Tie-breakers
In the event of a tie for first place and for other places after all the points have been announced, there is a tie-break procedure. It was realised that a tie-break procedure need be predetermined following the 1969 Contest, where France, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom tied for first place. Since no tie-breaking system had been previously decided, it was determined that all four countries be jointly awarded the title. In protest, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Portugal did not participate the following year.
The current tie-breaking rule is that, in the event that two or more countries tie for first place and for other places the song that received points from the greater number of countries is the winner. This system is sometimes called the "count-back". If there is still a tie, the second tie-breaker is to count the number of countries who assigned twelve points to each entry in the tie. Tie-breaks continue with ten points, eight points, and so on until the tie is resolved.
In 1991, the tie-break procedure was put into action when Sweden and France had both scored 146 points at the end of voting. At the time, the tie-break rule was slightly different: the first tie-break rule (the country voted for by the most other countries wins) was not yet in use. Both Sweden and France had received the maximum of twelve points four times. Only when the number of ten-point scores had been counted could Sweden, represented by Carola with the song "Fångad av en stormvind", acclaim its third victory, having received five ten-point scores against France's two. Thus, the French song, "Le Dernier qui a parlé..." performed by Amina, came second with the smallest ever losing margin.
Read more about this topic: Voting At The Eurovision Song Contest