With the current voting system, countries making “nul points” in the televote are often remembered, more than those scoring no points from the jury. This year, however, for the first time since 2022, a country did end up with no jury points: Iceland. Let’s analyse how this was possible, and how in spite of this, the Nordic country technically did better than San Marino on average.
With full jury rankings, the battle with San Marino
Iceland did not reach the top 10 of any jury, but its actual rankings were not stacked at the bottom: it was only put in last place by three juries: Germany, Serbia, and Montenegro.
The rest of the ranks are mostly scattered between 15th and 24th, with six juries ranking them 24th and six other ranking them 20th. There is a small exception though, with two juries ranking Væb in 13th position, the highest they got: Denmark and Finland.
The average ranking from all the juries for Iceland was 20.08, which does not actually put them in last place. Indeed, San Marino has an average ranking of 20.12, slightly lower: although Gabry Ponte did reach the top 10 in several countries (hence earning points), he also finished last with the greatest number of national juries, a total of ten times. But the jury scores in Eurovision tend to reward divisive songs over those that have a more general, lukewarm reception.
The full details for each jury can be found below:
| Jury | Iceland’s ranking |
|---|---|
| 🇦🇱 Albania | 22 |
| 🇦🇲 Armenia | 23 |
| 🇦🇺 Australia | 15 |
| 🇦🇹 Austria | 16 |
| 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan | 23 |
| 🇧🇪 Belgium | 24 |
| 🇭🇷 Croatia | 24 |
| 🇨🇾 Cyprus | 17 |
| 🇨🇿 Czechia | 20 |
| 🇩🇰 Denmark | 13 |
| 🇪🇪 Estonia | 24 |
| 🇫🇮 Finland | 13 |
| 🇫🇷 France | 20 |
| 🇬🇪 Georgia | 15 |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | 25 |
| 🇬🇷 Greece | 17 |
| 🇮🇪 Ireland | 15 |
| 🇮🇱 Israel | 24 |
| 🇮🇹 Italy | 19 |
| 🇱🇻 Latvia | 20 |
| 🇱🇹 Lithuania | 20 |
| 🇱🇺 Luxembourg | 17 |
| 🇲🇹 Malta | 18 |
| 🇲🇪 Montenegro | 26 |
| 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 15 |
| 🇳🇴 Norway | 22 |
| 🇵🇱 Poland | 23 |
| 🇵🇹 Portugal | 24 |
| 🇸🇲 San Marino | 16 |
| 🇷🇸 Serbia | 26 |
| 🇸🇮 Slovenia | 18 |
| 🇪🇦 Spain | 22 |
| 🇸🇪 Sweden | 20 |
| 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 20 |
| 🇺🇦 Ukraine | 24 |
| 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 23 |
A closer look at individual jurors
Compared to our earlier articles on Switzerland and the United Kingdom, we have an additional element to analyse Iceland’s fate: the scores given by each individual juror.
179 different individual jurors had to rank Iceland (five for each country, except Iceland, which could not vote for itself, and Estonia, who only had four jurors this year). Out of these:
- 22 jurors ranked Iceland in their individual top 10 (12% of the total)
- 70 jurors ranked Iceland between 11th and 19th (39% of the total)
- 87 jurors ranked Iceland 20th or lower (49% of the total)
- Out of these, 12 jurors ranked Iceland last (25th for Grand Final participants, 26th for the non-qualifiers), including two in Ukraine, in Germany and in Portugal
While the average rank in juries was 20.08 for Iceland, when you analyse the data through the prism of jurors, it rises up to 18.26. The best rankings came from a juror in Denmark (2nd), in Australia (3rd) and in The Netherlands (4th).
Although the official voting rules does not use the average rankings of all five jurors to determine the jury rank (it uses a weighted exponential coefficient instead), we will still use the average to see which juries ranked Iceland higher through the prism of jurors: and it’s actually The Netherlands, with an average rank of 12 (Finland and Denmark being close behind with 13.6 and 14).
