The voting in the esctoday.com National Final Awards 2010 is still underway. Meanwhile, we want to take a look at the nomination statistics over the last five years. Between 2006 and 2008, the awards were part of the annual esctoday.com Awards but since last years, the best achievements in the national finals have been honoured separately.

• You can still vote in the 2010 national final awards here.

Most nominations by year

2006

Awards were given out in five different categories: Best national final, Best performance not to qualify for Eurovision, Best female performance not to qualify for Eurovision, Best male performance not to qualify for Eurovision and Best duo/group performance not to qualify for Eurovision.

1. Sweden – 5 nominations
2. Norway – 2
   Slovenia – 2
   Israel – 2
   Denmark – 2
3. Greece – 1
   Germany – 1
   Albania – 1
   Estonia – 1
   United Kingdom – 1
   Cyprus – 1
   Moldova – 1
   Belgium – 1
   Finland – 1
   Serbia & Montenegro – 1
   Romania – 1
   Poland – 1

Therefore, 17 of the 30 countries (57%) that held a televised national final (including Serbia & Montenegro, who would later withdraw from the contest) got at least one nomination. Sweden received a nomination in every category.

2007

Awards were given out in the same five categories as in the previous year.

1. Spain – 3 nominations
   Sweden – 3
2. France – 2
   Malta – 2
   Norway – 2
   Estonia – 2
   Poland – 2
   Latvia – 2
3. Denmark – 1
   Iceland – 1
   Serbia – 1
   Romania – 1
   Lithuania – 1
   Armenia – 1
   Germany – 1

Therefore, 15 of the 32 countries (47%) that held a televised national final received at least one nomination. No country received a nomination in every category. Spain got the most nominations in the categories it was eligible for (75%) as there was no solo male performance in the Spanish national final. The countries that received their first nomination in 2007 were Spain (first award year with a national final), France, Malta, Latvia, Iceland, Serbia (debuting country), Romania, Lithuania and Armenia (first year with a national final).

2008

2008 was the first year that the nominations were determined by the readers. The awards were given out in the same five categories as in the previous years.

1. Sweden – 5 nominations
2. Norway – 4
3. Spain – 3
4. Cyprus – 2
   Romania – 2
   Germany – 2
5. Portugal – 1
   Azerbaijan – 1
   Ireland – 1
   Greece – 1
   Russia – 1
   Finland – 1
   Serbia – 1

Therefore, 13 of the 36 countries (36%) that held a televised national final. No country received a nomination in every category. Sweden is the only country that ever got two nominations in one category (Best duo/group performance) and therefore both Sweden and Norway were nominated in four different categories. Since last year, only one nomination per country is possible in every category. The countries that received their first nomination in 2008 were Portugal, Azerbaijan (debuting country), Ireland and Russia.

2009

These were the first national final awards held separately from the esctoday.com awards. Eight new categories were introduced: Best song not to qualify for Eurovision, Best ballad, Best mid-tempo song, Best up-tempo song, Best staging and presentation, Best voting system, Best act eliminated in a semi final, quarter final or heat and Best webcast. There were no offcial nominees in the Best webcast category as the choice was made internally based on suggestions by the readers.

1. Sweden – 12 nominations
2. Norway – 9
3. Spain – 7
4. Denmark – 6
   United Kingdom – 6
5. Finland – 4
   Portugal – 4
6. Israel – 3
7. Albania – 2
   FYR Macedonia – 2
   Romania – 2
8. Ireland – 1
   Estonia – 1
   Croatia – 1
   Slovenia – 1
   Bulgaria – 1
   Poland – 1

Therefore, 17 of the 34 countries (50%) that held a televised national final (including withdrawn country Georgia) got at least one nomination. Both Sweden and the United Kingdom received a nomination in every category they were eligible for. The countries that received their first nomination in 2009 were FYR Macedonia, Croatia and Bulgaria.

2010

Another three categories were introduced this year: Best pop or dance song, Best rock song and Best folkloristic or ethnic song. The Best webcast category was retired.

1. Portugal – 12 nominations
   Sweden – 12
2. Norway – 8
   Denmark – 8
3. Germany – 7
4. Spain – 6
5. Israel – 3
   Lithuania – 3
   Russia – 3
   Estonia – 3
   Finland – 3
6. Poland – 2
   Romania – 2
7. Armenia – 1
   Slovenia – 1
   Greece – 1
   Serbia – 1
   Ukraine – 1
   Moldova – 1

Therefore, 19 of the 33 countries (58%) that held a televised national final got at least one nomination. No country got a nomination in every category. The only country that received its first nomination this year is Ukraine.

2006-2010

A total of 216 nominations were cast over the last five years. The complete statistics are as follows:

1. Sweden – 37 nominations
2. Norway – 25
3. Spain – 19
4. Denmark – 17
   Portugal – 17
5. Germany – 11
6. Finland – 9
7. Israel – 8
   Romania – 8
8. Estonia – 7
   United Kingdom – 7
9. Poland – 6
10. Lithunia – 4
    Russia – 4
    Slovenia – 4
11. Albania – 3
    Cyprus – 3
    Greece – 3
    Serbia – 3
12. Armenia – 2
    France – 2
    Ireland – 2
    Latvia – 2
    FYR Macedonia – 2
    Malta – 2
    Moldova – 2
13. Azerbaijan – 1
    Belgium – 1
    Bulgaria – 1
    Croatia – 1
    Iceland – 1
    Serbia & Montenegro – 1
    Ukraine – 1

Therefore, 33 of the 41 countries (80%) that held at least one national final between 2005 and 2010 got one or more nominations. The eight countries that were never nominated despite having held a televised national final are (number of finals in brackets): Andorra (1), Belarus (4), Czech Republic (3), Georgia (4), Hungary (1), Montenegro (2), the Netherlands (4) and Slovakia (2).