Eurovision Song Contest 2024 Grand Final

Host country: Sweden (SVT)
Venue: Malmö Arena, Malmö, Sweden
Hosts: Petra Mede, Malin Åkerman
Date: Saturday 11 May 2024

N.B. Any use of “tonight” or “this evening” throughout this post means Saturday 11 May 2024. Any use of “Tuesday” means Tuesday 7 May 2024, whereas any reference to “Thursday” means Thursday 9 May 2024. Any use of “this year” means 2024, whereas “last year” means 2023 and “next year” means 2025. 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:
The Opening
The Songs
Televoting and Interval Act
Jury Results
Televoting Results
Jury and Televoting Comparison
Reprise
And Finally

The Opening

After the usual Eurovision ident, accompanied by Charpentier's Te Deum prelude, the Grand Final began with a welcome message from HRH Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, wishing all contestants the best of luck. This was followed by a pre-recorded film sequence, which included very brief snippets of past winning Eurovision songs. During this sequence, Graham Norton tried giving an opening commentary to UK viewers, but there appeared to be a problem with his sound link at the time.

Björn Skifs - “Hooked on a Feeling”

This 1968 pop song was originally performed by B. J. Thomas, and was subsequently covered by the Swedish pop rock group Blue Swede in 1973. Björn Skifs, the lead singer of Blue Swede, performed “Hooked on a Feeling” live as an opening act. During this performance, groups of brown, red and orange lines appeared as arches on the background screen, and patterns of lines of those colours also appeared on the stage floor. Although clearly an of its time song, it provided the ideal way to open tonight’s Grand Final.

Flag Parade

As soon as Björn Skifs finished singing, a voice-over announced “The hits continue as we welcome the finalists of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024”. This led seamlessly into the flag parade, in which all twenty-five finalists entered the stage, in the order they were planned to perform. For each finalist country, a pattern of multiple lines appeared on the background screen, starting from the bottom centre, radiating diagonally upwards on an angle, before turning to radiate horizontally at the height they had reached. Another pattern of lines appeared on the stage floor, from the back to the front, and radiating sideways. Both patterns of lines were in the country’s national flag colours. As the lines appeared, the applicable artist entered the stage, carrying the applicable flag. The country’s name appeared, in block capital letters, on the background screen as the country’s name was announced. The following well-known Swedish hits were played in the background during this parade:
• Icona Pop - “I Love It” during appearances of Sweden to Israel
• Ace of Base - “Beautiful Life” during appearances of Lithuania to Estonia
• Roxette - “The Look” during appearances of Ireland to United Kingdom
• Lykke Li - “I Follow Rivers” during appearances of Norway to Finland
• Axwell & Ingrosso - “Sun Is Shining” during appearances of Portugal to Switzerland
• ABBA - “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” during appearances of Slovenia to Austria

Opening Speeches

As Kaleen left the stage, there was a brief pause before an extract of ABBA - “The Winner Takes It All” began. A voice-over announced “Live, from Malmö, Sweden, it’s the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. Please welcome your hosts, Malin Åkerman and Petra Mede.” The slogan “United By Music” was displayed on the background screen, in block capitals. Malin and Petra entered the stage from its rear, and as they entered, a row of fireworks appeared near the back of the stage. They gave a series of opening speeches. A series of very brief clips of past Eurovision Song Contests was included.

This year, a decision was made to open the voting lines before the first song in the Grand Final. Malin said “Please join us when we say the lines will open in …” and a ten second countdown followed. As soon as zero was reached, Malin and Petra said “Start voting now”. Some fireworks appeared at the back of the stage, and a message “Start Voting Now” appeared, in block capitals, on the background screen. After the lines opened, Malin and Petra had a few more lines to say before the postcard for the first song.

Back to the top

The Songs

At 20:18 BST it was time for the first song. Each song was introduced by a postcard film, which consisted of (i) a line extending over a map from Malmö to a location in the applicable country, (ii) clips of two past Eurovision Song Contest entries from that country, (iii) smartphone style videos of the artist in the applicable country, (iv) a full screen view of the artist(s) with the name at the bottom of the screen, and (v) the screen filled with a mosaic of squares in the country’s flag colours. After that, the mosaic cleared, and the country name appeared, in block capitals, split over multiple lines, in the applicable flag colours. The parts of the name merged upwards or downwards to form the country name on a single line (two for United Kingdom). Once the merge was complete, the title and artist appeared below the left hand end of the country’s name, and the composer and author names appeared below the right hand end of the country’s name. Finally, those details disappeared and the song began. Furthermore, BBC One / BBC One HD viewers in the UK had Graham Norton's commentary over the postcard films. I've mentioned some of Graham's comments at various points hereafter; if you saw the Contest outside the UK, you won't have heard his comments.

