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Counting Down To Eurovision Perfection: #100 – #51 Written by on April 2, 2012 | 4 Comments

Well it’s only seven weeks now until the ESC Insight team jet off to the coast of the Caspian Sea and a sunny Baku for yet another installment of our annual Euro-fix. But what to do for seven weeks? Wouldn’t it be a nice idea to do something unique, that has never been tried before…  a retrospective on the last fifty six editions of ‘Europe’s Favourite Television Show’.

Relax, though, there’s a new angle that tells us something new about the Contest.

Here comes the maths bit

Looking back on all the Eurovisions from 1957 to 2011, we’ve compiled an All-Time Chart based on their relative scores to other entrants on the night, by calculating  how many points each song could have earned under the various voting rules at the time.

So, in theory a country could get maximum points in this comparison by gathering  the top marks from every voting country that year, eg multiplying that top score (in recent years, 12, of course) by one less than the number of countries that took part (you can’t vote for yourself).  In 2011, 43 countries voted in the final so the maximum possible would be: 504 (42 x 12).  Then divide what each country ended with (in 2011 by 504) to get their percentage score.

This has built into a very interesting list of 1,099 songs that have ever been in the Eurovision Final during that span of years. “But what about 1956?”, I hear a few voices from the back shout out.  For those not in the know, the voting of the jury, and and the total points scored by the fourteen countries have been lost. So, unfortunately, they cannot take part.  Sorry Lys, we can only count your entries in 1957 and 1958.

Those are the rules, what about results?

Each week until we leave, ESC Insight will reveal one part of the chart, meaning of course that just before we get to Azerbaijan our number one song will be known.  Until then, sit back, relax, and we’ll run through the bottom fifty, from #100 to #51… next week we’ll switch to ten songs per week as we count down to Baku.

And if you’d like a playlist to count down the songs for you then follow this link to YouTube and you can hear all the songs in the classic ‘Top of The Pops’ reverse order in all their Eurovision glory!

  • 99 = White and Black Blues, by Joëlle Ursull (France 1990, 2nd equal).
  • 99 = Somewhere in Europe, by Liam Reilly (Ireland, 1990, 2nd equal).
  • 98 – One Step Out of Time, by Michael Ball (United Kingdom 1992, 2nd).
  • 97 – A festa de vida, by Carlos Mendes (Portugal 1972, 7th).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQFurlOiVvs

Mendes’ placing at #97, with a seventh placed song is impressive. This is the one of the lowest ranked song sin our chart, most of the top 100 comprises third, second, and winning songs – it is very hard to get into our Top 100 without doing very well indeed.

  • 96 – Lejla, by Hari Mata Hari (Bosnia & Herzegovina 2006, 3rd).
  • 95 – Reise nach Jerusalem, by Sürpriz (Germany 1999, 3rd).
  • 94 – Io senza te , by Peter, Sue & Marc (Switzerland 1981, 4th).
  • 93 – Junger Tag, by Gitte (Germany 1973, 8th).
  • 92 – Un train qui part, by Marie (Monaco 1973, 8th).
  • 91 – Era, by Wess & Dori Ghezzi (Italy 1975, 3rd).
  • 90 – T’en vas pas, by Esther Ofarim (Switzerland 1963, 2nd).
  • 89 – L’amore è un attimo, by Massimo Ranieri (Italy 1971, 5th).
  • 88 – Su canción, by Betty Missiego (Spain 1979, 2nd).
  • 87 – Je n’ai que mon âme, by Natasha St-Pier (France 2001, 4th).
  • 86 – Satellite, by Lena Meyer-Landrut (Germany 2010, 1st)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5Je0TaztCE

And we have our lowest placed winner in the Top 100 with Lena. Considering it did very well on the night you’d think she’d be much higher in the chart than number 86. There were 38 countries votes to get in 2010 and she scored 246 points – the problem was that the songs in the range of 2nd to 10th all scored over 100 points and therefore diluting Lena’s runaway. There are a few more surprises coming up…

