Viewers from countries not participating in the Eurovision Song Contest will be able to vote for their favorite artist next year for the first time in the contest’s history, the organizers announced on Tuesday.
It said the new “Rest of the World” vote should strengthen the audience’s ability to influence the results and recognize the global reach of the competition, which last year attracted a TV audience of more than 160 million.
Viewers will be able to vote via a secure online platform and the full list of eligible countries will be published closer to the event, which is usually held in May. “Votes from non-participating countries will be combined to create a set of points with the same weight as one participating country in both semi-finals and the grand final,” the pageant organizers said on their website.
The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 will be held in the northern English city of Liverpool on behalf of this year’s winners of Ukraine.
The decades-long tradition usually sees the winner of the competition host the following year, but the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said security considerations due to the ongoing conflict there meant that runner-up Britain would host him instead.
Contest organizers said they are also making changes to the voting system for the semi-finals, which will now be decided by the audience alone, rather than a combination of audience votes and national music experts as previously.
Final results are still determined by a combination of audience and jury votes. It said the changes were designed to protect the integrity of the event following irregular voting patterns in the six-nation 2022 contest.
