Editorials & Opinion

Outrage after the first semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. One of the fans’ favourites, Finland, failed to qualify for the Grand Final on Saturday. Many fans ask themselves how this could possibly have happened. In this editorial piece, I’d like to draw your attention to a new myth, which is now starting to gain interest after one of the most prolific victims ever. I’m talking about the myth of the impossible 6/4 split. The 6/4 split What even is the myth of the impossible 6/4 split? So far, in the history of the contest, it has never happened that more songs qualified from the first half of a semifinal than from the second half. At most we’ve had a 5/5 split, just like last night. It seems to be rather impossible to have six qualifiers from the opening half of the show making it on own merit. On own merit? Yes. The first and possibly most prolific victim of this myth could have happened in 2008: Charlotte Perrelli’s Hero finished in twelfth in her semifinal, meaning she wouldn’t qualify. A rule from that year however suggested juries could actually save their highest non-qualifier, meaning they still put Sweden through …

Every year, many Eurovision fans eagerly await the results of the annual OGAE poll. OGAE is made up of over 40 fan clubs from around the world. For the poll, they cast votes in Eurovision’s classic 12 to 1 points system. With the OGAE voting historically taking place across April, it is the first time for fans to discover how a significant number of real people are reacting to this year’s entries. For example, last year 3,336 people cast their votes across 43 national fan clubs. OGAE voting hand-in-hand with betting odds? Therefore, this can also have a knock on affect of shaping the rankings at various betting agencies. Last month, we analysed how accurate betting odds from a month before the last ten contests were in predicting the eventual finishing positions. There will be various references to this throughout the article below so it may be worth giving that a read first! As in the betting odds analysis article, we have taken statistics from all 10 OGAE polls that have taken place. The poll was introduced in 2007 and has taken place every year since. Let’s have a look exactly how good an indicator the OGAE poll is for predicting the eventual …

The United Kingdom remains one of Junior Eurovision’s most successful countries. Yes I know fellow Britons, it’s shocking to hear that Europe seemingly does not hate the UK. This statistic isn’t riding on past glories either, the Junior Eurovision Song Contest is a purely 21st century contest. Okay, the fact the UK have only participated three times makes such a statistic a bit less representative. However, we can’t ignore the fact that 67% of the UK’s Junior Eurovision appearances resulted in a top 3 finish. Only a handful of other countries can claim a similar success record. Third time… unlucky The UK debuted in the contest when it was held for the first time back in 2003 in Copenhagen. Two of the UK’s most successful acts at the time were chosen as the interval acts, Busted and Sugababes. British entrant Tom Morley finished in 3rd place with My Song For The World. Indeed, this was the same year that Jemini scored nil points which apparently wasn’t anything to do with their overly-repetitive song performed with wildly off-key vocals. Cory Spedding earned the honour to represent the UK at the 2nd Junior Eurovision Song Contest a year later. The Best Is Yet To Come finished in the top …

In recent years I’ve perhaps had a slightly unhealthy obsession with Eurovision odds. I often believe that they can’t be that wrong when it comes to the results at Eurovision itself. In the weeks before the respective contests I was convinced France had it in the bag in 2011, Armenia the same in 2014 and Russia in 2016. They were all such strong favourites that surely they would follow in the footsteps of other strong favourites such as Alexander Rybak and Loreen? Nevertheless, this didn’t turn out to be the case. Are odds really a good indicator of the eventual results? However, for many fans, betting odds are considered the most important ranking when it comes to predicting where entries will finish come May. Fan forum rankings or YouTube views can always be skewed by either the often atypical taste of Eurofans or the size of the populations of participating countries. Yet, with odds people have to put their money where their mouth is. They have to think with their head rather than follow their heart. To discover how good an indicator betting odds really have been in predicting Eurovision successes prior to action kicking off at rehearsals, we are about …

The Eurovision Song Contest has employed a 3 minute rule on songs since 1960. Whilst this rule may have suited the competition 57 years ago, the usage of it now ages the context and restricts entries to a specific format. This makes the contest somewhat formulaic and archaic. Unfortunately, it is this rule that is killing the contest. In a year where we are Celebrating Diversity, it is time to welcome musical diversity into the contest by removing the old-fashioned 3 minute rule. Assessing the three minute rule outside the Contest I ask a question to you, the reader. How many hit songs can you name from the last 12 months that have a timestamp of ~3:00? For clarification, I am asking for any song that has charted in the top 10, of a major nation in the last year, that had a duration of 3:10 or less. Whilst an exact figure is extremely difficult to calculate, a quick sweep of my iTunes shows that Dua Lipa’s low-charting “Blow Your Mind (Mwah)” clocked at 2:59, Zara Larsson’s most recent release “So Good feat. Ty Dolla $ign” at 2:47, “Wherever I Go” by One Republic at 2:50, “Treat You Better” by Shawn Mendes …

