The results of the semi-finals always remain secret until after the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. This is for a logical reason: it maintains the tension and does not influence the audience. The Italian broadcaster now appears to have made a mistake, as can be seen in images from Thursday evening’s broadcast. It showed the percentages that the semi-finalists received from the public.
Joost Klein, who qualified for the final, did well in Italy and received 7 percent of the votes. Behind him are several countries that scored 5 to 6 percent of the votes. What is remarkable, however, is the winner of the evening among the Italians. Israel, for which a top 10 ranking was predicted by bookmakers, won in the Italian televoting with more than 39 percent of the votes.
There were already several calls on social media on Thursday to vote for Israel as a protest against growing anti-Semitism. In Malmö there were thousands of demonstrators protesting against Israeli participation because of the war violence in Gaza. The enormous preponderance of votes cannot be seen separately from the situation in the country. Previously, Ukraine won by a landslide after Russia invaded that country.
The bookmakers immediately took advantage of the Italian result. Israel makes a big leap and is already in fourth place around midnight when it comes to winning the Eurovision Song Contest. This means that Eden Golan has now also surpassed Joost Klein.
The European Broadcast Union and RAI have not yet responded to the revealed televoting. As a result, it is not one hundred percent certain that the percentages depicted by RAI are actually correct.
Tags: Italian Eurovision Song Contest televoting results accidentally Joost Klein scores high
