VOTING ANALYSIS
UKRAINE
CROATIA
CYPRUS
enormous lead at the halfway mark of 163 points over Israel. The latter’s popularity with the juries is a little perplexing as it seemed to be more of a crowd pleaser, while Italy perhaps underperformed expectations from the jury vote. Conspiracy theorists and cynics interpreted Tattoo ’s commanding jury win as evidence of where the dark powers of Eurovision wanted the contest to go in 2024 for the 50th anniversary of ABBA’s victory. However, Loreen’s song was always going to perform strongly especially in such a varied field. As expected, the televote was a very different story indeed, and we were treated to another nail-biting
finish. Finland’s Cha Cha Cha scored a massive 376 out of a maximum possible 456 points (82%) from the televoters, receiving maximum points from no fewer than 18 countries. Sweden on the other hand did not top the televote in any countries and was 133 behind their arch- rival. Alessandra from Norway came in a very strong third place with a total of 216 points but only scoring one 12 points from Finland in what looked suspiciously like a tactical move to stop Loreen. Plight Ukraine took fourth place in the televote perhaps reflecting the presence of large refugee communities in a number of countries as well as continued public sympathy for the plight of the Ukrainian people. Having done so well in their semi-final it was interesting to see that Australia’s Voyager only managed 20th place overall scoring just 21 points from the public compared to the 149 they scored in the preliminary round. Gustaph from Belgium meanwhile went from 90 points in the semi to 182 in the Grand Final, finishing in a solid seventh place in the overall televote. Only Sweden and Finland received points from every country, with Finland scoring a double 12 from two countries (Sweden and Norway). Similarly, Israel managed to score a maximum 24 points from both Azerbaijan and Armenia, with Ukraine scoring 24 from Czechia. Predictably, the Greek public awarded Cyprus’ Andrew Lambrou a maximum
12 points although the Greek jury only gave him four points perhaps providing the clearest evidence that the juries may well still have a purpose. The biggest discrepancies between the jury and public votes were unsurprisingly for Spain and Croatia. Blanca Paloma’s haunting yet slightly weird Eaea finished ninth with the juries, amassing 95 points, the public meanwhile placed Spain last with just five points (three from neighbouring Portugal and two from the new Rest of the World vote). Croatia’s Mama ŠC! was a novelty act in the best traditions of Eurovision and so it was no surprise that they finished a dismal 25th with the juries but a very creditable seventh place with the public vote. Unfortunately, after the fantastic result in 2022 it was very much back to business as usual for the United Kingdom with a return to the bottom of the scoreboard. Just six juries awarded Mae Muller points and the performance with the public was even worse with just Malta and Ukraine awarding the UK points. To some extent, host countries have traditionally performed badly, but the UK’s final score was probably due mainly to the rather weak vocals that marred the performance. In reality, the powers that be at the BBC probably breathed a huge sigh of relief as it is hard to imagine that the broadcaster could have hosted again in 2024 after the gargantuan effort that they put into Liverpool 2023.
HOW THE UK VOTED The UK awarded its points in the Grand Final as follows: JURY TELEVOTE 12 points Sweden Finland 10 points Australia Lithuania 8 points Lithuania Poland 7 points Belgium Norway 6 points Estonia Belgium 5 points Spain Sweden 4 points Israel Ukraine 3 points Armenia Israel 2 points Italy Australia 1 point Slovenia Moldova The split between the jury and televote sums up the overall voting, with Sweden finding favour with the juries and Finland with the public. Had Finland just been able to muster a few more jury votes, the end result might have been very different. Again, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine scored with the public vote probably because of the large communities living in the UK. The only surprise was perhaps that the UK jury only awarded Italy two points. REST OF THE WORLD The EBU introduced a Rest of the World vote in each of this year’s shows. Viewers from non-participating countries were able to vote on-line to add an extra dimension to the competition. Given the contest’s popularity in North and South America, the RoW was expected to bring points
NORWAY
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AUTUMN 2023 ● VISION
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