Eurovision FACTory

Between 2001 and 2008, only countries that have never won before ended up victorious. 2001: Estonia 2002: Latvia 2003: Turkey 2004: Ukraine 2005: Greece 2006: Finland 2007: Serbia 2008: Russia All but one haven't won ever since, and another country came close this year.

Before 2014, I wasn't really aware of the juries' existence. Because before that year, I haven't actively followed the Eurovision season. It was that exact year I discovered the juries and I was MAD! The reason for this is that Greece, my runner-up, got seven points from my country Germany's televoting. However, the juries placed it so low that those seven points were erased. Of course, I was very unhappy with its 20th place. So when two years later a new system was introduced I was all in for it. After all, televote points could no longer be erased. Except that I hated juries even more after 2016. That is because my family and me, besides Germany, also supported Russia in most years. Long story short, my parents were born and grew up in the former Soviet Union and therefore, their native language is Russian. Especially when Germany didn't do well, at least we had another country to be excited and cheer for. 2016 was supposed to be one of those years. Except that it...

Where did the running order slots place in the final? Let's take a look. Unlike the semi finals, we take a look at ALL finals in Eurovision history (except 1956 since the full results were not disclosed). In the early years, running order didn't matter that much with only a few countries competing. We can see that #2 was very close to winning in 1965, finishing 2nd. In 1964, the winner absorbed the points of the songs surrounding them, resulting in multiple zero points. But that was quite common in this decade. In this timespan, we reached a milestone: The 12 points were introduced in 1975. Right afterwards, #1 won twice in a row. In this timespan, most winning songs performed close to last. In three cases, it even was the last song. For the first time, we had at least 25 songs in the final. The 80's were an amazing decade for #2, with no song on this "death slot" finishing last, some of them even reaching top 10. In this timespan, another milestone was reached: T...

Before this ages like milk... Johnny Logan is involved in 3 of Ireland's 7 wins: Twice as a singer and once as a composer. There's just one problem why this isn't a hat-trick: He didn't compose his 1980 song. There are two ways you can count it, but he has two wins as a singer AND two as a composer. Considering the trophy goes to the composers, he only has two trophies to his name. Had he also written his first winning song, the hat-trick would be legit. Or, you could count both individually. In that case, he has four wins which is indeed a record.

The final is complete! Here's my prediction for the second semi final in alphabetical order. Albania Armenia Australia Austria Belgium Cyprus Georgia Estonia Lithuania Poland Slovenia I don't know how I did it, but I predicted 9/10. Up until one day before the semi final, I actually had Denmark instead of Albania since I was convinced the split wouldn't be 3/7 (which turned out to be true) I couldn't have got a perfect 10 since Estonia was a sure non-qualifier for me. I am very baffled and disappointed Georgia was the other country of the second half to miss out. That was really not deserved. From my personal qualifiers, only 6/10 made it through.

The first semi final is done! Here is my prediction in alphabetical order: Czechia Finland Israel Malta Croatia Moldova Norway Portugal Serbia Sweden Switzerland It was a gamble predicting Malta to qualify, but I really thought they could beat the number 2 curse. I wouldn't have been surprised had Serbia missed out in favor of Malta when it was down to the last two countries. I didn't think the televoters would actually go for Croatia (I mainly hoped so), but I clearly had too much faith in them. My initial prediction included the Netherlands, but I swapped them for Switzerland which turned out to be a good call. Also, can I just laugh at everyone who thought Israel would be a shock non-qualifier? Excuse me, but did they even believe themselves? Serbia, Czechia, Portugal and maybe Moldova had more potential to end up as a shock non-qualifier, but in the end, there were no surprises. So I still have to wait for my first ever 10/10. Maybe the second semi final will be the one? E...

In part 4 of my comparisons, I will look at the running order positions of the televote and jury winners. Does the running order really have as much of an impact as we assume, or is it actually irrelevant? Let's find out. As always, the televote is first. 2015: 27 (last) 2016: 18 2017: 11 2018: 22 2019: 15 2021: 24 2022: 12 So, as we can see, none of them performed before 10th. To have a chance with the viewers, you have to therefore perform not earlier than 11th. This does still apply for 2010 - 2014, with the earliest being 11th and latest being 22nd. That seems to be the ideal zone for the televoting. And now, we look at the juries. 2015: 10 2016: 13 2017: 11 2018: 5 2019: 8 2021: 11 2022: 22 Interestingly, besides 2022, ALL of them are in the first half. The jury winner of 2011 also performed in it, on slot 12. So for juries, the running order doesn't matter that much. They don't get influenced by it and just vote for whatever song they like. Now, what can the reason be...

In the last three contests, we only had male winners – if you only count the vocalists, that is, because Italy was a mixed act. So in part 3 of my comparisons, we'll look at WHO won the televote and jury since 2015. Let's start with the televote. 2015: male group 2016: solo male 2017: solo male 2018: solo female 2019: mixed group 2021: mixed group with male vocalist 2022: male group So we can see that the televote has a tendency to go for male acts. Only one of the last seven televote winners has been a solo woman, and she is also the last female winner. In 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2021, a female vocalist finished second in the televote, while in 2019, the first solo woman (also the only one in the top 10) placed 7th in it. We can assume that men will also do better than women in this year's televote. That's good news for the male acts. Or is it? Let's now look at the juries. 2015: solo male 2016: solo female 2017: solo male 2018: solo male 2019: solo female 2021: solo ...

As I stated before, there won't be full rehearsal reviews. I still want to share my opinions and impressions on some rehearsal clips of both semi finals and the Big 5 with Ukraine. Norway: This doesn't look as dark as I previously thought, thanks to the LED floor. But her movements looked somewhat stiff and not as smooth as in the national final. She needs to fix that. Also, was the song slightly revamped? There's a sound before the bridge I've never heard before. Malta: Certainly a contrast after Norway, which might actually benefit them. They are still the underdog of the semi final for me. Portugal: This is too dark for the song. Only the outfits pop. I don't get why they don't use the LED floor either. Where's the heart? I don't think they're chanceless now though. Ireland: Do they actually have a backdrop? The gold distracts me too much to pay attention. And that outfit is a choice. Israel: Maybe they shouldn't have given the dance part (not...