2001 COPENHAGEN
The Danish presentation was certainly different. The venue was enormous with people able to wander around freely during the songs, and many thousands relying on the giant screens for their view and a standing area that looked suspiciously empty most times the camera panned over it (how annoying given the paucity of tickets for non-locals). The dumb idea award for 2001 went to whoever decided that the presenters had to speak in rhyming couplets. The novelty wore off after about two minutes. However the stage was fantastic and the production very efficient. The trend towards 100 percent English language continued with only three songs containing no trace of English, Spain, Israel and Portugal, two of which were relegated. France broke an old taboo by concluding their song in English, one of no less than six countries to mix English with their native tongue. After their dire results in the previous three years, it was good to see both France (4th) and Spain (6th) submitting excellent songs and reaping the rewards. However, I guess we will never know if France, or 3rd place Greece for that matter, would have done even better if their entire song had been in English. What to make of the result? Well again a crowd-pleasing song won, the “happy happy” song of the night, whilst Norway’s “sad sad” came equal last. One worrying development for the viewer is that the commentators now appear to know the final results before we do. The scores are faxed in a few goes prior to being announced in order to combat fraud. It was clear at least in the UK that Terry Wogan knew the final result a few juries before the end when to all appearances the outcome was still in the balance. This is a worrying development – remember the tension of 1998 and FYR Macedonia’s 12 points – that excitement will have gone if the presenters reveal all beforehand. Still, there was some good news this year, at long last a black singer has won Eurovision, long overdue, Turkey and Greece are swapping votes, and the Scandi-mafia theory was blown away even if the Baltic mafia theory wasn’t. However Estonia was a worthy winner and a cool venue for 2002.
2002 TALLINN
After some early uncertainty about their ability to stage the contest, Estonian television proceeded to put on a wonderful show. In several countries the profile of the contest was raised this year. The Spanish singer was selected from a ‘Pop Idol’ type show which gripped the nation. In the UK the Song for Europe actually contained some singers that people had heard of too! Jessica Garlick was already a star and pulled off a super equal third place which probably exceeded most observers estimations. After a period when male singers excelled, it was back to fairer-sex domination this year. The top 5 songs were all performed by female soloists, only the third time that this has happened in Eurovision history (after 1969 and, er, 1998..). The EBU responded to the concerns about disadvantageous early draws and decided that the playback clips just before voting would go out in reverse order. Maybe there were other factors, but there was a marked improvement with 3 of the first 5 songs finishing in the top seven. The voting very quickly turned into a two-horse race between Malta and Latvia, who had both given “big” performances with strong visual elements (which the more cynical may call gimmicks) . Both countries received votes from every other country, with the exception of Romania, who ignored them both!
2003 RIGA
Another Baltic-staged contest and another country winning the contest for the very first time. After waiting 12 years for a country to achieve a debut win (after ex-Yugoslavia in 1989) the last 3 years have brought 3 consecutive countries winning Eurovision for the first time. This sequence of events has occurred twice before (1956/57/58, predictably, with Switzerland, Netherlands & France, and 1966/67/68 with Austria, UK, & Spain). It was also an extremely close contest at the business end. Only 3 points separated the top 3 songs. The only other time in ESC history that this happened was the 4 way tie in 1969. Quite remarkable for it to happen with the current scoring system. The Baltic stranglehold was well and truly broken, Estonia had their worst result since their debut and the hosts Latvia finished second-bottom after being one of the pre-contest favourites. The United Kingdom brought off a spectacular “nul points” that was a God-send for this little website (even a link from a BBC website news page!). Many other old assumptions were knocked for six, too, as songs from very early draws and non-English songs did very well. There was some controversy when the Irish televote result arrived too late to be officially verified and the backup jury vote was used instead. After such a very tight finish the Russian TV company has been campaigning for the release of the Irish televotes (the jury awarded no points to Russia, nor Turkey for that matter!).
