The Eurovision 2025 semi-finals are getting a makeover during the announcement of the semi-final qualifiers. In a press release summarising the changes, the EBU shared the following bullet points.
The basics of the results in the semi-finals are still the same:
• The result is determined by public voting.
• The top ten countries from each semi-final will move on to compete in the Grand Final.
• These ten countries are presented by the hosts, one a time in random order.
• No country is eliminated until the very end
The visuals of how these ten countries are revealed are different this year:
• The first nine reveals will be in a split screen, focusing on 3 countries at a time. One of them will qualify, the other two will have to wait to hear whether they made it or not.
• Then 10th and final reveal, when you learn the final qualifier and who the eliminated contestants are, is done the traditional way without any split screen.
So why the change?
“With the splits, we focus on the contestants instead of the hosts. We want to capture the moment the artists/delegations learn that they made it to the Grand Final. In previous years each reveal was made by the hosts on screen, and then we cut to the delegations in the Green room. We also want to treat the delegations more equally. Previously some where shown lot before each reveal, others hardly shown at all.”
So how will the three countries on the screens be chosen?
“The ”other” two countries in each split are chosen automatically by an algorithm. The algorithm seeks to treat all countries as equally as possible. No country should be shown more than 3 times in splits without qualifying (remember, 10th reveal is not a split, everybody is in the running until the end). Countries should not appear in two consecutive splits. Countries should not appear together more than once. The position of the qualifying country in each split is random. The production has only a couple of minutes to plan for 33 camera assignments.”
So what do you think of the changes? Let us know down below!