Song 1: Sweden - Marcus & Martinus “Unforgettable” (9th place, 174 points)

For once, the first country’s song to be performed in the Grand Final happened to be this year’s host country Sweden, which qualified automatically. I watched the Swedish national final, Melodifestivalen 2024 Final, live online from the UK, on Saturday 9 March 2024. The song “Unforgettable” has plenty of electronic sounds. The chorus is catchy, albeit a bit repetitive. Just like the Melodifestivalen performance, tonight’s Eurovision performance featured plenty of grids on the stage floor, in white or cyan, with white numbers and letters on the background screen at times, though I’m mystified as to their significance. It's hardly surprising this was performed on a dark stage, in order for the lines and numbers to show up clearly. There were times when the title Unforgettable appeared on the background screen, in capital letters. Late in the song, various error messages appeared there for some mysterious reason. Altogether, quite a lively, catchy song to start, and good as a host entry, but a middle of the road entry. This finished 8th with 125 points in the jury vote, 11th with 49 points in the televote and 9th with 174 points overall. Those were certainly impressive results for a host entry, but I think this was over-rated by the public, let alone the juries. In my opinion, this ought to have placed 13th to 16th in both halves of the voting, and overall.

Song 2: Ukraine - alyona alyona & Jerry Heil “Teresa & Maria” (3rd place, 453 points)

This was one of the songs I thought was almost certain to qualify from the First Semi-Final on Tuesday evening. I like the introduction, including the “ooh-ooh” sounds. The song is mostly in Ukrainian, with some English lines. I also like the opening verse, and the chorus sounds quite bouncy. Interestingly, the chorus references Mother Teresa and Diva Maria. The first two lines mean “Mother Teresa and Diva Maria are with us, Barefoot, as if on a blade, they walked on the ground”. The early part of the song showed what looked like flowing lava in the centre of the background screen, with cliffs either side. During the first instance of the chorus, one singer performed on what looked like a rock ramp, and golden shooting star effects, with after-trails, were shown on the background screen. I’m less keen on the rap section, and question its need, but that said, rap worked well with Ukrainian folk in Kalush Orchestra’s entry two years ago. Furthermore, I question the need for the strobe lighting during the rap section. The next instance of the chorus included gold marble like effects on the stage floor. The song closed with more eastern style sounds and some “ooh ooh” sounds. Altogether, this is the sort of style Ukraine tend to send, and it was very well sung and staged tonight. Despite my dislike for the rap, what I like about the rest of the song far outweighs my dislike for the rap. Consequently, this entry was among the songs I most wanted to qualify on Tuesday evening, and I liked it enough for it to be among the songs I chose to vote for tonight. This finished 5th with 146 points in the jury vote, 3rd with 307 points in the televote and 3rd with 453 points overall, which was a little higher than I expected, but one which Ukraine can be proud of.

Song 3: Germany - ISAAK “Always On The Run” (12th place, 117 points)

The second automatic qualifier, and the first Big Five country to perform tonight, that being Germany. I watched Germany’s national final, Das Deutsche Finale 2024 live, online from the UK, on Friday 16 February 2024. During the opening lines, ISAAK left a pause in place of the offensive word he had to remove. I think he should have thought of an acceptable substitute word, to replace the disallowed word, instead of just leaving a pause. There is a powerful beat after the opening lines have been performed. The chorus, which starts from the line “I'm always on the run, run, run, run” is sung in quite a powerful manner, particularly the three lines “Run-un-a-eh, run-un-a-eh”. Tonight’s staging included what looked like troughs, with frames above them, to resemble a room. For some mysterious reason, fire was a dominant feature of the Eurovision performance. During the opening lines, a tank with fire could be seen in one corner. Flames appeared in the troughs at the start of the first instance of the chorus, and burned until the end of the second instance of the chorus. Rising flames from the stage floor also appeared during the choruses. After the second instance of the chorus was the block “Run from the silence” to “Can't do this anymore”. Two instances of this block were sung softly and slowly, presumably to serve as a bridge, and a further two instances of this block (with backing) were sung in a powerful manner (presumably to serve as an outro). Interestingly, there was no use of fire during this bridge and outro. Altogether, a lively, powerful song, and if nothing else, this will be remembered for considerable use of fire. In my opinion, this was one of the better performances of the night. There was a considerable difference of opinion between the juries and the public, because this finished 10th with 99 points in the jury vote, but only 19th with 18 points in the televoting. Consequently, this finished 12th with 117 points overall. I think this entry was under-rated by the pubic; this ought to have finished 8th to 10th in both halves of the voting and overall.

