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Exclusive: These are the judges who will vote in Eurovision 2019!

30 April 2019 at 12:06 CEST
The 1957 presenter and her "assistant" during the voting HR/ARD
The result of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest will be decided for 50% by you, the public, and for 50% by a group of music industry professionals. We can now reveal the 205 jury members who will cast their votes in this year's Semi-Finals and Grand Final.

⬇️ Download the full list of jury members (.pdf)

Strict criteria

Each national jury is made up of 5 music industry professionals — 4 members and a chairperson. The jury members are asked to judge the following aspects:

  • The vocal capacity of the singer;
  • The performance on stage;
  • The composition and originality of the song;
  • The overall impression of the act.

Each jury member ranks all entries, except for their own country's contribution.

When will the juries vote?

While you will be able to cast your vote after the live broadcast of the first and second Semi-Final and the Grand Final, the jury members cast their vote after watching, via an internal broadcast, the Dress Rehearsal in the evening prior to each live show. This Dress Rehearsal is also the show that each broadcaster can turn to as backup when, due to technical reasons, the signal during a live show should be interrupted.

For each Semi-Final, only juries and televoters from the countries that take part in the respective Semi-Final will vote. The so-called 'Big Five' countries - France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom — plus host country Israel have been allocated to vote in one of the two Semi-Finals by draw. Jurors from Spain, France and Israel will vote in the first Semi-Final. The juries in Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom will vote in the second Semi-Final.

Eurovision 2019 Semi-Final Allocation Draw Stijn Smulders

For the Grand Final, juries and televoters from all 41 participating countries will vote. The individual voting results of all jury members will be kept secret until after the Grand Final, when they will be posted on Eurovision.tv

Keeping the jury voting fair

To keep the voting process fair, the work of the juries is supervised by a notary in each country. The EBU's independent observers of EY reserve the right to pay surprise visits to the jury panel in order to ensure that the voting is being conducted in accordance with the Rules of the Eurovision Song Contest. 

After casting their vote, the EBU works together with EY to check and verify the jury results. In case of apparent irregularities, a national jury vote may be discarded.

How to become a juror?

There are strict admission rules for jury members:

  • Members of the jury must not have been part of the jury in the previous 2 years;
  • Members of the jury must be at least 16 years old on the day they vote;
  • There may not be more than 1 Participating Broadcaster’s employee per National Jury;
  • Members of the jury must have a solid musical/artistic background and a relevant professional experience (such as singer, musician, composer, author of lyrics, professional in the TV/radio entertainment field, music critic/expert, dancer or choreographer);
  • Members of the jury shall be citizens of the country they represent;
  • No member of a jury shall be connected in any way with any of the participating songs entered and/or artists performing in the contest in such a way that they cannot vote in complete independence and impartiality.

Juries are selected by the Participating Broadcaster that represents each country. For example; the Spanish jury is appointed by TVE, while the North Macedonian jury is appointed by the MKRTV, and so on.

The class of 2019: Facts & figures

This year, a total of 205 jurors will vote, or 5 per country. The broadcasters also appointed a backup juror (not listed), in case on of the 5 members is not able to cast their vote for whatever reason.

  • This year's youngest juror is 16 years old and comes from Malta. The oldest juror is 82 years old and comes from Croatia;
  • The average age of this year's jurors is 41;
  • There are 96 female jurors and 109 male jurors.

This year's list of jury members also features numerous notable Eurovision Song Contest alumni.

  • Azerbaijan features 2012 presenter Leyla Quliyeva as one of their jury members;
  • Croatia features 2018 contestant Franka as one of their jury members;
  • Bruno Berberes has been Head of Delegation for France for many years and is a notable ambassador for the contest in his country;
  • Germany appointed 2018 representative Michael Schulte to their jury;
  • Hungary invited 2011 representative Katie Wolf to become a member of their jury;
  • Iceland's 2015 representative Mária is part of the island nation's jury;
  • Russia invited the Tolmachevy Twins, who represented the country at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest and won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2006;
  • Pop star Sophie Ellis-Bextor will be a juror for the United Kingdom.

Did you spot any more interesting facts or notable jury members who should be highlighted in the Facts & figures section? Let us know in the comments!