Rules of The Eurovision Song Contest - Rule Changes By Year

Rule Changes By Year

• 1956 First contest - each of the 7 competing countries were obliged to hold a National selection final to choose their entries.
• 1957 After Italy's song lasted 5:09 minutes, rule changes were introduced to limit maximum song times to 3 minutes - which still operates.
• 1958 The convention of the winning country being invited to host the following year's contest is introduced. However, several countries would decline the opportunity in subsequent years.
• 1959 Professional publishers or composers were no longer allowed in the national juries.
• 1962 Voting system change. Each country had 10 jury members who awarded their three favourite songs 3, 2, and 1 points in order. Previously countries awarded 1 point to their favourite song.
• 1963 Jury sizes doubled to 20 and points awarded were 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1.
• 1964 Jury sizes revert to 10, and points are now 5, 3 and 1. It becomes possible for a unanimous jury to award all 9 points to one song - but this does not occur.
• 1966 Countries must now sing in one of its national languages.
• 1967 Scoring system reverts to the one used between 1957 and 1961. Each of the ten jurors awards a single point to their favourite song - so in theory a country could be awarded all 10 points, although the highest tally allocated under this system was 9 by the Belgian jury for Dana's 1970 winning song.
• 1968 Although not a rule change, the contest is broadcast in colour by 6 of the 17 countries competing. Its has been available in colour to broadcasters each year since.
• 1970 Following a four-way tie in the 1969 contest, a tie-break rule was introduced with provision for a sing-off and a show of hands from the juries to elect a winner.
• 1971 Another voting system change. Each country had two jury members, one under 25 and one over 25. They each awarded 1 to 5 points for each song. This created an issue where some juries gave fewer points out than others. The rule permitting groups of up to six performers on stage was introduced. Previously, entrants could only perform solo or as a duet.
• 1972 Each country had 2 jurors present in the hall. Each juror awarded all songs with a score between 1 and 5, so each country gave all other countries a score between 2 and 10 points.
• 1973 The rule forcing countries to sing in one of its national languages is relaxed - however this is only in place for 4 years.
• 1974 The scoring system used between 1957 and 1961 and between 1968 and 1970 is restored for a third time.

• 1975 The scoring system that still operates today is introduced. Each jury would now give 12 points to the best song, 10 to the second best, then 8 to the third, 7 to the fourth, 6 to the fifth and so forth until the tenth best song (in the jury's opinion) received a single point. Unlike today, the points were not given in order (from 1 up to 12), but in the order the songs were performed.
• 1976 As the cost of staging the contest increases, a new rule was introduced that, in future, each participating broadcaster would have to pay a part of the cost of staging the contest.
• 1977 Countries must again revert to singing in their own national languages.
• 1980 The jury spokesperson now read the points out in numerical order (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12) rather than in song order.
• 1987 As the number of countries reached a record of 22, the EBU imposed a limit on the number of countries competing. Although set at 22, this limit has varied slightly over the years.
• 1990 Following Sandra Kim's 1986 win for Belgium at the age of just 13 and controversy over two performers in 1989 being just 11 and 12 years old, a restriction on competitor's age was introduced. The minimum age is now 16 at the time of the event.
• 1993 After the breakup of Yugoslavia, a pre-qualifying round was introduced.
• 1994 Relegation had to be introduced to accommodate the ever-increasing number of countries wishing to compete. Initially the bottom five countries from 1993 would not get an entrant at the 1994 contest. The relegation rules would change slightly over subsequent years.
• 1994 This year's contest saw the highest number of participants in the 1990s, with 25 countries performing.
• 1997 After controversy over a 1996 pre-selection procedure (similar to 1993) which resulted in Germany being omitted from the contest, the selection procedure changed to allow only the countries with the best average scores over the previous four years.
• 1997 Televoting was trialled in five countries and would become the preferred method of voting from 1998.
• 1999 Restrictions are lifted again allowing countries to sing in any language.
• 1999 Countries preferences to use backing tracks virtually leads to the abolition of orchestras. Live music became optional and all broadcasters since 1999 have declined to use an orchestra. In 2003, all live music was banned; even artists on stage were not allowed to play their instruments live, even if they explicitly voiced their wish to do so. This live music ban is still in place.
• 2000 The "Big Four" rule is introduced giving France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom automatic entry in the contest regardless of previous performance. In 2011 it was expanded with Italy, becoming "Big Five".
• 2004 Relegation rules, which varied slightly since 1994 were dropped and a semi-final was introduced. Countries eliminated in the semi-final were still allowed to vote on the final, so the convention of reading the scores in both French and English were dropped. The spokesperson would now read the score in one language with presenters repeating in the other language.
• 2006 Jury spokespersons no longer read out all the points from 1 up to 12. Instead the scores up to 7 points are displayed briefly before the spokesperson reads out their 8, 10 and 12 point allocations.
• 2008 With a record entry of 43, a second semi-final was introduced. Juries were used to allocate a wild-card place in the final from each of the semi-finals. 25 countries now compete in the final.
• 2009 After criticism of the voting system after the 2007 Contest, changes in the voting procedure were made with the re-introduction of a national jury alongside televoting (split 50/50). This format would be extended to the semi-finals in 2010.
• 2010 People can vote from the first song until the end of vote.
• 2012 The fifteen-minute televoting window is restored due to criticism of the voting method after the 2011 contest.