BY DAISY WYATT
From The Independent
VIENNA—The voting procedure for Europe’s largest and cheesiest singing competition surely can’t be that complicated, can it?
For Eurovision aficionado’s the 50/50 telephone-jury process is old news, but if you’re confused by the existence of two semi-finals and want to know what “nul point” really means, look no further.
Forty countries will compete in the Eurovision 2015 final, up from last year’s twenty-six and including Australia as a random but special one-off to mark the contest’s 60th anniversary.
These countries are whittled down in two semi-finals. The ten countries with the highest scores from each semi-final will quality for the grand final.
Semi-final 1
The first semi-final will take place on Tuesday, May 19 in Vienna, Austria.
The 16 countries taking part will be: Moldova, Armenia, Belgium, Netherlands, Finland, Greece, Estonia, Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary, Belarus, Russia, Denmark, Albania, Romania and Georgia.
Austria, France, Spain and Australia will vote in this semi-final.
The ten highest-scoring acts will go on to win a place in the final, six will be eliminated.
Semi-final 2
The second semi-final will take place on Thursday, May 21, in the same venue.
It will feature 17 different countries to the first semi-final, which takes place two days beforehand.
The countries taking part will be: Lithuania, Ireland, San Marino, Montenegro, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Czech Republic, Israel, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland, Cyprus, Slovenia and Poland.
Italy, Germany, the UK and Australia will vote in this semi-final.
Ten of the highest-scoring countries will be awarded a place in the final.