You can find all the details below, including a chart summarizing the number of times Iceland was ranked at a specific position by individual jurors.
| Jury | A | B | C | D | E | Average rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇦🇱 Albania | 23 | 17 | 19 | 23 | 13 | 19 |
| 🇦🇲 Armenia | 23 | 20 | 24 | 25 | 18 | 22 |
| 🇦🇺 Australia | 25 | 21 | 3 | 16 | 25 | 18 |
| 🇦🇹 Austria | 12 | 6 | 22 | 24 | 8 | 14.4 |
| 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan | 23 | 24 | 18 | 17 | 15 | 19.4 |
| 🇧🇪 Belgium | 16 | 17 | 24 | 21 | 25 | 20.6 |
| 🇭🇷 Croatia | 20 | 18 | 25 | 16 | 26 | 21 |
| 🇨🇾 Cyprus | 24 | 11 | 12 | 21 | 12 | 16 |
| 🇨🇿 Czechia | 23 | 24 | 23 | 6 | 23 | 19.8 |
| 🇩🇰 Denmark | 2 | 16 | 19 | 20 | 13 | 14 |
| 🇪🇪 Estonia | 17 | 15 | 24 | 21 | n/a | 19.25 |
| 🇫🇮 Finland | 6 | 23 | 12 | 11 | 16 | 13.6 |
| 🇫🇷 France | 14 | 16 | 9 | 16 | 21 | 15.2 |
| 🇬🇪 Georgia | 20 | 7 | 23 | 11 | 16 | 15.4 |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | 25 | 25 | 24 | 22 | 22 | 23.6 |
| 🇬🇷 Greece | 17 | 9 | 16 | 18 | 15 | 15 |
| 🇮🇪 Ireland | 24 | 8 | 16 | 25 | 12 | 17 |
| 🇮🇱 Israel | 24 | 24 | 24 | 15 | 25 | 22.4 |
| 🇮🇹 Italy | 15 | 22 | 16 | 10 | 14 | 15.4 |
| 🇱🇻 Latvia | 15 | 11 | 16 | 17 | 24 | 16.6 |
| 🇱🇹 Lithuania | 22 | 17 | 10 | 24 | 16 | 17.8 |
| 🇱🇺 Luxembourg | 18 | 10 | 19 | 12 | 21 | 16 |
| 🇲🇹 Malta | 16 | 20 | 25 | 15 | 10 | 17.2 |
| 🇲🇪 Montenegro | 26 | 25 | 23 | 24 | 22 | 24 |
| 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 13 | 17 | 4 | 12 | 14 | 12 |
| 🇳🇴 Norway | 22 | 23 | 18 | 13 | 24 | 20 |
| 🇵🇱 Poland | 9 | 14 | 16 | 23 | 19 | 16.2 |
| 🇵🇹 Portugal | 18 | 25 | 24 | 25 | 17 | 21.8 |
| 🇸🇲 San Marino | 22 | 8 | 24 | 17 | 22 | 18.6 |
| 🇷🇸 Serbia | 24 | 25 | 23 | 26 | 24 | 24.4 |
| 🇸🇮 Slovenia | 18 | 22 | 21 | 14 | 7 | 16.4 |
| 🇪🇦 Spain | 22 | 9 | 19 | 23 | 23 | 19.2 |
| 🇸🇪 Sweden | 12 | 9 | 23 | 20 | 18 | 16.4 |
| 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 22 | 23 | 8 | 13 | 24 | 18 |
| 🇺🇦 Ukraine | 25 | 21 | 17 | 24 | 25 | 22.4 |
| 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 22 | 19 | 23 | 24 | 10 | 19.6 |
Why did Iceland not work with the juries? Would “Róa” have qualified had the juries been involved in the semi-final? Tell us more in the comments below or on social media at @escxtra !
