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Event Drinking Game
Eurovision Drinking Game
The **Eurovision drinking game** is what happens when twenty-six countries each get three minutes to out-camp the...
You watchEurovision
You needDrinks + friends
Triggers14 drink rules
Best with2-15 players
The Eurovision drinking game is what happens when twenty-six countries each get three minutes to out-camp the last. The Grand Final on a Saturday in May runs about four hours: an opening act, the parade of flags, twenty-odd songs with a postcard before each, a recap, an interval act while Europe votes, then the two-stage scoreboard - jury spokespersons handing out their 'douze points' one country at a time, followed by the televote totals from bottom to top. Every one of those stages has a beat the room can drink to.
The shape of the night matters more than any one entry. The performance half is a wall of triggers - key changes, wind machines, pyro, a costume ripped off mid-chorus - and the voting half is slower but tenser, with a single scoreboard update every minute and the dry commentary carrying it. Since the televote is read out last and from the lowest score up, the winner is not known until the final country is called, which is exactly why the three-second drink waits for it.
How to set it up
- Run a sweepstake before the parade of flags: every finalist in a hat, one or two draws each. A country to defend turns the running order into a stake, and 'nul points' becomes personal.
- Watch the two semi-finals (Tuesday and Thursday) or at least the recap so you know which acts have the wind machine and which have the costume gimmick - the Saturday triggers are far easier to spot when you have seen the staging once.
- Print a scorecard with all twenty-six countries and a column for your own points; you will need it for the sweepstake and for arguing with the jury when the spokespersons start.
- Pick your commentary feed - the home broadcaster's dry asides are half the game - and keep the scoreboard visible on a second screen for the voting, because the room will be too loud to hear the points.
The rules: drink when…
The heart of the game: 14 triggers. Read them out before you press play, keep the ones your group likes, cut any that would fire every minute, and remember that a "drink" is one sip.
| When this happens… | …you drink |
|---|---|
| A song hits a big key change | Sip |
| A performer reveals a hidden costume on stage | Sip |
| Pyrotechnics or fireworks go off during a song | Sip |
| A wind machine blows a singer's hair or outfit | Sip |
| An act uses an unusual stage prop or gimmick | Sip |
| The hosts make an awkward scripted joke | Sip |
| A performance is entirely or partly in English | Sip |
| The camera cuts to a green room reaction | Sip |
| The interval act performs between the songs and the voting | Sip twice |
| The scoreboard updates after a country votes | Sip |
| A country's jury gives top marks to its neighbor | Sip |
| The commentator makes a dry or sarcastic remark | Sip |
| A spokesperson announces 'douze points' | Sip twice |
| The winner is announced and takes the stage | Drink for 3 seconds |
How to play
Split the night into two lists
The performances are the busy half: run the staging triggers (key change, wind machine, pyro, costume reveal, prop) and the green-room cutaway. When the recap and interval act start, switch to the voting list - scoreboard updates, neighbour votes, 'douze points' - and put the staging rules away.
Drink on the staging clichés
Every Eurovision entry reaches for the same tricks in three minutes: a ballad that climbs a key change at 2:30, a dance number with the wind machine on full, a hidden second outfit, a pyro curtain on the final chorus. Sip on each one; a song that manages all four in one go is a drink for the room.
Play the jury vote as a ritual
Each country's spokesperson appears by video link, says 'good evening' to the host city, and reads their top marks with the twelve points last. Sip on the scoreboard update, sip twice on the 'douze points', and sip when a country's twelve goes to its obvious neighbour - the Nordics, the Balkans and the Baltics keep that rule fed.
Save the drink for the televote reveal
After the juries, the hosts read each country's televote total from the lowest-placed jury act upward, so the leaderboard flips in the final three names. Sip on every total, hold the three-second drink for the winner being announced, and be ready for the reprise - the winner sings again and the room usually sings along.
Variations & house rules
Country loyalties
Everyone draws or picks a country to back for the night. You drink whenever your act does something over the top on stage, and hand out a sip every time your country collects a set of twelve points during the jury vote. If your country gets 'nul points' from the televote, you drink for the whole reveal.
Sweepstake draw
Put every finalist in a hat and have each person draw one or two. Whoever drew the country that finishes last drinks, whoever drew the winner hands out sips to the whole room, and whoever drew the host country hands out a sip every time the hosts mention it.
Scorecard squares
Give everyone a card to rate each act out of twelve as it performs. Whenever your top-rated act picks up points on the scoreboard you drink, and the person whose favourite finishes highest hands out three sips. Anyone whose favourite finishes bottom five drinks during the reprise.
Pro tips
Twenty-six songs at three minutes each plus postcards is about two hours of near-continuous staging triggers, so drink at the key changes and let the pyro rule lapse if the first ten acts have already worn the room out.
The jury vote takes the better part of an hour with a spokesperson for every competing country, and the pace is slow and repetitive - that is the stretch where a side game like Kings Cup earns its place on the table.
Songs in English used to be the majority, so the 'performance in English' rule was a sip per act; more entries now sing in their own language, so check the year before you leave it on the list.
Drink responsibly: Twenty-six acts in a row with a key-change rule and a pyro rule is a dense two hours, and the jury vote produces a scoreboard update for every country after that, so the reprise arrives four hours after the first sip. A movie-length game adds up fast, so keep the pours small, water between drinks, and swap any trigger for a sip of water whenever you like. See our safety guide.
Frequently asked questions
How long is the Eurovision Grand Final drinking game?
Around four hours from the opening act to the winner's reprise. Roughly two hours of songs and postcards, then a recap and interval act, then about an hour of jury votes and the televote reveal. The staging triggers cluster in the first half and the voting triggers in the second, so it is really two different games back to back.
Do the semi-finals count?
They make a good warm-up but a weaker game: the Tuesday and Thursday semis have around fifteen acts each and only a qualifiers announcement at the end rather than a full scoreboard, so there is no 'douze points' or neighbour-vote rule. Play the staging triggers for the semis and save the full list for the Saturday final.
How do you play through the voting?
Switch lists when the interval act ends. During the jury vote, sip on each scoreboard update and twice on every 'douze points'; the neighbour-vote rule adds a sip when a country's twelve goes exactly where everyone expected. During the televote reveal, sip on each total and hold the big drink for the last name read out, because the order runs from lowest jury score to highest and the winner can change three times in the final minute.
Which Eurovision triggers fire most often?
The key change and the wind machine in the performance half, and the scoreboard update in the voting half. Almost every ballad has the key change, the dance entries lean on the wind machine and the pyro, and the jury vote produces a scoreboard update per country - which is why the voting rule is a single sip and the 'douze points' is two.
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