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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Daisy Naylor

How to vote in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 - and how the voting system works

The Eurovision Song Contest returns tonight, with 26 countries singing for glory.

James Newman, representing the UK, will perform his song Embers in front of a live audience of 3,500 Covid-tested fans in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Graham Norton is back in the commentator's booth, while Amanda Holden will be presenting the UK's vote from London.

Strict coronavirus measures are in place to ensure the safety of attendees this year, with booze banned at Eurovision venues and acts encouraged to limit their entourages.

Iceland will not be performing live due to a positive Covid test, and footage from a recent rehearsal will be shown instead.

After a positive Covid test, Iceland will not be performing live tonight (PUBLICIYT PICTURE / FREE TO USE)

Italy and France are the bookies' favourites to win this year's competition, while the UK has odds of 250/1.

If you'll be watching tonight, here's everything you need to know about voting for your favourite act.

How does the voting system work?

Professional juries from each country will choose their 10 favourite performances, giving 12 points to their favourite act, 10 points to their second favourite act - and so on.

People watching at home can vote for their favourites via phone, text or the Eurovision app. You cannot vote for your own country, and voting only opens once the final act has finished performing.

Once the public vote has closed, countries will take it in turns to announce the results of their jury vote.

Amanda Holden will reveal which countries have been awarded the UK's 12, 10 and 8 points.

After all the jury points have been awarded, the results of the public vote will be announced.

The public voting works in the same way as the jury vote - in that the act with the most votes from a country will be awarded its 12 points, the act with the second most will be awarded its 10 points - and so on.

But instead of announcing the results from each country one at a time, organisers will instead add up the total points awarded to each act.

Starting with the country at the bottom of the leaderboard, they'll announce how many total points each act has won from the public as a whole.

If you want to see where the points from the public in your country were awarded, you can visit the Eurovision website once the show has finished.

The country that wins Eurovision this year will host the competition next year, and have a guaranteed spot in the final.

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