene (past Eurovision entries don't count here!). I am fully aware that some music markets are integrated and that micro-states are 'de facto' part of their neighbors' markets, but a change of rule would take that into consideration while still protect the concept of entries actually representing their countries.
• Running order needs to be random! I think we pretty much established now that letting the "producers" choose it opens up to favoritism, corruption and tactics. We should have a transparent and fair system, and there a methods to keep a nice flow in the production (draw the songs from genre/tempo pots for instance).
• Abolishment of juries (now I am not delusional and know it won't happen, but at least decrease their powers to a 40/60 situation in favor of televoters).
• Have it explicitly written into the rules of Eurovision that only recognized independent countries that are at least partially geographically within the European continent, or at least have a history of a minimum of 5 previous entries in the contest, can take part and scrap the idea of the dated European Broadcasting Area (that EBU don't even follow themselves). This would close the door to any risk of having countries like USA, China, Qatar, Morocco, Lebanon, Canada or others joining. It's not EUROvision if the world can join! Let's protect the brand and concept!
• Have the juries verbally give out 8-12 points (I know it would make the show longer, but don't we want more suspense? I know that we can't go back to the old days of giving out 1-12 when we have so many countries and also split the televoting results, but this could be a compromise that could still work).
• Re-establishing the language rule (another idealistic fantasy that won't happen, but that's just my opinion).

 

[A-lister]

It has happened way more in the past than nowadays. I don't see the problem with that. Music is an industry

I'm not sure I would agree with that statement, for starters we had a language rule in the past which obviously made it harder for let's say Swedish songrwiters to pen songs for other countries.

Yes it's an industry, but this is a contest where songs representing their countries and maybe I'm an idealist, but I think we should stay true to the concept otherwise what's the point if half of the entries will be MF rejects? Then we could change it to "European artists sing Swedish songs-"contest

 

[Laepo1]

I'm not sure I would agree with that statement, for starters we had a language rule in the past which obviously made it harder for let's say Swedish songrwiters to pen songs for other countries.

Yes it's an industry, but this is a contest where songs representing their countries and maybe I'm an idealist, but I think we should stay true to the concept otherwise what's the point if half of the entries will be MF rejects? Then we could change it to "European artists sing Swedish songs-"contest

That is the countries decision. If they want to hire a swedish production team, so be it. also one of the the swedish rejects this year got a top10 result.

With the language rule we would have Switzerland able to sing in 4 languages, while most others would only have one. not fair.

 

[A-lister]

That is the countries decision. If they want to hire a swedish production team, so be it. also one of the the swedish rejects this year got a top10 result.

With the language rule we would have Switzerland able to sing in 4 languages, while most others would only have one. not fair.

And this is why we are proposing a change of rules, nothing is set in stone, if EBU wanted to they could introduce a change in rules that would change this shopping around for entries.

As for proposed re-introduction of language rule it's a different topic and not connected to the "shopping for entries", I think after the discussion with @randajad that it would indeed be difficult to introduce, so without making it compulsory, juries could be instructed to take that into consideration in their vote making it a situation of carrot instead of stick.

 

[Morty]

* A 75/25 split of televote/jury instead of the 50/50 we have today.

* Have each country's spokesperson give both the jury 12 and the televote 12.

* Let bands perform their own music live. To have the entire performance come down to just the vocalist just seems wrong.

* More people allowed on stage.

 

[burrito]

my take

1. Pre-recorded vocals out, unless they cannot be replicated live just like @randajad said
2. Up to 10 people on stage excluding the singer(s).
3. Juries should consist of at least 10 people each and should judge the songs basing on certain criteria
4. Find a way to accentuate public votes more, ie 12s. Maybe listing them on-screen while the combined vote is being announced by the hosts?
5. Every country should be represented by a performer holding that country's citizenship. If you're, say, Dutch, you perform for The Netherlands. If you're British, you perform for UK. If you're Flo Rida, you don't perform at all.
6. Extend the maximum allowed duration of the songs to 3:30.

+7. Not really a mandatory change, but I wish that during the flag parade, each participant would be welcomed in their own language like it was in 2019.

 

[Gitte]

my take

1. Pre-recorded vocals out, unless they cannot be replicated live just like @randajad said
2. Up to 10 people on stage excluding the singer(s).
3. Juries should consist of at least 10 people each and should judge the songs basing on certain criteria
4. Find a way to accentuate public votes more, ie 12s. Maybe listing them on-screen while the combined vote is being announced by the hosts?
5. Every country should be represented by a performer holding that country's citizenship. If you're, say, Dutch, you perform for The Netherlands. If you're British, you perform for UK. If you're Flo Rida, you don't perform at all.
6. Extend the maximum allowed duration of the songs to 3:30.

+7. Not really a mandatory change, but I wish that during the flag parade, each participant would be welcomed in their own language like it was in 2019.

With #5, wouldn't that basically rule out microstates like San Marino? They have the population of a small city. Not a lot of talented performers and singers in a single small city.

 

[GermanBango]

With #5, wouldn't that basically rule out microstates like San Marino? They have the population of a small city. Not a lot of talented performers and singers in a single small city.

The question is: Do we really need them then? Don`t get me wrong I want everyone to be able to participate but I just don`t see how buying some US-starlets adds any value to the Contest.

 

[Journalist]

No more BIG5 countries. 12 qualifiers from each semi-final + host, cause the situation became absurd for me. If we need BIG5 then it can be most successful countries - e.g. Ukraine etc...
I hope that this rule will become reality one day.
Artists from each country need to sing on their official language sounds good for me but I won't put it as the priority and something that is so important - just looking from the aspect of diversity and really great cultures across the Europe.

