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15th May 2022

Eurovision producers reveal ‘irregular voting patterns’ during Saturday night’s final

Rory Cashin

It was identified during the second semi-final

Ukraine won the 66th Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night, having absolutely stormed the public vote following their performance of “Stefania” by Kalush Orchestra.

However, during the broadcast, the media was informed of “irregular voting patterns” by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), who produce the event.

The EBU stated the following:

“In the analysis of jury voting by the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) pan-European voting partner after the Second Dress Rehearsal of the Second Semi-Final of the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest, certain irregular voting patterns were identified in the results of six countries.

“In order to comply with the Contest’s Voting Instructions, the EBU worked with its voting partner to calculate a substitute aggregated result for each country concerned for both the Second-Semi Final and the Grand Final (calculated based on the results of other countries with similar voting records). This process was acknowledged by the Independent Voting Monitor.

“The EBU takes any suspected attempts to manipulate the voting at the Eurovision Song Contest extremely seriously and has the right to remove such votes in accordance with the Official Voting Instructions, irrespective of whether or not such votes are likely to influence the results and/or outcome of the voting.”

The six countries affected have not yet been identified, nor was it confirmed if any of the countries were affected were the scores that producer Martin Österdahl announced the results for.

It is unclear if any further investigations or announcements will be made regarding the irregularities.

In the meantime, here is the final performance of the night, Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra winning performance of “Stefania”:

Clip via European Song Contest

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