Eurovision 2012: A closer look at the final results

by Victor Hondal 2,009 views

The 2012 Eurovision Song Contest is over and it’s time to have a look at what happened yesterday night. Sweden, this year’s hot favourite among fans and bookmakers, achieved their fifth win, which means that next year’s contest will be held in that country. Let’s have a closer look at some facts from last night’s show.

 

The winner

Scandinavia, and most remarkably Sweden, is one of the world’s biggest music powerhouses, and Eurovision quite often reflects this fact. Loreen has achieved the fifth Eurovision victory for Sweden – the previous ones came in 1974, 1984, 1991 and 1999. Besides that, the country has regularly been successful by ending up in the top-5 no less than 20 times since the Swedish debut in 1958.

So last night’s outcome means that we will be heading up north next year. Stockholm appears as a very likely host city for Eurovision 2013, having hosted the 1975 and 2000 contests. It also has to be taken into account that a new venue, the Friends Arena, is currently under construction in Solna, near the Swedish capital. The new complex will play host to the Melodifestivalen 2013 final and it may be chosen as the home of Eurovision 2013. However, other cities may apply to host the event – both Gothenburg and Malmö are experienced Eurovision hosts, having organised it in 1985 and 1992, respectively.

 

The wooden spoon

We don’t have to move far away from Sweden to find the other side of the coin. Norway, with 7 points, ended up last in the final. Actually, Tooji struggled to qualify from the second semifinal as he tied for the tenth place with Bulgaria’s Sofi Marinova, but the Norwegian hopeful received points from 11 countries, 1 more than the Bulgarian participant.

Norway has not been successful in Eurovision since Alexander Rybak brought the trophy home in 2009: Didrik Solli-Tangen came 20th in the 2010 final, Stella Mwangi didn’t qualify last year and yesterday Tooji ended up last. As a matter of fact, Norway is the country to finish last most often (1963, 1969, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1981, 1990, 1997, 2001, 2004 and 2012). the country also holds the unfortunate distinction of having scored the most zero points in the Eurovision history, namely four times.

 

The favourites

Both fans and bookmakers got it right. Euphoria became an early favourite to win the Eurovision Song Contest as soon as it won the Swedish selection Melodifestivalen. The 2012 OGAE International poll predicted the victory for Sweden with an overwhelming 375 points, three more than the actual score. In fact, Loreen was close to match the record of 387 points achieved by Norway’s Alexander Rybak in 2009.

Russia‘s Buranovskiye Babushki took second place, same position the bookmakers predicted. However, they weren’t that popular with eurofans, who didn’t place their Pary for everybody higher than 13th.

Iceland and Italy were also expected to do well in the Eurovision 2012 final. Italy made the top ten (9th), however far away from the 2nd or 3rd place predicted by many. On the other hand, Iceland, who was also expected to do very well, picked up the 20th position.

Serbia didn’t disappoint and made it to the top five once again, while Romania ended up 12th and Cyprus on the 16th placing.

 

The Big Five

If we have a look now at how the members of the ‘Big-5’ did, what we find is diversity. Three of them – Germany, Italy and Spain – made it to the top ten. It is the third consecutive time that the Germans end up within the first 10. Italy drops from last year’s 2nd place to 9th, while Spain has achieved its best result in 8 years. Pastora Soler has matched the finishing position of Ramón del Castillo in 2004.

We can’t say the same about France and the United Kingdom. Both countries sent two well-known and established singers with worldwide recognition. But that wasn’t enough to get good marks. Anggun finished 22nd, just like Virginie Pouchain and Les Fatals Picards in 2006 and 2007. Engelbert Humperdinck, The Hump, ended up even lower, on the 25th spot. Josh in 2010 got the same placing but that year there were only 25 countries in the final.

 

The top ten

Sweden, with this year’s win, is definitely back on track. Anna Bergendahl failed to make the finals in 2010, marking a low in the country’s Eurovision history, but the year after Eric Saade ended up in a respectable 3rd place.

Russia meets success once again, after three years outside the top ten. The same can be said about Serbia, with Zeljko Joksimovic claiming the bronze medal after the country’s failure in 2009 and two ‘middle of the table’ results in 2010 and 2011.

The host country Azerbaijan continues its successful trend in the competition, having finished 4th. Meanwhile, Albania has achieved its best result ever (5th) with Rona Nishliu.

Estonia has been able to pick up a good finishing position this time (6th), just like Urban Symphony in 2009. Turkey, after last year’s flop, became 7th with Can Bonomo.

As already mentioned, three ‘Big-5’ countries – Germany, Italy and Spain – complete the top ten of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012.

It is also worth noting that Greece has not made the top ten for the first time since 2003. Eleftheria Eleftheriou ended up 17th, as low as Michalis Rakintzis in 2002 and Mando in 2003.

 

Bloc/neighbourly/diaspora voting

Regional bloc voting and diaspora voting rarely miss a Eurovision Song Contest, and Baku was no exception. Russia benefited widely from the former USSR republics (12 points from Belarus, 10 from Azerbaijan, Latvia and Ukraine, 8 from Estonia, 6 from Lithuania and Moldova, 5 from Georgia) and other neighbours (8 from Finland and Norway).

Serbia saw many of its points come from the former Yugoslavian nations: 12 from Slovenia, Montenegro and Croatia, 10 from Bosnia & Herzegovina and FYR Macedonia.

Sweden, just like Russia, was voted by 40 countries. The Norwegians, the Finns, the Danes and the Icelanders all granted Loreen their 12.

Other blocs that worked last night were the Greek-Cypriot, the Azerbaijani-Turkish and the Romanian-Moldovan, exchanging 12 points, the British Isles (4 from Ireland to the UK and 10 from the UK to Ireland) and the Iberian (Portugal gave 12 to Spain). The latter also benefited from the diaspora, getting medium scores from France, Belgium, The Netherlands or Austria and higher ones from the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The presence of Romanians in Spain, Italy or France also granted the Eastern European country 10, 7 and 2 points respectively.

 

Next year’s Eurovision Song Contest has been initially set for May 14th, 16th and 18th 2013. A new Eurovision season will commence by the end of the year with plenty of national finals and selection shows. Start loading your batteries!

• Find the complete scoreboard of the final here.
• Find the complete scoreboard of the first semifinal here.
• Find the complete scoreboard of the second semifinal here.