2004 ISTANBUL
2004 saw some big changes. For the third time in the history of the contest there was a pre-selection after the national selections but before the big night. However, unlike in 1993 and 1996 that pre-selection didn’t take place until 3 days before the contest and was promoted as a “semi-final”, broadcast to virtually all the countries who viewed the final, utilizing the same venue and the same hosts. 36 countries entered in total, if one includes the eliminated “semi-finalists”, and amazingly all 36 were allowed to vote in the final. As anyone with an ounce of foresight could have predicted, the “semi-final” songs that made it through to the final did disproportionately well once there, in fact no less than 5 of the top 7 had the extra exposure of the semi to help them on their way. The invitation to all 36 budding countries to vote also meant of course that the massed ranks of ex-Yugoslavia and ex-USSR were give full rein to lavish votes upon each other. The Russian song, for example, which was delivered with the worst performance seen on an ESC stage in many a year, earned enough points from the apparently “eliminated” ex-Soviet Union nations to qualify for 2005. Maybe more than ever (and maybe because of the “semi”- exposure) theatre was more important than song as the aggressive shows from Ukraine and Greece pulled in the votes. The atmospheric Serbian song with a long instrumental intro was also visually powerful.
2005 KIEV
The organisers persevered with the semi-final, now just two days before the grand final. Some big favourites came to grief in the semi, including the hotly tipped Whitney-Houston-esque Dutch song, the Icelandic entry sung by 1999 runner up Selma and the much hyped Belarus entry which had been parachuted in at the 11th hour to replace the original chosen entry by uber-diva singer Angelica Agurbash. This year saw an absolute glut of “ethnic” (ie. Turkish/Shakira) sounding songs. The “whiff of the souk” (copyright Terry Wogan 1980-2005) was everywhere. In the end only the Greek variation did well. After a slow start in the voting, when maximum points were being sprayed all over the place, in the space of what seemed like just a few countries votes, Greece stormed into a clear lead that was finally decisive. One interesting facet of this contest was the return of the ballad as Malta, Israel and Latvia put forward compelling ballads that took three of the top five places.
2006 ATHENS
The 2006 contest finally saw victory for Finland after four and a half decades of trying, as “death metal” band Lordi romped to victory in Athens. They put together a killer publicity campaign garnering coverage all over the world, they “were” the face of Eurovision 2006 well before the contest, and a spectacular stage show cemented their victory. There was a thankful reduction in ethnic-lite songs after 2005 but they still proved quite popular with the voters as Ukraine and debutants Armenia made the lower reaches of the top ten. Athens audiences were hit with a series of gimmick entries which did predictably well with the viewers looking for quirky novelties. Lithuania sang “We Are The Winners Of Eurovision” and stormed to their best ever placing. Ireland’s honour was restored with a top ten finish thanks to their sending the very accomplished Brian Kennedy, with no gimmicks at all. The advantages of being in the semi-final were again apparent as the ten qualifiers filled all but two of the top twelve places, and once again the countries eliminated in the semi-final (and Serbia/Montenegro who weren’t even in the contest) were allowed to vote, leading to another interminable voting sequence, which was made doubly tedious by the top three placings being well sorted way before the end. Neighbour and diaspora voting still played it’s part, but the top nine songs were well ahead of the rest and widely supported across Europe. There followed a huge drop-off in points as the songs from 14th to 21st wallowed in mediocre points return. France and Spain finished in the bottom four for the second consecutive year, and Malta were only saved from “Nul Points” by the non-participating Albania.
