Eurovision Fan Survey 2022: views on rules, scoring and countries competing

We have completed our fourth annual Eurovision Fan Survey with 447 people taking part from 44 countries.

And it's no surprise that fans had strong feelings when we asked the questions on the rules and scoring system as well as which countries should and could take part.

Scoring

Each year we ask fans which scoring system they prefer and for the fourth straight year, the current system of 50/50 split between the public and jury vote (with the points done separately), came out on top.

• 58% of fans prefer the current system, up from 53% in 2021.

• 8% of fans would like to return to the 50/50 system but where points are combined

• 19% would like a split that includes the jury but favours the televote higher than 50%

• 5% would like a split that includes the televote but favours the jury

• 5% want a return to 100% televote

• 0.4% want a return to 100% jury

The biggest change has been the preference for the televote to have more say. A vote that favours televote with some jury is down from 26%.

The amount who want to see a 100% televote also dropped from 8% to 5%.

This could be because of the Ukraine win based on their strong televote that had support of many, but also was controversial to others.

Regional differences

In terms of regional differences, UK/Ireland and the rest of Europe both had the current points system very high (71% and 65% respectively), Australia was lower at 49%.

Australia was much more likely (13%) to support the previous 50/50 scoring compared to the UK/Ireland (3%) and the rest of Europe (1%).

This has been a consistent view of Australians, perhaps because Dami Im would have won under this system in 2016 and any big differences between the jury and televote is made more obvious in the current scoring approach.

Interestingly though, Australian are also more supportive of a heavier focus on the televote with 23% favouring a system that sees it get more than 50%.

Europeans (other than UK and Ireland) are the most likely to support a 100% televote, with 10% choosing that option.

EBU Decisions

Some big decisions have been made in recent years by the European Broadcasting Union including the banning of Russia and Belarus, recorded backing vocals being allowed and the recent decision to remove the jury scores from a number of nations at Eurovision 2022.

So what do Eurovision fans think of these decisions?

Russia and Belarus

There is strong support for the banning of Russia and Belarus with 88% and 82% of fans agreeing with this decision respectively.

Support was strongest in the UK & Ireland with 93% supporting the decision on Russia and 89% on Belarus.

Backing vocals

The vast majority of fans do not support the use of recorded backing vocals.

22% of fans were in support of these recent rule change, with support lowest in Europe at just 13%. UK and Ireland fans were most supportive at 29%.

Jury score removals in 2022

Support was reasonably strong with a majority of fans agreeing with the decision of the EBU to remove the jury scores of nations at Eurovision 2022 based on their alleged coordination.

58% of fans supported this approach with fans from the UK and Ireland at 77%.

Support was lowest with the Rest of the World at 45%.

Additionally, Australia was low at 50%, however that was because of a high "neutral" score which may mean fans weren't as across the details.

New countries competing at Eurovision

We asked fans how much they would support a number of countries taking part at Eurovision.

The percentage of fan supporting these countries competing were:

Kosovo - 84%

Kazakhstan - 71%

Lebanon - 67%

Canada - 38%

United States - 12%

China - 9%

Support for

A majority of fans supported Kosovo (84%), Kazakhstan (71%) and Lebanon (67%) making their debut at Eurovision.

Support for Kosovo is reasonably steady (down 2%) from 2021 however support for Kazakhstan has dropped dramatically from 84% last year to 71% in 2022.

In January this year there was deadly unrest in the nation, whether this instability has led to the result would need further analysis.

The strongest support for Kosovo was the UK and Ireland (88%) and the lowest was Australia at 81%.

Meanwhile Australia had the highest support for Kazakhstan (76%) while Europe (without UK/Ireland) was lowest at just 61%.

Lebanon is the only nation who is eligible as an EBU member to compete at Eurovision. They were set to make their debut in 2005, however their approach of not televising Israel saw disagreements with the EBU and they withdrew.

Support was highest in Australia (70%) and lowest in Europe (53%).

Support against

Canada, United States and China had strongest support from the rest of the world (49%, 28% and 13% respectively).

For the second straight year the lowest support was among UK/Ireland fans of Canada (28%), USA (8%) and China (8%).

Interesting even the majority of American fans don't support their entry to Eurovision. 33% would like to see them in the Contest. Although this is a minority, it has risen from 20% in 2021. Perhaps the American Song Contest debut this year has convinced some people.

Fans most want Turkey to return

Out of the countries that previously competed at Eurovision (Andorra, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzergovina, Hungary, Luxembourg, Monaco, Morocco, Russia, Slovakia and Turkey) we asked fans to choose the top three they wanted to see return.

The results were:

1. Turkey — 64%

2. Bosnia and Herzegovina — 55%

3. Hungary — 46%

4. Luxembourg — 42%

5. Slovakia — 31%

6. Andorra — 22%

7. Monaco — 21%

8. Morocco — 16%

9. Russia — 11%

10. Belarus — 6%

The winner, for the second straight year was Turkey, with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary next favourites with fans.

Unsurprisingly, Russia and Belarus were at the bottom of the list.

Support was strongest for Turkey from Australia (65%); for Bosnia and Herzegovina from the UK and Ireland (62%); and for Hungary from Australia (51%).

Support was much lower for Hungary in the UK and Ireland (30%) and Europe (46%), a result potentially tied up in the conservative politics of the nation being closer to home.

Europe (other than Ireland and the UK) has the highest support for a Russian return (17%).

Strong support for Australia's participation continues

Support remains high for Australia to participate at Eurovision.

Yes, every year regardless — 85%

Yes, but for a limited time — 5%

Not sure — 6%

No — 4%

The "yes, every year" result is only down 1% from 86% last year and is much higher than the 62% when we first polled fans back in 2018.

Support was highest among the Rest of the World at 94% (88% last year), then Australia at 85% (down from 90%), the UK and Ireland at 84% (down slightly from 85%) with the rest of Europe at 82%, which is the same as 2021.

Despite this being some good news, there is a downside. Those responding "no" is up to 7% in both the UK/Ireland and in the rest of Europe.

2% of Australians responding "no" to Australia taking part.

Fans support the UK hosting in 2023

We asked fans where they thought Eurovision should be hosted next year considering the current situation in Ukraine.

The results were:

1. United Kingdom — 50%

2. Ukraine — 23%

3. Poland — 8%

4. Spain — 5%

5. Italy — 1%

6. Germany — 1%

7. France — 1%

The UK had the most support in every region. Somewhat surprisingly the most support was in Europe (other than UK/Irish fans) at 54% with the lowest in the UK itself with 44%.

Support for Ukraine and Poland highest among UK/Irish fans at 29% and 11% respectively.

10% of fans named another option or country.

The other countries mentioned the most were Switzerland (as "neutral" and home of the EBU), Netherlands (who have stepped in to host in the past), Sweden (who always do a great job) and Australia (some optimistic Aussies).

Most "other" options were supportive of Ukraine but had concerns and felt it was their decision.

What would people change about Eurovision?

Each year we ask fans in an open commentary field what one thing they would change about Eurovision if they could.

The most popular themes that came up were:

Big 5 to have to qualify

Consistency in actions against countries with Israel used as an example

Different approach on the Jury/televote split

Hosts to have better dialogue

Increase the number of jury members per country

Live instruments to be allowed

Live orchestra to return

Random running order to return

Remove the recorded backing vocals

Stop bloc voting between nations

Stop the toxicity of the fandom

Wildcards from the semi-finals

And in a much more positive way many people simply said they would change "nothing".

As always, the Eurovision has very interesting and diverse opinions on a range of issues, but generally we agree much more than we disagree.

Thank you for everyone taking part this year and check out other results below.