Eurovision Song Contest 2023 Analysis

Here are all the 26 finalists, in the order they will perform tonight:
Austria, Portugal, Switzerland, Poland, Serbia, France, Cyprus, Spain, Sweden, Albania, Italy, Estonia, Finland, Czechia, Australia, Belgium, Armenia, Moldova, Ukraine, Norway, Germany, Lithuania, Israel, Slovenia, Croatia, United Kingdom.

Now for the 11‬ countries which failed to reach the final, but which will still vote tonight:‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
Azerbaijan, Denmark, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Romania, San Marino.

N.B. Any use of "Tuesday" throughout this post means Tuesday 9 May 2023. Any use of "Thursday" means Thursday 11 May 2023. Any use of "tonight" or "this evening" means Saturday 13 May 2023.

Now let's look at some country groups:

Baltic States (Ex-USSR)

In: Estonia, Lithuania. Out: Latvia.

Just like last year, Estonia and Lithuania qualified for the Grand Final, whereas Latvia failed to qualify I’m glad Estonia qualified on Thursday evening as Alika’s “Bridges” is an excellent power ballad, which I think would be good as the opening song for a James Bond film. I’m equally glad Lithuania qualified. Although Monika Linkytė’s “Stay” has a slow start, it has a catchy chorus; furthermore, Monika has a beautiful voice, and sang well on Thursday evening. My only disappointment in this group was Latvia not qualifying, as I thought “Aijā” was well-performed and well-staged on Tuesday evening, and was therefore worthy of a place in the Grand Final. The upshot of all this is that, Estonia and Lithuania will be able to give 12 jury points and 12 televote points to each other, and Latvia will be able to give their top two jury points and top two televote points to Estonia and Lithuania.

Nordic area

In: Finland, Norway, Sweden. Out: Denmark, Iceland.

This has been an unusual year for Nordic area. Finland, Norway and Sweden, all of which took part in the First Semi-Final on Tuesday, qualified for the Grand Final. On the other hand, Denmark and Iceland, both of which took part in the Second Semi-Final on Thursday, failed to qualify this year. I’m glad Norway and Sweden qualified, as I thought they were two of the best songs on Tuesday evening. Finland was on my “Prefer not to qualify” list on Tuesday evening, largely because Käärijä’s “Cha Cha Cha” is not my taste in music, but I knew their entry was almost certain to qualify, and I’d have been shocked if it hadn’t qualified. As for Denmark and Iceland, their entries ended up on my “Wouldn't mind qualifying” list on Thursday evening. Although I liked their entries, there were too many other, better entries from other countries that I had a greater desire to see qualify on Thursday evening. The upshot of all this is that Finland, Norway and Sweden will all be able to give their top two jury points and top two televote points to each other, whereas Denmark and Iceland will be able to give their top three jury points and top three televote points to Finland, Norway and Sweden tonight.

Benelux

In: Belgium. Out: Netherlands. Didn’t enter: Luxembourg.

I’m glad Belgium qualified for the Grand Final, as “Because Of You” is a lively, catchy disco / party song, and Gustaph has a good voice, and sang in a powerful manner on Thursday evening. In fact, Belgium was one of the countries I voted for on Thursday evening. On the other hand, I’m glad the Netherlands failed to qualify this year, because I was disappointed with the live performance of “Burning Daylight” on Tuesday evening. The upshot of this is, the Netherlands will be able to give their 12 jury points and their 12 televoting points to Belgium tonight, but who will Belgium give its 12 jury points and 12 televoting points to tonight? Belgium can’t give any points to the Netherlands tonight as the Netherlands are not in the Grand Final.

Central Europe

In: Austria, Czechia, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland. Didn’t enter: Hungary, Slovakia.

This is a tricky group, it’s more difficult to spot trends here, and voting among these countries tends to be unpredictable. Anyway, this has been a good year so far for this group, because all six members of this group, that are taking part this year, are in the Grand Final. Of those, five countries (Austria, Czechia, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland) reached the Grand Final via one of the semi-finals this year. Of course, Germany is automatically guaranteed a place in the final every year as a Big Five member). The upshot of all this, Austria, Czechia, Germany, Poland, Slovenia and Switzerland will all be able to exchange jury points and televote points among each other tonight. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in this group.

Greece and Cyprus

In: Cyprus. Out: Greece.

Greece and Cyprus both performed in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 Second Semi-Final on Thursday evening, and were therefore able to vote for each other that evening. Of those two, Cyprus qualified, whereas Greece failed to qualify, on Thursday evening. So, Greece will still be able to give 12 jury points and 12 televote points to Cyprus tonight, but Cyprus won’t be able to give any jury points or televote points to Greece tonight. It’ll be interesting to see who Cyprus gives its 12 jury points and 12 televote points to.

Romania and Moldova

In: Moldova. Out: Romania.

Another pair of countries which tend to favour each other at Eurovision, but which happened to be in separate semi-finals this year (Moldova on Tuesday and Romania on Thursday), so they were unable to vote for each other either evening. Moldova qualified for the Grand Final on Tuesday evening, but Romania failed to qualify on Thursday evening. The upshot of this is, Romania will still be able to give its 12 jury points and its 12 televoting points to Moldova tonight, but Moldova won’t be able to give any jury points or televote points to Romania tonight. It’ll be interesting to see who Moldova gives its 12 jury points and 12 televote points to.

Former Yugoslavia

In: Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia. Didn’t enter: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia.

Only three of the former Yugoslav countries (Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia) entered this year, but this has been a lucky year for them in that all three of them qualified to the Grand Final. That means they’ll all be able to give each other their top two jury points and their top two televoting points.

Founding Seven

By this I mean the seven countries which appeared in the very first Eurovision Song Contest in Lugano in 1956:

In: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland. Out: Netherlands. Didn’t enter: Luxembourg.

It’s been a good year for the seven countries which participated in the first ever Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. The only two countries missing this year’s Grand Final, from this group, are the Netherlands, which failed to qualify on Tuesday evening, and Luxembourg, which last took part in 1993. Mind you, the only three countries from this group which needed to battle their way through the semi-finals this year were Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland; of those Belgium and Switzerland managed to qualify. France, Germany and Italy are automatic finalists every year as Big Five members.

And Finally

Tonight's Grand Final certainly looks set to be a spectacular one, and I'm really looking forward to it. Most of the countries I wanted to qualify are in. My only “Definitely don't want to qualify” country appearing tonight is Croatia, which was the first qualifying country to be called out on Tuesday evening. Of my “Prefer not to qualify” countries, Finland and Serbia qualified on Tuesday evening, whereas Austria qualified on Thursday evening. I would have preferred Ireland, Latvia and Malta to have qualified instead of Croatia, Finland and Serbia on Tuesday evening, and Georgia to have qualified instead of Austria on Thursday evening. At the end of the day, different people have different musical tastes to me and I cannot expect to have all my desired countries qualify. Although I personally don’t like the entries from Finland and Austria this year, it was obvious that Finland was almost certain to qualify on Tuesday evening, and Austria was almost certain to qualify on Thursday evening, and even I would have been shocked if either of those hadn’t qualified.

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Eurovision Song Contest 2023 Second Semi-Final

Host country: United Kingdom (BBC)
Venue: Liverpool Arena, Liverpool, United Kingdom
Hosts: Alesha Dixon, Julia Sanina, Hannah Waddingham
Date: Thursday 11 May 2023

N.B. Any use of “tonight” or “this evening” throughout this post means Thursday 11 May 2023. All times in this post are in BST.

The Opening

After the usual Eurovision ident, accompanied by Charpentier's Te Deum prelude, the show began with clips from Tuesday evening’s Eurovision Song Contest 2023 First Semi-Final. At 20:02 the hosts Alesha Dixon, Julia Sanina and Hannah Waddingham appeared on stage to give their opening speeches.

The Songs

Six minutes after the start of the show (20:06 BST) it was time for the first song. Each song was introduced by a postcard film related to the appropriate country.

Song 1: Denmark - Reiley “Breaking My Heart”

I watched Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2023 Final live, online from the UK, on 11 February 2023. Interestingly “Breaking My Heart” was the last song to be performed in the main part of DMGP 2023 Final that evening, and it’s opening tonight’s Eurovision Song Contest Second Semi-Final. This is quite a lively, catchy song, but I don't like the way they've got the stop-start effect in the chorus e.g. "If we could go back to the start". Presumably this was created using a Vocoder or some control on the sound mixing desk. Some may see it as being clever with sound technology, but I think it spoils those parts of the song. A notable stage feature of the Eurovision performance was the partition with open door arches; one side of this appeared lilac in colour at the start. Part way through the song, Reiley walked through to the other side. The background colour of the partition, plus the stage floor, was pink, with cloud patterns. Near the end, the partition, main background screen and stage floor changed to green with hearts. Presumably the colour and pattern changing was to recreate the background colour / pattern changing featured in the official preview video. Altogether, a good song to open tonight’s show, and Reiley sang well tonight.bbI wouldn’t mind this in the Grand Final, but I wouldn’t miss it if it’s not there.

Song 2: Armenia - Brunette “Future Lover”

Now for a totally different style of song. Looking at the lyrics, “Future Lover” is clearly a love song. Just like in the preview video, Brunette sang the opening verse and the pre-chorus in quite a bouncy manner. The piano sound was noticeable during the first verse and the pre-chorus, just like in the preview video. She performed lying down during the opening verse, but sat up for the pre-chorus. The chorus is “I decide to be good, do good, look good,” four times over. Up until this point, there were amazing flowing patterns on the stage floor; these were pink during the opening verse and pre-chorus, and white during the chorus. The long section from “It's like a daydream, but I got some other, better plans” to “My pain, my panic attacks, oh.” appears to be a bridge, but due to the sudden change of singing style, it’s almost another song within the song. Just like the preview video, Brunette sang the lines in this section very rapidly, and in a powerful manner, almost angrily at times. Brunette stood up for this section, and the stage floor frequently changed between black and white. This section was followed by an instrumental section, including a powerful beat. During this instrumental section, Brunette danced on stage, and this part of the song was enhanced by strobe lighting and smoke effects. The rest of the song was a second instance of the chorus, followed by the outro, accompanied by white and pink flowing patterns on the stage floor. Light beams also appeared during the outro. Altogether, this is a song of two halves; almost two songs in one. It’s a ballad up to the end of the first chorus, and it’s a very powerful song during the long “bridge” section. Altogether an excellent performance; Brunette sang very well, and the staging was appropriate for the two totally different parts of the song. I’d definitely like to see this in the Grand Final, and it’s highly likely this will be there. See you Saturday, Brunette.

Song 3: Romania - Theodor Andrei “D.G.T. (Off and On)”

Well for starters, it seems like the version Theodor performed tonight was considerably different to the official preview video (which itself seemed to be the performance from the Selecția Națională 2023 Final). Tonight’s live performance began with blue circles on background screen, and the stage floor red with images of figures lying down. During the early part of the song, Theodor played a guitar whilst seated. Part way through, he stood up and walked around the stage whilst holding the microphone and singing; at the moment he stood up the background image changed to a river of flowing lava, with images of himself either side. A beat could be heard from here onwards. Near the end orange diagonal lines appeared on the background screen. Altogether, a lively song, but not my taste in music at all, and I’m mystified as to why there were three totally different imagery styles in the performance. I hope this stays out of Saturday evening’s Grand Final.

Song 4: Estonia - Alika “Bridges”

A power ballad, starting with a piano introduction. The most notable feature, during the Eurovision performance, was the self-playing grand piano. Alika sang the first verse quite softly, with the grand piano behind her. Just like the preview video, she sang each instance of the chorus in quite a bouncy manner, and I particularly like the way she sang “bridges” when it appeared. During the first instance of the chorus, Alika sat at the piano, appearing to be playing it. She stood up for the rest of the song. During the second verse, the notable sequence of piano notes could be heard after each line. The second instance of the chorus is longer than the previous one. Alika sang this instance of the chorus in a more powerful manner, effectively as build-up to the most powerful part of the song, that being the bridge. A blue marble effect appeared on background during the bridge. The song drew to a close with another instance of the extended length, 12-line chorus. Gold streaks appeared on the background and stage floor near the end. Altogether, an excellent song from Estonia, I’d say this would be good as the opening song for a James Bond film, due to its structure, including the characteristic finish. I’d definitely like to see this in the Grand Final, but I think this will be a borderline qualifier.

Song 5: Belgium - Gustaph “Because Of You”

This began with a shortened form of the chorus, which provided the ideal lead-in to the first verse. Gustaph performed these lines of the first verse in a powerful and bouncy manner. This was followed by the first full-length chorus, the second verse and another instance of the chorus. After that, there is the section starting “I’ll carry on”; effectively that serves as a bridge: Just like the preview video, Gustaph seemed to vary the speed at which he sang the lines in this section. During the Eurovision performance, the background screen and stage floor were white much of the time. Black images and some of the lyrics appeared in capital letters on the background screen, just like in the preview video. Altogether, a lively, catchy disco / party song. Drum beats and cymbal sounds feature heavily in this song, and there is good use of the saxophone at certain points in this song. Furthermore, Gustaph has a good voice, and sang in a powerful manner at Eurovision. I’d like to see this in the Grand Final, and it’s highly likely this will be there. See you Saturday, Gustaph.

A short break followed at this point.

