One of yesterday's ten qualifiers from the second Eurovision Song Contest semi-final was saved by the backup jury, it has been revealed.
The new semi-final rules specify that a backup jury is responsible for putting through its highest placing country not directly qualified via televoting. The rule made no difference in the first semi-final, after which it was announced that the the same ten countries were selected by both methods; but in the second semi-final, the jury was responsible for saving the Eurovision dream of one country, as yet unknown. Executive Supervisor of the contest Svante Stockselius said "Under the old rules, we would have seen one other country in the Final".
All will be revealed
On Sunday morning, the full televoting results are published by the organisers, and the identity of the lucky country will be revealed. The televoting figures for the mystery entry, one which would have originally failed at the semi-final stage under former rules, will make for interesting reading for number-crunching fans; vastly different figures in the semi-final and final contests might perhaps confirm the difference in audience between the qualifiers and the big night. For now, the ten fortunate acts are oblivious to the source of their ticket to the final!