Song 4: Luxembourg - TALI “Fighter” (13th place, 103 points)

It’s wonderful, if not unthinkable, to see Luxembourg back for the first time since 1993. I watched the Luxembourgish national final, Luxembourg Song Contest 2024, live, online from the UK, on 27 January 2024. This was the last song to be performed in the First Semi-Final, on Tuesday evening, and this was one of the songs I most wanted to qualify that evening. However, at the time, I had my doubts as to whether or not this would qualify, because I wondered if some would regard “Fighter” as just another generic pop song, and thus not vote for it, or like it and (if in an eligible country) vote for it because they genuinely felt it’s a good song, or might they vote for Luxembourg on sympathy grounds to welcome them back after their exceptionally long absence. Anyway, this qualified, and I’m glad it did. Just like in the national final, the song was performed in a mixture of French and English tonight. The French lines were sung rather fast; it seemed as though Tali wanted to cram a lot of French into the permitted time. The choruses are powerful and lively, with a good beat. Just like in the national final, tonight’s performance featured flame effects on stage during the first instance of the chorus. Strobe lighting was used towards the end of the first two instances of the chorus. At the start of the second verses, mountains were graphically simulated on the background screen, though I’m mystified as to their significance. At the start of the second instance of the chorus, cheetahs (or leopards) appeared on the stage graphically (presumably, augmented reality), but I’m mystified as to their significance. Just like the preview video, tonight’s performance drew to a close with a soft, slow version of the chorus, on a predominantly dark stage (with spotlights), followed by the usual lively version of the chorus on a fully lit stage. More flame effects appeared on stage during the final lively instance of the chorus. “Et voilà” provided the perfect ending for this song. Altogether, a lively, catchy song, with an unforgettable chorus, and very well staged and performed tonight. As if that wasn’t enough, the dance routine, performed by the five dancers, provided further enhancement. A great effort after such a long absence; welcome back Luxembourg. This finished 11th with 83 points in the jury vote, 17th with 20 points in the televote and 13th with 103 points overall. I think this deserved better, especially in the public vote; this ought to have finished 8th to 10th in both halves of the voting and overall.

Song 5 was to have been Netherlands - Joost Klein “Europapa”. However, during the morning of Saturday 11 May 2024, a decision was made to disqualify Joost Klein from the Grand Final. Nonetheless, the remaining entries, from Israel to Austria, kept their original song numbers, both for the performance line-up and televoting suffixes. As a result, there was no Song 5 tonight. Song 4: Luxembourg was immediately followed by the postcard for Song 6: Israel. Graham Norton briefly mentioned this to UK viewers, at the start of Israel’s postcard, but the hosts said nothing about it here.

Song 6: Israel - Eden Golan “Hurricane” (5th place, 375 points)