Song 6: Cyprus - Andrew Lambrou “Break A Broken Heart”

A power ballad. The introduction is quite an unusual style, which is difficult to describe. The early part of the opening verse has no beat, but there is a noticeable beat during the last three lines of the first verse, and during the pre-chorus. The chorus is sung in quite a powerful manner; I particularly like the way Andrew sings the line “You can’t, you can’t break a broken heart”, followed by “No-o-o”, the latter of which provides a vital hook for the song. The second verse has a powerful beat from the outset. After the second instance of the pre-chorus, there is the second instance of the chorus. After the bridge, there is one final instance of the chorus. At Eurovision, this performance began with blue light beams and smoke effects during first verse. A significant feature was the waterfall effect, which was continuous during first two instances of of the chorus, and intermittent during the second verse; however this must have been simulated on the background screen. During the bridge, this was replaced with flames and sparks on the background screen for the rest of the song. Real flames also appeared around the stage edge towards the end of the performance. Altogether a powerful song, Andrew has a good voice and sang well tonight. I’d definitely like to see this in the Grand Final.

Song 7: Iceland - Diljá “Power”

I watched Söngvakeppnin 2023 Final live, online from the UK, on 25 February 2023. I’m mystified as to what musical genre this is. Is this a power ballad, or some other style of song? At Eurovision, Diljá began the performance sitting on the stage, with her legs bent, but stood up in time for the first instance of the chorus, and moved about the stage most of the time thereafter. Staging during the Eurovision performance included branches of a tree on the stage floor and background screen early on, and palm leaves and lilies on the background screen later. Altogether, a lively and catchy song, with a powerful and memorable chorus, but there is one moment where it gets a bit too screechy for my liking. Furthermore, Diljá has a beautiful voice, and just like at Söngvakeppnin, she demonstrated her talent to pitch high tonight. Based on tonight’s live performance, I wouldn’t mind this in the Grand Final, but I wouldn’t miss it if it’s not there.

Song 8: Greece - Victor Vernicos “What They Say”

According to Wiwibloggs, the lyrics are inspired from basically the first overwhelming experience of anxiety Victor had in his life. That’s worth bearing in mind, because when I first heard the preview version of this song, before reading that statement, the first verse and pre-chorus sounded somewhat depressing. During the Contest, Victor began by sitting / lying on the stage floor. Musically, the song got going in the chorus, and Victor sang this in a powerful manner. The second verse sounded musically livelier than the first verse. Staging included Greek letters on the stage floor and background screen, and images of Victor and geometric patterns on the background screen, plus smoke effects. Some of the lyrics also appeared on the background screen, however despite being English lyrics, some letters were replaced with Greek letters. Summing up, Victor has a good voice, and sang quite powerfully at times within this song, but I think you need to read the background information to understand what this song is about.

Song 9: Poland - Blanka “Solo”

According to Wiwibloggs, “Solo” is a sensual summertime anthem about knowing your self-worth and finding power in independence. The song begins with an introduction, consisting of electronic music with a beat. This leads into the first verse, which has a regular beat. There’s a change in the beat during the pre-chorus, including a rapid beat on its last line. The chorus is bouncy, very catchy, and enhanced by a beat. After the second verse, the second instance of the pre-chorus and the second instance of the chorus, the Eurovision performance featured an instrumental break, with a powerful beat; I don’t recall this instrumental in the preview video. During the bridge, there is a notable change in the tune compared to other parts of the song. There is a softer beat here, but various sounds can be heard in this part of the song. Finally, the song draws to a close, with one more instance of the chorus. The Eurovision performance of “Solo” began with a video tape effect, complete with noise bars, during the introduction. Background images thereafter included a hand pattern, on a starry background, during the first instance of the chorus, palm trees, with the background changing colour, during the second verse, a beach scene, with palm trees either side, during the second instance of the chorus, the sun during the instrumental break and palm trees during the final instance of the chorus. Fireworks around the stage edge enhanced the song during the second and final instances of the chorus. Altogether, an upbeat disco song, with a bouncy, catchy chorus. It’s got the typical pop song structure: verse, pre-chorus, chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus, and you can clearly spot those parts just by listening to the song. This sounds very Spanish style to me. Unsurprisingly for a song of this tule, this featured a well-choreographed dance routine during the instrumental break, and plenty more dancing in other parts of the song. Unfortunately I’m disappointed with the quality of the singing tonight, compared to the preview video, but I do like the screen images and dancing very much. Tonight’s performance to be valued more for the screen images and the dancing than for the quality of the singing. I wouldn’t mind this in the Grand Final, but I wouldn’t miss it if it’s not there.

Song 10: Slovenia - Joker Out “Carpe Diem”

Slovenia has gone for a rock song this year and the whole thing is sung in Slovenian. It’s great to hear a song in a country’s native language. This song has a very good beat, and guitar sounds can be heard at certain points the song The first three lines are sung softly, but the band sings the next sections, leading up to the chorus, more powerfully. The chorus is very catchy. After the instrumental break, and a few lines which effectively form a bridge, there is a second instance of the chorus. A few more lines, at a slower pace, form an outro, and the perfect way to unwind at the end of a lively, up-tempo song. During the early part of tonight’s performance, the title “Carpe Diem” appeared, as capital letters, made up of flashing red lights, on the background screen. Red and white light beams appeared during the instances of the chorus. Near the end, the band name, “Joker Out” appeared, as capital letters, made up of red lights, on the background screen. Altogether a very lively, catchy song. Now I’m not normally keen on rock, but I actually enjoyed tonight’s performance. I hope to see this in the Grand Final, and this is highly likely to be there. See you Saturday, Joker Out.

Song 11: Georgia - Iru “Echo”

The song begins with the opening instance of the chorus, which is sung in a powerful manner; drum beats can be heard and what sounds like a clash of cymbals can be heard at the end of the chorus. After two short sections, which are sung softly, there is a double instance of the chorus. The next section consists of “Going through the life together”, twice over, followed by a series of sounds. After that, there is another double instance of the chorus. The section starting “My soul’s like a fortress” must be the bridge; it sounds very eastern style. The song draws to a close with a single instance of the chorus. The Eurovision performance had two tall LED panels, set on angles; these were used to display rising smoke, and various other images. All in all, a powerful song, which I think would make a good James Bond film opening song, but will some consider there to be too much repetition of the chorus? Anyway, Iru has a beautiful voice, and sang well tonight. I’d definitely like to see this in the Grand Final.

A short break followed at this point.

Song 12: San Marino - Piqued Jacks “Like An Animal”

San Marino has gone for a rock song this year. Unsurprisingly, this makes good use of drum beats and guitar sounds. Being as the title is “Like An Animal”, it’s hardly surprising that snake eyes and butterflies are mentioned in the lyrics, and at one point in the Eurovision performance, the title appeared on the background screen with a leopard skin pattern. The whole song is powerful, but the chorus is very powerful and catchy. During the Eurovision performance, a giant pair of lips appeared on the background screen at the start. This was followed by a rising circle. Later red columns appeared on the background screen. Towards the end of the song, lines of white light formed parabolas, and coloured powder was simulated on the background screen. Altogether a lively song from the smallest country taking part this year, but if the betting odds are anything to go by, this is unlikely to qualify.

Song 13: Austria - Teya & Salena “Who The Hell Is Edgar?”

Just like the preview video, the song began with three lines, which sound spoken rather than sung: During this section, the beat began. The first verse proper has a reference to Edgar Allan Poe. According to Wikipedia, he was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. I’m mystified as to why Teya & Salena would want to sing a song about him, or which refers to him, at Eurovision. There is a notable change for the pre-chorus; I’d say this part sounds echoey. The chorus is very repetitive, due to the large number of instances of “Poe”. After another verse, the second instance of the chorus has a beat throughout. The Eurovision performance began with an image Edgar badged typewriter, with a page appearing, on the background screen at the start. Later images included red topped dancers on the background screen, and they became numerous during instances of the chorus. At the end, the large number of images of red topped dancers were zoomed out to cleverly form an image of Edgar’s face. Altogether a lively, catchy song, but the chorus is far too repetitive for my liking. Furthermore, Teya & Salena sang well tonight. I’d rather this doesn’t qualify, but this is strongly tipped to qualify, and I’ll be shocked if this isn’t there. See you Saturday, Teya & Salena

Song 14: Albania - Albina & Familja Kelmendi “Duje”

According to the song’s background information on the official Eurovision website, Duje is about the role of love in the family, and overcoming every challenge that life brings. According to Wikipedia, the title "Duje" translates as “Love it”. It’s an Albanian song in which I particularly like the introduction, chorus and instrumentals elsewhere, but I’m less keen on the opening verse and pre-chorus. It’s understandable that the opening verse and pre-chorus are sung in the manner they are, because from what I can gather, from an English translation of the lyrics, they are about a rather sad subject. To fully appreciate this song, I think you need to preview it multiple times, both watching the official video and then just listening whilst following the lyrics, and read the song’s background information. Casual viewers who are watching tonight’s show, having not previewed any of the songs, let alone read any background information about the songs, are unlikely to appreciate this. Various unusual images, which are difficult to describe, appeared on the background screen during the performance. Towards the end, the performance was enhanced by flame effects. Altogether, a good Balkan style ballad, Albina has a beautiful voice, and sang well tonight. I wouldn’t mind this in the final, but I wouldn’t miss it if it’s not there.

Song 15: Lithuania - Monika Linkytė “Stay”

I watched Pabandom iš naujo! 2023 Final live, online from the UK, on 18 February 2023. This was the final song out of ten finalist songs that evening, and at the time I thought it was one of the better ballads that evening. Now it’s the penultimate song in tonight’s Eurovision Song Contest 2023 Second Semi-Final. After a slow start, the song builds up during the pre-chorus. The most notable feature of this song is the line “Čiūto tūto” three times over, followed by “Finally my heart is beating”; this collection of four lines provides the perfect hook for this song. Effectively this group of lines forms the chorus. I’m mystified as to the significance of the circular patterned images, and the unusual figures, which appeared on the background screen, but they certainly looked effective. Towards the end Monika and her backing group stood in a half circle to sing an instance of the chorus. On the whole, a beautiful ballad with a catchy chorus. Monika has a beautiful voice, and sang well in in tonight’s semi-final. I’d definitely like to see this in the Grand Final.

Song 16: Australia - Voyager “Promise”

The last song in tonight’s line-up already; it’s amazing how time flies! Australia has gone for a rock song this year. It’s got a good beat throughout, and guitar sounds can be heard at times. By far the most memorable line is “Promise me it’s gonna be alright.”; that provides the hook for this song. I’m mystified as to why the lead singer performed the early part of the song seated in a car, but he left the car and performed directly on the stage after the first instance of the chorus. During one instance of the chorus, the illusion of driving at high speed was created with a moving road on the background screen behind the car. City scenes also featured in the background screen images. Altogether a very lively, catchy, rock song to close tonight’s show; it was very well performed, and very well staged. I’m not normally keen on rock, but unusually for me, I really liked this, and I’d definitely like to see this in the Grand Final.

Televoting and Recap

After the songs finished, the hosts reappeared to announce the start of the voting at 21:23 BST. A recap of the songs followed. The UK voted in tonight's semi-final, and therefore UK viewers saw the voting numbers at the bottom of the screen during the recap.

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My Preferences

Here are my preferences, based solely on all of tonight's performances:
Definitely want to qualify: Armenia, Estonia, Belgium, Cyprus, Slovenia, Georgia, Lithuania, Australia.
Wouldn't mind qualifying: Denmark, Iceland, Poland, Albania.
Prefer not to qualify: Greece, San Marino, Austria.
Definitely don't want to qualify: Romania.

So these are the ones I want to see Saturday night: Armenia, Estonia, Belgium, Cyprus, Slovenia, Georgia, Lithuania, Australia, plus two (and no more) of Denmark, Iceland, Poland, Albania.

The UK voted this evening; I voted for: Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Australia, Belgium.

My Qualification Predictions

Here are my predictions of which countries will and won’t qualify, based solely on all of tonight's performances:
Almost certain qualifiers: Armenia, Georgia, Austria, Australia.
Likely qualifiers: Belgium, Cyprus, Slovenia, Lithuania.
May qualify: Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Greece, Poland, Albania.
Highly unlikely to qualify: Romania, San Marino.

Voting closed at 21:39 BST.

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Eurovision Song Contest 2023 Second Semi-Final Results

Here are the results, which were announced in a random order before 22:00 BST. Any use of "tonight" still means Thursday 11 May 2023.

My desired qualifiers: Armenia, Estonia, Belgium, Cyprus, Slovenia, Georgia, Lithuania, Australia, plus two (and no more) of Denmark, Iceland, Poland, Albania.

Actual qualifiers (in order of announcement): Albania, Cyprus, Estonia, Belgium, Austria, Lithuania, Poland, Australia, Armenia, Slovenia.

Bold entries represent the actual qualifiers that match my “Definitely want to qualify” preferences, and italic entries represent the ones that match my “Wouldn't mind qualifying” preferences.

OUT: Denmark, Romania, Iceland, Greece, Georgia, San Marino.

I’m glad Armenia, Estonia, Belgium, Cyprus, Slovenia, Lithuania and Australia all made it to the final this year. All of them were very good entries, all deserving of being in the final. Although the entries from Slovenia and Australia are rock songs, and I’m not normally keen on rock, I even liked their songs, and wanted them in the final.

I’m disappointed that Georgia didn’t qualify, I thought their entry was a good song, and equally deserving of being in the final. Presumably some thought it had too many repetitions of the chorus, and/or it was too similar in style to Estonia’s entry.

The only song on my “Prefer not to qualify” list that qualified is Austria’s “Who The Hell Is Edgar?”. I don’t like that song much; for starters its chorus is way too repetitive for my liking. Still it was obvious that was going to qualify, and I’d have been shocked if it hadn’t qualified. It’s been the favourite not just to qualify, but also to win tonight’s Second Semi-Final, for quite some time now. I bet it won tonight’s semi-final, but we’ll have to wait until after Saturday evening’s Grand Final is over to find out.

