I got new rules I count ’em- EBU together with the Swedish Broadcaster SVT have announced some changes regarding this year’s contest. You thought the titans of Eurovision will keep things the same after hosting the contest 6 (soon to be 7) times? Read below to familiarise yourself to the changes!
Big 5 will perform live in the semi-finals!
The Big-5 and the host country Sweden will perform live for the first time in the semi-finals, but will still automatically qualify to the final. The concept of Big-5 was introduced in 2000 but was known as Big-4 since it included France, Spain, UK and Germany. When Italy returned to the contest in 2011 the concept changed to Big-5. Big-5 are the countries that make the biggest financial contributions to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). As a thank you to their contributions these countries, together with the host country, are directly qualified to the final, without competing in the semi-finals.
So far, these 6-qualified countries would be given a spot in the semi-finals where the representative would introduce themselves and present a short clip of their performance. They are also allowed to vote in their allocated semi-final. Now with the new changes these pre-qualified countries will perform live for the first time during the semi-final they have been allocated. Germany, Sweden and UK will perform in semi-final 1 and Italy, Spain and France will perform in the semi-final 2. They will perform in between competing countries.
Extension to the voting window in the grand final!
The other change involves voting. On the grand final night, voting will open just before the first song is performed and will close 25 minutes after the last performance. This will enable viewers to vote as the songs are performed rather than wait until all entries have performed. This won’t be the first time that the voting began at the start of the show, since it also happened in 2010 and 2011.
In addition, fans from non-participating countries will now have ~24 hours to vote for their favourites before each live show begins. Online voting will open for the rest of the world immediately after the second dress rehearsal for each semi-final and grand final has finished the previous night and will stay open until the live shows begin. This will give the opportunity for people all over the globe to vote without having to stay awake all night long to watch the live show.
There is another big change for Malmo 2024 that will be announced very soon. We will keep you updated with the latest news so check out our website often! Do you like the new changes? Let us know in the comments!
