10 stars, 7 Pop Idol-like winners (“popper”), and a whole slew of wild cards (amateur and professional) participated in this year’s final. The semi-final had 11 stars, 5 Poppers and 7 wild cards. Did the pros do any better than the amateurs?

There was a time when countries sent one of their premiere—if not the premiere—singer to Eurovision: Cliff Richard, Lulu, and Frida Boccara are examples. Quite often an up-and-coming act gets the nod: think ABBA. There’s also been artists trying to reignite their “has-been” careers (Celine Dion, shockingly, was a bit of a has-been at 18, after being a child star). But more and more countries—particularly those relatively new to the Contest—are sending their nation’s best. This year, did it pay off?

In The semi-final: If we look at who did well in the semi-final, 6 of 10 qualifiers were pros: Serbia & Montenegro, Ukraine, Greece, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia and FYR Macedonia. Only Albania was a Popper; the 3 others were wild cards. Of those who didn’t qualify, 5 were stars (Israel, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Slovenia), 4 Poppers (Denmark, Portugal, Andorra, Switzerland), and 4 wild cards.

In The final: The top 10 of the 24 finalists looks quite different—particularly the top 5. Only one of the top 5 finishers (Cyprus) wasn’t an established star: Ukraine, Serbia & Montenegro, Greece and Turkey sent very popular acts. In 6th place we find Sweden (Star), followed by Albania (Popper), Germany (Wild Card), Bosnia & Herzegovina (Star) and Spain (Popper). Rounding out the top half are another Popper (Russia) and one more Wild Card (Malta). And 7 of the top 12 finishers were qualifiers; in fact the lowest placed qualifier was the Netherlands in 20th, thought they qualified in 6th place. Did some songs lose freshness between Wednesday and Saturday? Were some performances better (or worse) on one night rather than the other?

For the semi-final, the Stars and Wild Cards did equally well (about 50%); only the Poppers did badly (20%). But in the final established stars did a bit better: 6 of 10 ended up top 10. Of the Poppers only 2 of 7 made the top 10—Albania and Spain. Cyprus was the lone Wild Card in the top 10. Overall, it seems Poppers don’t do as well as established Stars and even Wild Cards.

What will happen in 2005???