One of the other controversies in the buildup to tonight’s grand final has been the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) decision to allow Israel to participate, despitecalls for them to be excluded.
I’m going to do what I did last year, and follow the same procedure I do when covering events like the Olympics – once the organising bodies have made their decision about who can participate, we cover the event as is, so we’ll treat Yuval Raphael and Israel’s song and staging like any other entry tonight.
As I said last year, I am aware that some Guardian readers and regularEurovisionlive blog followers will be glad to keep the music and the politics separate – but I am also aware that some of you will find that disappointing, and think it is the wrong decision.
You can find all of the Guardian’s ongoing coverage of the Israel-Gaza warhere.
If you have been following the buildup to this year’s contest you will not have been able to avoid the controversy over whetherMalta’sMiriana Contewas allowed to sing the words “serving kant” or not. Spoilers: she is not. Our European culture editor Philip Oltermann had this look atthe history of smutty numbers on the Eurovision stage.
A couple of years ago the people on our culture desk forcedAlexis Petridistorank every single winnerup to that point – all 69 of them because of the weird four-way tie that happened once.
It doesn’t include the last two winners. I imagineLoreen’sTattoomight have nestled somewhere in the 20s, and that last year’s winner,The CodebyNemo, would have been in the top ten.
Are you new toEurovision? Probably not if you are already reading my live blog. But here is the lowdown on how the voting works tonight.
Every competing country in the contest – that is all 37 who initially entered, not just those appearing in the final – have both a jury awarding votes, and a public telephone vote. There is also an additional “rest of the world” aggregated telephone vote.
Once voting closes, each country reveals who has received a maximum 12 points from their country’s jury. Points are awarded as follows: 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
This is the bit where we go from country to country and everybody says “Great show, Basel, you really blew our minds” and thentakes far too long to deliver the actual score, causing the show to inevitably run behind schedule.
After that procedure, we then get the public vote added to each song one by one, starting with the song placed last by the juries. That usually builds up to a tight climax where three or four songs leapfrog into the lead and then there is some suspense … and then Sweden almost certainly wins (probably).
Bonsoir et bienvenue à la couverture en direct du 69eEurovisionpar le Guardian.
That is about as much French as I can manage which may be a little tricky tonight as Switzerland is sure to serve up some multi-lingual hosting this evening.
There is going to be a lot to enjoy tonight, even if a couple of the things I really liked got knocked out at the semi-final stage shakes fist at sky. More on that later.
It is Martin Belam here with you tonight. It is the fourth time I’ve done it now, and I’vepossiblygot the hang of it, although the chaotic third act of me trying to live blog the results coming in when I’ve had too much prosecco is surely going to reappear.
The show starts at 9pm CEST, 8pm BST, and I will be with you every step of the way as your second-screen guide. You can get in touch with me atmartin.belam@theguardian.com– and if you put EUROVISION as the subject line your email will be easier to find.