So that means 7 out of my 8 “Definitely want to qualify” countries went qualified for the Grand Final, which if you think about it, is excellent. Another 2 of my 4 “Wouldn't mind qualifying” countries made qualified for the final as “top up countries” to the ones I most wanted. Really, I’ve done well in this semi-final. At the end of the day, I cannot expect to have all the songs I personally want in the final, and all the songs I personally don’t like eliminated.

Anyway, no matter how I personally feel about which countries' songs went thorough and which ones didn't, all the artists who performed tonight deserve equal respect. Congratulations to the ten countries which qualified to the final, and commiserations to the six which failed to reach the final. So that means all 26 finalists are now confirmed and 11 countries have been eliminated (but will still vote in the final). Roll on the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 Grand Final at 20:00 BST Saturday evening.

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Eurovision Song Contest 2023 First Semi-Final

Host country: United Kingdom (BBC)
Venue: Liverpool Arena, Liverpool, United Kingdom
Hosts: Alesha Dixon, Julia Sanina, Hannah Waddingham
Date: Tuesday 9 May 2023

N.B. Any use of “tonight” or “this evening” throughout this post means Tuesday 9 May 2023. All times in this post are in BST.

The Opening

After the initial opening sequence, the first official opening act was called “United By Music”, featuring a boy and a girl standing either side of a frame, and copying each other’s movements (effectively mirror images of each other), along with the song “Together in Electric Dreams”. This led seamlessly into the second opening act, that being co-presenter Julia Sanina performing “Mayak”, accompanied by dancers, plus flame effects around the edge of the stage. At 20:06 the hosts Alesha Dixon, Julia Sanina and Hannah Waddingham appeared on stage to give their opening speeches.

The Songs

Ten minutes after the start of the show (20:10 BST) it was time for the first song. Each song was introduced by a postcard film related to the appropriate country.

Song 1: Norway - Alessandra “Queen of Kings”

I watched Melodi Grand Prix 2023 Final live, online from the UK, on 4 February 2023. “Queen of Kings” is a lively song from start to finish, the chorus is powerful and highly memorable, and the beat is powerful. The lines: "Lookin' out, she calls ... Lai, la-la-li, rai-ra ... Who will conquer all?" remind me of the lines "Zoti nuk ma fal ... Bota mbi mua ra" in Albania's 2021 ESC entry. Staging at the Liverpool Arena included blue light beams and white flashing lights. For some mysterious reason there were some red / orange lights during the bridge, but the blue lights returned afterwards. The dancers on stage enhanced the performance further. Altogether a lively, catchy song to start tonight’s show. I’d definitely like this in the final, and I’m convinced this will be there.

Song 2: Malta - The Busker “Dance (Our Own Party)”

Malta has gone for what I’d call a disco party song this year. According to the official Eurovision website, the band began by busking on the streets of Malta. Their song “Dance (Our Own Party)” explores social anxiety and, more specifically, leaving a party to spend time with friends in a more comfortable setting. The song consists of three parts, and graphics were flashed up at the start of each act. Cardboard cut-outs of past Maltese Eurovision stars appeared at the start of the performance, early on; presumably they represented other party-goers, in the party venue the lead singer clearly appeared to be leaving. Later in part one of the song, a globe appeared on the background screen. A notable feature of part two, and indeed the whole song, was the car, which ties in with the going for a ride part of the song. The most notable feature of part three was one member dancing at one end of the stage, with white lighting beneath the stage floor, and white lights creating a starry effect in the background. Musically, this featured the saxophone and drumkit, so unsurprisingly, one member of the band held a saxophone, and another was seated at a drumkit, for parts of the performance, but it’s difficult to tell whether they were actually playing those instruments, or miming them. Altogether a lively, bouncy song, with a good beat. Furthermore, this was well performed, and it was clever how they staged the parts of the story the song was representing. I wouldn’t mind this in the final, but I wouldn’t miss it if it’s not there.

Song 3: Serbia - Luke Black “Samo Mi Se Spava”

Serbia has gone for a rather unusual song this year. According to the Eurovision website, Luke has a unique brand of indie-techno-pop; he uses classic pop influences as his canvas which he then paints over with experimental, electronic and indie sounds. As for the song’s content, Wiwibloggs website states “Samo mi se spava” translates to “I just want to sleep”. “Samo mi se spava” stands out for its memorable use of metaphors that reference video game language throughout, with phrases including “I don’t wanna choose my fighter, who’s taking control of me?”, and “Hello? Game over”. The lyrics describe Luke’s desire to escape feelings of hopelessness and despair. Tonight’s performance included the giant leaf on a pedestal structure, just like the official preview video (which I presume to be the Pesma za Evroviziju 2023 Final performance). Just like in the preview video, Luke began by singing whilst lying down on the leaf, but by the pre-chorus, he sat up (and was accompanied by flashing blue lights in the background). During the first chorus, he stepped down on to the stage, and performed standing thereafter. Subsequent effects included a starry effect on the background screen and blue lights during the second verse, red and white flashing lights, plus a giant image on the background screen during the second instance of the chorus. The highlight, near the end featured plenty of red lighting, plus a robot image and flame effects on the background screen. This mix of electronic / techno music is not my cup of tea, but no doubt there are plenty who enjoy this style, and I think Luke has been clever with the electronic keyboard, including special effects, combined with beats here. Furthermore, he gave a good performance tonight, and the staging was appropriate for this style of song. I’d rather this doesn’t qualify, but this is sure to be in the final.

Song 4: Latvia - Sudden Lights “Aijā”

According to Wiwibloggs, “Aijā” is an indie-rock track with folk undertones; its title roughly translates to “hushaby” or “shush” in English. The song is a lullaby to the world, providing comfort through difficult times. It was performed in English, except for the outro, which was in Latvian. Just like the Supernova 2023 Final performance of “Aijā” (which I have seen on YouTube), the Liverpool performance was mostly performed on a predominantly dark stage, with a large circular light above the lead singer Andrejs Reinis Zitmanis, and other circular lights. However, there were bursts of flashing lights, plus patterns on the background screen and stage floor, during instances of the chorus. Altogether a somewhat unusual song if this is supposed to be a lullaby, albeit a lullaby to the world. Nonetheless, I quite liked tonight’s live performance; “Aijā” was well-performed and well-staged. Based on tonight’s performance alone, I’d definitely like to see this in the final, but I think this is going to be very much a borderline qualifier.

A short break followed at this point.

Song 5: Portugal - Mimicat “Ai Coração”

I watched Festival da Canção 2023 Final online from the UK, on demand, one day late. The beginning of “Ai Coração” seems fairly slow. From the first chorus it’s quite lively, with a good beat, and plenty of dancing. This sounds to me like something from decades ago. According to Google Translate, Coração means Heart. Tonight’s live performance included considerable use of red light; however white lighting was used at certain points in the song. In addition, Mimicat and her dancers all wore red outfits. The three beats at the very end were a good way to round off this entry. Altogether, quite a catchy song, well sung and well staged; however, unlike the Festival da Canção Final performance, there was no heart or cogs on the background screen in Liverpool. I’d like to see this in the final, and I think this has quite a good chance of qualifying.

Song 6: Ireland - Wild Youth “We Are One”

A song with a fairly gentle first verse, but it builds up during the pre-chorus and gets lively during the chorus. I’m mystified as to why the performance began with the lead singer on the landing at the top of some steps, but by the first instance of the chorus, he was on the stage. The first instance of the chorus included patterns on the background screen. During the second verse, there was a gold swirl pattern on the stage floor. The highlight was arrangement of fireworks around the edge of the stage during the last instance of the chorus. Altogether a lively, catchy song, and well sung. I’d like to see this in the final, but if the betting odds are anything to go by, it’ll be a miracle for this to qualify.

Song 7: Croatia - Let 3 “Mama ŠČ!”

What is this? The lead singer is singing what I’d call utter garbage. In addition to having five performers on stage, the group made use of the background screen to display images of extra people. These included people in sports kit early on, copies of group members during the first instance of the chorus, and loads of faces later. There were also line patterns on the background screen at times. Towards the end one member of the group held two giant rockets, each with a firework at its tip. Not my taste in music at all. I’d rather this doesn’t qualify, but there’s a good chance this could slip through.

Song 8: Switzerland - Remo Forrer “Watergun”

A power ballad of two noticeable parts, in terms of the manner in which they are sung and musically; the piano up is clearly noticeable until the end of the first chorus, and the powerful beat during most of the rest of the song. It’s hardly surprising therefore, that the staging tonight included white / blue lights from the background screens up until the end of the first chorus. After that, the staging included red / orange lights and white flashing lights, along with fireworks and smoke effects. Remo has a good voice; furthermore, tonight he sang well and demonstrated his ability to sing softly and powerfully in one song. Whilst reviewing Eurovision 2023 entries recently, I felt borderline about this song, but based on tonight’s live performance, I’d like this in the final. Sadly, I think this is a doubtful qualifier.

Song 9: Israel - Noa Kirel “Unicorn”

According to Wiwibloggs, the song “Unicorn” is all about perseverance and unleashing your inner strength. This song is notable for the word play of “feminine” and “phenomenal”. I liked the way Noa stood inside the frame, which was set on an angle, during the early part of the song. After the first instance of the chorus, she walked on the on to the main part of the stage, and was accompanied by dancers. Following the line “Do you want to see me dance”, Noa did some stage level dancing (presumably break dancing). During the outro, images of unicorns appeared on the background screen. The burst of fireworks after that was the perfect way to end this song. Altogether, a lively, catchy song, well sung by Noa and very well staged tonight. I’d definitely like to see this in the final, and I think this has a good chance of qualifying.

Song 10: Moldova - Pasha Parfeni “Soarele şi Luna”

Moldova has gone for what seems like an eastern style song this year. It has a good beat at certain points in the song, and I like the use of the flute at times. Unsurprisingly for an eastern style song, two band members were playing drums of some sort near the back of the stage. Notable background screen images included the giant eye at the start, followed by what looked like an eclipsed sun. The red and yellow lights, and the smoke / dry ice effect enhance the song. Altogether a lively song, well staged and well sung. At the time of performance, I’m in two minds as to whether or not I’d like this in the final. I wouldn’t mind this in the final, but wouldn’t miss it if it’s not there.

A short break followed at this point

Song 11: Sweden - Loreen “Tattoo”

I watched Melodifestivalen 2023 Final live, online from the UK, on 11 March 2023. Loreen won the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 for Sweden with the song “Euphoria”. She’s back this year, this time with the song “Tattoo”. Having analysed the lyrics, it seems to me as though this is about a couple who aren’t ready to commit to a relationship yet, but it’s not over yet, and there is still hope for a successful relationship in the future, when the time is right. As for the chorus, it seems this is stating that one partner is determined to have a successful relationship with the other, no matter what challenges that requires. Just like the Melodifestivalen performance, this made use of the “giant sandwich”, with the upper layer being gradually raised during the performance. It’s unclear whether it’s the same “sandwich”, or a substitute, but it looked effective on the Liverpool Arena stage. The lighting tonight was similar to that in Melodifestivalen, and the smoke / dry ice effect enhanced the performance. Altogether an outstanding package; Loreen has a powerful voice, and sang exceptionally well tonight, and this song was very well staged. I definitely want this in the final, and if the betting odds are anything to go by, this is almost guaranteed to qualify.

Song 12: Azerbaijan - TuralTuranX “Tell Me More”

TuralTuranX is a duo consisting of twins Tural and Turan Baghmanov. The song begins with a spoken section, accompanied by a beat and some background music, until the first instance of the chorus, which is sung. After that there is a rap section, until the second instance of the chorus. The bridge is sung quite rapidly; I like the way in which they sing “And that is love, Love, Love”. The Eurovision performance began with separate monochrome images at start, which merged to full screen, and changed to colour in time for the first instance of the chorus. Thereafter turquoise blue and yellow light beams lit the stage up until the end of the bridge. Presumably those light beam colours were chosen to represent the Ukrainian flag colours. The song draws to a close with one final instance of the chorus, which at Eurovision, featured red / pink lighting. Altogether this is what I’d call a 1960s style rock ‘n’ roll song; similar to what The Beatles, Marmalade and Dave Clark Five used to produce, but with rap thrown in for good measure. It makes good use of drums, cymbals and guitars to varying degrees in different parts of the song. I like the chorus and the section I assume to be the bridge. I’m less keen on the rap sections, but they fit in very well with the sung sections here. Not a bad entry, but I’d rather this doesn’t qualify as there are too many other, better, entries which I’d sooner see in the final.

Song 13: Czechia - Vesna “My Sister's Crown”

Czechia has participated under the name Czech Republic in the past, but this is their first time of taking part under the name Czechia. The song “My Sister's Crown” is in English, Czech, Ukrainian and Bulgarian. Vesna are certainly being adventurous putting four languages in one song, but it’s ironic that they’re including Bulgarian in the song considering that Bulgaria isn’t taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest this year. This opening section, sung in Czech, sounds quite unusual; I think it sounds rather eastern style, but there is a noticeable beat within this section. The next few sections, in English, are in a noticeably different style. As for the Eurovision performance, the opening Czech section included Czech lyrics on the stage floor, and the English section, which followed, included “We’re not your dolls” on the background screen. Light beams also appeared during the performance. Unsurprisingly for a song of this style, the six-member of group danced during the performance, in perfect synchronisation in some parts. During the section starting “All the sisters of the world”, the group members formed a tight circle, facing outwards. All in all, a rather unusual song from Czechia. It’s not the usual verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus structure; in fact, it’s difficult to say exactly the different sections, in noticeably different styles, are. I particularly liked the Ukrainian section starting “Sestro krasyva”, but there are some parts that I’m not that keen on. Anyway, Vesna gave a good performance tonight and this was well-staged. Based on tonight’s performance, I wouldn’t mind this qualifying, but I wouldn’t miss this if it’s not there.

