Russian duo scored zero with Irish voters ("The Times" - UK)

Time of publication: 10.06.2003

t.A.T.u. who came third in the 2003 Eurovision, would still not have won the song contest if an Irish televote had been used instead of a back-up jury result, according to RTЙ.

Following recent complaints by Channel One in Russia, RTЙ (in common with several other broadcasters) had been asked to make public the results of their failed televote. As a result the EBU has informed Channel One that even if a vote by the Irish public had been used instead of its standby jury, the winner would still have been Turkey.

Russian TV bosses had suggested that the decision by RTЙ to use the jury vote may have robbed the country of victory. They argued that the duo’s success in the Irish and British music charts was a sign of their huge popularity with the public in these parts. But the Irish broadcaster has now revealed that t.A.T.u. did not get enough votes in the televote, given to them by Eircom, to make any difference to the overall result.

One RTЙ source said that the Russian duo actually got “nul” points for their effort from the Irish public. “They got no votes from the televote and none from the jury,” the source said. “I think the two results ran very close to each other anyway.” The BBC published results last week showing the girls ended 12th in the televote carried out in the UK, again this gave them no points.

RTЙ submitted the findings of an internal investigation into the voting decision to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) on Thursday. The EBU had asked the station to clarify a couple of points in the report before making it public this week. RTЙ and the EBU are planning a press statement to explain what happened. The station says the televote result it received from Eircom on the night was incomplete, so it switched to the votes of a back-up jury, which included Eurovision aficionados and fan club members. The full result of the televote was not made available until the Tuesday evening after the contest.

“RTЙ have told us they believe it made no difference to the result,” said Sarah Yuen, Eurovision song contest co-ordinator. “We are almost satisfied that it was a technical failure, but until the last couple of points are clarified we can’t release the report or make the final comment. We haven’t contacted Russia — we will when the full facts are known. I’m confident RTЙ acted in the spirit of the rules.”

Several days after the contest, Channel One in Russia said that it discredited the voting results of the Eurovision song contest. Igor Burenkov, PR director of the state-owned channel, said t.A.T.u.’s performance of Ne Ver, Ne Bojsia, Ne Prosi received “unlikely low points” from certain countries, including Ireland. If the telephone results had counted, said the station, tATu’s final result could have changed.

Setrab Erener from Turkey won the competition with 167 points. In second place was Belgium with 165, while the Russians came third with 164.
The Russians have not lodged an official complaint.

Source: The Times

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