Earlier this week, the European Broadcasting Union announced that in the Final of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, professional juries in all participating countries will have 50% influence on the result. Televoters will deliver the other 50% of the outcome.
Each national jury will consist of five people, including a chairperson, who all are professionals in the music industry, such as composers, radio DJs and artist managers. There should be a variety of jury members (age, gender, etc.). All jury members must be citizens of the country they are representing, and none of the jury members must in any way be connected with any of the participating songs or artists at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.
Practically, this means the winner of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest will not only be chosen by millions of televoters across Europe, but also by more than 200 music industry professionals - five per country - of various cultural, linguistic and demographic backgrounds. To secure credibility of the jury vote, their work and voting procedure will be supervised by a notary in each country.
The exact details on the way the national juries should be formatted and supervised will be presented at the Heads of Delegation meeting on 16 and 17 March in Moscow. Traditionally, representatives of all participating broadcasters gather in the Host City in mid-March to be informed about the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. The first day of the meeting also marks the day that all participating countries should have picked their songs and performers.
