It’s time for us to launch ChatVote 2018!

As you may know, our legendary chatroom, #esc, has been around for much longer than escgo! in its current form. This is illustrated by the fact that this will be the 14th edition of ChatVote, our annual event in which the #esc chatters decide which is their favourite entry from the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest. If you want to read all about the previous 13 editions, check out our comprehensive ChatVote history page!

ChatVote 2018 will follow a similar pattern to the recent years. That means live voting in the chat for the two semi-finals, live streaming of the envelopes revealing the qualifiers, and a big final event including a fast-and-furious “televoting” poll and a live-streamed scoreboard for you to follow the jury votes and the decisive televoting revelation.

What’s the plan?
On Saturday 14 April and Sunday 15 April, we will gather in #esc to watch each of the semi-finals in the official running order. Everyone who attends will then be able to vote for their ten qualifiers in a poll, after which the lucky qualifiers will be revealed in our live stream.

Once our qualifiers are known, the jury vote for the ChatVote grand final will be opened. As usual, chat regulars will be invited to submit their jury votes by e-mail, and there will be a preview event in the chat on Saturday 21 April to help anyone who needs one last reminder of the songs – with a producer-determined running order to help our finalists really shine.

Like in the last two years, the grand final on Sunday 22 April will be partially decided by “ESC-style” votes submitted in advance by e-mail (the “juries”, counting for 50% of the total vote), but the same amount of power will also go to the active chatters who attend the event. They will be the “televoters”, accounting for the remaining 50% of the vote in a live poll, the link to which will only be shared in the chat during the event. (And yes – if you vote in advance and attend the grand final in the chat, this means you can be a jury and a televoter!)

So what do I do now?
Simply come and attend our semi-finals if you can, and vote your favourites through to the grand final! As usual, the jury voting for the grand final will open after the second semi-final – full instructions will be published then, so no need to e-mail us anything yet. A mini-calendar with all the important dates and times can be found below for your convenience.

And please do add yourself to the Facebook event so we can keep you updated with everything you need to know.

See you in the chat!

ChatVote 2018: Calendar