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 of the second semi final.
Please note: as eurovision.tv does, weDO take into account the tie-break rule for positions other than thewinning one. The use of this rule is disputed but generally does not affect the results too much.
- You can find the analysis of the first semi final here.
- You can find the scoreboard on eurovision.tv here.
Results
- Ukraine – 152
- Portugal – 120
- Denmark – 112
- Croatia – 112
- Georgia – 107
- Latvia – 86
- Turkey – 85
- Iceland – 68
- Albania – 67
- F.Y.R. Macedonia – 65
- Bulgaria – 56
- Sweden – 54
- Switzerland – 45
- Malta – 38
- Cyprus – 36
- Lithuania – 30
- Belarus – 27
- Czech Republic – 9
- Hungary – 6
Quick stats
Sweden only finished 12th according to the televoters but still went forward to the final as a jury joker. #10 would have been F.Y.R. Macedonia, #11 Bulgaria. Without the jury, it would have been the first Eurovision Song Contest final since 1976 without Sweden taking part.
Hungary finished last in the semi final. It is the first last place for the country but the six points Hungary got are not the lowest score: previously, Csaba Szigeti finished second last in 1995 with three points and Charlie finished third last in 1998 with four points.
Portugal finished second in the semi final which marks the first top five finish for the country after 40 years of participation.
After a last place on its debut, the Czech Republic did only finish second last this year. Nevertheless, the amount of points received increased by 900% – sadly only from one point to nine.
All countries got points from at least three other countries.
Lithuania only finished 16th and only got points from three countries, but these were all high marks: 8 from the United Kingdom, 10 from Georgia and 12 from Latvia.
Ukraine won by a margin of 32 points – a pretty high margin with not so many countries voting.
No country in this semi final got points from all other countries. Ukraine and Croatia came the closest getting points from 16 of the other 18 countries.
Four countries got at least once 12 points without qualifying: F.Y.R. Macedonia, Cyprus, Lithuania and Switzerland. On the other hand, Croatia and Hungary qualified without getting any douze points.
The Ukrainian winner got 12 points no less than six times – which means from one third of the other countries. Portugal finished second getting 12 only twice (from France and Switzerland).
The surprises
The biggest surprise might be the third place for the Danish entry, which was hardly predicted to reach the final at all. Denmark had already surprised in the 2005 semi final, where the country also finished third. Croatia, Georgia and Latvia were also not too high in the prediction polls but all finished in the top six. Hungary and Sweden were seen as sure qualifiers by many but Hungary finished last and Sweden had to qualify through the jury wildcard.
The running order
Like in the first semi final, the entry performed last did very well: Portugal finished second (apart from the Greek victory in the first semi final, it would have been the best placing for a song performed last in the Televoting era along with the Danish second place in 2001). Unlike in the first semi final, the song at number two did not too well and only finished 12th (but got the jury wildcard). Curiously enough, Sweden had also finished 12th the last time they got that position in 1988. As we had already known before the complete votes were revealed, only one of the last five songs performed made it to the final. However, the F.Y.R. Macedonian entry would have qualified if only the results of the Televoting had counted.
Some friendly and some friendly not-so-neighbours
The Nordic countries sticked together: Sweden got its highest marks Iceland and Denmark, Iceland got its highest marks from Sweden and Denmark and Denmark got 12 points from both Iceland and Sweden (however, Denmark also got 12 points from Hungary and the Czech Republic). Albania got its only 12 points from F.Y.R. Macedonia, F.Y.R. Macedonia got its 12 points from Croatia and Serbia. Hungary got its highest mark from Serbia (even if only four points). When it comes to the former USSR and former Yugoslav countries, the voting followed the patterns of recent years with only few exceptions. Malta once again proved to see things different than other countries: they were the only ones to give 12 points to Switzerland and were the country apart from the Scandinavians that gave the highest vote to Sweden.
