VOTING ANALYSIS
VOTING ANALYSIS
SWEDEN
MOLDOVA
ISEAEL
seemed to ebb away very quickly during the weeks running up to the Grand Final. On the night, despite the most amazing local support, the UK song flopped, and it was back to the disappointment of recent years with a second last finishing position. I Wrote A Song only attracted points from six countries, and all the hopes and dreams of 2022 were crushed. Most fans would agree that 2023 was not a classic year for Eurovision songs. There was a small number of crowd- pleaser upbeat songs but otherwise the field was rather lacklustre. The voting scandal of 2022 led the EBU to introduce some important rule changes,
most notably abolishing jury votes for the semi-finals. More bizarrely, they also introduced a ‘Rest of the World’ televote, an innovation few seemed to think necessary or appropriate. Interestingly, however, they have still resisted calls for the Big Five plus reigning winner to at least perform their songs in the semi-finals.
two big favourites, Sweden and Finland, as well as other much-fancied entries from Israel and Norway. When the semi-final results were finally published, there were few surprises other than the fact that Finland scored a very decisive victory, 42 points ahead of Sweden who were only just ahead of Israel. In hindsight, this result was probably obvious given the lack of a jury vote. Käärijä scored seven 12 points and five ten points, receiving points from all participating countries. Loreen by contrast only scored two 12 and four ten points (with the Finnish public only giving her five points perhaps in an attempt
to boost their own song’s chances). Israel scored four 12s including that from the new Rest of the World vote. Moldova received 12 points from both Italy and Portugal, while the latter received maximum points from both France and Switzerland, all of which proved that diaspora voting is still alive and well. Eleven countries awarded Latvia points, but they still failed to qualify, missing out on the crucial tenth place by just three points. The Netherlands scored just five points, Azerbaijan three, and poor Malta just two (one each from Israel and the Rest of the World).
SEMI-FINAL 1 The strong one!
The first semi-final was generally regarded as by far the stronger and most competitive of the two. This was mainly down to the participation of the
SEMI-FINAL 1 VOTES
Voting was entirely by televote
Norway Malta Serbia Latvia Portugal Ireland Croatia
102
10 5 4 3 2 6 3 10 8 10 2 10 5 10 1 3 10
3
2
1 2 8 6
37 34
5
10 6
1 3 3
4 2
1
2
4 4
1
6 1 1 3 3 1
74 2 4 3
1 5 12 3 4 4
2 7 2 12 5 2
10 3 3
1 2
1
76 4
12 7
5
5 5 3 5
4 2 6
10 5
3
Switzerland
97 8 6 1 3 5 7 2
4 7 8 7 5 8 8 6 8 4
Israel
127 5 8 7 8 7 6 7 7
12 3 12 12 4 1 8 2 6 12
Moldova Sweden Azerbaijan Czechia Netherlands
109 6 1 4 6 12 10 3 2 6
6 4 7 3 7 10 6 12 10 6 12 5 5 4 3
4 7
135 10 12 6 10 8 8 4 8 7 10
4
2
1
1
110 7 2 8 5 6 3 8 4 8 5 7 5
6 12 4 7 8
5
7 1
1
2 2 1
FINLAND
Finland
177 12 7 10 12 10 12 12 10 12 6 12 8 8 10
7 12 7 10
50
AUTUMN 2023 ● VISION
VISION ● AUTUMN 2023 51
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