In case anyone has been absent from the Euroverse in the last couple of days, there is DRAMA going on. Yes, with capitals, big, loud, nasty DRAMA. Spain chose the entry that will represent them in Kyiv last Saturday, and since then endless accusations, insults and physical attacks have flown from all over the place. The situation. Every single Spanish fan had proceeded under the assumption, for the last couple of weeks, that the contest would be between LeKlein, who had classified to the final stage of the competition after an online casting and a live casting, and Mirela, Spanish fans sweetheart with two (at that point) failed attempts to represent Spain in the big European stage. #TodosconMirela and #TodosconLeKlein feelings were in full swing when the rules of the final were announced. The controversial one was that in the event of a tie it would be the jury, not the televote (as is traditional in Eurovision circles, and even in Spain, where Ruth Lorenzo, winner of the televote, defeated Brequette, winner of the jury vote, in 2014) that would have the casting vote. In a moment that shocked no one, the voting actually ended in a tie. Not between …

Have you ever asked yourself fundamental questions about Eurovision like how to create a new country or how to start a crowdsourcing campaign to bring Andorra back? I do ask myself a lot of the same questions (mainly because I can see myself representing Andorra), but I also dig deeper in my heart. So yesterday, in preparation of Valentine’s day, I asked myself: how many Eurovision song titles have the word “love” (and derived) in them? Before showing you any graphs – let’s talk Methodology. What counted in the research? Any word that means love or the verb to love, in whatever language. Does this prove how many love songs have been created for Eurovision? Not at all: unfortunately it would be a massive piece of research going through each and every song, trying to determine the meaning. I tried, but in two hours I ended up classifying only 200 songs and it wasn’t enough. Are the numbers correct? Possibly. So please don’t point out that your calculations are different, because this is not an EBU funded research. Also: the songs already chosen for 2017 have not been counted! Then why are you doing this? Because it’s fun! And because I’ve found out you can …

San Marino RTV has refuted claims of a ‘pay-and-you’ll-go’ approach to its national selection, after accusations that they are requesting €500,000 from potential Eurovision artists in order to represent the microstate in Kyiv. Last week came the report from an Italian newspaper that the one time Sanremo Giovani winner Tony Maiello has been approached by an agent working for the public broadcaster of San Marino to represent the country. The singer has shared its experience to “Il Fatto Quotidiano”, currently one of the most read newspapers in Italy, to highlight the selection procedure by the Mediterranean enclave. In few screenshots the agent that has been rendered anonymous by the newspaper reportedly asks the singer whether he’d be interested in participating, stating clearly that a singer should consider a €500,000 investment for “promotion, the travel do[sic] the city and other costs”. It is not a surprise for followers of Eurovision that some broadcasters require the artist to cover some costs and Eurovision fans would not be shocked at confirmation of San Marino practising this.  A flat denial has been issued this week. In response to the accusations, SMRTV assembled a short press release which states, “We have not had any contact with Mr. …

Following Mariam Mamadashvili’s win on Saturday night, our attentions now turn to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017 and who will host the event. Mariam’s victory with her song “Mzeo”, meaning “Sun”, confirmed Georgia’s place as the untouchable force of the Junior contest and, after being passed over on their previous two wins, surely it is now the turn of the Caucasus nation to host the competition, if indeed it wants to host. Sitting pretty at the top It has taken Georgia just ten participations to establish themselves as the top nation for young talent in Europe. One would find it hard to deny Georgia the title. They have won three times, been runner-up once and had three further top-five finishes. That means that 70% of their entries have finished inside the top five at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Year Artist / Song Place / Points 2007 Mariam Romelashvili / “Odelia Ranuni” 4th / 116 2008 Bzikebi / “Bzz” 1st / 154 2009 Princesses / “Lurji prinveli” 7th / 68 2010 Mariam Kakhelishvili / “Mari-Dari” 4th / 109 2011 Candy / “Candy Music” 1st / 108 2012 Funkids / “Funky Lemonade” 2nd / 103 2013 The Smile Shop / “Give …