Thousands Sign Petition To Revise Eurovision Song Contest Result

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An online petition demanding a revision of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest result has gathered over 300,000 signatures.

A number of people do not agree with the new way the votes were counted.

Jury voting interfered with popular opinion giving victory to the Ukrainian entry “1944.” Russia came third with “You Are the Only One” and Australia, a non-European continent took second place with their entry “Sound of Silence.”

RT reports:

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The petition ‘Make Eurovision Song Contest revise the results of the song contest 2016’ was submitted by user Arthur Hovhannisyan, from the Armenian capital, Yerevan, two days ago and targets the European Broadcasting Union.

The author insists that the final outcome of the winning places went against the actual will of the contest’s viewers.

Hovhannisyan writes in his petition that he is speaking on behalf of “the fans who do not agree with the results from Eurovision song contest.” Although he realizes the difficulties of jury voting and televoting process as being “hard and emotional one,” he nevertheless stressed that too many people cannot agree that this year’s official winner should have really been granted victory.

“We have no doubt on the justice and privacy of contest that’s why we think that there’s a need to revise the results,”Hovhannisyan concludes.

#Ukraine wins #Eurovision with politically-charged song (VIDEOS) https://t.co/bW0T1oOJwM pic.twitter.com/C6r7Ft35Qt

— RT (@RT_com) May 15, 2016

RIP #Eurovision, 1956-2016 (Op-Edge by @NeilClark66)https://t.co/mnpB9VZ2nX pic.twitter.com/qDjFh25FIQ

— RT (@RT_com) May 16, 2016

As of Tuesday noon the petition has got over 300,000 of signatories, far surpassing the threshold after which the Change.org resource is to send an official statement to the petitioned body.

The results of the music contest will not be reconsidered, the European Broadcasting Union said in a statement issued after its officials had discussed the petition.

“Ukraine is, and will remain, the winner of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest. Whether you agree or disagree, we call upon those who signed this petition to embrace the result, valid in accordance with the rules, and to continue a constructive dialogue about how to further strengthen and improve the Eurovision Song Contest,” Sputnik cited the statement as saying.

On Saturday night, Ukrainian singer Jamala won the 2016 Eurovision song contest in Stockholm, Sweden, with a controversial piece about Stalin’s deportation of Crimean Tatars.

Televoting vs. Jury: Results of Eurovision song contest spark political controversy https://t.co/66pwwCW9qO pic.twitter.com/NDyJAYdDuK

— RT (@RT_com) May 15, 2016

Australian and Russian performers grabbed the 2nd and 3rd places respectively.

http://earlgreyleaf.tumblr.com/post/144362029655/rhv-australia-is-my-favourite-european

Russia was in fifth position after the professional juries’ vote, but when it came to the televote, European and Australian viewers clearly preferred the Russian song, and Sergey Lazarev got the best score. Still, the Russian entry managed only third place due to the newly-introduced voting system.

WHY IS THIS SO FUNNY #Eurovision pic.twitter.com/xOMZSRT3Cv

— Martijn Spears (@MartijnPOP) May 14, 2016

This year Eurovision has changed its vote allocations, enabling national juries to present opinions that can also go against the votes of the people of their own countries. On Twitter, many were confused with the discrepancy between the jury and televoting results.