Feed Sign in with OpenID OpenID

Simon Willison’s Weblog

Eurovision scores

Aah sweet Eurovision. This time last year I was in Kansas, no one had even heard of it and I was forced to watch it over RealPlayer as it wasn’t being carried by any of the TV channels. This year, we’ve had a Eurovision party. Here are our scores:

   Country                  Simon   Nat     Tony    Andy    Average
===================================================================
1  Hungary                  7       8       8       7       7.5
2  UK                       3       10      4       3       5.0
3  Malta                    6       8       6       8       7.0
4  Romania                  7       4       9       6       6.5
5  Norway                   9       10      5       8       8.0
6  Turkey                   7       7       8       7       7.25
7  Moldova                  10      8       10      5       8.25
8  Albania                  6       4       4       4       4.5
9  Cyprus                   3       5       3       4       3.75
10 Spain                    4       6       6       5       5.25
11 Israel                   6       6       6       6       6.0
12 Serbia & Montenegro      5       9       6       6       6.5
13 Denmark                  5       7       6       6       6.0
14 Sweden                   7       9       8       6       7.5
15 F.Y.R. Macedonia         3       4       4       3       3.5
16 Ukraine                  6       7       8       6       6.75
17 Germany                  7       8       6       8       7.25
18 Croatia                  5       7       4       6       5.5
19 Greece                   8       7       8       6       7.25
20 Russia                   6       7       9       6       7.0
21 Bosnia & Herzegovina     9       9       10      8       9.0
22 Switzerland              5       4       6       7       5.5
23 Latvia                   4       4       4       6       4.5
24 France                   3       4       5       4       4.0
   Averages                 5.875   6.75    6.375   5.875   6.21875

I’m sure the official results will be up on Wikipedia within minutes of their announcement.

Posted 21st May 2005 at 10:06 pm

This is Eurovision scores by Simon Willison, posted on 21st May 2005.

Tagged

View blog reactions

Next: Testing a new version of IXR

Previous: Fighting RFCs with RFCs

15 comments

  1. Eurovision has sucked since they introduced public voting. It leads to block voting for neighbouring countries, especially those from Eastern Europe. Myself and my mate were watching it in the pub and could predict where the 12 points were going in most cases.

    Anthony - 22nd May 2005 00:55 - #

  2. You mean there was a time when countries didn't just vote for their neighbours? I've always thought that the blatantly biased voting patterns were part of Eurovision's charm ;)

    Simon Willison - 22nd May 2005 01:16 - #

  3. What? Eurovision has charm?

    Fatty - 22nd May 2005 11:42 - #

  4. I'm soooo confused....is this like an "Idol" or something...? Seriously... I spent about 30 minutes at the Eurovision site and I still don't get what it's all about...The "Number One" is hot, but, was her "song" the best, or what? Fill me in...I'm intrigued...

    Keith - 22nd May 2005 11:45 - #

  5. Keith: Eurovision is an annual celebration of, well, truly terrible music. Almost every country in Europe (and a few outside as well) submits an act with a song for the competition, and viewers vote for the best. It has something of a cult following in England for two reasons: firstly, the entries are almost always awful (extremely cheesy Euro-pop) and secondly, the UK broadcast of the event is narrated by Terry Wogan who knows it's a bit of a joke and mercilessly mocks it throughout.

    The official site is pretty uninformative - Wikipedia's description is far more useful.

    Simon Willison - 22nd May 2005 12:26 - #

  6. There was a before time where juries from the countries voted instead of the public. It led to good songs actually winning the content and accounts for Ireland having won it on a number of occasions.

    Anthony - 22nd May 2005 13:46 - #

  7. Is there any particular reason you presented that table as text rather than as a table? :)

    Peter Wilkinson - 22nd May 2005 14:01 - #

  8. I have to admit, the voting was the most fun part of the evening, but I couldn't quite sit through the 24 mostly appaling pop songs. I gave up after about number 12 and went on the internet on my friend's laptop :)

    In my eyes, Eurovision is just an oportunity for neighbouring countries (who spend 364 days of the year warring) to suddenly decide they're best friends with each other. Or is it that the minor east-european countries, after emerging from 50 years of communist rule, aren't quite sure of the concept of a free vote?

    And since when has Israel been in Europe?

    David House - 22nd May 2005 14:35 - #

  9. The Eurovision song contest has always sucked but it has gotten worse in the last few years due to ridiculous amount of media cover.

    Erik Arvidsson - 22nd May 2005 15:43 - #

  10. Peter: yes, laziness. That's the exact format I used in my text editor to keep track of people's picks.

    Simon Willison - 22nd May 2005 16:34 - #

  11. Ah, yes, the Wikipedia entry is very helpful...I should have known to check there first. Have you ever checked the Wikipedia for info on an artist? It's terrific. Eurovision sounds like loads of fun. Reading that entry, and a few subsequent entries, gave me quite a few chuckles. And then I tracked down some of the music...the whole idea seems silly in some ways and totally brilliant in others. Great stuff. Anyway, I can see how this might be a great excuse to throw a party and it sounds like a really fun time.

    Keith - 22nd May 2005 18:46 - #

  12. I suppose it had to happen - someone finding Eurovision so bad that it becomes a cult. Winning, or even entering, is death to being taken seriously, for who wants to be voted best of the worst? It worked for Abba, who could sing in English, but what chance does poor old Latvia have? I think the organisers should be lobbied to rotate languages each year. Wouldn't that be fun?

    Jem - 23rd May 2005 15:51 - #

  13. I've always considered Eurovision as some form of bizarre Comedy Show.

    Robert Wellock - 23rd May 2005 17:01 - #

  14. hi everybody ı'm from turkey 15 yers old and letonya ı LOVE you

    lale - 15th August 2005 15:57 - #

  15. the eurovision song contest is great fun i just wish professional juries came back so they can judge the song and there should be a ban on backing dancers,just focus on the song with the singer to take the stage and sing thats it.then great countries like ireland could win again

    donal - 18th August 2005 15:27 - #

Comments are closed.

Previously hosted at http://simon.incutio.com/archive/2005/05/21/eurovision

A django site