As you know, 50% of the results in the Eurovision Song Contest is in the hands of carefully selected professional jury members.
Every year a different set of people, so fans are always looking forward to seeing who votes on behalf of which country that particular year.

In the semi-finals the jury members of the countries participating in there will vote and the prequalified countries allocated to vote in that particular semi final (Spain, France and Israel in semi-final 1, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy in semi-final 2).
Whereas the televoters vote during the live-show, the jury members give their points right after having watched the Dress Rehearsal (also colloquially called Jury Rehearsal) on the evening right before the live show!

But who get to be jury members for their country?
Well, the EBU has a set of criteria those people need to meet:

• Members of the jury must not have been part of the jury in the previous 2 years;
• Members of the jury must be at least 16 years old on the day they vote;
• Members of the jury must not be employees of Participating Broadcasters;
• Members of the jury must pursue a profession in or related to the music industry;
• Members of the jury shall be citizens of the country they represent;
• No member of a jury shall be connected in any way with any of the participating songs entered and/or artists performing in the contest in such a way that they cannot vote in complete independence and impartiality.

The national broadcasters are required to choose jury members who meet these criteria as they are the ones appointing the jury members for their own country.

But what does the EBU ask these professionals to have in mind while voting on the entries?
This is what they’re asked to pay attention to:

* The vocal capacity of the singer

* The performance on stage

* The composition and originality of the song

* The overall impression of the act

Right here you can find the full list of 205 Eurovision Song Contest 2019 jury members!

We can see a wide range in age as our youngest juror Nicole Frendo from Malta is just 16 years old while Silvestar Glojnaric from Croatia made it to the wise age of 82!
Altogether the average of the jury members this year is 41 of which 109 members are male and 96 female.

And among those we see quite some familiar Eurovision faces!
Franka, who represented Croatia last year, is back as a jury member for them.
Bruno Berberes, who has been the French Head of Delegation for quite some years, is a judge on their panel now.
Sopho Toroshelidze was the lead singer of Eldrine in 2011 and is a jury member in the Georgian jury this year.
Next to Franka, another incredibly recent face we see is Michael Schulte, who brought Germany their best result since Lena last year!
Dear Eurovision favourite Kati Wolf (Eurovision 2011) will be making her mind up for Hungary with Maria Ólafs (Eurovision 2015) doing the same for Iceland.
Geta Burlacu sang ‘A Century of Love’, but her return to Eurovision was that long ago, just 2008 when she represented Moldova with that song and will be voting on behalf of her country this year.
Six years before that, Monica Anghel, who will be judging the entries this year, sang her country Romania to a 9th place.
In Montenegro we see a familiar face as well: Marko Pesic, who was part of the band Highway in Eurovision 2016!
Russia make a double bet by inviting both of the Tolmachevy Sisters on their jury panel!
Sanja Ilić was part of the group representing Serbia last year and will be joining their jury ranks this year!
One of the songwriters of the 2015 winning Eurovision song ‘Heroes’, Linnéa Deb, will be having her say as part of the Swedish jury.
And finally, she was on the Eurovision: You Decide 2017 jury panel but she’s taking it a step higher this year: Sophie Ellis-Bextor!