The eleventh esctoday.com TOP TEN list starts today with the places 7 and 6 being announced. As revealed on Saturday, this week's topic are the TOP TEN most successful countries.

The ranking will feature countries that have taken part more than five times, i.e. in more than 10% of the editions of the contest held so far. 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 compared to its participations 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. 7 – Greece

Greece's average relative placing since the country's debut in 1974 equals a 10.95th place among 25 contestants.

Greece started in the Eurovision Song Contest with two placings out of the top ten, but there were only two longer dry spells that the country had to got through. One took place betwwen 1983 and 1988 without a placing in the top ten, but it has to be considered that Greece only took part four times in those years. Between 1994 and 1998 the country did not make the top ten either. Greece has never finished last or second last and therefore, their worst result was the third last place in 1998 for Thalassa.

In other years, Greece was mostly successful. Already in the 1970s, a series of top ten placings was achieved but it took until 2005 that Greece won for the first and only time with Helena Paprizou and My number one. The country also finished third three times and fifth twice. Since the intorduction of the semi final, Greece had a streak of luck reaching the top ten of the final every year – no other country has done that well in these years.

Only victory so far – Helena Paparizou with My number one in 2005:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icP8PqdW59k

No. 6 – Italy

Italy's average relative placing since the the first contest with open voting in 1957 equals a 10.76th place among 25 contestants.

Italy is one of the seven countries that took part in the first edition of the contest in 1956. Since then, the country was very successful as the longest streak of results outside the top ten lasted only three years between 1977 and 1979. The only Italian representative who finished last was Domenico Modugno in 1966 with Dio, come ti amo getting no points at all.

25 of Italy's 36 entries reached the top ten, although in some years Italy reached the top ten of a contest with less than 20 participants, which makes the achievement a little less impressive. Italy won the contest twice. The first winner was Gigliola Cinquetti in 1964 with Non ho l'età and in 1990, Toto Cutugno followed her with Insieme: 1992. Italy also finished second once, third four times, fourth twice and fifth five times. Remarkably, Italy's most successful decade were the 1990s (with a first place, two fourth places and a seventh place in five years of participation), which was also the last decade that Italy participated in.

Victory in Zagreb – Toto Cutugno with Insieme: 1992:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcMddMTk0lM

Tomorrow, we will introduce no. 5 and 4 on the list.