Voting procedures at the contest have been known to change quite often, and after last year’s voting procedure completely wiping out the public vote, we’re glad to see that this year, Junior Eurovision will once again feature the public vote.
This year, the contest winner will be decided by the national juries which will be made up of music industry professionals and of course, kids. The other portion of the voting stems from an online vote, which has been a bit confusing, so here’s what you need to know.
The first phase of the online voting will begin at 18:00 CET on Friday the 24th of November. A recap of all the rehearsals will be shown before the viewers can vote. After this, the voters have the option to watch longer one-minute clips from the participants’ rehearsals. The end of this first phase is on Sunday the 26th November at 15:59 CET, right before the show begins.
The second part of the online voting will begin during the live show, and will take place after the last performance of the night. The voting will be open for 15 minutes. Each viewer can vote for a minimum of three countries but a maximum of five. Interestingly, viewers will be able to vote for their own country (which may cause some issues, but remains to be seen).
These votes will be converted into points, depending on the percentage of the votes received. If a song receives 20% of the votes, then it will receive 20% of the available points. The public vote will account for 50% of the final vote, with the jury giving the other half of the total votes.
