Officials change Eurovision voting rules
BERLIN, Dec. 13 (UPI) — New rules for voting in the Eurovision music
competition are to be implemented in an effort to keep people from selecting a
winner based solely on nationality.
The German publication Der Spiegel said that in recent years Eastern
European Eurovision Song Contest fans have voted by _phone_
( 8/12/13/Officials_change_Eurovision_voting_rules/U PI-19411229176489/#) in blocs, helping Eastern European countries dominate the
international competition regardless of the talent of the contestants.
Voting patterns have affected the decision regarding where the competition
is held and kept it largely in the former Eastern Bloc during the last decade.
Eurovision organizers decided to change the rules for 2009, so the viewer
voting results will be combined with the decisions of juries, made up of people
with _musical_
( 008/12/13/Officials_change_Eurovision_voting_rules /UPI-19411229176489/#) backgrounds, from each
country to determine the outcome, the newspaper said.
"Those who care (about the contest) will have had it up to here with the
blatant political voting from the former satellites of the U.S.S.R. that awarded
this year’s event to Russia," the _BBC’s_
( 8/12/13/Officials_change_Eurovision_voting_rules/U PI-19411229176489/#)
longtime Eurovision presenter, Terry Wogan, recently wrote in Britain’s
Sunday Telegraph.
Der Spiegel added that Wogan threatened to quit if changes weren’t made.
The next Eurovision contest is slated to take place in Moscow May 16.