This was the flattest scoreboard since the semi-final system came into play. The 9thand 10th place entries both scored 74 points—around 20 points lower than the top 10 threshold in most Contests. In fact only the top 6 entries earned more than 100 points. This really was one of the most wide open Contests in years.
The Nordic and ex-Soviet blocs continued to outperform much of Europe. Sweden (3rd), Norway (8th) and Denmark (9th), as well as Armenia (4th), Ukraine (6th) and Russia (7th) all made the top 10. Finland just missed the top 10 in 11th place. However the winner and runner-up are both from countries outside of any voting blocs: Austria and the Netherlands, both of which won their semi-finals.
Early booking favourite Armenia finished a respectable fourth place. And despite its dark subject matter, Hungary managed a fifth place finish—its second best ever. After several years with multiple big 5 entries in the top 10, this year only Spain managed a top 10 placement. The UK were 17th, Italy 21st (after three consecutive top 10 finishes), and France 26th (last place).
Denmark didn’t come close to defending its crown, but Basim and his crew should be pleased with 9th—the best result by a host since the Azeris managed 4th place in Baku.
Albania’s televote failed—again–so jury only results for the Grand Final. Georgia’s jury vote in the final was excluded for some unknown reason (after the televote was discounted in the semi final). And San Marino is always jury-only: they use Italy’s phone system, which makes running a distinct televote impossible.
Close and Not So Close
The unlucky losers from each semi-final were Lithuania and Portugal: each finished 11th in their semi-final. Portugal was ONE point behind 10th place San Marino, though Lithuania was 16 points behind 10th place Slovenia.
Ex Soviet States
Despite strong support from televoters in their countries, many jurors in the russosphere slated Austria’s entry in the Grand Final. Here’s the breakdown:
| Jury rank | Televote rank | Final points | |
| Armenia | 24 | 2 | null |
| Azerbaijan | 24 | 3 | 1 |
| Belarus | 23 | 4 | null |
| Georgia | DQ/excluded | 2 | 10 |
| Russia | 11 | 3 | 5 |
| Ukraine | 3 | 5 | 8 |
Armenia put Azerbaijan last and Azerbaijan put Armenia last: no surprise there. So did the televoters in each country. At least they agreed on that point. The Ukrainian jury put Russia 10th, though they were third in the televote—which included voters in Crimea, which still uses the Ukrainian telephone system. Poland won the televote, but was ranked 8th by the jury.
Georgia’s jury vote was excluded for the Grand Final—but their televote was excluded in the semi-final. Could Georgia be why there were delays in tonight’s and Thursday night’s results? Coincidentally, the Georgian jury put Austria second in its semifinal. The public put Austria second on Saturday night.
The Humourless Isles
The British and Irish juries need to lighten up a bit. Poland won the Grand Final televote in both countries, but the juries in each slated Donatan and Cleo, putting them dead last. For a well-performed, contemporary entry that seems rather unfair.
As expected, country/folk is not really popular in the East. The Netherlands and Austria got almost the same amount of televotes in the West + Baltic. The Netherlands got very few points from the Eastern televote.
The juries decided to give almost the same amount of points to Austria and The Netherlands.
Hence Conchita Wurst wins thanks to the televote of the eastern bloc.
It’s funny, considering how much the fans have blamed those eastern votes through these years…
Where was Poland ranked overall in the televoting ? For example: Austria Belgium Ireland Iceland Lithuania Norway Sweden The Netherlands United kingdom all gave big points to Poland in the televote but juries killed it. Seems unfair that the juries can take so much from the public who are actually paying to vote..
Some more quickies — looking at averages across countries:
Top 5s__
Jury: Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Hungary, Malta.
Tele: Austria, Netherlands, Sweden, Armenia, Poland.
Bottom 5s__
Jury: San Marino, France, Poland, Italy, Greece.
Tele: Azerbaijan, Montenegro, France, Slovenia, Italy.
Jury/ Tele diffs__
Jury ~= Tele: Iceland, France, Netherlands, Sweden.
Jury > Tele: Azerbaijan, Malta, Montenegro, Slovenia, Finland .
Tele > Jury: Poland, Switzerland, Russia, Greece, Austria.
One surprise for me was no points from Portugal to Spain. Spain was ranked 11th after Russia and Romania.
Portugal televote made Spain 3rd, but Portuguese jury made Spain 21st…Portuguese juries tend to not like oversinging and shoutiness…I think Conchita had the big diva ballad and it was more controlled…I still loved Ruth and think she should come back with a stronger song that play up her rock pop goddess.
I actually feel bad for Suzy…televote ranked her 6th and jury ranked her 16th–was that the biggest spread ever? Maybe Poland also had a big spread between televote and jury but at least they managed to get out of an easier semi.
Jake, makes sense that they might be especially critical of music they know well. Portugal and Slovenia are incidentally the only countries whose votes predict the top three positions.
On the rankings combined by jury and televote, rather than country (which is of course not how it really works), the biggest splits are —
AZ: 7+26 [19]
PL: 24+5 [19]
MT: 5+21 [16]
CH: 20+6 [14] (Switzerland)
I haven’t looked at the semis.
Georgia’s jury vote was excluded for rules violations. All five jury members had the exact same top 8 votes.
actually scrap my last comment! watching through rehearsals to the final, it was her worst performance on the night, which is a shame 🙁
I think the combined system works very well generally. Less open to political/neighbourly/diaspora voting. Personally I’m glad the Polish song did badly with the juries (e.g. 25th in the UK with the televote putting it 1st)..mysoginistic, sexist and demeaning to women!
To be fair, I don’t think it was humourlessness that caused the UK and Irish juries to vote against Poland. The song wasn’t that great and the lyrics and butter-churning milkmaid thing were a bit cringe-worthy. I liked the rap-type style, but the sexualisation of the women involved was probably seen as distasteful rather than fun. Or a cheap ploy to get more male votes.
“Or a cheap ploy to get more male votes.”
It seems to have worked spectacularly well, in that sense! I guess some people thought the Polish act was sexy, others thought it was funny and many others found it distasteful.
Poland is the ‘other’ one that UK media (and ordinary folk) are still talking about. It even got a play on Chris Evans’ Radio2 show this morning.