Political voting at Eurovision? It's a myth

The scourge of political voting in the Eurovision Song Contest often generates heated debate, particularly amongst those who feel no-one likes the United Kingdom.

But does political voting exist and, if so, in what form?

The accusation of political voting overlooks two very important factors and anyone looking to bet on Eurovision 2011 should remember this. The first is that countries that are geographically close to each other are likely to share similar cultures and musical tastes. Norway, Sweden and Denmark share a Nordic culture so it is not surprising to discover that they like similar genres of music and that they tend to vote for themselves.

The second is that political changes throughout the ages mean that many sizeable minorities exist in neighbouring European countries. There is a large Hungarian population in south-eastern Slovakia whilst Finland has a sizeable Swedish minority on its western coast. Nationals of one country cannot vote for their own country in their homeland but they can if they are living in another country. These are important factors to bear in mind when looking at the Eurovision odds.

The speaking of similar languages is another important thing to consider, although in recent times the trend has been for most Eurovision entries to be sung in English. Greece and Cyprus frequently share 12 points because of all these reasons – artists which are big in one tend to be big in the other because of the two countries’ similarities.

The other issue is the undue bias of the system. As each country is allocated the same 12 points, smaller countries tend to have greater influence in terms of proportion of the population. This means a song can receive most votes across the entirety of Europe but if these votes are concentrated in a handful of countries, a less popular song could win if it is popular in a greater number of countries.

So political voting is largely a myth and is based on the intrinsic bias of the system. The problem has been alleviated since 100% phone voting was scrapped in favour of a 50/50 system between juries and the public, but it is unlikely to completely silence the doubters.