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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Entertainment
Paul McAuley & Christopher Megrath

Major change to how Eurovision 2023 voting results will be announced

A major change has been implemented for this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Typically, the acts congregate in the green room with the delegation teams in order to find out who has qualified for the Grand Final. However, this has changed for the Liverpool show at the M&S Bank Arena.

In the first major shakeup to the voting system since the introduction of split jury and televote, all of the participating acts come together onstage, in front of the audience, to discover their fate.

READ MORE: Order your 48-page Eurovision souvenir guide from our online shop

This means, unlike in previous years, those who don’t qualify may have their live reactions filmed for Europe to see.

In their dress rehearsals, the acts were informed to simply exit the stage if they did not qualify. For the sake of rehearsals, the qualifying acts were picked at random and had no bearing on the actual results.

It is unknown what this will look like during the live television broadcasts, how the winners will be filmed, or whether or not the acts who do not qualify will be filmed.

When acts are told they qualify, they simply smile and leave the stage. Those who remain on the stage and do not qualify are forced to leave shortly after.

Alesha Dixon will be backstage to interview a handful of the acts as they come off.

Some fans aren't happy with the change and took to social media to express their views.

@SeanESCUnited said: "New qualifier announcement. Absolutely speechless."

@eurotrashsash added: "So instead of solo artists being surrounded by their teams to celebrate/commiserate they have to stand there alone."

@sabelings said: "There was no reason to change this at all ?? I don't see the point."

@izzykxte said: "I already hate this."

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