This year once again highlighted the stark contrast that can exist between jury votes and public votes in Eurovision. One of the most shocking moments was when a country that had received strong jury support ended up with zero points from the public. A prime example was the host country, Switzerland. Despite earning an impressive 214 points from the 36 international juries, Switzerland received 0 points in the public vote—a result that left many stunned.

A closer look at the voting mechanics explains part of this discrepancy. With 26 countries in the final, viewers can only assign points to their top 10 favourites. That means 16 countries receive no points at all from each individual vote. Even finishing in 11th place on someone’s list earns a country nothing.

This situation is not unique to Switzerland. Host countries often fare poorly in public voting—sometimes dramatically so. There’s a long history of host entries landing near or at the bottom of the leader board, possibly due to a perception that the host has „already won“ by hosting, making the public less inclined to support them again.

Some notable examples include:

• Mae Muller (UK, Liverpool 2023) – 25th place with “I Wrote A Song”
• Jeangu Macrooy (Netherlands, Rotterdam 2021) – 23rd with “Birth Of A New Age”
• Kobi Marimi (Israel, Tel Aviv 2019) – 23rd with “Home”
• Cláudia Pascoal (Portugal, Lisbon 2018) – 26th (last) with “O Jardim”
• Torvald (Ukraine, Kyiv 2017) – 24th with “Time”
• The Makemakes (Austria, Vienna 2015) – 26th with 0 points for “I Am Yours”
• Didrik Solli-Tangen (Norway, Oslo 2010) – 20th with “My Heart Is Yours”
• F.L.Y. (Latvia, Riga 2003) – 24th with only 5 points for “Hello From Mars”

This year, the British group Remember Monday also experienced this split, earning 88 jury points but receiving nothing from the public. Similarly, Iceland did not receive any jury points, while Danish singer Sissal earned just 2 points from the public, despite being awarded 45 points by the juries.

If only jury votes had been counted, Austria would have been the winner, followed by Switzerland, France, Italy, and the Netherlands. Poland, which ranked 24th with the juries, rose to 14th place thanks to public support.

Perhaps the most polarizing case was Israel. While the juries ranked it only 14th, the public made it their clear favourite, ahead of Estonia, Sweden, Austria, Albania, Ukraine, and Poland.

Public voting trends often reflect diaspora influence. Many voters cast ballots for their countries of origin, even if they live abroad. This is especially noticeable in the UK and Ireland, where large communities from Baltic nations and Poland consistently deliver high public votes to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. There’s also still significant public support for Ukraine, as many people want to express solidarity with the country in difficult times.

Speculation has circulated about whether Israel may have coordinated voting support from other countries. However, the votes are confirmed to be accurate and transparent, as they were processed by the German company Digame, which oversees Eurovision’s voting system. Israel received the highest public score from 13 different regions: Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the Rest of the World vote.