It’s that time of year again! #esc and esc-chat.com proudly present an annual tradition: the ChatVote.

In the run-up to every Eurovision Song Contest, the regular members of the #esc chatroom gather to vote and crown their favourite song from that year’s contest. Last year, Loreen took the title by a fairly comfortable distance before going on to record an even more emphatic victory in Baku. However, our results don’t always correspond to reality, as you can see from the ChatVote history section here!

Like last year, ChatVote 2013 will include semi-finals. These are now open for voting. Please note that, at this stage of proceedings, we are not yet asking for your ESC-style (1-12) votes: we simply want to know your ten favourites from each semi-final, in no particular order. These will then be combined to find the ten qualifiers from semi 1 and semi 2 respectively.

Please send a list of your ten favourites from each semi-final to vote@esc-chat.com by no later than 23:59 CET on Saturday 20 April, including your regular chat nickname so that we know who you are!

A brief revelation show for the semi-final qualifiers will be held in the chat at 21:00 CET on Sunday 21 April – we’d love to see you there, but if you can’t make it, the results will (of course) be published here on the website straight afterwards. The lines will then reopen for your final votes – but more details about that when the time comes.

The most important thing to note is that the ChatVote 2013 final will take place at 21:00 CET on Sunday 28 April, when – like every year – you will have the opportunity to give your votes live in the #esc chat and watch all the points roll in on our live scoreboard!

In a new innovation for 2013, we also thought it would be nice to watch the semi-finals and “our” final together in the chat. As such, we’ll be holding preview nights for the semi-finals this coming Tuesday and Thursday and for the final on Saturday 27 April. Nothing formal – just join #esc on those nights if you feel like having a bit of fun while watching and chatting about the 2013 ESC videos in their running order!

All the dates and times for ChatVote 2013 can be seen in the calendar below. Any questions can be sent to vote@esc-chat.com – or just bug MartinF or FelixK if you see them in the chatroom.

We look forward to your participation!

ChatVote 2013: Calendar