The Eurovision Song Contest attracts millions of TV viewers every year. Representatives of dozens of countries compete for the right to be considered the best performer of the competition, but after summing up the results, many viewers remain surprised and dissatisfied with the voting results.
The Eurovision Song Contest has been held since 1956 and enjoys a well-deserved popularity. It was after performing on it that many performers became world famous. The winner is determined by voting by viewers, and you cannot vote for your performer. Despite the seemingly fair conditions, the vote is still not impartial. As a rule, neighboring countries that are on good terms vote for each other, giving the performers maximum points. This is how the Baltic states, Greece and Cyprus, Moldova and Romania, and the countries of the former Soviet Union - Russia, Ukraine and Belarus vote. Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian representatives are often given high marks by Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia due to the large number of Russian-speaking citizens living in them.
There are many similar examples. It is clear to everyone that voting on the principle of neighborhood is unfair, but in practice it turns out to be very difficult to fight such a system. In order to minimize the consequences of the neighborhood vote, a professional jury began to give its marks along with the audience voting. Based on the results, the total score for each of the participating countries of the competition is displayed. However, it was not possible to completely eliminate the influence of the friendly vote.
Despite the fact that voting according to the principle of one or another community is still very noticeable and can have a significant impact on determining the winner of the competition, one can also state a positive fact - quite often neighboring countries do not give each other maximum points. Thus, at a competition in Baku, the Russians gave their preference to the Swedish singer Loreen, who performed the song "Euphoria" and won a well-deserved victory. Considering that the maximum number of points for the participant from Sweden was given by eighteen countries, we can say that a talented performer performing with a good song can win the competition, regardless of which country he represents. By winning by a clear margin, he deliberately removes all questions about the honesty of voting.
Loreen scored 372 points, which is a very good result. The second place Russian team "Buranovskie Babushki" lagged behind it by 113 points. So far, the Norwegian singer Alexander Rybak scored a record number of points at Eurovision in 2009 at a competition in Moscow - 387. His victory was also very bright, beyond doubt. Hopefully, as borders erode in Europe, the neighborhood vote will become less and less important.