2007 HELSINKI
Helsinki hosted the fifty second contest and what a stunning production it was. The array of entries for the whole event was perhaps as diverse as it had ever been, including light opera, teen guitar pop, jazz and blues (or at least Eurovision takes on those styles). The semi-final however dismissed a lot of the variety as no Western country qualified and we were treated to a glut of pouting Slavic divas going through to the final. After a few years when there has been overt diaspora voting it’s defenders always exclaimed that it never affected the destination of the grand prix. Well all that changed in 2007 as, in a contest with no obvious standout song, the unrivalled kings of ex-pat voting called in all their diaspora present and correct and it gave them victory. Among others Turkey and Armenia did way better than deserved for the exact same reasons. Apologists of the system claimed that Western Europe voted for the East too, but 95% of that vote was from countries like Austria, Switzerland and the Benelux countries with huge immigrant communities. The hot favourite from Ukraine, Verka Serduchka, was just too bizarre to counteract the Serbian operation (although it did become the biggest hit from the contest, including making the UK top 30), and as the previous year the western countries and especially the “big four” dominated the foot of the scoreboard. Three of the most successful countries in Eurovision history (Ireland, the UK and France) filled the bottom three positions.
2008 BELGRADE
Hopes ran high for the 53rd contest as the EBU acknowledged the problem of ex-pat/neighbour voting, by organizing two semi-finals with the countries seeded to break up as many traditional voting patterns as possible. This meant a broader range of final qualifiers for the grand final, as the Nordic countries fared particularly well. Come the final though, there was no change in format as all forty-three participants could vote, and sadly the same voting trends that had now become entrenched played out almost identically to 2007. The word many weeks before the contest was that Russia was desperate for a win, and all the stops were pulled out, including less than transparent draws for running order (although that’s hardly a new phenomenon at the contest) and even shifting a commercial break to accommodate the Russian stage props. Thus the final result was no surprise, nor the string of twelves (and little else) from Armenia’s ex-pats, nor the strong showing of Turkey, Greece, Serbia and Ukraine On their debut this year, Azerbaijan showed that they could soon join that little club of countries with a debilitating (for the rest) head-start. To no-ones great surprise the big four again finished near the foot of the scoreboard. The UK sent Andy Abraham who finished last of all (on countback), but several leaked back-up jury votes have suggested he would have finished much higher with a mix of juries and televotes, giving some credence to Sir Terry Wogan’s comments that a black singer will not get votes from the masses in Eastern Europe. The late Sir Terry resigned his BBC commentary job at this point.
2009 MOSCOW
The 2009 contest saw an attempt by the European Broadcasting Union to rein in the excesses of 100% public voting by ensuring that 50% of each country’s vote came from a jury of five musical experts. This did not apply to the semi-finals though, and pretty much all the countries who qualified in 2008 also did so a year later, with the exception of Serbia (kept out by the one “jury save” going to Croatia in a delicious snippet of Balkan irony). Come the final though, the voting change immediately manifested itself after just a few set of votes, and by the end of voting, Ukraine, Greece, Russia and Armenia were licking their wounds. At last a song could prosper no matter how few ex-pats or neighbours it had. The other story of 2009 of course is the utter supremacy of Norway. Quite possibly the biggest Eurovision landslide of all time (we’re still measuring Alexander against Gigliola and Sandie!), the voting rapidly became a race for second place. But a vibrant race with genuine excitement at where each “douze points” was going. Eurovision was back with a boom bang a bang!
2010 OSLO
Oslo 2010 started out by seemingly using the 1999 Jerusalem contest as a template, utilizing three comperes for only the second time ever and matching the earlier event for the latest contest ever, both of them staged just 48 hours or so before the start of June, although reportedly the original plan was for a week earlier but rescheduled so as not to clash with the UEFA Champions League Final. After two contests when a hot favourite romped to victory we happily arrived in Oslo with a quite wide-open field with a handful or more of potential winners. The public phone-lines were open from the very first song in a departure from normal procedure, although this eventually had little effect on the scoring as the highly regarded songs from Azerbaijan, Norway and Spain (who got to perform twice after a brief stage invasion) all fell short of expectations. After some very random early voting, the German entry which had already become a local smash hit pulled away to a victory that was clear, but not on the scale of Norway a year before. More striking though was that “Satellite” was a state-of-the-art pop song that had zero gimmicks and performance choreography.