Song 14: Netherlands - Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper “Burning Daylight”

A ballad performed by Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper. According to Wiwibloggs, Mia and Dion co-wrote “Burning Daylight” with Duncan Laurence (who won for the Netherlands in 2019), Jordan Garfield and Loek van der Grinten. Just like in the preview video, Dion sang up until the end of the first instance of the chorus, Mia sang the second verse and second instance of the pre-chorus, and both sang as a duet thereafter. I quite liked the performance in the official preview video when I reviewed this song recently, and also the CD album version, and based on that this would have been on my “Wouldn’t mind qualifying” list. However, I was very disappointed with tonight’s live performance; the only bit I liked tonight was the outro. The most notable feature of tonight’s live performance was the light circle, with rays, on the background screen during the second instance of the chorus, but I question the need for some flashing lights during the outro. Based on tonight’s live performance, I’d rather this doesn’t qualify.

Song 15: Finland - Käärijä “Cha Cha Cha”

The final song already, it’s amazing how time flies! I watched Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2023 Final live, online from the UK, on 25 February 2023. Their entry is performed in Finnish this year. I don't know what genre this is meant to be; to me it sounds like a mixture of rap and dubstep. Whatever it is, it's not my taste in music. Part way through it changes to a totally different style. Whether or not it's to one's personal taste, it's certainly a lively, memorable entry. Analysing an English version of the lyrics, this is about enjoying a night out, and having plenty of drinks until one's eyes are crossed and one's speech is slurred, along with dancing. Just like the UMK Final performance, tonight’s performance began with the lead singer inside the box, but part way into the song, he broke his way out through the top, and stood atop the box. Later he performed on stage. Also, just like the UMK performance, the lead singer wore his lime green top, and dancers, dressed in pink, were present on stage. This made considerable use of strobe lighting early on, but towards the end, this had static lighting in all colours of the rainbow on the background screen and stage floor. Altogether not my taste in music, and I’d rather this doesn’t qualify, but mark my words, this is almost guaranteed a place on Saturday. See you Saturday, Käärijä.

Televoting and Recap

After the songs finished, the hosts reappeared to announce the start of the voting at 21:20 BST. A recap of the songs followed. The UK was unable to vote in tonight's semi-final, and therefore UK viewers saw a message "UK viewers cannot vote tonight" at the bottom of the screen during the recap.

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My Preferences

Here are my preferences, based solely on all of tonight's performances:
Definitely want to qualify: Norway, Latvia, Portugal, Ireland, Switzerland, Israel, Sweden.
Wouldn't mind qualifying: Malta, Moldova, Czechia.
Prefer not to qualify: Serbia, Azerbaijan, Netherlands, Finland.
Definitely don't want to qualify: Croatia.

So these are the ones I want to see Saturday night: Norway, Latvia, Portugal, Ireland, Switzerland, Israel, Sweden, Malta, Moldova, Czechia.

Had the UK been voting in this semi-final, I would have voted for: Sweden, Norway, Israel, Latvia, Ireland, Portugal.

My Qualification Predictions

Here are my predictions of which countries will and won’t qualify, based solely on all of tonight's performances:
Almost certain qualifiers: Norway, Sweden, Finland.
Likely qualifiers: Serbia, Portugal, Croatia, Israel, Czechia.
May qualify: Malta, Latvia, Moldova.
Highly unlikely to qualify: Ireland, Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Netherlands.

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Eurovision Song Contest 2023 First Semi-Final Results

Here are the results, which were announced in a random order before 22:00 BST. Any use of "tonight" still means Tuesday 9 May 2023.

My desired qualifiers: Norway, Latvia, Portugal, Ireland, Switzerland, Israel, Sweden, Malta, Moldova, Czechia.

Actual qualifiers (in order of announcement): Croatia, Moldova, Switzerland, Finland, Czechia, Israel, Portugal, Sweden, Serbia, Norway.

Bold entries represent the actual qualifiers that match my “Definitely want to qualify” preferences, and italic entries represent the ones that match my “Wouldn't mind qualifying” preferences.

OUT: Malta, Latvia, Ireland, Azerbaijan, Netherlands.

I’m glad Norway and Sweden are through, as I thought they were two of the best songs tonight; and they were among the countries most likely to qualify. There was a nail-biting moment when the hosts were about announce Norway as the tenth qualifier; although Norway was expected to qualify, no country was guaranteed a place in the final, and there was the possibility the last place could have gone to another country. I’m also glad Portugal and Israel are through, as I thought they too were good songs which deserved to be in the final. I’m glad Switzerland is in the final, because not only is “Watergun” a good power ballad, but I thought that was highly unlikely to qualify.

The one country I’m most annoyed about qualifying to final is Croatia. That was the one country on my “Definitely don't want to qualify” list. Still, I guess some people liked the style of song that Let 3 have entered this year, and the way it was staged. To a lesser degree I’m annoyed Serbia are through, as their entry this year is not my taste in music, and therefore ended up on my “Prefer not to qualify” list. To be fair though, I think Luke Black was clever with the electronic keyboard, including special effects, combined with beats, and his song “Samo Mi Se Spava” was well staged tonight.

So, 5 of my 7 “Definitely want to qualify” songs went through, and 2 of my 3 of my “Wouldn't mind qualifying” reached the final. Not bad I suppose. At the end of the day, I cannot expect to have all the songs I personally want in the final, and all the songs I personally don’t like eliminated.

Anyway, no matter how I personally feel about which countries' songs went thorough and which ones didn't, all the artists who performed tonight deserve equal respect. Congratulations to the ten countries which qualified to the final, and commiserations to the five which failed to reach the final. So, that means sixteen finalists are now confirmed and five countries have been eliminated. Another sixteen countries will battle it out for the ten remaining places on Thursday evening.

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Eurovision Song Contest 2022 Grand Final Extended Voting Analysis

Host country: Italy (RAI)
Venue: PalaOlimpico, Turin, Italy
Hosts: Laura Pausini, Alessandro Cattelan, Mika
Date: Saturday 14 May 2022

My main Eurovision Song Contest 2022 Grand Final review, including the opening act, songs, interval acts, jury voting and announcement of the televoting results is available here. This supplement is intended to be read in addition to, and not instead of, that report.

N.B. Any use of “tonight” or “this evening” throughout this post means Saturday 14 May 2022. Any use of “Tuesday” means Tuesday 10 May 2022, whereas any reference to “Thursday” means Thursday 12 May 2022. Any use of “this year” means 2022, whereas “next year” means 2023. All times in this post are in BST.

To make this report easier to read, I've split it into sections. Click the applicable link below to jump to the section you want to read:

Winner and Top Marks
Country Groups
Alternative Voting Presentation
Conclusion

Winner and Top Marks

Points Levels to Winner

Jury Voting

The 8 countries which awarded 12 jury points to the United Kingdom (which won the jury vote and finished second overall) were: Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Ukraine. 27 other countries gave between 1 and 10 jury points to the United Kingdom. Interestingly the United Kingdom received at least one of each 1 to 10 points level on the jury voting. 4 countries (other than the United Kingdom itself) gave no jury points at all to the United Kingdom, those being Armenia, Australia, Croatia, Greece.

The 5 countries which awarded 12 jury points to Ukraine (which finished fourth in the jury vote and was the overall winner) were: Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania. 21 other countries gave between 1 and 10 jury points to Ukraine. Interestingly, Ukraine received no 1-point scores on the jury voting. 13 countries (other than Ukraine itself) gave no jury points at all to Ukraine, those being Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.

The number of times the United Kingdom and Ukraine received each particular points level (or no points at all) from the other juries is summarised in the following table:

Points level	Jury to United Kingdom	United Kingdom Pts	Jury to Ukraine	Ukraine Pts
0	4	0	13	0
1	1	1	0	0
2	1	2	1	2
3	2	6	3	9
4	2	8	1	4
5	1	5	1	5
6	4	24	5	30
7	1	7	4	28
8	8	64	3	24
10	7	70	3	30
12	8	96	5	60
TOTAL	39	283	39	192

Televoting

The United Kingdom, which finished fifth with 183 points in the televote (but won the jury vote and finished second overall) received 12 televote points from just 1 other country, that being Malta. 33 other countries gave between 1 and 10 televote points to the United Kingdom. Interestingly the United Kingdom received at least one of each 1 to 10 points level on televoting. 5 countries (other than the United Kingdom itself) gave no televote points at all to the United Kingdom, those being Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia.

Ukraine, which won the televote and was the overall winner, received points from all the other 39 countries on televoting. The 28 countries which awarded 12 televote points to Ukraine were: Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom. That alone amounted to 336 out of the 439 televote points which Ukraine received. 8 countries gave 10 televote points to Ukraine; those were Albania, Armenia, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, Romania, Slovenia, Switzerland. 2 countries, Malta and North Macedonia, gave 8 televote points to Ukraine. The lowest individual televote score which Ukraine received was 7 televote points from Serbia.

The number of times the United Kingdom and Ukraine received each particular points level (or no points at all) in the televoting is summarised in the following table:

Points level	Tele to United Kingdom	United Kingdom Pts	Tele to Ukraine	Ukraine Pts
0	5	0	0	0
1	1	1	0	0
2	2	4	0	0
3	6	18	0	0
4	4	16	0	0
5	3	15	0	0
6	9	54	0	0
7	3	21	1	7
8	4	32	2	16
10	1	10	8	80
12	1	12	28	336
TOTAL	39	183	39	439

Number of 12s Received

Jury Voting

9 of the 25 finalists received at least one 12-point vote from the juries. The number of 12-point votes received by each of those 9 countries from the juries is shown in the table below.

12 Points to	No of 12s Received	Total From 12s
Spain	8	96
United Kingdom	8	96
Greece	6	72
Sweden	5	60
Ukraine	5	60
Azerbaijan	3	36
Italy	2	24
Serbia	2	24
Netherlands	1	12

Notice that the highest number of 12-point scores (8 altogether) was received by both Spain (which finished third in the jury vote and third overall) and United Kingdom (jury vote winner and second overall). Greece, which finished sixth in the jury vote and eighth overall, received the second highest number of 12-point scores (6 altogether). Sweden (second in the jury vote and fourth overall) and Ukraine (fourth in the jury vote and overall winner) both received the third highest number of 12-point scores (5 each). Thus, the overall winner didn’t receive the highest number of 12-point scores from the juries. Azerbaijan received the fourth highest number of 12-point scores (3 altogether), but finished just tenth in the jury vote and sixteenth overall. Italy and Serbia each received two 12-point scores, but of those, Italy finished seventh in the jury vote and Serbia finished eleventh in the jury vote. This shows that two 12-point jury scores wasn’t enough to guarantee a top ten placing in the jury voting.

Televoting

8 of the 25 finalists received at least one 12-point vote from the televoting. The number of 12-point votes received by each of those 8 countries in the televoting is shown in the table below.

12 Points to	No of 12s Received	Total From 12s
Ukraine	28	336
Serbia	5	60
Moldova	2	24
Estonia	1	12
Greece	1	12
Poland	1	12
Spain	1	12
United Kingdom	1	12

Here, the country which received the highest number of 12-point scores (28 altogether) is clearly obvious: Ukraine. It’s hardly surprising Ukraine won the televote and overall by a landslide; the 336 televote points they received from that many 12-point scores amounted to over three quarters of their overall televote total of 439 points, and over half their overall total of 631 points. With 40 countries voting, and 28 sets of 12-point scores allocated to just one finalist, that left just 12 sets of 12-point scores for other finalists. Serbia received the second highest number of 12-point scores (5 altogether), but finished fourth in the televote and fifth overall. Moldova, which finished second in the televote (and seventh overall) received just 2 sets of 12-point scores. Five countries (Estonia, Greece, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom) each received just one 12-point score in the televoting. Of those, Estonia, Poland, Spain and United Kingdom all placed inside the top ten of the televote, whereas Greece finished twelfth in the televote. Clearly one 12-point televote score wasn't enough to guarantee a top 10 place in the televoting.

All 12 Points

Jury Voting

The complete list of 12 jury point scores, and jury points awarded to the United Kingdom (jury vote winner and second place overall) and Ukraine (jury vote fourth place and overall winner) is shown below.

