The European Broadcasting Union has confirmed that professional juries will continue to help determine the qualifiers from the Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Finals in 2027, ending uncertainty created by the initial publication of next year’s contest rules.
The decision means the voting format introduced for Eurovision 2026 in Vienna will continue in Burgas, with both national juries and the viewing public contributing to the Semi-Final results.
It is an important clarification ahead of Eurovision 2027, particularly as the EBU is simultaneously considering further changes to the way the public vote itself operates.
Initial Eurovision 2027 rules caused confusion
When the rules for Eurovision 2027 were first published, their wording created uncertainty over whether the EBU intended to abandon jury voting in the Semi-Finals after only one year.
The rules have now been updated to make the position clearer: Semi-Final results can combine jury and audience voting, with the weighting determined by the EBU.
The EBU has subsequently confirmed that juries will indeed remain part of the Semi-Finals in 2027.
This means Eurovision will not return to the televote-only Semi-Final format used between 2023 and 2025.
Juries only returned to the Semi-Finals in 2026
Professional juries had previously been part of Eurovision’s Semi-Final voting system for more than a decade.
That changed in 2023, when the EBU introduced 100% public voting to determine the Semi-Final qualifiers. National juries continued to vote in the Grand Final but no longer influenced which countries qualified from Tuesday and Thursday’s shows.
The system remained in place through Eurovision 2025.
However, as part of a wider voting reform announced ahead of Eurovision 2026, the EBU reversed that decision.
Professional juries returned to the Semi-Finals in Vienna for the first time since 2022, creating an approximately 50/50 balance between jury and audience voting, similar to the system used in the Grand Final.
The EBU said the change was designed to provide a better balance between songs with strong popular appeal and entries recognised by music professionals for their artistic and musical qualities.
How did the system work in 2026?
At Eurovision 2026, every participating country had a national jury consisting of seven music-industry professionals.
The jury panel had also been expanded from the previous five-member format, with at least two jurors required to be aged between 18 and 25.
Jurors independently ranked the competing songs during the second dress rehearsal before each Semi-Final.
Audience voting then took place during the live broadcast.
The two components were combined to determine the countries advancing to the Grand Final, with approximately half of the result coming from professional juries and half from the audience.
The same basic principle will now continue into Eurovision 2027.
Why does keeping the juries matter?
The decision can have a significant impact on which songs reach the Eurovision Grand Final.
Public and jury voting frequently produce very different rankings. Televoters can strongly favour entries with immediate impact, memorable staging, established fan support or particularly distinctive performances.
Professional juries, meanwhile, are asked to assess entries from a music-industry perspective.
Combining the two means a song generally needs broader support to achieve a strong overall result rather than relying exclusively on one voting group.
The EBU explained when bringing juries back for 2026 that the objective was to encourage musical balance and diversity among the Grand Final qualifiers.
Keeping the system for another year suggests the organisation remains satisfied with the principle behind that reform.
But Eurovision’s voting system could still change
The confirmation does not mean Eurovision 2027 will use exactly the same voting system as Vienna 2026.
Separate discussions are currently taking place regarding potentially significant reforms to the audience vote.
Among the ideas reportedly being examined are greater use of online voting and restrictions on how viewers distribute their votes among competing countries.
Those proposals concern the mechanism used to collect and distribute the public vote rather than whether professional juries participate.
Therefore, Eurovision 2027 could potentially introduce a substantially different televoting system while still retaining the fundamental jury-and-audience combination in both the Semi-Finals and Grand Final.
Any additional changes would need to be confirmed separately by the EBU.
Eurovision 2027 voting picture becomes clearer
For now, one major question surrounding the 2027 Contest has been answered.
Professional juries will not disappear from the Semi-Finals after their 2026 comeback.
Both music professionals and Eurovision viewers will once again have a role in deciding which countries progress from the two Semi-Finals in Burgas to the Grand Final.
The First Semi-Final of Eurovision 2027 will take place on 11 May, followed by the Second Semi-Final on 13 May, with the Grand Final taking place on 15 May 2027.
With further changes to televoting still being considered, however, the final details of exactly how Eurovision 2027’s results will be calculated may not yet be settled.