On Saturday, Hera Björk was crowned as the Söngvakeppnin 2024 champion. But in the 48 hours since then, the Icelandic singer’s victory has been marred by accusations of voting error.
Einar Stefánsson, the co-writer of Bashar Murad’s “Wild West”, which finished second in the contest, is now calling for an independent review into the voting.
RÚV has admitted there was an error in part of the voting, but stated this did not affect the overall outcome.
Söngvakeppnin 2024 voting error
During the Söngvakeppnin 2024 grand final, the public could vote by two methods — SMS text message, or phone call. National broadcaster RÚV also added voting information into a mobile app, where clicking the number of a certain act would automatically create an SMS message in the person’s phone that was directed towards the act of their choosing.
However, videos began emerging on social media of faults in this system.
This showed an individual attempting to vote for Bashar Murad through the app. However, the system set up an SMS message that was actually directed towards Hera Björk’s voting number instead.
Other social media posts have also indicated that Murad’s call-in number was blocked or marked as spam in some instances, whereas all other numbers were fine.
Following this voting error, Einar Stefánsson is requesting an independent review into the contest’s results. He argues it would be wrong for RÚV to only conduct an internal investigation:
“It is highly unusual for RÚV to believe that the organization can carry out an internal investigation on this matter, and therefore an independent investigation is needed to ensure the trust and reputation of Söngvakeppnin. At the same time, it is not at all clear how it is possible to assess whether a vote that went like this did not affect the result.”
RÚV has so far not responded directly to Einar’s request, but the broadcaster has admitted that an error occurred in the SMS votes during the superfinal between Hera and Bashar. This affected both participants and so neither received the SMS votes they were due from the app.
The organisers go on to state that the number of SMS votes was notably smaller compared to those cast via phone call. As a result, removing the SMS votes would not have changed the overall outcome of the contest.
Bashar Murad won the first round of grand final voting
As is custom, RÚV has revealed the full breakdown of voting from the Söngvakeppnin 2024 grand final.
This shows that during the first round of voting, Bashar Murad topped both the jury and public vote. He had more than a 15,000 vote lead over second place Hera Björk, who initially finished second with the jury and third with the public.
But things changed during the superfinal, where the first round votes were combined with another round of public-only voting. Hera picked up close to 19,000 more votes than Bashar during this second round, allowing her to squeeze ahead and clinch the victory.
First round
| Artist | Jury votes | Public votes | Total | Place |
| Væb | 13,656 | 15,727 | 29,383 | 4 |
| Hera Björk | 16,661 | 15,406 | 32,067 | 2 |
| Anita | 14,476 | 10,124 | 24,600 | 5 |
| Bashar Murad | 21,304 | 26,359 | 47,663 | 1 |
| Sigga Ózk | 16,114 | 14,595 | 30,709 | 3 |
Superfinal
| Artist | Round 1 | Round 2 | Total | Place |
| Hera Björk | 32,067 | 68,768 | 100,835 | 1 |
| Bashar Murad | 47,663 | 49,832 | 97,495 | 2 |
This isn’t the first time the Söngvakeppnin result has changed following the superfinal.
Over the past ten editions of the show, only five contestants have retained their first round lead at the end of the second voting period. In 2015, 2016, 2018, 2022, and now 2024, the winner of the first round has ultimately finished the night as the runner-up after the superfinal.
Although the superfinal can provide an interesting TV moment, some fans have suggested it might not be the best way to select an act. Having a second round of voting allows people to change their mind, something viewers can’t do at Eurovision — it’s all on first impressions. Additionally, having only two acts in the superfinal means you can easily vote against a contestant as much as you can vote for one — which again is not possible at Eurovision because viewers can only vote for their favourites out of 26 in the final.
What are your thoughts on the situation? Should the Söngvakeppnin 2024 voting results be looked into with more scrutiny? And do you think superfinals are good or bad additions to selections? Let us know in the comments below.
