The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 is over and as always after the final, the complete semi final results are available. Let�s take a closer look at the outcome.
Please note: as eurovision.tv does, weDO take into account the tie-break rule for positions other than thewinning. The use of this rule is disputed but generally does not affect the results too much.
The results:
You can find the scoreboard on eurovision.tv here.
- Greece – 156
- Armenia – 139
- Russia – 135
- Norway – 106
- Israel – 104
- Azerbaijan – 96
- Romania – 94
- Finland – 79
- Bosnia & Herzegovina – 72
- Poland – 42
- Slovenia – 36
- Moldova – 36
- Netherlands – 27
- Montenegro – 23
- Ireland – 22
- Andorra – 22
- Belgium – 16
- Estonia – 8
- San Marino – 5
Quick stats
Poland finished 10th in the semi final but still went forward to the final as it would also have been the highest country seen by the jury that did not finish in the top nine.
Only two of the countries that did not qualify got a 12-pointer: Montenegro (from Bosnia & Herzegovina) and Andorra (once again from Spain). On the other hand, Azerbaijan and Israel qualified without getting 12 points at all.
All countries got points from at least two other countries.
Greece got points from all other countries. Norway, Armenia and Russia came close, getting points from 17 out of the 18 other countries (Norway got no points from Greece, Armenia got no points from Azerbaijan and Russia got no points from San Marino).
The runner-up from Armenia scored 12 points the most times: five times. Greece, the winner, only four times.
Ten countries, which means about half of them, got at least once douze points.
San Marino finished last in the semi final following in the footsteps of the Czech Republic who finished last in the 2007 semi final on their debut. San Marino is therefore the eighth country in the history of the contest that debuts with a last place.
The surprises
Now that we can see the complete votes, there are some surprises: the first semi final was won by Greece with 17 points ahead of Armenia. Russia, the eventual winner, only placed third another four points behind. Norway was a fan favourit but not so popular with the bookmakers but still finished in 4th place.
The running order
For the first time a song from #2 qualified – Israel. In fact, Israel even finished 5th. That is the highest position from this number since 2002 and the ninth highest in the history of the contest (along with the Danish entry in 1959). For the first time since 1989, a song that was performed last finished first; Secret combination is the seventh “winner” that was performed last.
Some friendly and some not-so- friendly neighbours
Slovenia got its highest marks from the other former Yugoslav countries: 20 in total, which means more than half of the total score. Norway got its only 12 points from Finland. On the other hand, Finland got only six points from Norway but 12 points from both Estonia and Andorra. Bosnia got 12 points from the other two former Yugoslav countries but also 12 points from Norway (we would later see that the Bosnian entry was very popular in the Nordic countries). Andorra got its highest mark from Spain, the Netherlands from Belgium, Belgium from the Netherlands and Moldova from Romania and also Romania from Moldova. Estonia got seven of it’s eight points from Finland (maybe because the song was partly in Finnish?). Surprisingly, the only country that gave no points to Armenia was another former USSR country: Azerbaijan.