  • 85 – Believe, by Dima Bilan (Russia 2008, 1st).
  • 84 – I giorni dell’arcobaleno, by Nicola di Bari (Italy 1972, 6th).
  • 83 – Rock Me, by Riva (Yugoslavia 1989, 1st).
  • 82 – Molitva, by Marija Šerifovic (Serbia 2007, 1st).
  • 81 – Mysterious Woman, by Marc Roberts (Ireland 1997, 2nd).
  • 80 – Nje vjer, nje bojsa, by t.A.T.u. (Russia 2003, 3rd).
  • 79 – Džuli, by Danijel (Yugoslavia 1983, 4th).
  • 78 – Humanahum, by Jean Gabilou (France 1981, 3rd).
  • 77 – L’amour ça fait chanter la vie, by Jean Vallée (Belgium 1978, 2nd).
  • 76 – Sanomi, by Urban Trad (Belgium 2003, 2nd).
  • 75 – Kan,by Duo Datz (Isralel 1991, 3rd).
  • 74 – Främling, by Carola Häggkvist (Sweden 1983, 3rd).
  • 73 – All Out of Luck, by Selma (Iceland 1999, 2nd).
  • 72 – It’s Just a Game, by The Bendik Singers (Norway 1973, 7th).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITj93XBiZc8

The Bendiks are our other joint lowest ranked song, also from the early 70s where the scoring system was different, but this chart is based on possible maximum score each year, not just on the classic 12, 10, 8, system we have today.

  • 71 – Everyway That I Can, by Sertab Erener (Turkey 2003, 1st).
  • 70 – (I Would) Die For You, by Antique (Greece 2001, 3rd).
  • 69 – Laß die Sonne in dein Herz, by Wind (Germany 1987, 2nd).
  • 68 – Dansevise, by Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann (Denmark 1963, 1st).
  • 67 – Nocturne, by Secret Garden (Norway 1995, 1st).
  • 66 – Solo, by Alsou (Russia 2000, 2nd).
  • 65 – Go, Scott Fitzgerald (United Kingdom 1988, 2nd).
  • 64 – Better the Devil You Know, by Sonia (United Kingdom 1993, 2nd).
  • 63 – La det swinge, by Bobbysocks (Norway 1985, 1st).
  • 62 – Ne partez pas sans moi, by Céline Dion (Switzerland 1988, 1st).

Now Céline isn’t used to not doing very well in life, number 62 is a low ranking for her. Don’t forget, she only won by a single point over Scott Fitzgerald for the United Kingdom in 1988 – the songs in the range of 2 to 10 did proportionally very well. I don’t think she really worries about her all-time position… does she even remember where Switzerland is?

  • 61 – The One that I Love, by Chiara (Malta 1998, 3rd).
  • 60 – Never Let You Go, by Dima Bilan (Russia 2006, 2nd).

Dima’s runner-up actually did better than his winning song two years later in 2008. A much better song many say, and the scores show they tend to agree!

  • 59 – To nie ja, by Edyta Górniak (Poland 1994, 2nd).
  • 58 – Where Are You?, by Imaani (United Kingdom 1998, 2nd).
  • 57 – Jack in the Box, by Clodagh Rodgers (United Kingdom 1971, 4th).
  • 56 – Un premier amour, by Isabelle Aubret (France 1962, 1st).
  • 55 – Hallelujah, by Gali Atari & Milk and Honey (Israel 1979, 1st).
  • 54 – Johnny Blue, by Lena Valaitis (Germany 1981, 2nd).
  • 53 – Fångad av en stormvind, by Carola (Sweden 1991, 1st).
  • 52 – Le dernier qui a parlé…, byAmina (France 1991, 2nd).
  • 51 – Tom Tom Tom, by Marion Rung (Finland 1973, 6th).

So, there you have it, numbers 100 to 51, next week we’ll break the top 50 and look at the next ten songs, from 50 to 41, in more detail. Will your favourite be there? Who are you rooting for? Don’t move that dial (sorry, the cheezy DJ in me taking over), but we’ll be back as we continue the countdown to Eurovision Perfection.

 

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Have Your Say

4 responses to “Counting Down To Eurovision Perfection: #100 – #51”

  1. Zolan says:

    Thanks for setting up a playlist for us (I imagine that was the tedious part).

    I must confess that it has never been feasible for me to delve very far into past contests; this list will provide a manageable sample that actually means something.

    Also, good timing. This year’s songs have us primed with seven weeks spare.

  2. Steven says:

    Not a problem Zolan, was actually very interesting going through the various entries, 1,099 to be exact. I thought that the playlist would make it much more memorable for a lot of people so they can leave it running! ;o)

  3. Zolan says:

    I’ve just finished my first playthrough. I think it will take severals listens, as you suggest, to digest it. The contest, and Europe, has been through many changes.

    I’d be interested to see the threshhold percentages for each 10% block of the 1099 songs.

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