#	From Country	12 Points to	United Kingdom	Ukraine
6	Albania	Italy	10	7
26	Armenia	Spain	0	6
38	Australia	Spain	0	7
34	Austria	United Kingdom	12	0
8	Azerbaijan	United Kingdom	12	6
11	Belgium	United Kingdom	12	6
17	Bulgaria	Greece	10	0
32	Croatia	Serbia	0	8
20	Cyprus	Greece	3	7
39	Czech Republic	United Kingdom	12	4
24	Denmark	Greece	6	5
7	Estonia	Sweden	4	0
35	Finland	Sweden	10	0
25	France	United Kingdom	12	10
31	Georgia	United Kingdom	12	6
10	Germany	United Kingdom	12	10
15	Greece	Azerbaijan	0	0
19	Iceland	Sweden	7	10
29	Ireland	Spain	8	3
13	Israel	Sweden	10	7
40	Italy	Netherlands	6	0
21	Latvia	Ukraine	8	12
33	Lithuania	Ukraine	10	12
4	Malta	Spain	8	0
16	Moldova	Ukraine	10	12
27	Montenegro	Serbia	5	6
1	Netherlands	Greece	4	0
3	North Macedonia	Spain	8	0
12	Norway	Greece	6	3
14	Poland	Ukraine	8	12
9	Portugal	Spain	10	8
28	Romania	Ukraine	8	12
2	San Marino	Spain	8	2
18	Serbia	Azerbaijan	1	0
30	Slovenia	Italy	2	8
22	Spain	Azerbaijan	3	0
37	Sweden	Spain	8	0
23	Switzerland	Greece	6	3
5	Ukraine	United Kingdom	12	n/a
36	United Kingdom	Sweden	n/a	0
	TOTAL		283	192

Televoting

The complete list of 12 televote point scores, and televote points awarded to the United Kingdom (televote fifth place and second place overall) and Ukraine (televote winner and overall winner) is shown below.

From Country	12 Points to	United Kingdom	Ukraine
Albania	Greece	4	10
Armenia	Estonia	1	10
Australia	Ukraine	7	12
Austria	Ukraine	8	12
Azerbaijan	Ukraine	8	12
Belgium	Ukraine	3	12
Bulgaria	Ukraine	3	12
Croatia	Serbia	0	10
Cyprus	Ukraine	6	12
Czech Republic	Ukraine	2	12
Denmark	Ukraine	6	12
Estonia	Ukraine	5	12
Finland	Ukraine	4	12
France	Ukraine	2	12
Georgia	Ukraine	4	12
Germany	Ukraine	6	12
Greece	Spain	5	10
Iceland	Ukraine	7	12
Ireland	Ukraine	6	12
Israel	Ukraine	10	12
Italy	Ukraine	6	12
Latvia	Ukraine	3	12
Lithuania	Ukraine	4	12
Malta	United Kingdom	12	8
Moldova	Ukraine	3	12
Montenegro	Serbia	0	10
Netherlands	Ukraine	8	12
North Macedonia	Serbia	0	8
Norway	Ukraine	6	12
Poland	Ukraine	3	12
Portugal	Ukraine	6	12
Romania	Moldova	3	10
San Marino	Ukraine	6	12
Serbia	Moldova	0	7
Slovenia	Serbia	0	10
Spain	Ukraine	8	12
Sweden	Ukraine	6	12
Switzerland	Serbia	5	10
Ukraine	Poland	7	n/a
United Kingdom	Ukraine	n/a	12
TOTAL		183	439

24 Points

Obviously, the maximum combined score a country can give to, or receive from another country is 24 points, that being 12 jury points and 12 televoting points. 6 of the 40 voting countries gave their 12 jury points and 12 televoting points to the same finalist, those being:

From Country	12+12 Points to
Croatia	Serbia
Latvia	Ukraine
Lithuania	Ukraine
Moldova	Ukraine
Montenegro	Serbia
Poland	Ukraine

As a result, just 2 countries (Serbia and Ukraine) received at least one set of 12 jury points + 12 televoting points. The number of 12 jury points + 12 televoting points received by those 2 receiving countries is summarised in the table below.

12+12 Points to	No of 24s Received	Total from 24s
Serbia	2	48
Ukraine	4	96
	6	144

It’s hardly surprising that Ukraine, which won both the televote and overall by a landslide, received 4 sets of 12 jury points + 12 televoting points.

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Country Groups

Now for a look at points awarded within certain groups of countries. N.B. In the following tables, boxes for a particular country to itself (e.g., from Finland to Finland) are marked “n/a” rather than 0, as no country can vote for itself.

Nordic Area

Four of the five Nordic countries (Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden) qualified for the Grand Final this year, but all five Nordic countries voted in the final as follows. Denmark, which was eliminated in the semi-finals, could only give and not receive points this time.

Jury Voting

From Country	Jury to Finland	Jury to Iceland	Jury to Norway	Jury to Sweden
Denmark	0	1	0	7
Finland	n/a	0	4	12
Iceland	0	n/a	8	12
Norway	0	0	n/a	8
Sweden	0	0	3	n/a
Group Total	0	1	15	39
Overall Jury Total	12	10	36	258
% of Jury Total	0.00%	10.00%	41.67%	15.12%

The way in which the five Nordic countries awarded (or didn't award) jury points to the four Nordic finalists is interesting (of course Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden could not vote for themselves). Sweden was the only country to receive jury points from all the other countries within this group. This blew out of the window anyone’s expectation that all four Nordic finalists would receive jury points from every other Nordic country. Furthermore, Sweden received the highest number of jury points from within this group (39 jury points), but that was just 15.12% of its jury total (258 jury points). This meant the remaining 219 jury points, which Sweden received, had to come from outside this group. The country which received the highest percentage of its overall jury total, from within this group was Norway, because the 15 jury points Norway received within this group was 41.67% of the 36 jury points Norway received altogether. That said, nearly three fifths of Norway’s jury points still had to come from outside this group. Interestingly Norway’s overall jury total (36 jury points) was less than Sweden received just within this group (39 jury points).

Finland received no jury points at all from other members of this group, hence all its jury points (12 altogether) had to come from outside this group. Iceland received just 1 jury point within this group, but that amounted to a tenth of its overall jury score of 10 jury points. Thus, the remaining 9 jury points (amounting to nine tenths of its jury total) which Iceland received had to come from outside this group.

Televoting

From Country	Tele to Finland	Tele to Iceland	Tele to Norway	Tele to Sweden
Denmark	0	2	8	10
Finland	n/a	0	6	8
Iceland	0	n/a	10	8
Norway	0	0	n/a	8
Sweden	7	0	10	n/a
Group Total	7	2	34	34
Overall Tele Total	26	10	146	180
% of Tele Total	26.92%	20.00%	23.29%	18.89%

There were more exchanges of points within this group on televoting, but on this occasion, there were no exchanges of 12 televote points within this group. As it happened, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden each gave their 12 televote points to Ukraine, which was hardly surprising under the current circumstances. Norway and Sweden were the only two finalists to receive televote points from every other country within this group. This blew out of the window anyone’s expectation that all four Nordic finalists would receive televote points from every other Nordic country. Although Norway received two 10-point scores within this group, whereas Sweden received just one 10-point score within this group, Norway and Sweden each received 34 televote points within this group. However, because Sweden ended up with a higher overall televote score than Norway, Sweden received a lower percentage of its overall televote score than Norway within this group. Clearly, Norway and Sweden had to get the majority of their televote points from outside this group.

Baltic States (Ex USSR)

Two members of this group, Estonia and Lithuania, qualified for the Grand Final. The one remaining member, Latvia, failed to qualify. The upshot of this was that Latvia was able to give jury and televoting points to Estonia and Lithuania, and that Estonia and Lithuania were able to give each other jury and televoting points. However, neither Estonia nor Lithuania could give points to Latvia.

Jury Voting

From Country	Jury to Estonia	Jury to Lithuania
Estonia	n/a	2
Latvia	0	1
Lithuania	0	n/a
Group Total	0	3
Overall Jury Total	43	35
% of Jury Total	0.00%	8.57%

As can be seen, Lithuania received very low jury scores from Estonia and Latvia. The resulting total of 3 jury points, which Lithuania received within this group, was less than a tenth of the 35 jury points that Lithuania received altogether. Thus, the majority of the jury points which Lithuania received had to come from outside this group. Estonia received no jury points at all within this group; hence all its 43 jury points had to come from outside the Baltic area. Interestingly Estonia ended up with a higher overall jury score than Lithuania, despite Estonia receiving no jury points within this group and Lithuania receiving 3 jury points within this group. All this blew anyone’s expectation that Estonia and Lithuania would give each other 12 jury points, and that Latvia would give its top two jury points to Estonia and Lithuania. Likewise, this blew anyone’s expectation that Estonia and Lithuania would both receive high jury scores from the other two members of this group.

Televoting

From Country	Tele to Estonia	Tele to Lithuania
Estonia	n/a	7
Latvia	8	10
Lithuania	8	n/a
Group Total	16	17
Overall Tele Total	98	93
% of Tele Total	16.33%	18.28%

Estonia and Lithuania both fared considerably better within this group on televoting. Both of them received televote points from the other two members of this group. However, there were no exchanges of 12 televote points within this group. The highest individual score within this group was 10 televote points from Latvia to Lithuania. As it happened, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania each gave their 12 televote points to Ukraine, which was hardly surprising under the current circumstances. All this blew anyone’s expectation that Estonia and Lithuania would give each other 12 televote points, and that Latvia would give its top two televote points to Estonia and Lithuania. Likewise, this blew anyone’s expectation that Estonia and Lithuania would both receive high televote scores from the other two members of this group. Furthermore, Estonia and Lithuania each had to get over four fifths of their points from outside the Baltic area.

Nordic and Baltic

Things get even more interesting when the Nordic and Baltic countries are analysed together as one group, because it’s possible to see how Nordic countries favour (or not favour) Baltic countries and vice versa.

Jury Voting

From Country	Jury to Estonia	Jury to Finland	Jury to Iceland	Jury to Lithuania	Jury to Norway	Jury to Sweden
Denmark	0	0	1	3	0	7
Estonia	n/a	5	0	2	0	12
Finland	0	n/a	0	0	4	12
Iceland	0	0	n/a	1	8	12
Latvia	0	0	0	1	5	10
Lithuania	0	0	2	n/a	0	3
Norway	0	0	0	2	n/a	8
Sweden	6	0	0	0	3	n/a
Group Total	6	5	3	9	20	64
Overall Jury Total	43	12	10	35	36	258
% of Jury Total	13.95%	41.67%	30.00%	25.71%	55.56%	24.81%

As can be seen, Sweden was the only country to receive jury points from every other member of this supergroup, including 12 jury points apiece from Estonia, Finland and Iceland. Consequently Sweden achieved the highest group total here of 64 jury points. Nonetheless, that was less than a quarter of the 258 jury points Sweden received altogether. Thus over three quarters of Sweden’s jury points had to come from outside the combined Nordic / Baltic area. Norway received the highest percentage of its points within this supergroup, but then again, its overall jury total of 36 jury points was low compared to Sweden’s overall jury total. Elsewhere, although Estonia received no jury points from within the Baltic area alone, Estonia managed to receive 6 jury points from Sweden. Likewise, although Finland received no jury points from the Nordic area alone, Finland managed to get 5 jury points from Estonia.

Televoting

From Country	Tele to Estonia	Tele to Finland	Tele to Iceland	Tele to Lithuania	Tele to Norway	Tele to Sweden
Denmark	3	0	2	7	8	10
Estonia	n/a	8	0	7	4	10
Finland	10	n/a	0	2	6	8
Iceland	0	0	n/a	2	10	8
Latvia	8	1	0	10	5	6
Lithuania	8	0	0	n/a	2	10
Norway	2	0	0	10	n/a	8
Sweden	4	7	0	3	10	n/a
Group Total	35	16	2	41	45	60
Overall Tele Total	98	26	10	93	146	180
% of Tele Total	35.71%	61.54%	20.00%	44.09%	30.82%	33.33%

Lithuania, Norway and Sweden each received televote from every other member of this group. However, there were no exchanges of 12 televote points here, because as already stated, the Nordic and Baltic countries all gave their 12 televote points to Ukraine. Sweden had the highest group total here, 60 televote points, but that was only a third of its overall televote total of 180 points. The remaining two thirds (120 points) had to come from outside the combined Nordic / Baltic area.

Ex-Yugoslavia

Serbia was the only ex-Yugoslav country which qualified for the Grand Final this year. Of course, the other four ex-Yugoslav countries (Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Slovenia) which took part in the semi-finals, but failed to qualify, still voted in the Grand Final; however, they could only give and not receive jury and televoting points in the final. The upshot of this was, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Slovenia were able to give jury and televoting points to Serbia, but Serbia could not give jury or televote points to Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia or Slovenia. For this reason, Serbia is omitted from the awarding countries within this group.

Jury Voting

From Country	Jury to Serbia
Croatia	12
Montenegro	12
North Macedonia	10
Slovenia	6
Group Total	40
Overall Jury Total	87
% of Jury Total	45.98%

Croatia and Montenegro each gave their top score of 12 jury points to Serbia. However, North Macedonia gave 10 jury points to Serbia, and Slovenia gave just 6 jury points to Serbia. This blew anyone’s expectation that all four non-qualifying ex-Yugoslav countries would each give 12 jury points to Serbia. The upshot of this was, Serbia received a total of 40 jury points from within this group, but that was less than half the 87 jury points Serbia received altogether. Consequently, over half of Serbia’s jury points had to come from countries outside the Ex-Yugoslavia group.

N.B. On this occasion, the jury points awarded by Montenegro were, in fact, an aggregated set of points calculated on the basis of a predetermined group of countries with similar voting patterns.

Televoting

From Country	Tele to Serbia
Croatia	12
Montenegro	12
North Macedonia	12
Slovenia	12
Group Total	48
Overall Tele Total	225
% of Tele Total	21.33%

As can be seen, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Slovenia each gave their top score of 12 televote points to Serbia. That meant Serbia did as well as it could within this group in the public vote, 48 televote points, which is quite impressive. Even so, that was just over a fifth of Serbia’s televote total of 225 points. That meant nearly four fifths of the televote points, which Serbia received, had to come from countries outside the Ex-Yugoslavia group.

