Eurovision final: how it works

VIENNA - The Eurovision Song Contest -- the biggest live televised music event -- has evolved to keep pace with technological, artistic and geopolitical changes since its foundation in 1956.

The 25-country final of this year's 70th edition is being held on Saturday at the Wiener Stadthalle in the Austrian capital Vienna.

Here is a look at how the competition is put together and how the all-important voting system works:

Hosts

Winners host the following year's competition. Austrian vocalist Johannes Pietsch, known as JJ, triumphed at Basel in 2025 with his operatic song "Wasted Love".
Who is taking part, and who is boycotting?

The competition is organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the world's biggest public service media broadcasting alliance.

Competing acts are selected by EBU member broadcasters representing their countries. This year, 35 countries entered.

Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia have pulled out in protest at Israel's participation, over the war in Gaza. It is the contest's biggest-ever political boycott.

However, Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania have returned to the competition.
After a random draw, the participating countries competed in two semi‑finals held earlier this week. Ten countries out of 15 qualified from each.

Major financial backers Britain, France, Germany and Italy have reserved slots in the final, alongside the hosts, Austria, making up the 25 finalists.

The songs

The song and artist can be chosen through televised national selection shows, an internal process or a mixed method.

The songs have to be original and must not exceed three minutes.

Lead vocals must be live, performed to a pre-recorded backing track.

All performers must be at least 16 years old and a maximum of six performers may appear live on stage at the same time.

Since 1999 the songs can be in any language. The lyrics and performances must avoid political, commercial or offensive content.

Voting system

All 35 participating countries get to vote in the final.

Two sets of points, with equal weight, come from each country.

One set is given by a jury of music industry professionals after watching the second dress rehearsal.

The other set is given on the night by viewers voting via telephone, text message or the official app.

Each gives a maximum 12 points to their favourite act, 10 to their second favourite, then 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 in declining order.

The rest of the world also has a viewer online vote, counting as an additional voting country.

Countries cannot vote for themselves.

Winner

Each country's jury votes are revealed in turn.

Moving to the second stage, points awarded by all 36 national audience votes are tallied for each competitor. They are announced one by one, starting from the bottom of the scoreboard -- thereby stretching out the suspense until the very end.

The winner receives a microphone-shaped trophy and gets to perform their song again.