The Eurovision Song Contest 2022 is taking place in Turin, with the second semi-final happening this Thursday as part of the event. Seventeen countries compete for ten spots in the grand finale on Saturday the 14th, when the winner of this edition will be chosen. The selection process for finalists and the winner is organized by the European Broadcasting Union.
Since 2009, the winner and the semi-final qualifiers have been chosen through a mixed system that blends jury evaluation with televoting from viewers. This approach mirrors the voting structure used by Sweden’s Melodifestivalen, which has operated with two separate votes since 2016. An international audit firm oversees the integrity of the voting process.
In terms of jury rules, each participating country must assemble a panel of five national professionals connected to music, staging, choreography, and radio. After viewing the second dress rehearsal, also called the Jury Show, these experts cast their votes following guidelines set by the EBU. The voting occurs the day before the gala, whether in the semi-finals or the final.
During the semi-final, voting comes from the participating countries along with the Big Five countries, which include Germany, Spain, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom as the final lineup is determined by a random draw. Each year, observers decide which countries advance and which components of the Big Five plus host vote influence the outcome. After combining the jury scores with the televote results, the top ten countries move forward, and the exact point tallies are not always disclosed publicly.
All countries cast their votes in the grand final on Saturday. The final awards a total of 40 points, but the voting procedure differs from the semi-finals. The voting block conducts two distinct phases. In the first phase, jurors from each participating nation assign points to the competing entries, with a maximum of 12 points available for any single entry.
After the professional jury results are tallied, the televote results are revealed. The televote consists of calls and text votes from viewers around the continent, and these points are added to the jury scores in a reverse order, starting with the entry that received the least jury support.
To ensure transparency, the European Broadcasting Union publishes the breakdown of both professional jury and televote results by country and by gala on the official festival website.