English Speaking Countries

Another group worth looking at here are the English-speaking countries Australia, Ireland, Malta and the United Kingdom. Within this group, the United Kingdom automatically qualified for the Grand Final as a Big Five member. Of the other three countries which took part in the semi-finals, Australia qualified for the Grand Final, whereas Ireland and Malta failed to qualify. Of course, Ireland and Malta still voted in the Grand Final, but could only give and not receive jury and televoting points in the final.

Jury Voting

From Country	Jury to Australia	Jury to United Kingdom
Australia	n/a	0
Ireland	2	8
Malta	6	8
United Kingdom	6	n/a
Group Total	14	16
Overall Jury Total	123	283
% of Jury Total	11.38%	5.65%

Televoting

From Country	Tele to Australia	Tele to United Kingdom
Australia	n/a	7
Ireland	0	6
Malta	0	12
United Kingdom	0	n/a
Group Total	0	25
Overall Tele Total	2	183
% of Tele Total	0.00%	13.66%

Central Europe

Another group is the Central European countries Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Slovenia and Switzerland (Hungary and Slovakia didn’t enter this year). Within this group, Germany automatically qualified for the Grand Final as a Big Five member. Of the other five countries which took part in the semi-finals, Czech Republic, Poland and Switzerland qualified for the Grand Final. Austria and Slovenia, both of which failed to qualify, were only able to give, and not receive, jury and televoting points in the Grand Final.

Jury Voting

From Country	Jury to Czech Republic	Jury to Germany	Jury to Poland	Jury to Switzerland
Austria	0	0	0	1
Czech Republic	n/a	0	0	6
Germany	0	n/a	0	2
Poland	0	0	n/a	5
Slovenia	0	0	0	5
Switzerland	0	0	0	n/a
Group Total	0	0	0	19
Overall Jury Total	33	0	46	78
% of Jury Total	0.00%	Incalculable	0.00%	24.36%

This group seems a bit more complicated with countries favouring one another. No jury gave 12 points to any other country within this group. Switzerland was the only finalist to receive jury points from other members of this group; it did reasonably well here, including 6 jury points from Czech Republic (the highest individual jury score from one country to another within this group) and two lots of 5 jury points. Nonetheless, Switzerland’s group total of 19 jury points was less than a quarter of its overall jury total of 78 points. Thus, over three quarters of Switzerland’s jury points had to come from outside this group.

Czech Republic and Poland each received no jury points from other members of this group; therefore, all their jury points had to come from outside this group. Finally, Germany scored no jury points at all, let alone within this group.

N.B. On this occasion, the jury points awarded by Poland were, in fact, an aggregated set of points calculated on the basis of a predetermined group of countries with similar voting patterns.

Televoting

From Country	Tele to Czech Republic	Tele to Germany	Tele to Poland	Tele to Switzerland
Austria	0	2	4	0
Czech Republic	n/a	0	7	0
Germany	0	n/a	8	0
Poland	0	0	n/a	0
Slovenia	0	0	0	0
Switzerland	0	2	1	n/a
Group Total	0	4	20	0
Overall Tele Total	5	6	105	0
% of Tele Total	0.00%	66.67%	19.05%	Incalculable

Once again, there were no 12-point scores within this group. Poland did best, in terms of highest group total, on televoting within this group, including 8 televote points from Germany (the highest individual televote score from one country to another within this group) and 7 televote points from Czech Republic. Even so, Poland’s group total of 20 televote points was less than a fifth of its overall televote total of 105 points. This meant over four fifths of Poland’s televote points had to come from outside this group.

Undeniably Germany did best in terms of percentage of total televote points received within this group. The 4 televote points which Germany received within this group amounted to two thirds of its overall televote score of 6 points. It’s remaining 2 points (the remaining third of its televoting total) were from Estonia. When a country has such tiny scores, analysing its results in this way is rather meaningless.

Czech Republic received no televote points within this group, so its overall televote score of 5 had to come from outside this group (as it happened, they all came from just one country, North Macedonia). Of course, Switzerland received no televote points at all, let alone within this group.

Other

Unsurprisingly Cyprus, which failed to qualify for the Grand Final, gave 12 jury points to Greece. However, Cyprus gave just 10 televote points to Greece. This shows that Cyprus doesn’t necessarily give 12 televote points to Greece. Cyprus gave its 12 televote points to Ukraine. Obviously, it was impossible for Greece to give any points to Cyprus this time; for the record, Greece gave 12 jury points to Azerbaijan and 12 televote points to Spain.

Unsurprisingly, Portugal gave its 12 jury points to Spain. However, Portugal gave just 10 televote points to Spain, and 12 televote points to Ukraine. Spain gave no jury points at all to Portugal, and just 4 televote points to Portugal. For the record, Spain gave its 12 jury points to Azerbaijan and its 12 televote points to Ukraine. This blows out of the window anyone’s expectation that Spain would give Portugal 12 jury points and 12 televote points.

Belgium gave no jury points to the Netherlands, but they gave 10 televote points to the Netherlands. For the record, Belgium gave its 12 jury points to the United Kingdom and its 12 televote points to Ukraine. The Netherlands gave just 6 jury points to Belgium and 4 televote points to Belgium. As it happened, the Netherlands gave its 12 jury points to Greece and its 12 televote points to Ukraine. All this blows out of the window anyone’s expectation that Belgium and the Netherlands would give each other 12 jury points and 12 televote points.

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Alternative Voting Presentation

During the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 Grand Final, the jury voting points from each of the participating 40 countries (including the 15 non-qualifiers) were presented in the traditional way, i.e. for each country the 1 to 10 point scores were displayed on screen when the spokesperson appeared, added to the scoreboard as a block and the spokesperson announced the 12-point score. The voting order was: Netherlands, San Marino, North Macedonia, Malta, Ukraine, Albania, Estonia, Azerbaijan, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Israel, Poland, Greece, Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, Iceland, Cyprus, Latvia, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, France, Armenia, Montenegro, Romania, Ireland, Slovenia, Georgia, Croatia, Lithuania, Austria, Finland, United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia, Czech Republic, Italy.

`This whole process took about 34 minutes. After a short break, Alessandro, Laura and Mika announced the televoting totals for each of the 25 finalists, one by one, starting with the country which had the lowest jury score (Germany) and finishing with the country with the highest jury score (United Kingdom). Each time, Green Room shots of the applicable artists were shown. This process, from start to finish, took about 19 minutes.

Televote Totals Last to First

What if, after the 40 countries’ jury points had been put on the scoreboard in the manner they were (from Germany to United Kingdom), the televote totals had been announced in the way they were from 2016 to 2018 inclusive, going from the finalist that finished last in the televote to the finalist that finished first in the televote? For this description, I've started with the final jury scoreboard, as it appeared when all 40 sets of jury points had been put on the scoreboard.

1	United Kingdom	283	14	Poland	46
2	Sweden	258	15	Estonia	43
3	Spain	231	16	Armenia	40
4	Ukraine	192	17	Norway	36
5	Portugal	171	18	Lithuania	35
6	Greece	158	19	Czech Republic	33
7	Italy	158	20	Moldova	14
8	Netherlands	129	21	Romania	12
9	Australia	123	22	Finland	12
10	Azerbaijan	103	23	Iceland	10
11	Serbia	87	24	France	9
12	Switzerland	78	25	Germany	0
13	Belgium	59

Afterwards Alessandro, Laura and Mika would have announced the televote totals for each of the 25 finalists, starting with the bottom 15 from 25th to 11th, in rapid succession, as follows. N.B. I have simulated the procedure by inserting the televote totals alongside the jury totals into a spreadsheet and sorting it as each televote total was added. This is how I've been able to describe country movements on the scoreboard. To see all the simultaneous movements by multiple counties as each televote total would have been read out, one would need an animated graphic simulation of the scoreboard. Comments that Graham Norton might have said are shown in square brackets.

0 points to Switzerland (keeping them in 12th place for now). [Oh, that’s got to hurt.]
2 points to Australia (keeping them in 9th place for now).
3 points to Azerbaijan (keeping them in 10th place for now).
5 points to Czech Republic (taking them to 17th place initially).
5 points as well to Belgium (keeping them in 13th place for now).
6 points to Germany (keeping them in 25th place for now). [Oh, they got some, excellent. No one tonight is having our fate last year. No-one is going home with nul points]
8 points to France (taking them to 20th place initially).
10 points to Iceland (taking them to 20th place initially).
21 points to Armenia (taking them to 14th place initially).
26 points to Finland (taking them to 17th place initially).
36 points to Portugal (taking them to 4th place initially). [Well, that changes everything, we won’t be going to Portugal next year.]
42 points to the Netherlands (taking them to 6th place initially).
53 points to Romania (taking them to 13th place initially). [That’s a big change for them.]
57 points to Greece (taking them to 4th place initially).
93 points to Lithuania (taking them to 9th place initially).

The scoreboard would have looked like this after the bottom 15 televote totals were announced (countries which had already received their televote totals are in bold).

1	United Kingdom	283	14	Romania	65
2	Sweden	258	15	Belgium	64
3	Spain	231	16	Armenia	61
4	Greece	215	17	Poland	46
5	Portugal	207	18	Estonia	43
6	Ukraine	192	19	Finland	38
7	Netherlands	171	20	Czech Republic	38
8	Italy	158	21	Norway	36
9	Lithuania	128	22	Iceland	20
10	Australia	125	23	France	17
11	Azerbaijan	106	24	Moldova	14
12	Serbia	87	25	Germany	6
13	Switzerland	78

N.B. By now, 367 televote points would have been allocated to the scoreboard, and there would have been 1953 televote points to share among the top ten countries of the televote. However, the minimum any one of the ten remaining countries could have received would have been 93 televote points (just like Lithuania).

The countries placed 10th to 4th would have been announced at a much slower pace. Alessandro, Laura and Mika would (almost certainly) have announced the recipients of the top ten televote totals in turn. Each time the applicable country's score would have been updated and repositioned on the scoreboard, and viewers would have seen a brief shot of the applicable artist in the Green Room.

The country that got the 10th highest score, with 98 points is Estonia (taking them to 9th place initially). [Stefan there, the end of his hope.]
The country that got the 9th highest score, with 105 points is Poland (taking them to 9th place initially). [Not too shabby, it gets him to the left-hand side of the leader board.]
The country that got the 8th highest score, with 110 points is Italy (taking them to 2nd place initially). [The song has been a big hit. Not nearly as many as we were expecting. A beautiful song, great performance, but Italy didn’t want to win, so perhaps their dream has come true.]
The country that got the 7th highest score, with 146 points is Norway (taking them to 8th place initially). [Good but not a real game-changer; it’s nowhere near enough to put them in the lead. This is the difference between the juries and the televote.]
The country that got the 6th highest score, with 180 points is Sweden, putting them in the lead (taking them to 1st place initially). [Whatever happens now, they can’t win, but they can enjoy their moment in the lead.]
The country that got the 5th highest score, with 183 points is United Kingdom, putting them in the lead (taking them to 1st place initially). [Well, this is interesting, is that enough for us (the UK) to win? Of course, we don’t know how many points are left, but with so many low scores earlier, there could well be hundreds of points still up for grabs.]

N.B. By now, 1189 televote points would have been allocated to the scoreboard, and there would have been 1131 televote points remaining. However, the minimum each of the remaining four countries (Spain, Ukraine, Serbia, Moldova) could have received would have been 183 televote points, just like the United Kingdom. For Spain, Ukraine, Serbia and Moldova to have all finished at least one point below the United Kingdom’s final score of 466 points, Spain would have needed 234 televote points or less, Ukraine would have needed 273 points or less, Serbia would have needed 378 televote points or less and Moldova would have needed 451 televote points or less. It would, in theory, have been possible for the United Kingdom to have held its lead at this stage.

The country that got the 4th highest score, with 225 points is Serbia (taking them to 3rd place initially).

At this point the scoreboard would have looked like this (countries which had already received their televote totals are in bold):

1	United Kingdom	466	14	Australia	125
2	Sweden	438	15	Azerbaijan	106
3	Serbia	312	16	Switzerland	78
4	Italy	268	17	Romania	65
5	Spain	231	18	Belgium	64
6	Greece	215	19	Armenia	61
7	Portugal	207	20	Finland	38
8	Ukraine	192	21	Czech Republic	38
9	Norway	182	22	Iceland	20
10	Netherlands	171	23	France	17
11	Poland	151	24	Moldova	14
12	Estonia	141	25	Germany	6
13	Lithuania	128

With just three countries (Spain, Ukraine, Moldova) still awaiting their televote points, the United Kingdom would have been currently in the lead with its final score of 466 points. Alessandro, Laura or Mika would have said “The winner can now be United Kingdom, who are currently in the lead, or one of the three countries that haven’t received their points from the public vote, that’s Spain, Ukraine or Moldova”. Green Room shots of the artists representing the United Kingdom, Spain, Ukraine and Moldova would have been shown in four on-screen windows before continuing.

N.B. By now, 1414 televote points would have been allocated to the scoreboard, and there would have been 906 televote points remaining. However, the minimum each of the remaining three countries (Spain, Ukraine, Moldova) could have received would have been 225 televote points, just like Serbia. For Spain, Ukraine and Moldova to have all finished at least one point below the United Kingdom’s final score of 466 points, Spain would have needed 234 televote points or less, Ukraine would have needed 273 televote points or less, and Moldova would have needed 451 televote points or less. If Spain had received exactly 234 televote points and Ukraine had received 273 televote points, that would have left 399 televote points for Moldova. In theory, it would have still been possible for the United Kingdom to have held its lead at this stage. On the other hand, it would still have been realistically possible for either Spain or Ukraine to get enough televote points to pass the United Kingdom and win. As for the most extreme scenario, if Spain and Ukraine had each received 225 televote points, that would have left 456 televote points for Moldova, which would have been just enough for them to beat the UK with a winning score of 470 points. Thus, there would still, in theory, have been four possible winners at this stage.

