#voting changes

A major change to the way in which voting happens during the Eurovision Song Contest has been announced.

The countries that qualify from the two semi-finals will now be decided solely based on the votes cast by viewers of the competition, rather than a combination of a jury and public vote as has been the case since 2009.

Also, for the first time, those watching in countries not taking part in the competition will also be able to vote online.

Their votes will be added together and converted to points that will have the same weight as one participating country in both of the semi-finals and the grand final.