Does Finland always vote for Sweden? Who does Israel usually get votes from? Which country has not given Finland a point? We finally have answers.
We are studying Eurovision score data from 1998. In this article, we reveal which of the five clichés are true and examine whether world politics and wars have been reflected in the scores of the singing competition.
Let’s start with a statement familiar to Viusu fans:
1 “Again Greece gave points to Cyprus”
The Viiyu audience is used to expecting that the southern European neighbors give each other high scores. The practice is considered favoritism.
The statistics prove the claim to be true. Cyprus and Greece take the top spot when comparing which countries have favored each other with the highest number of points. Cyprus has ranked Greece first 24 times, Greece ranked Cyprus 22 times.
‘s Greek editor Sara Saure is not surprised by the reading, on the contrary. According to him, it is self-evident that brotherly nations vote for each other in wisdom.
– The Greek Cypriot community speaks Greek and has all Greek traditions. It does not use the term “Cypriot” for its nationality, but considers itself Greek Cypriot. The second one is scored with 12 points, it doesn’t even need to be put on the wallpaper during the games, says Saure.
According to the statistics, on average each country has given its favorite 12 points in seven competitions since 1998. Instead, Greece and Cyprus have voted for each other more than 20 times.
2 Now it has been proven: the neighbor is preferred
Cyprus and Greece are not the only two countries that favor each other. Our survey reveals that Moldova and Romania do the same, for example.
From the map below, you can see which country has given 12 points most often. You can select a country by pressing the map. From the table, you can see the favorites of each country at once.
In addition to the southern European pairs, it is striking that Denmark and Norway gave Sweden full points an exceptional number of times.
Finland has also given the 12-point pot most often to Sweden, in ten different competitions. Sweden, on the other hand, has given Finland 12 points in six competitions.
Our best wise friend is Estonia. It has remembered Finland with full points in eight races.
British journalist specializing in Eurovision Daniel Rosney finds ‘s results interesting. In his opinion, however, it is not possible to draw very far-reaching conclusions from the Eurovisa data about what kind of relations prevail between different countries.
– Neighbors can be given points, for example, because they may already be familiar with the music or the performer. It also has an effect if there are many residents of one country in another country, says Rosney.
3 Who likes Finland?
Finland has been able to enjoy neighborly love just like many others. When all the points are added together, Estonia, Sweden, Iceland, Norway and Denmark have given the most votes to Finland. After the neighbors come Poland, Great Britain and Spain.
For these three, Finland has shown quite a bit of unrequited love.
For example, Spain has received a total of only 11 points from Finland since 1998. At the same time, it has given Finland a total of 89 points.
Britain, on the other hand, has only received 36 points from us, while it has given Finland as many as 106 points.
Rosney is not bitter about the ugly numbers.
– Britain has sent such terrible songs to the competition!
A large part of Finland’s points have come in successful years: 2006 Lordi won, 2021 Blind Channel came sixth and 2023 Käärijä second.
Not everyone has warmed up despite these performances either. In recent decades, the fewest points have come to Finland from Armenia, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Georgia was the only country that did not give Finland a single point in 2021.
5 Who does Finland prefer?
The video at the beginning of the story gave a hint that the Finnish jury and the Finns also liked the shows from neighboring countries the most. When looking at the total points, Finland has given the most votes to Sweden. It is followed by Estonia, Iceland and Norway.
The statement that Finland gives Sweden more points than it gets back is also valid. Finland has given its neighbor a total of 277 points, but only 203 have come back.
After the Nordic countries and Estonia, the visa countries Russia and Israel, which have come under criticism, have received the most points from Finland.
6 Do wars affect the visa result?
The Eurovision organizers want to keep politics out of the contest, but the audience often brings it in. This also happened in 2014, when the Eurovision Song Contest was held shortly after Russia had occupied the Crimean peninsula belonging to Ukraine.
It seems that Russian songs have been liked by very different audiences before and after 2014.
Before the annexation of Crimea, Estonia and Ukraine voted the most for Russia.
After the annexation of Crimea, Russia has instead received the most votes from Azerbaijan, Moldova and Greece.
On this map, you can see how the countries that vote for Russia the most have changed since Russia seized the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
Eurovision expert Daniel Rosney points out that Russia’s scores cannot be interpreted only through political lenses.
– However, Russia still placed very well in Eurovision after 2014. For example, in 2015 it was second and in 2019 it was third, says Rosney.
Britain fared worse in 2003. They were shamefully left without any points in the five-a-side final. Then one the reason was speculated Iraq war.
A memorable example of politics in Eurovision is also the year 2022, when Ukraine, which was the target of a major Russian attack, won the competition.
In Rosney’s opinion, it could have been about more than just a common expression of support for Ukraine.
– Back then, there were a huge number of Ukrainians in various European countries. Ukraine’s victory was certainly very important to them and I believe that many of them voted, says Rosney.
7 Is the war in Gaza reflected in Israel’s votes?
In this year’s wisdom, the world situation is again strongly present. Israel is waging war in Gaza against the terrorist organization Hamas. According to the Ministry of Health, which is managed by the Hamas organization, more than 34,000 Palestinians have died there. The majority of the casualties are civilians.
The statistics reveal that Finland is among the countries that voted for Israel the most. Only France has supported more Israeli visa candidates in the Eurovision finals than Finland, clearly the most. After Finland come the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Portugal.
Since 1998, Austria, Armenia and Iceland have voted the least for Israel. A few voices have also come from Latvia, Lithuania and Denmark.
According to Daniel Rosney, the political charge does not necessarily affect the competition itself.
– I think Israel has as good a chance of reaching the final as before. That’s what I’ve been thinking about, how different countries this year ensure the political neutrality of expert juries.
The results may always surprise you.
– In a way, that’s the beauty of this whole competition, that despite the formulas, it’s ultimately really hard to predict who will succeed, says Rosney.
This year, you can vote even before the first song has played on the broadcast. For example, there may be more public votes from Central Asia than before, as there is no longer a need to wait until midnight for voting to start.
The material for this story has been used Eurovision Dataset. It is a material about Eurovision votes compiled by music and artificial intelligence researcher Janne Spijkervet, based on the Eurovision World fan site.