2011 DUSSELDORF
For the first time in thirteen years the contest was staged in a Big Four country, who now became Big Five with the return of Italy. Also returning was last years winner Lena, which got us all foaming with potential home town bias etc. Other returnees were Austria, Hungary and San Marino, boosting the total entry to a record-equalling forty-three. The semi-finals took place and fans were agog with disbelief at both Armenia and Turkey failing to make the final. At the same time middle Europe (Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Hungary) all made it. Seems like the semi-final seeding and the 50/50 voting had rescued the contest from disrepute after all. Come the final, we saw the most disparate, scatter-gun voting for many years. The EBU, worried about audience tedium during the voting, tried to implement a voting-order formula but it didn’t matter at the end as there was no runaway winner. The Azeris claimed their first victory with a rather ill-matched duo and a top-dollar (probably literally) cheesecore inoffensive ditty.
2012 BAKU
The fifty-seventh Eurovision Song Contest final was staged on May 26th in Baku, Azerbaijan. Forty-two countries turned up, Armenia having withdrawn after the original entry deadline due to concerns about the safety of their delegation in Baku. The lead-in to the contest was also dogged by controversy over the Azeri regime and human rights. The voting saw a landslide win for pre-contest winner Sweden, and a song that went on to become one of the most commercially successful Eurosongs ever. After the previous year’s tense voting, 2012 saw the opposite as not only winner. but second and third places were settled long before the end of the mammoth voting sequence. The media story of the contest, the Buranovskiye Babushki grannies from Russia were easily seen off by Loreen and her fauxflakes. For the UK, Englebert Humperdinck’s low-key ballad was drawn first but finished second last. Ireland’s Jedward slumped to a nineteenth place, eleven lower than last year in a dreadful night (Sweden excepted) for North-West Europe. Despite another year with a 50-50 split between jury and televote, the voting suggested that juries were now maybe mimicking the naughty voting tendencies of the general public.
2013 MALMO
Lots of changes for 2013. The organizers, with the approval of the EBU, broke with decades of tradition by choosing the running order for both final and semi-finals (the only random element being drawn into first or second half of the order), the objective being to make a better TV show. Another change was to revert to single presenter, Petra Mede, for the first time in eighteen years. This was an undoubted success with many observers concluding that Ms Mede was the biggest success of the night. A more subtle and less publicized change was how national jury and national televotes were combined, meaning for the first time that song placed top by one or the other could end up with no votes if the other element marked it near the bottom. This led to much puzzlement and acrimony in the immediate aftermath of the contest. Denmark’s Emmelie de Forest made the short hop to Malmo as red-hot favourite and did not disappoint, as the top six places were filled by countries who had won the contest in the twenty-first century. Azerbaijan completed the remarkable feat of finishing in each of the top five positions in five consecutive years. Near the other end of the scoreboard languished the old “Big Four”, who collectively had their worst contest since 2005.
2014 COPENHAGEN
Copenhagen staged it’s third contest in a disused shipping building and succeeded in a wonderful presentation, with a result that refreshingly upset the bookmaker odds. A reduction in entrants meant that the odds of making it through the semis were the best ever but it was still a delight to see both Montenegro and San Marino make their first final. Each semi-final also created a buzz around an unfancied song from a nation with a dreadful recent record at the contest, firstly the Dutch country song by the Common Linnets, and then the Austrian Bond-esque contribution from Miss Conchita Wurst. Come the day of the final, Sweden and Armenia were neck and neck in the betting, but by the end of the night they sat in third and fourth place, well behind the top two (both of which went on to score significantly in the commercial charts around Europe). The opposite side of the coin saw some nations with fantastic recent records come to grief as Azerbaijan’s fire petered out in twenty-second place, a couple of spots behind Greece and one behind Italy. Spain went from worst big-five to best, although as it turned out there wasn’t much competition.