The country that got the 3rd highest score, with 228 points is Spain (taking them to 2nd place initially). [Is that enough? No, it’s not. They nearly did it, but not quite. We (the UK) are still in the lead. Spain hoping to win it after, I think, 54 years. But a great performance by Chanel.]

Green Room shots of the artists representing the United Kingdom, Ukraine and Moldova would have been shown, left to right, across the screen, before continuing.

So, the United Kingdom is still in the lead, but bear in mind that two countries still need to receive their points from the public vote. So, the winner can be either the current leader United Kingdom, or one of the two countries that haven’t received their points from the public yet, Ukraine or Moldova. [Well, if Moldova wins the public vote, it won’t affect anything. They would need well over 450 points to pass us (the UK) and win; I think that’s highly unlikely.]

N.B. There would still have been 678 televote points to share between Ukraine and Moldova, but the minimum either of them could have received would have been 228 televote points (just like Spain). If one of those countries received 228 televote points, that would have left 450 televote points for the other country. If Moldova had received those 450 televote points, its final score would have now been 464 points (2 less than the United Kingdom). It would now have been mathematically impossible for Moldova to win, but still possible for Ukraine to win. Thus, in fact, there would only have been two possible winners (United Kingdom and Ukraine).

The country that got the 2nd highest score, with 239 points is Moldova (taking them to 6th place initially). [OK, that’s irrelevant; extraordinary but irrelevant. Still, I said it would do well, it came at the end of that long stretch of ballads. It was what the audience wanted. That just leaves Ukraine. Did the viewers respond to Ukraine in the way that people thought they would? Of course, we don’t know how many public vote points are left.]

The favourite, according to you at home, is Ukraine, but will they get enough points to pass the United Kingdom, who are currently in the lead? Ukraine now needs at least 275 points to pass the United Kingdom. [There could well be that many public vote points still available, we shall see. This is an exciting moment, it’s down to the wire.] (Green Room shots of the artists representing the United Kingdom and Ukraine would have been shown, left to right, across the screen.) Ukraine, the public have given you 439 points. That is astonishing, that is an enormous jump, putting Ukraine in first place with 631 points. And we have a new winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, it’s Ukraine. [Wow! The viewers did respond to Ukraine.]

The final scoreboard would have looked like this:

1	Ukraine	631	14	Lithuania	128
2	United Kingdom	466	15	Australia	125
3	Spain	459	16	Azerbaijan	106
4	Sweden	438	17	Switzerland	78
5	Serbia	312	18	Romania	65
6	Italy	268	19	Belgium	64
7	Moldova	253	20	Armenia	61
8	Greece	215	21	Finland	38
9	Portugal	207	22	Czech Republic	38
10	Norway	182	23	Iceland	20
11	Netherlands	171	24	France	17
12	Poland	151	25	Germany	6
13	Estonia	141

Televoting First, Jury Totals Last

What would have happened if the televoting points from each calling country had been announced by the 40 spokespersons first? Let's assume the order of presentation was the same as was used for announcement of the jury points, as specified above.

A few things are obvious:
• Ukraine would have finished 1st with 439 points and Moldova would have finished 2nd with 239 points (an enormous margin of 200 points).
• Ukraine would have already been in the lead when the first country (the Netherlands) announced its televote points.
• Switzerland would have finished last with zero points (and hence not been listed / mentioned in any calling country’s scores).

The following are speculated. Although all the jury points and televoting points each of the 40 countries awarded to the finalists are available on eurovision.tv, the only way to confirm the following would be able to create a graphic simulation of the scoreboard, starting with the finalists on zero in the order they performed, and each of the 40 countries' televoting points (1 to 12) being added in the order mentioned above.
• Ukraine would have become uncatchable on televote points alone when there were still about 10 to 15 countries waiting to call.
• After the Netherlands (first to call) put Ukraine in the lead from the outset, Ukraine would have almost certainly stayed in the lead right to the end.
• For some of the voting a “cat and mouse” situation might have occurred between Moldova, Spain and Serbia for second, third and fourth place.

Once all 40 spokespersons had finished announcing their televoting points, the scoreboard would have looked like this.

1	Ukraine	439	14	Netherlands	42
2	Moldova	239	15	Portugal	36
3	Spain	228	16	Finland	26
4	Serbia	225	17	Armenia	21
5	United Kingdom	183	18	Iceland	10
6	Sweden	180	19	France	8
7	Norway	146	20	Germany	6
8	Italy	110	21	Belgium	5
9	Poland	105	22	Czech Republic	5
10	Estonia	98	23	Azerbaijan	3
11	Lithuania	93	24	Australia	2
12	Greece	57	25	Switzerland	0
13	Romania	53

A short break would have been held, during which Alessandro would have spoken to Kalush Orchestra from Ukraine, congratulating them for having won the public vote.

Two methods of announcing the 25 finalists' jury totals are outlined below.

Jury Totals Going Up Televote Scoreboard

The exact opposite of what happened in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 Grand Final. Alessandro, Laura and Mika would have started with the country that finished bottom of the televote (Switzerland), and worked their way up the scoreboard, country by country, until they reached the televote winner (Ukraine). Here I have simulated the procedure by inserting the jury totals alongside the televoting totals into a spreadsheet and sorting it as each jury total was added. This is how I've been able to describe country movements on the scoreboard. To see all the simultaneous movements by multiple counties as each jury total would have been read out, one would need an animated graphic simulation of the scoreboard. Comments that Graham Norton might have said are shown in square brackets.

Alessandro: We’ll start off with the nation that has obtained the least number of points from the public, and that is Switzerland, and Switzerland gets 78 points from the national juries. (taking them to 12th place initially). [That’s a big change, at least they got some love from the juries. They’re on the left hand side of the scoreboard at the moment. I don’t think they’ll stay there, but it means no-one is going home with nul ponts tonight.]
Laura: We move on to Australia. Australia has received 123 points from the juries. (taking them to 8th place initially). [There you go, the juries come along and change everything. It’s nowhere near enough for a win, but they’re on the left hand side of the scoreboard. Can they stay on that side though?]
Mika: Moving on to Azerbaijan, and the jury points going to Azerbaijan are 103 points. (taking them to 10th place initially). [They too were strongly favoured by the juries. It’s amazing how the bottom three of the public vote have done considerably better with the juries.]
Alessandro: We now move on to Czech Republic. Czech Republic has received 33 points from the juries. (taking them to 18th place initially). [Well, that’s considerably more than they got from the public, but it’s a low score compared to what the last three countries got from the juries. Still, they performed first.]
Laura: Let’s move on now to Belgium. Belgium, the juries have given you 59 points. (taking them to 15th place initially). [That’s another fairly big change, at least Belgium got some love from the juries.]
Mika: And we move on, we go to Germany. Germany, from the juries, you have received, I’m sorry, 0 points. (keeping them in 25th place). [That’s got to hurt. Whatever happens now, Germany will finish last. Yeah give him (Malik Harris) a cheer. That could be an early warning to Kalush Orchestra if the juries didn’t like songs containing rap.]
Alessandro: And now, next in line is France. France, the juries have given you 9 points. (taking them to 23rd place initially). [They came second last year.]
Laura: And next up is Iceland. Iceland, you have received 10 points from the juries. (taking them to 23rd place initially). [This is Systur.]
Mika: Seventeen countries left. Let’s move on to Armenia, and Armenia received 40 points. (taking them to 16th place initially).
Alessandro: We move on to Finland, and Finland received 12 points. (taking them to 20th place initially).
Laura: Yes. Moving on to Portugal. Portugal, get ready to receive 171 points from the national juries. (taking them to 5th place initially). [Wow, another example of a song where the public gave a fairly low score, and the juries gave a massive score. Once again, it’s nowhere near enough for a win, but they’re on the left hand side of the scoreboard.]
Mika: That’s a lot of points. Amazing jump, well done.
Mika: Next up is the Netherlands. The Netherlands, are you ready? Because you have got 129 points from the juries. (taking them to 8th place initially). [There you go, another song which did much better with the juries than with the public. They too are now on the left hand side of the scoreboard, but can they stay there?]
Alessandro: Let’s move on to Romania. Romania, the juries have given you 12 points. (taking them to 17th place initially).
Laura: And now we go to Greece you have received, from the juries, 158 points (taking them to 5th place initially). [Another ballad which did considerably better with the juries than with the public. This is the difference between the televote and the juries.]
Mika: Let’s move on to Lithuania. Lithuania, the juries have given you 35 points. (taking them to 11th place initially). [On the other hand, that’s a ballad which fared considerably less well with the juries than with the public. I think suffering for being in that big batch of ballads in the middle of the contest.]

With just ten countries left to receive their points from the juries, the scoreboard would have looked like this (countries which had already received their jury totals are in bold):

1	Ukraine	439	14	Azerbaijan	106
2	Moldova	239	15	Poland	105
3	Spain	228	16	Estonia	98
4	Serbia	225	17	Switzerland	78
5	Greece	215	18	Romania	65
6	Portugal	207	19	Belgium	64
7	United Kingdom	183	20	Armenia	61
8	Sweden	180	21	Finland	38
9	Netherlands	171	22	Czech Republic	38
10	Norway	146	23	Iceland	20
11	Lithuania	128	24	France	17
12	Australia	125	25	Germany	6
13	Italy	110

Alessandro: Ukraine is still number one right now. Very good job, so we are getting closer to the final. Ten countries, ten countries are left and their points will decide who the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 is.
Laura: Alright, told you, anything can happen in here. And now, are you ready for the final rash? And remember, once again, everything can change, right up to the last vote.

Mika: Next up is Estonia, and Estonia has received 43 points. (taking them to 11th place initially).
Alessandro: OK then, now let’s move on to Poland. Poland, the juries have given you 46 points. (taking them to 10th place initially). [They too have done considerably less well with the juries, but they’re now on the left hand side of the scoreboard.]
Laura: Only eight countries left, and next up is Italy. Italy, get ready to receive 158 points from the national juries. (taking them to 2nd place initially). [The song has been a big hit. Not nearly as many as we were expecting. A beautiful song, great performance, but Italy didn’t want to win, so perhaps their dream has come true. Meanwhile, the worst we (the UK) can now finish is tenth.]
Mika: This puts them (Italy) in second place, and Ukraine are still in the lead. The atmosphere here is remarkable, there is so much love and at the same time, there is so much tension.
Alessandro: Moving on to Norway, who gets 36 points. Give it up for Norway. (taking them to 9th place initially). [Another country that did so well with the public, but has received a much lower score from the juries.]
Laura: Let’s move on to Sweden. Sweden, get ready to receive 258 points from the national juries. (taking them to 2nd place initially). [Is that enough to pass Ukraine? No, it’s not. They did considerably better with the juries than with the public, but it wasn’t quite enough to pass Ukraine.]
Mika: That’s a lot of points gone, right there. That was a huge leap forward; they (Sweden) are now in second place, but it wasn’t enough to pass Ukraine, who are still in first place.
[It’s the moment of truth everyone, it’s the UK’s turn now. Did the juries like Sam Ryder’s entry as much as the public? We’re about to find out. Even if we (the UK) got zero from the juries, we’ll finish ninth, which will be our best position for several years.]
Alessandro: Only five countries left. Let’s move on to the United Kingdom. United Kingdom, the juries have given you 283 points. (taking them to 1st place initially). Wait! There is a new leader, The United Kingdom is now in first position. Great result, great result, congratulations United Kingdom. [Wow, That answers that question, yes, the juries liked Sam Ryder’s entry even more the public; he got a much higher score from the juries than from the public. We’re now in the lead, take a picture! It’s unlikely we (the UK) can hold that lead; Ukraine have yet to receive their jury points and they won’t need many to pass us, but we can enjoy our moment in the lead.]

N.B. By now, 1796 televote points would have been allocated to the scoreboard, and there would have been 524 televote points remaining.

Laura: The United Kingdom now leads with 466 points, but we all know things can still change. We’re now going to move on to Serbia. Serbia, the juries have given you 87 points. (taking them to 4th place initially).

At this point the scoreboard would have looked like this (countries which had already received their jury totals are in bold):

1	United Kingdom	466	14	Lithuania	128
2	Ukraine	439	15	Australia	125
3	Sweden	438	16	Azerbaijan	106
4	Serbia	312	17	Switzerland	78
5	Italy	268	18	Romania	65
6	Moldova	239	19	Belgium	64
7	Spain	228	20	Armenia	61
8	Greece	215	21	Finland	38
9	Portugal	207	22	Czech Republic	38
10	Norway	182	23	Iceland	20
11	Netherlands	171	24	France	17
12	Poland	151	25	Germany	6
13	Estonia	141

Mika: Stay where you are guys, because in a minute, we will find out the winners. We are excited.

With just three countries (Spain, Moldova, Ukraine) still awaiting their jury points, United Kingdom would have been currently in the lead with its final score of 466 points.

Alessandro, Laura or Mika would have said “The United Kingdom is still in the lead with 466 points, but bear in mind that three countries still need to receive their points from the national juries. So, the winner can be either the current leader United Kingdom, or one of the three countries that haven’t received their points from the juries yet, Ukraine, Moldova, Spain”. Green Room shots of the artists representing the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Moldova and Spain would have been shown in four on-screen windows before continuing.

N.B. By now, 1883 televote points would have been allocated to the scoreboard, and there would have been 437 televote points remaining.

