The Intervision Song Contest, which is set to be hosted by Saudi Arabia in 2026, distinguishes itself from other global music competitions not just through its focus on cultural diversity, but fundamentally through its distinctive and mathematically complex voting system.
Unlike the Eurovision Song Contest, which relies on a 50/50 split between public televoting and professional juries, the Intervision contest winner is determined exclusively by an international jury. This system is designed to prioritize professional musical assessment over popular appeal.
The Core Rule: Jury-Only Voting
The most important aspect of Intervision's scoring is the complete absence of public televoting. The contest aims to eliminate the perceived influence of geopolitical blocs or diaspora voting, relying solely on the judgment of music industry experts.
Each participating country nominates one professional juror. These individuals are cultural figures, such as composers, producers, established pop artists, or music teachers, who are recognized as industry experts in their home country.
Jurors are strictly forbidden from casting a vote for their own country’s entry. Their sole function is to assess and rank the performances of all other competing songs.
The Preferential Ranking System (Modified Borda Count)
The Intervision system utilizes a modified form of the Borda Count(source), a preferential ranking method developed in the 18th century. Instead of simply selecting a top 10, jurors must rank every song that competes in the final (excluding their own). This ranking is then converted into a specific, non-linear point scale.
The Intervision Point Scale (2025 Model)
The points are distributed on a sliding scale that gives significantly more weight to the top-ranked entries. This formula was developed by mathematician Fuad Aleskerov to mitigate the effects of extreme outlier rankings. In this year's competition, each juror gave points according to this table:| Rank Assigned by a Juror | Points Awarded to the Song |
| 1st Place (Favorite) | 29 |
| 2nd Place | 25 |
| 3rd Place | 22 |
| 4th Place | 20 |
| 5th Place | 18 |
| 6th Place | 17 |
| 7th Place | 16 |
| 8th Place | 15 |
| 9th Place | 14 |
| 10th Place | 13 |
| 11th Place | 12 |
| 12th Place | 11 |
| 13th Place | 10 |
| 14th Place | 9 |
| 15th Place | 8 |
| 16th Place | 7 |
| 17th Place | 6 |
| 18th Place | 5 |
| 19th Place | 4 |
| 20th Place | 3 |
22 Countries minus Russia, which did not compete for the trophy, and the USA, which withdrew at the last minute, equals 21 Countries. Each Juror gave a list of 20* votes (excluding their country as previously discussed). During the live broadcast, only the first top ten places of each juror were announced (although all of their votes were cast).
This system ensures that every entry receives points. No song walks away with zero points, as every song ranked by a juror receives (in the 2025 edition) at least three points. The four-point jump between 1st (29) and 2nd (25) place, and the three-point jump between 2nd and 3rd, gives a decisive advantage to the songs the professional judges truly consider the best.
Determining the Final Winner
Once all individual jury rankings are processed and converted into points, the final result is determined by a straightforward process. The scores from all international jurors are summed together. The song that accumulates the highest total aggregate score is declared the winner of the Intervision Song Contest.
Since more countries are coming to the contest in 2026, the scale will slightly change, but the system does not seem to be changing anytime soon.
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