We are delighted to launch ChatVote 2015, the 11th edition of one of our favourite traditions – and the first under our new name of escgo!

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, our winner was Mei Finegold, who notably failed to even qualify for the grand final at ESC 2014 itself! We did at least recognise the potential of the Dutch entry earlier than many fans – although, of course, the ChatVote is intended to record our preferences, not our predictions. To see how our taste generally matches that of the European public, you can check out the previous scoreboards from the past decade of the ChatVote here.

As has become traditional, ChatVote 2015 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@escgo.com by no later than 23:59 CET on Saturday 18 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 19 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 2015 final will take place at 21:00 CET on Sunday 26 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!

As in the last two years, we will again be watching 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, while a preview night for the final will be held on Saturday 25 April (see the calendar below for a full overview). It’s nothing formal – just join #esc on those nights if you feel like having a bit of fun while watching and chatting about the 2015 ESC videos in their running order!

All the dates and times for ChatVote 2015 can be seen in the calendar below. Any questions can be sent to vote@escgo.com – or just ask MartinF or FelixK if you see them in the chatroom.

We look forward to your participation!

ChatVote 2015: Calendar