We now move on to Spain. Spain has received 231 points. (taking them to 2nd place initially). Great result, great result, congratulations Spain. [Is that enough to pass us (the UK)? No, it’s not; Spain are now in second place. Spain hoping to win it after, I think, 54 years. But a great performance by Chanel.]

N.B. By now, 2114 televote points would have been allocated to the scoreboard, and there would have been 206 televote points remaining.

Laura: So, United Kingdom is in the lead, but bear in mind that two countries still need to receive their points from the national juries. So, the winner can be either the current leader, or one of the two countries that haven’t received their points from the juries yet, Ukraine or Moldova.

This is our virtual podium, we are about to discover which country will reach the highest position.

Laura: Moldova, the time has come. Moldova, you get 14 points. (keeping them in 7th place). [Oh, that’s got to hurt, after they did so well in the public vote. Still, it’s hardly surprising; it’s the sort of song the public would have enjoyed when it was performed after that long stretch of ballads, and thus voted for, but it wasn’t jury friendly material. That should be a wake-up call to Ukraine, who could still get a similarly low score.]

[This is Ukraine. Did the juries respond to Ukraine in the way that the public did? They only need 28 jury points to pass us (the UK). If they get 27 points from the juries, they would tie with the UK, but still win outright due to their higher televote score. For Ukraine to stay below us (the UK), they would need 26 points or less. Those scores are tiny, but we’ve just seen how few points Moldova got from the juries. We don’t know how many, or how few, jury points are left, but Ukraine could still get zero from the juries, after their landslide public vote victory. Did the juries like Kalush Orchestra’s blend of Ukrainian folk and rap? We’ve already seen what happened to one song containing rap.]

Now it’s either United Kingdom, or Ukraine. Who will be the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022? From the juries, Ukraine has received 192 points. [Well that’s more than they needed to pass us (the UK), but it’s nowhere near as much as they got from the public.]

The final scoreboard (with Ukraine’s jury total included) would have looked like this

1	Ukraine	631	14	Lithuania	128
2	United Kingdom	466	15	Australia	125
3	Spain	459	16	Azerbaijan	106
4	Sweden	438	17	Switzerland	78
5	Serbia	312	18	Romania	65
6	Italy	268	19	Belgium	64
7	Moldova	253	20	Armenia	61
8	Greece	215	21	Finland	38
9	Portugal	207	22	Czech Republic	38
10	Norway	182	23	Iceland	20
11	Netherlands	171	24	France	17
12	Poland	151	25	Germany	6
13	Estonia	141

At this point individual countries would have been able to announce their own national jury points. Graham Norton would almost certainly have read out the UK's national jury results to UK viewers.

Jury Totals Last to First

What if, after the 40 countries' televote points had been put on the scoreboard (from the Netherlands to Italy), the jury totals had been announced going from the finalist that finished last in the jury vote to the finalist that finished first in the jury vote? Here is the scoreboard again, as it would have appeared after all the televote points had been announced, and Ukraine had been confirmed as having won the televote.

1	Ukraine	439	14	Netherlands	42
2	Moldova	239	15	Portugal	36
3	Spain	228	16	Finland	26
4	Serbia	225	17	Armenia	21
5	United Kingdom	183	18	Iceland	10
6	Sweden	180	19	France	8
7	Norway	146	20	Germany	6
8	Italy	110	21	Belgium	5
9	Poland	105	22	Czech Republic	5
10	Estonia	98	23	Azerbaijan	3
11	Lithuania	93	24	Australia	2
12	Greece	57	25	Switzerland	0
13	Romania	53

Afterwards Alessandro, Laura and Mika would have announced the jury totals for each of the 25 finalists, starting with the bottom 15 from 25th to 11th, in rapid succession, as follows. Once again, I have simulated the procedure by inserting the jury totals alongside the televoting totals into a spreadsheet and sorting it as each jury total was added. This is how I've been able to describe country movements on the scoreboard. To see all the simultaneous movements by multiple counties as each jury total would have been read out, one would need an animated graphic simulation of the scoreboard. Comments that Graham Norton might have said are shown in square brackets.

0 points to Germany. (keeping them in 20th place for now).
9 points to France. (taking them to 18th place initially).
10 points to Iceland. (taking them to 18th place initially).
12 points to Finland. (taking them to 15th place initially).
12 points as well to Romania. (taking them to 12th place initially).
14 points to Moldova. (keeping them in 2nd place for now). [Well, that changes everything, we won’t be going to Moldova next year.]
33 points to Czech Republic. (taking them to 16th place initially).
35 points to Lithuania. (taking them to 8th place initially). [A ballad which fared considerably less well with the juries than with the public. I think suffering for being in that big batch of ballads in the middle of the contest.]
36 points to Norway. (taking them to 6th place initially).
40 points to Armenia. (taking them to 13th place initially).
43 points to Estonia. (taking them to 8th place initially).
46 points to Poland. (taking them to 8th place initially).
59 points to Belgium. (taking them to 13th place initially). [That’s a fairly big change, at least Belgium got some love from the juries.]
78 points to Switzerland. (taking them to 12th place initially). [Wow! Another big change, at least they got some love from the juries. They’re on the left-hand side of the scoreboard for now. Sadly they can’t stay there, but it means no-one is going home with nul ponts tonight.]
87 points to Serbia. (taking them to 2nd place initially). [Well, we won’t be going to Serbia either. That’s a big disappointment for them, after they were top five with the public.]

The scoreboard would have looked like this after the bottom 15 jury totals were announced (countries which had already received their jury totals are in bold).

1	Ukraine	439	14	Belgium	64
2	Serbia	312	15	Armenia	61
3	Moldova	253	16	Greece	57
4	Spain	228	17	Netherlands	42
5	United Kingdom	183	18	Finland	38
6	Norway	182	19	Czech Republic	38
7	Sweden	180	20	Portugal	36
8	Poland	151	21	Iceland	20
9	Estonia	141	22	France	17
10	Lithuania	128	23	Germany	6
11	Italy	110	24	Azerbaijan	3
12	Switzerland	78	25	Australia	2
13	Romania	65

At this point, Graham Norton would almost certainly have stated the following:
• Ukraine was now going to be difficult to beat, because even if they are called next with 87 jury points (the same as Serbia), they would finish with 526 points overall
• The United Kingdom hadn’t been called yet, and would therefore finish top ten score in the jury vote, with at least 87 jury points.
• Azerbaijan and Australia have finished in the top ten of the jury vote, and would get at least 87 jury points (and possibly a lot more) each, despite their low public vote scores.

The countries placed 10th to 4th would have been announced at a much slower pace. Alessandro, Laura and Mika would have (almost certainly) announced the recipients of the top ten jury totals alternately. Each time the applicable country's score would have been updated and repositioned on the scoreboard, and viewers would have seen a brief shot of the applicable artist in the Green Room.

N.B. By now, 514 points would have been allocated to the scoreboard, and there would have been 1806 jury points remaining. However, the minimum any one of the top ten countries of the jury vote could have now received would have been 87 jury points, just like Serbia.

The country that got the 10th highest score, with 103 points is Azerbaijan. (taking them to 12th place initially). [There you go, the juries come along and change everything. That puts them left-hand side of the scoreboard for now, but sadly they won’t be able to stay there.]
The country that got the 9th highest score, with 123 points is Australia. (taking them to 11th place initially). [They too were strongly favoured by the juries. That also puts them on the left-hand side of the scoreboard temporarily, but again it’s mathematically impossible for them stay there. It’s amazing how the bottom three of the public vote have done considerably better with the juries.]
The country that got the 8th highest score, with 129 points is Netherlands. (taking them to 8th place initially).
The country that got the 7th highest score, with 158 points is Italy. (taking them to 3rd place initially). [The song has been a big hit. Not nearly as many as we were expecting. A beautiful song, great performance, but Italy didn’t want to win, so perhaps their dream has come true.]
The country that got the 6th highest score, with 158 points is Greece. (taking them to 6th place initially). [Another ballad which did considerably better with the juries than with the public. This is the difference between the televote and the juries.]
The country that got the 5th highest score, with 171 points is Portugal. (taking them to 7th place initially). [Wow, another example of a song where the public gave a fairly low score, and the juries gave a massive score. It’s nowhere near enough for a win, but they’re on the left hand side of the scoreboard.]
The country that got the 4th highest score, with 192 points is Ukraine. (keeping them in 1st place for now). [I think that could well be enough to win; it’ll be hard for any of the remaining three countries to beat that.]

At this point the scoreboard would have looked like this (countries which had already received their jury totals are in bold):

1	Ukraine	631	14	Lithuania	128
2	Serbia	312	15	Australia	125
3	Italy	268	16	Azerbaijan	106
4	Moldova	253	17	Switzerland	78
5	Spain	228	18	Romania	65
6	Greece	215	19	Belgium	64
7	Portugal	207	20	Armenia	61
8	United Kingdom	183	21	Finland	38
9	Norway	182	22	Czech Republic	38
10	Sweden	180	23	Iceland	20
11	Netherlands	171	24	France	17
12	Poland	151	25	Germany	6
13	Estonia	141

With just three countries (Spain, United Kingdom, Sweden) still awaiting their jury points, Ukraine would have been currently in the lead with its final score of 631 points. Alessandro, Laura or Mika would have said “The winner can now be Ukraine, who are currently in the lead, or one of the three countries that haven't received their points from the national juries, that's Spain, United Kingdom or Sweden”. Green Room shots of the artists representing Ukraine, Spain, United Kingdom and Sweden would have been shown in four on-screen windows before continuing. Graham Norton may well have said something like “I think Ukraine are now uncatchable. Spain, which is currently the highest placed country that has yet to receive its jury points, will need at least 404 jury points to pass Ukraine. We (the UK) will need at least 449 jury points to pass Ukraine.”

N.B. By now, 1548 jury points would have been allocated to the scoreboard, and there would have been 772 jury points remaining. However, the minimum Spain, the United Kingdom and Sweden could have each received would have been 192 jury points (just like Ukraine). If any two of Spain, the United Kingdom and Sweden had each received 192 jury points, that would have left 388 jury points for the one remaining country. Thus, the maximum any one of the three remaining countries (Spain, United Kingdom, Sweden) could have received would have been 388 jury points. Hence the maximum achievable scores for three remaining countries would have been: Spain 616 points, United Kingdom 571 points, Sweden 568 points. It would have been mathematically impossible for Spain, United Kingdom or Sweden to win at this stage.

Of course, very few viewers (if any) would have known how many jury points were left for the remaining three countries at this point. Alessandro, Laura and Mika would have kept the suspense going and continued as follows.

The country that got the 3rd highest score, with 231 points is Spain. (taking them to 2nd place initially). Great result, great result, congratulations Spain. [Nowhere near enough to pass Ukraine. Spain are now in second place. Spain hoping to win it after, I think, 54 years. But a great performance by Chanel.]

Green Room shots of the artists representing Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Sweden would have been shown, left to right, across the screen, before continuing.

So, Ukraine is still in the lead, but bear in mind that two countries still need to receive their points from the national juries. So, the winner can be either the current leader Ukraine, or one of the two countries that haven’t received their points from the juries yet, United Kingdom or Sweden.

N.B. There would now have been 541 jury points to share between the United Kingdom and Sweden, but the minimum either of them could have now received would have been 231 jury points (just like Spain). If either country received 231 jury points, that would have left 310 jury points for the other country, which would have been insufficient to pass Ukraine. It would, in fact, have been mathematically impossible for the United Kingdom or Sweden to win.

The country that got the 2nd highest score, with 258 points is Sweden. (taking them to 3rd place initially).

The favourite, according to the juries, is the United Kingdom, but will they get enough points to pass Ukraine, who are currently in the lead? [I don’t think Sam Ryder can do it, he would need at least 449 jury points to pass Ukraine; I doubt if there are anywhere near that many points left.] (Green Room shots of the artists representing Ukraine and the United Kingdom would have been shown, left to right, across the screen.) United Kingdom, the juries have given you 283 points, which is not enough to pass Ukraine. (taking them to 2nd place) [It’s nowhere near enough to win. Where does that put him? Second place, we (the UK) have finished second.]

The final scoreboard (with the United Kingdom’s jury total included) would have looked like this:

1	Ukraine	631	14	Lithuania	128
2	United Kingdom	466	15	Australia	125
3	Spain	459	16	Azerbaijan	106
4	Sweden	438	17	Switzerland	78
5	Serbia	312	18	Romania	65
6	Italy	268	19	Belgium	64
7	Moldova	253	20	Armenia	61
8	Greece	215	21	Finland	38
9	Portugal	207	22	Czech Republic	38
10	Norway	182	23	Iceland	20
11	Netherlands	171	24	France	17
12	Poland	151	25	Germany	6
13	Estonia	141

At this point individual countries would have been able to announce their own national jury points. Graham Norton would almost certainly have read out the UK's national jury results to UK viewers.

Conclusion

This was the sixth time the two-part voting system first introduced in 2016 was used, and the third time of announcing the televoting totals starting with the country that received the lowest jury score and finishing with the country that received the highest jury score. Once again, it certainly produced some shocks and surprises, and plenty for keen fans to analyse well after the winner was announced. With all this in mind, after six contests of this two-part voting system being used, I still like this system very much, and feel it's perfectly fair. I hope the EBU continues using this system in 2023 and beyond. The announcement of the televoting totals adds to the excitement of the scoring procedure; in fact, I think it's the highlight of the entire Grand Final. Mark my words, next year's Eurovision Song Contest will tell another story as far as the jury and public results are concerned.

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