How you should go about voting

With the 1st semi-final now up and running, and knowing that some people tend to vote within about 5 minutes of the songs becoming available, I just thought I'd go over again how the voting in The Eurovision That Never Was is meant to work.

The most important point is this: do not vote for your favourites. The contest is meant to be about finding songs that could theoretically have represented the countries they have been allocated to in the years selected - by which I mean that in terms of the style of the song, the language and whatnot it feels 'authentic' to you. Whether or not you like it is not very important ;-)

I suggest you go about your voting like so:

1. As you listen to the songs for the first time, divide them into two groups - one marked 'Authentic' and the other 'Not'. Anything you hear and immediately think "yeah, that really does sound like a song that could have represented that country in that year (in that style and language)" should go in the 'Authentic' box. Everything else should go in the 'Not' box.

2. Everything in the 'Authentic' box should receive points from you ahead of those in the 'Not' box - even if you don't necessary like the 'authentic' songs, or prefer songs that are in the 'Not' box.

3. Rank the songs you have in your 'Authentic' box first and foremost on how authentic they sound (obviously!). For example, a song where both the language and style feel right for that country and year should be marked higher than one which sounds very authentic style-wise but in which the language strikes you as a bit odd. Beyond this, you'll have to be guided by your taste and/or quality of the entries.

4. If you don't have 10 songs in your 'Authentic' box, you will still need to give (lower) points to some from your 'Not' box. Here though how you vote is entirely up to you :-P

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Once again, please remember that The Eurovision That Never Was is not just about picking the songs you like most.

Enjoy listening to the entries and have fun voting!