The second evening dress rehearsal of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 is complete. After the dust, or should that be sand, settled on the St. Jakobshalle the Eurovision 2025 Audience Poll team asked members of the audience who their favourite act of the night was.
Finland and Austria dominate second Audience Poll
In this third edition of the Eurovision Audience Poll, run by a collective of five fan media platforms (ESC Insight, 12 Points From America, ESCXTRA, Eurovoix and That Eurovision Site), it was the battle of the big staging. Finland’s Erika Vikman won tonight’s poll by just three votes! ‘Ich Komme’ received 336 votes, (20.2%) compared to Austria’s JJ who received 333 votess, (20%).
Following them by some distance, Australia’s Go-Jo rounds out the podium with 124 votes, (7.5%). Not far away from the podium spots is Malta in fourth place who received 121 votes, (7.3%). Also chasing towards the top spots is Israel in fifth place (6.7%) – two spots higher than its seventh place in the SF2 poll last year.
Within the midfield pack it is proving to be a close fight among the nations known for their chequered qualifying history. From fifth place down to eighth place, they are separated by only 12 votes. This correlates to the difficulty the bookmakers are facing. At the time of writing, thirteenth place in the odds is still rated as having a 47% chance of qualifying. Despite the bookmakers considering Ireland a non-qualifier, Emmy managed to win over the Basel audience and place a credible sixth in the poll, (6.4%). Following closely behind is Luxembourg, (6.0%). Below are two more bookmaker non-qualifiers in Armenia, (5.7%) and Denmark, (4.9%). Closing out the top ten, only one vote further back is Greece, 4.9%).
Just outside the top ten is Latvia. Missing out by ten votes, (4.3%). At the bottom of the table are, Serbia (2.0%), Lithuania (1.6%), Czechia (1.4%), Georgia (0.8%) and Montenegro (0.5%). The last place in the poll received only eight votes.
Analysing the second Audience Poll results
Compared to previous expectations from bookmakers, fans and the ESCXTRA.com Press Poll, there are some surprising conclusions. In both the Press Poll and the Audience Poll it is Czechia that is struggling. Overnight the bookmakers have reacted accordingly, moving Czechia from a safe qualifier, to only borderline. Perhaps another shock like Belgium is to come? Certainly this Semi-Final shows the vulnerability faced for the acts without big stage props or novelty factor.
For the most part, there is good agreement between the polls. Both share the same eight countries in their respective top tens. Finland’s Erika Vikman rocketed on her mic stand to the top of both polls. Showing the advantage of being the climax of the Semi-Final shows in many ways! Outlining Finland’s potential to do well in both the televote and jury vote. Meanwhile, Austria only being three votes behind the winner indicates its power to captivate an audience. Many expect it to be a jury winner and perhaps, the overall winner. Being able to do damage in the televote will definitely help towards that. Especially, as noted by the members undertaking the poll, the wide range of ages choosing Austria as their favourite.
Conversely, it was Armenia that proved to be popular with younger voters. Not surprising, given the modern rock anthem vibes of the performance and Parg’s youthful, shirtless look to win over voters with. Perhaps this showmanship is going a long way to explain its success in the poll compared to its certain non-qualifier status with the bookmakers.
In the Press Poll, the Baltic duo of Latvia and Lithuania place fifth and sixth. Yet in the Audience Poll both missed out. It is worth noting that these are two nations that rely heavily on diaspora voting. Switzerland, Germany, UK and France are the source of the bulk of ticket sales this year. Other than Germany and the UK, you would not typically expect the Baltic nations to feature highly in the televote of these countries.
Also surprising is the good result for Ireland. Emmy’s ‘Laika Party’ has been seen as an unlikely qualifier to the Grand Final with bookmakers for a while now, yet find themselves in sixth place in the Audience Poll. Of course a live crowd always respond to the party songs. But are we seeing signs of another San Marino moment? Or are we seeing the work of UK and Irish ticket buyers? The Irish delegation will be hoping this poll translates to votes from the strong pool of friendly neighbours that can pick up the phones tonight.
Another curious point of interest to note, is Malta. Despite a disastrous showing in the Press Poll, Malta regained ground with fourth place in the Audience Poll. There is a lot to unpack here. Long gone are the playful, cheeky nods to The Sound of Music in the MESC staging. Now, ‘Serving’ is ‘Kant’-less, but fierce and sexy. Did that put off the press and how it looks down the camera? Are the live crowd feeding off the club anthem nature of the song? Most of Malta’s USP was hinged on a word that is now muted from the lyrics and also muted from the mic feeds. If the audience are yelling it, the TV audio feed is not capturing it.
The Eurovision Audience Poll returns on Friday
The second semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 will take place tonight at 20:00 BST. Fifteen acts will battle for ten tickets to the Grand Final on Saturday. Make sure you tune in to find out who will make it through.
On Friday, the Eurovision 2025 Audience Poll will return for its final outing. On Friday, the Eurovision 2025 Audience Poll will return for its final outing. Our team will once again hit the streets of Basel to ask the audience about their favourites. Members of ESC Insight, 12 Points From America, ESCXTRA, Eurovoix and That Eurovision Site will join forces again to make sure we will all know what the audience thought of the Grand Final after watching the second dress rehearsal.
