Xtra Jury Results: Amir is our favourite!

Last night, we finished our reviews of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. In about two weeks, we reviewed the 42 entries and scored them all on a scale of… well, 0-10. We’ll look back on some highlights, but also on some absolute lows.

The winner: Amir

It was a pretty convincing victory for Amir. None of our reviewers scored his J’Ai Cherché lower than an 8/10. A highlight in the reviews was evidence we all want to see in Stockholm, as our Sophie promised us something:

I love this song, I love Amir and his beautiful smile, and I‘ve practised day and night to know all the lyrics by heart.

That’ll be an Amir sing-along for Sophie then! The vision France had for Eurovision seems to have worked. They score a massive 9.17/10. There was no one that could beat such a score. Amir is the one we’ve been looking for!

The silver medal: Poli Genova

It’s a success story you couldn’t quite make up. You’re absent from the competition for two years because of financial issues, so you come back, send an artist that didn’t do too well previously, presumably on a lower budget too and what’s the result?

There you go, Poli tops my list quite easily as I just can’t stop listening to her song. ‘If Love Was A Crime’ is contemporary, extremely catchy, and that Bulgarian part just makes everything perfect.

That’s the result. Above you see a quote from our editor Katarina. Bulgaria ends up in a beautiful second place in our rankings with a score of 8.58/10. If loving her song were a crime, then we would be criminals.

The bronze medal: Nina Kraljić

We keep on going with the success stories here. Basically: You’re absent for two years, mainly because you haven’t done all that well in the contest, you send a new credible artist and boom, you land in third place in our rankings.

I absolutely adore this. There’s something very Cranberries meets The Corrs sounding in this song, which gives it a familiar sound while maintaining a modern edge.

Liam is quite happy with Nina, as you can see above. Nina might be the lighthouse guiding Croatia back to the final, if we were to believe our team. She finishes on an average of 8.21/10

To complete the top five: Greta Salóme and Ira Losco

There was just one other song scoring over 8/10 and that was Iceland’s Greta Salóme. Her Hear Them Calling impressed almost all of us to give her a nice fourth place. She’ll hear the points calling in Stockholm if it were up to us!
Ending in fifth place is Malta’s Ira Losco. Her Walk On Water scrapes into the top five by beating Germany’s Jamie-Lee by 0.01, to end with 7.94 on average. She collected a lot of 10s, but there were a few people who dragged down the score a little. Still, a beautiful fifth for Malta!

Worth mentioning?

Well, Germany coming sixth is definitely worth mentioning. Jamie-Lee hasn’t been doing all too well in polls or with bookmakers, but our team almost gave her a top five position: 7.93/10 brings her just behind Malta’s Ira Losco. Nevertheless, a job well done!
The same goes for Estonia’s Jüri Pootsmann in seventh. Not doing too well with bookmakers, but he had our team on his side. 7.92/10 makes him fall 0.02 behind the top five…
In less positive news, there are some favourites we weren’t too impressed with. Sweden’s Frans, currently fifth with bookmakers, ends up in twentieth place with us, scoring just 6.79/10. It could however be much worse as Australia’s Dami Im, ranked third with bookmakers, scores even lower in 22nd place with 6.69/10 on average.
Our bottom three are probably quite predictable. Georgia (3.06), Belarus (2.71) and San Marino (1.64) make their scores absolutely abysmal and there was nothing there to save them. Let’s hope they come back stronger in 2017!

The final ranking

1. France – Amir – J’Ai Cherché: 9.17
2. Bulgaria – Poli Genova – If Love Was A Crime: 8.58
3. Croatia – Nina Kraljić – Lighthouse: 8.21
4. Iceland – Greta Salóme – Hear Them Calling: 8.13
5. Malta – Ira Losco – Walk On Water: 7.94
6. Germany – Jamie-Lee – Ghost: 7.93
7. Estonia – Jüri Pootsmann – Play: 7.92
8. Serbia – Sanja Vučić ZAA – Goodbye (Shelter): 7.86
9. Russia – Sergey Lazarev – You Are The Only One: 7.64
10. Italy – Francesca Michielin – No Degree Of Separation: 7.50
11. Latvia – Justs – Heartbeat: 7.44
12. Armenia – Iveta Mukuchyan – LoveWave: 7.21
13. Czech Republic – Gabriela Gunčíková – I Stand: 7.21
14. United Kingdom – Joe and Jake – You’re Not Alone: 7.13
15. Cyprus – Minus One – Alter Ego: 7.07
16. Ukraine – Jamala – 1944: 6.81
17. Israel – Hovi Star – Made Of Stars: 6.79
18. Lithuania – Donny Montell – I’ve Been Waiting For This Night: 6.79
19. Austria – Zoë – Loin D’Ici: 6.75
20. Sweden – Frans –  If I Were Sorry: 6.72
21. Azerbaijan – Samra – Miracle: 6.69
22. Australia – Dami Im – Sound of Silence: 6.69
23. Spain – Barei – Say Yay!: 6.43
24. FYR Macedonia – Kaliopi – Dona: 6.29
25. Hungary – Freddie – Pioneer: 6.00
26. The Netherlands – Douwe Bob – Slow Down: 5.71
27. Moldova – Lidia Isac – Falling Stars: 5.36
28. Ireland – Nicky Byrne – Sunlight: 5.29
29. Denmark – Lighthouse X – Soldiers of Love: 5.00
30. Albania – Eneda Tarifa – Fairytale: 5.00
31. Belgium – Laura Tesoro – What’s The Pressure: 5.00
32. Finland – Sandhja – Sing It Away: 4.89
33. Poland – Michał Szpak – Color Of Your Life: 4.36
34. Norway – Agnete – Icebreaker: 4.31
35. Switzerland – Rykka – The Last Of Our Kind: 4.29
36. Slovenia – ManuElla – Blue & Red: 4.14
37. Bosnia & Herzegovina – Dalal & Deen ft. Ana Rucner & Jala – Ljubav Je: 4.13
38. Montenegro – Highway – The Real Thing: 3.69
39. Greece – Argo – Utopian Land: 3.43
40. Georgia – Nika Kocharov & Young Georgian Lolitaz – Midnight Gold: 3.06
41. Belarus – Ivan – Help You Fly: 2.71
42. San Marino – Serhat – I Didn’t Know: 1.64