Introducing: I’m Sorry, Points!

Throughout the years, there have been entries at the Eurovision Song Contest that fail to get a single vote from any country at the end of the night. This was particularly prominent in the 1960s where juries only gave points to a very small percentage of countries, but even as the voting structure changed to allow more countries to get votes, we still saw the occasional nul points occur every now and then.

With the introduction of semifinals, it ensured that the ESC final would be filled with more popular songs which offered voters many good choices, thus reducing chances that a song in the final would go home empty-handed.

Indeed, you can look at the numbers: since 2004, only 4 songs have failed to get any points. Half of them did not progress past the semifinals, and the other half automatically qualified to the final. This is a stark contrast from 50 years ago where 4 songs a year would get no votes.

Still, many of us recognize that many of these songs were good and deserved better. So what if we were to give all these songs a second chance?

Let me introduce to you: I’m Sorry, Points!

The format

Inspired by the infamous line uttered by ESC host Bar Refaeli during the 2019 voting sequence, I’m Sorry, Points! is a second chance style competition for all the Eurovision entries throughout the years that have failed to accumulate a single point during the voting. All 38 ‘nul pointers’ will get a chance to get the justice they deserve… if you think they deserve it, that is.

Of course, because there are so many entries, the songs will have to go through semifinals. Their semifinal allocation has been determined automatically based on their corresponding time periods. Entries from before the introduction of the 12 points system in 1975 will compete in Semifinal 1, while entries from after 1975 will be in Semifinal 2.

As a result of this division, Semifinal 1 will have 20 entries and Semifinal 2 will have 18 entries. To address this discrepancy, the top 8 songs from each semifinal will qualify, with an additional 6 qualifiers from across the 2 semifinals.

How will this be determined, you ask? Let’s take a look at the voting system for I’m Sorry, Points!

Voting

In the semifinals, there will be a jury vote as well as a ‘televote’. A form will be provided where you will have to submit both a jury vote and a televote. The jury vote segment will involve you giving points to your top 10 countries, a la ESC. In the televote portion, however, you will be asked to rate each song on a scale of 1 to 10.

The qualification system then takes inspiration from the ESC voting system in 2008-2009. In those years, the 9 songs with the highest televote score qualified, while the 10th qualifier was the (otherwise non-qualifying) song with the highest jury ranking. Here it is the reverse: the 8 songs with the highest jury result will qualify from each semifinal. Of all the remaining non-qualifiers across the two semifinals, the top 6 songs with the highest average televote rating will qualify to the final as well.

This gives us a total of 22 songs in the final, and the winner will be determined solely through jury vote. In the event of ties, the current ESC tiebreaker system will be used.

The dates

The timeline for I’m Sorry, Points! is as follows:

Friday, September 4: Voting in the semifinal opens. A form will be released where you will be able to vote.
Saturday, September 5: A ‘live show’ presenting the songs competing in Semifinal 1 will be held on the Good Evening Europe! Twitter feed.
Saturday, September 12: The corresponding live show for Semifinal 2 will be held.
Wednesday, September 16: Voting in the semifinals closes.
Friday, September 18: The 22 finalists will be announced. Voting in the final will open either right afterwards or the next day.
Saturday, September 19: The live show for the Grand Final will be held.
Wednesday, September 30: Voting in the Grand Final closes.
Saturday, October 3: The final results of I’m Sorry, Points! will be revealed, including the full results of the semifinals and the announcement of a winning song.

Running order of the semifinals

Below is the order in which songs will be presented in the live shows:

Semifinal 1
01 Llámame (Spain 1962)
02 Quel cœur vas-tu briser? (Switzerland 1967)
03 Aurinko laskee länteen (Finland 1965)
04 Nur in der Wiener Luft (Austria 1962)
05 Je suis tombé du ciel (Luxembourg 1970)
06 Solhverv (Norway 1964)
07 Bien plus fort (Monaco 1966)
08 Katinka (Netherlands 1962)
09 Muistojeni laulu (Finland 1963)
10 Man gewöhnt sich so schnell an das Schöne (Germany 1964)
11 Dio, come ti amo (Italy 1966)
12 Als het weer lente is (Belgium 1965)
13 Život je sklopio krug (Yugoslavia 1964)
14 I miei pensieri (Switzerland 1964)
15 En gång i Stockholm (Sweden 1963)
16 Oração (Portugal 1964)
17 Een speeldos (Netherlands 1963)
18 ¡Qué bueno, qué bueno! (Spain 1965)
19 Ton nom (Belgium 1962)
20 Paradies, wo bist du? (Germany 1965)

Semifinal 2
01 I Am Yours (Austria 2015)
02 Lass ihn (Switzerland 1998)
03 Aven Romale (Czechia 2009)
04 Mil etter mil (Norway 1978)
05 Það sem enginn sér (Iceland 1989)
06 ¿Quien maneja mi barca? (Spain 1983)
07 San Francisco (Norway 1997)
08 Aldri i livet (Norway 1981)
09 Şarkin Sevği Üstüne (Turkey 1987)
10 Venedig im Regen (Austria 1991)
11 Celebrate (Switzerland 2004)
12 Opera (Turkey 1983)
13 Antes do adeus (Portugal 1997)
14 Black Smoke (Germany 2015)
15 Lisa Mona Lisa (Austria 1988)
16 Cry Baby (United Kingdom 2003)
17 Lopšinė mylimai (Lithuania 1994)
18 Nuku pomiin (Finland 1982)

If you have any questions about this contest feel free to ask in the comments or reach out to the Good Evening Europe! Twitter account. Looking forward to see your votes and may the best song win!