The tenth esctoday.com TOP TEN list starts today with the places 3 and 2 being announced. As revealed on Saturday, this week's topic are the TOP TEN least successful countries.

The ranking will feature countries that have taken part more than five times. It will be based on the average relative placing (i.e. the place in the contest compared to the number of participants) a country has achieved since its debut until today. Rules are:

• Semi final results and final results are counted separately.
• The qualifiying rounds of 1993 and 1996 will not be considered.
• In the case of a tie, the country that won more often gets the higher place in the ranking.

An example:

The countries x took part in the contest three times and finished 4th out of 12, 4th out of 16 and 10th out of 20. The average relative placing for x is 36/100, which equals a 9th place among 25 contestants. All average placings will be given compared to 25 countries competing as this is the current number of finalists every year.

So here we start…

No. 3 – Finland

Finlands's average relative placing since the country's debut in 1961 equals a 17th place among 25 contestants.

Finland was the fourth Nordic country to join the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961. It took 45 years until the country won for the first time as Lordi were the winners in Athens with their song Hard Rock hallelujah. Finland had already achieved its second best result in 1973 with Marion Rung and Tom tom tom. Finland reached the top ten ten other times, among them seventh place four times.

Most of the other Finnish participations ended near the bottom of the scoreboard. The country came last nine times, which means that one fifth of their entries reached last place (three of them with nil points). In 2010, Finland was eliminated in the semi final for the first time since 2005. The worst absolute placing was 25th place in the 2009 final. The lowest placing in a final without any qualifying rounds was 23rd (and of course last) place for Pave Maijanen and his song Yamma-yamma in 1992

No points for Kojo – the 1982 Finnish entry Nuku pommiin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB9TgTU-yIk

No. 2 – Lithuania

Lithuania's average relative placing since the country's debut in 1994 equals a 18.1st place among 25 contestants.

Lithuania debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 and has never won since. The highest place was sixth place for LT United in 2006. Their song We are the winners was therefore a wrong prediction, although they are indeed the winners among the Lithuanian entrants. The second highest placing was achieved by group Skamp in 2001 as they finished 13th with their song You got style.

Therefore, all Lithuanian entries but one finished outside the top ten. Twice, the country finished last: In 1994, on the country's debut, Ovidijus Vyšniauskas got no points at all and in 2005, Laura & the Lovers finished last in the semi final with Little by little. They got 17 points, which is still the highest number of points for any artist who finished last. Lithuania was relegated in 1995 and 2000 and no entries were submitted between 1996 and 1998.

Last on the debut – Ovidijus Vyšniauskas sings Lopšin?�?�� mylimai:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSzgNFbwTNQ

Tomorrow, we will show the no. 1 on the list.