With only days to go before the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest begins, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has today released the names of each of the national jury members for every participating nation in this year’s competition.

As has been the case since 2009, the results for each participating country in the Eurovision Song Contest has been decided not only via a public vote, but also with a combined jury vote. The national jury for each country consists of a total of 5 members, all of whom are music industry professionals.

Every evening before each of the live shows, this year to take place on the 10, 12 and 14 May, a jury show takes place where the national jury for each country watches each of the night’s performances. They are asked to judge and evaluate each country’s performance based on a number of factors, some of which include vocal capacity, stage performance, composition and originality.

Following the introduction of the new voting procedure, the jury members along with the viewing public will each give their own set of points in traditional Eurovision fashion; 1 to 8, 10 and the big 12 points.

To become a part of the national jury, members must adhere to the admission rules of the competition;

• Members of the jury must not have been part of the jury in the previous two years
• Members of the jury must be aged of at least 16 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
• Just like viewers at home, juries will vote during the Final and during one of the two Semi-Finals

A number of former Eurovision participants appear in the jury line-up this year for each participating nation, some of which include Kejsi Tola (Albania 2009), Hayko (Armenia 2007), Teo (Belarus 2014), Axel Hirsoux (Belgium 2014), Alma Čardžić (Bosnia & Herzegovina 1994 & 1997), Stoyan Yankoulov (Bulgaria 2007 & 2013), Pamela Ramljak (Bosnia & Herzegovina 2005 & Croatia 2010), Basim (Denmark 2014), Kati Wolf (Hungary 2011), Molly Sterling (Ireland 2015), Andrea Demirović (Montenegro 2009), Monika Kuszyńska (Poland 2015), Bojana Stamenov (Serbia 2015) and Marjetka Vovk (Slovenia 2015).

As of 29 April 16:00 CEST, the fifth Polish jury member along with the whole Greek jury have yet to be revealed. The full list of jury members can be found here.

The current list of jury members is preliminary, meaning changes can and may occur in the lead up to the contest.

Next week, rehearsals for the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest kick off from the Globe Arena in Stockholm before the competition officially begins the following week on the 10, 12 and 14 May!