2015 VIENNA
Conchita’s victory brought the sixtieth to Vienna and Ms Wurst was heavily featured in both semis and finals as a supplementary presenter. For the first time ever the triumvirate of main presenters was all-female. Australia were gifted a “guest” entry by the EBU, and on top of that given direct entry to the final AND able to vote on both semis. Their representative Guy Sebastian did them proud with a fifth place. Above him Italy’s Il Divo won the televote but poor votes from the juries pegged them into third place. Russia’s Polina Gagarina led for part of the voting and finished a strong second, having to endure huge amounts of booing from fans in the arena (aimed at the Russian political leadership), to the extent that the presenters had to issue a pointed warning half-way through the voting. Meanwhile by the end of the night Mans Zelmerlow and a highly visually animated entry had given Sweden their sixth Grand Prix, leaving them just one victory behind Ireland.
2016 STOCKHOLM
The 61st edition of our favourite contest was staged at the Globen in the Swedish capital and was hosted (excellently) by defending champion Mans Zelmerlow and fan favourite Petra Mede, the latter becoming only the third person to present more than one contest (Katie Boyle and Jacqueline Joubert being the others). Australia retained their entrance but this time had to qualify from the semis. The Romanian entry was ejected from the contest just weeks before the event due to the TV stations debts to the EBU. The organisers inaugurated a major change to the voting whereby rather than each country merging its jury and telephone votes they were awarded separately meaning two sets of votes from each nation. The jury votes were announced first and put the Aussies in a commanding lead. The televotes were aggregated and announced in reverse order. While Russia topped the televote, the combined vote put Ukraine top of the scoreboard despite topping neither jury nor public vote. Poland were 25th after the jury voting but a third place in the public vote shot them up the table to eighth overall. The Czech Republic qualified for the final for the first time, leaving just Andorra as the only nation to have participated in Eurovision but never in a final. Germany finished bottom of the scoreboard for the second year in a row. So despite a rather drab set of songs the 2016 contest delivered with excellent hosts and the voting revamp overall worked very well.
2017 KYIV
The sixty-second contest contest was overshadowed by a dispute over the participation of Russia in a contest staged in Ukraine. Weeks before the contest the Ukrainian hosts made it clear the that the Russian singer would not be allowed entry to Ukraine as she had performed in the disputed area of Crimea. Moving on from that Ukraine presented a contest with a symbol of a red croissant and the slogan “Celebrate Diversity” when the contest was presented by three white men. Italy came into the contest as a red-hot favourite with fans and bookies but would end the night in sixth place. For the first time since 1966 every country in the top three achieved their best Eurovision result. Moldova’s crowd pleaser and Bulgaria’s big ballad couldn’t have been more different. The big story of course was Portugal. Competing since 1964 (with a few absences) since 1964 without even ONE top five result. A charming performance by Salvador Sobral of a timeless song written by his sister charmed the pants off juries and televoters alike.
2018 LISBON
Portugal at long last got to host and it was a nautical theme “All Aboard” at Altice Arena. A new presenting variation in a quartet of female presenters. The Russian singer from 2017 Julia Samoylova returned but was eliminated in the semi-final, breaking their 100% qualification record a fate that similarly befell Azerbaijan and Romania. A Chinese TV station was thrown out by the EBU after censoring some semi-final performances. Long time pre-contest favourite Israel were surpassed in betting odds by Cyprus during rehearsals but come the big night Netta netted the fourth Grand Prix for Israel ahead of Cyprus and jury winner Austria. The UK finished in 24th position for the third time in four years after singer SuRie had to endure a stage invader grabbing her mic mid-song.
2019 TEL AVIV
The sixty-fourth Eurovision took place at the Tel Aviv Convention Center on May 18. The Ukrainian entry was withdrawn before the contest as the performer refused to comply with conditions stupulated by their broadcaster. This year saw a massive discrepancy between the jury and the televote. Norway won the televote but ended sixth overall while North Macedonia won the jury vote but finished seventh overall!. As the Belarus jury was disqualified after the semi-final the EBU used a formula to calculate their jury vote and then promptly ordered it the wrong way round, leading to an embarrassing public correction of the result four days after the contest final. Away from this chaos Duncan Laurence gave the Netherlands it’s fifth Grand Prix.