The Key to Success in Eurovision (part 1): Vocals

Some say there is no formula for success at the Eurovision Song Contest. However, studying the past results of the competition closely, one would have to conclude there is in fact a Key to Success in Eurovision. This the Key To Success. One must focus on the three basic elements in the contest: Vision, Sound and Emotion.

In this episode we talk about Sound, which is — obviously — quite essential in a SONG contest. Especially now that the jury vote is back to decide 50 percent of the results. A good vocal performance has become of major importance in the contest to be on top of the score sheet. Good vocals can make you win the jury vote.

Vocals
Good vocals were always an important factor in Eurovision succes. But it became even more important in recent years. In 2009, the organisation of the Eurovision Song Contest decided to reintroduce a jury vote in the results of the competition.

In these first years, jury members received strict guidelines that they had to follow. These included factors such as “hit potential” and “quality of the composition”; in other words, a particular focus on the song. In reality, it soon became clear that jury members paid much more attention to the vocal abilities of the acts. While televoters were choosing the best song, juries often chose the best voice. The EBU has in the meantime loosened up the guidelines for jury members, to make them match reality.

Discrepancies between juries and televoting
Already in 2009, the first year after the jury was reintroduced, songs from Iceland, United Kingdom and France scored significantly higher among juries than among televoters. All of these entries had vocal excellence as a unique selling point. The same thing happened for Georgia’s Sopho Nizharadze in 2010, Austria’s Nadine Beiler in 2011, and Spain’s Pastora Soler in 2012. In all of these cases, the rewarded vocalist was either a well established and experienced singer, or an upcoming name from a talent show.

Interesting is the year 2014, when the young and unknown Finnish rock group Softengine scored a lot more points with juries than with televoters. It could be argued that juries took the level of difficulty of the song in mind, when they judged Softengine’s performance. The song “Something Better” contained a wide reach of higher and lower notes, which the band managed to deliver surprisingly well.

Jury Final
So juries pay more attention to vocals, and therefore strong vocalists get rewarded. The opposite is also true: one weaker performance can cost you deeply. However, many people watching the Eurovision Song Contest do not realize that jury members vote one night before the live broadcast. If the Grand Final is on Saturday night, the jury members will have made up their minds during the Jury Final on Friday night.

That means that sometimes, the audience at home will see a weaker performance than the juries have seen. Harel Ska’at for Israel in 2010 and Elhaida Dani for Albania during the semi finals of 2015 are two excellent examples of that. Viewers at home might find it difficult to understand the high jury votes when they have not seen the performances from the night before.

This is how Eurovision works. Good vocals are a key element to success in the competition, but you have to deliver at the right moment. Singers will generally be more nervous for the big show on Saturday which is broadcasted to over a hundred million people, but in terms of the final result, vocal delivery on the night before might be even more crucial.

Sending a good singer to Eurovision is not enough to be successful. There are more elements that determine your final result. But it is a good start, and a prerequisite to win the hearts and minds of the professional jury, who makes up roughly 50% of the final result.

Originally published on ESCDaily.com