Eurovision juries return

For years he grumbled about the tactical bloc voting deemed responsible for the UK's repeated failure in the Eurovision Song Contest. This year Sir Terry Wogan was so piqued he threatened to quit his commentating job.

Yesterday's announcement from the organisers is likely therefore to have been music to his ears: juries will return to the points-awarding process at next year's final, for the first time in eleven years. The winner in Moscow will be decided by a mix of opinions delivered by the juries and telephone voting from members of the public watching at home.

"Nothing is more democratic than the vote of the public," Svante Stockselius, executive supervisor of the contest, said. "But a jury takes the opportunity to listen to the songs several times before they make up their minds." Ruurd Bierman, chairman of the Eurovision reference group, said: "After the public debate about neighbour and diaspora voting, we decided to give the national juries a say."

Wogan's outburst came after the winner, Russia, received the maximum 12 points from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus and Armenia, a voting pattern similar to the Balkans' practice of back-your-neighbour. The UK's entrant, former dustman Andy Abraham, came last with just 14 points.

Calling for the return of national juries, the commentator of 37 years said the BBC had to decide whether it still wanted to take part, adding: "I don't want to be presiding over yet another debacle."


Original article here