 

[Journalist]

• Have it explicitly written into the rules of Eurovision that only recognized independent countries that are at least partially geographically within the European continent, or at least have a history of a minimum of 5 previous entries in the contest, can take part and scrap the idea of the dated European Broadcasting Area (that EBU don't even follow themselves). This would close the door to any risk of having countries like USA, China, Qatar, Morocco, Lebanon, Canada or others joining. It's not EUROvision if the world can join! Let's protect the brand and concept!

Well said! I agree with this 101%!

 

[ESCConor]

Change the voting system to one based off a proportional system, so instead of directly voting for songs, you would vote online and rank each country in order of preference instead of voting over the phone, so 1 for your first choice and down to 26th for your least favourite, each country would still get 58 points. in order to receive one point from the televote, you would do the total number of votes cast divided by the number of points a country is handing out, so for example if there was 2,500,000 votes and you divide it by 58 points, then a country would need 43,103 votes to receive at least one point, this process would continue until all 58 points have been allocated.

I support changing it to ensure the voting is fair, reduces bloc voting and ensures every country gets a fair share of votes.

 

[ESC94]

Change the voting system to one based off a proportional system, so instead of directly voting for songs, you would vote online and rank each country in order of preference instead of voting over the phone, so 1 for your first choice and down to 26th for your least favourite, each country would still get 58 points. in order to receive one point from the televote, you would do the total number of votes cast divided by the number of points a country is handing out, so for example if there was 2,500,000 votes and you divide it by 58 points, then a country would need 43,103 votes to receive at least one point, this process would continue until all 58 points have been allocated.

I support changing it to ensure the voting is fair, reduces bloc voting and ensures every country gets a fair share of votes.

Ehm, you know this is still called the Eurovision "Song" Contest?? Why should we rank countries?? I´m sorry, but with your proposal the voting would turn into some overly complicated math lesson, and I think voting should be as easy as possible.

 

[GermanBango]

Ehm, you know this is still called the Eurovision "Song" Contest?? Why should we rank countries?? I´m sorry, but with your proposal the voting would turn into some overly complicated math lesson, and I think voting should be as easy as possible.

Most casual viewers don`t even understand the current system, I fear.

 

[A-lister]

Change the voting system to one based off a proportional system, so instead of directly voting for songs, you would vote online and rank each country in order of preference instead of voting over the phone, so 1 for your first choice and down to 26th for your least favourite, each country would still get 58 points. in order to receive one point from the televote, you would do the total number of votes cast divided by the number of points a country is handing out, so for example if there was 2,500,000 votes and you divide it by 58 points, then a country would need 43,103 votes to receive at least one point, this process would continue until all 58 points have been allocated.

I support changing it to ensure the voting is fair, reduces bloc voting and ensures every country gets a fair share of votes.

Juries used a ranking system previously and it was a disaster, so much manipulations and tactical votings and countries purposely putting certain countries dead last etc.

Also, this system might work with us Eurovision fans, but it will not work with the average viewer (imagine someone who just heard the entries for the first time sitting and rank the songs 1-26 only to cast their votes?), it's just not going to work I'm afraid, we'll just end up with manipulated rankings where people didn't really put much thought into their 2-25 but only about their 1 and last place and it'll be complete unfair results filled with politics and "downvotings".

 

[ESC94]

Most casual viewers don`t even understand the current system, I fear.

Yeah, some "geniuses" probably even can´t understand this. But it´s still better than these overly complicated proposal.

 

[FilipFromSweden]

I think the concept of ''voting for your favorite'' is great and the idea that the televoter could be able to drag someone down by placing them as 26th or something is terrible, imagine the war that would be between fans.

And yeah that's what the juries do but let's not have that discussion now, I'm bored of it

 

[b4ld3r]

It'd be pretty neat if they eventually got rid of the archaic three minute limit on songs. Maybe it could lead to fewer of the songs being written specifically with the competition in mind?

 

[randajad]

Most casual viewers don`t even understand the current system, I fear.

They really do not. The amount of times I had to clarify

 

[LoveHate]

Every vocalist has to be shown on screen.

 

[JamieBrown]

my take

1. Pre-recorded vocals out, unless they cannot be replicated live just like @randajad said
2. Up to 10 people on stage excluding the singer(s).
3. Juries should consist of at least 10 people each and should judge the songs basing on certain criteria
4. Find a way to accentuate public votes more, ie 12s. Maybe listing them on-screen while the combined vote is being announced by the hosts?
5. Every country should be represented by a performer holding that country's citizenship. If you're, say, Dutch, you perform for The Netherlands. If you're British, you perform for UK. If you're Flo Rida, you don't perform at all.
6. Extend the maximum allowed duration of the songs to 3:30.

+7. Not really a mandatory change, but I wish that during the flag parade, each participant would be welcomed in their own language like it was in 2019.

1. Yes, agreed
2. Would give us more gimmicky dance shows. Try to make the best out of 6 people.
3. Agreed on the jury size, maybe even make it bigger and mix it with the demoscopic juries of Sanremo. Afaik we already have certain criterias. I guess people just beg to differ from each other what is original, well-produced and so on
4. I think it's impossible for the first countries to announce their jury votes as the televotes are still calculated then. And no, I don't want any more interval, when the voting lines are finally closed.
5. Nope. We don't need it as a rule. It will happen most cases and if an austrian singer tries for Germany I'm fine with that. It's rare to happen
6. Could be fine with, as long as the interval shows will be shortened for the same amount of time the entries will take then

 

[A-lister]

It'd be pretty neat if they eventually get rid of the three minute limit on songs. Maybe it could lead to fewer of the songs being written specifically with the competition in mind?

It would be nice, but the rule is there for a reason and I think they need to simply put the limit somewhere (not that I think countries would show up with 10 minutes opuses but still).