I’m aware of the reasons why Israel’s participation has been controversial this year, but let’s remember this year’s slogan “United By Music”, cast aside the fact that Eden represented Israel, and assess this solely on the song’s lyrics, and tonight’s live vocals and staging up against the other 24 finalists. During the live performance in the Second Semi-Final, on Thursday evening, I wondered if external factors, outside the scope of Eurovision, would influence whether viewers in eligible countries would want to vote for this, or refuse to vote for this, which is why I saw this as a questionable qualifier. Anyway, this qualified. Just like the preview video, tonight’s performance began with simulated thunder sounds. The first verse and first instance of the pre-chorus are sung softly, whereas the first instance of the chorus is sung in a slightly more powerful manner. I like the way in which some of the chorus lines are performed. The second verse is sung softly, but there are more sounds in this verse compared to the first (including what I think is a tambourine). The second instance of the chorus has a wider variety of musical sounds than the first instance. After an instrumental break, the closing section includes some Hebrew. The centrepiece of tonight’s staging was the giant circular structure, with lights around its outer edge. During the opening verse, Eden was inside the circle, and her dancers momentarily climbed on its outer for part of the chorus. At the start of the second verse, Eden was on the stage itself, and her dancers performed a dance routine. As for lighting, there were some spectacular effects with blue light for most of the song, but for some mysterious reason, the dominant lighting colour changed to yellow in the instrumental break, and remained yellow for the rest of the song. Smoke or dry ice effects provided further enhancement throughout the song. Altogether a pleasant ballad which includes both gentle and more powerful sections, and very well staged tonight. Furthermore, Eden has a beautiful voice, and sang amazingly well live tonight. With all this in mind, I think this entry genuinely deserved its place in the Grand Final. There was a considerable difference in place, and an enormous difference in points, between the juries and the public, because this finished 12th with 52 points in the jury vote and 2nd with 323 points in the televote. As a result, this ended up a well-deserved 5th place with 375 points overall.

Song 7: Lithuania - Silvester Belt “Luktelk” (14th place, 90 points)

Eurovizija.LT 2024 Final took place on Saturday 17 February 2024, and I watched it online from the UK, on demand, one day late. The winner was Silvester Belt - Luktelk. According to the Eurovision website, Luktelk (which means ‘wait’/’hold on’) is about being stuck in limbo between two stages of barely existing and feeling alive, when you have to hold on and dance through whatever life throws at you. Tonight’s performance was staged much like the national final performance: blue lighting, with blue / black background patterns during the verses and bridge, and red lighting, with red / black patterns during the pre-choruses and choruses. The colour scheme for the instrumental break was rapid flashing blue and red, just like in the in national final performance. Just like in the national final, the song was performed in Lithuanian at Eurovision. I’m glad it stayed in Lithuanian; I think performing this in English or any other language would have spoiled it. Altogether a lively, catchy song, with plenty of electronic sounds, and a powerful beat. The chorus is simple and memorable; “Luktelk luktelk, dar vieną minutę luktelk.”, which means “Wait up, wait up, Just another minute”. This was one of the songs I most wanted to qualify, and one I thought was almost certain to qualify from the First Semi-Final on Tuesday evening, and I’m glad it qualified. Going by tonight’s performance alone, I thought this was one of the best entries tonight and thought it could do well. In the end, this finished 17th with 32 points in the jury vote, 10th with 58 points in the televote and 14th with 90 points overall. The jury result is very disappointing, but hardly surprising. However, I’d have thought this would have had a much better result in the public vote. This entry deserved to finish around 5th to 7th in both halves of the voting, and overall.

A break occurred at this point. During this break, Malin and Petra spoke about the first time Sweden hosted the Eurovision Song Contest, that being 1975. A clip was shown of the 1975 Contest presenter, Karin Falck, during the 1975 voting sequence. Karin briefly spoke about her experience of the 1975 Contest. Upon return from the break, Petra mentioned a few Contest rules before introducing the next song.

Song 8: Spain - Nebulossa “ZORRA” (22nd place, 30 points)

The third automatic qualifier, and the second Big Five country to perform tonight, that being Spain. I particularly like the musical introduction; this provides the perfect lead-in to the song. The chorus, which starts “Estoy en un buen momento”, is very catchy and memorable. That said, the, the chorus somehow reminds me of the Christmas song "Feliz Navidad" for some mysterious reason. In terms of the staging, a member of the group appeared silhouetted behind a giant keyhole at the start of the performance, but the block creating the illusion was soon raised. Early on, overhead views showed black and white zig-zag patterns on the stage floor, though I’m mystified as to their significance. Background images included what looked like red patterned wallpaper, and gold Lametta icicles; however, I’m mystified as to the significance of those images. From time to time, the title “ZORRA” was displayed on the background screen. The stage centrepiece was the circular sofa structure, with steps, but again, I’m mystified as to its significance. Apart from that, this performance made good use of white light beams in various directions, and towards the end, fireworks provided the perfect climax. Altogether, a lively, catchy, memorable song from start to finish, well performed and well staged. This finished 19th with 19 points in the jury vote, 22nd with 11 points in the televote and 22nd with 30 points overall, which I thought was disappointing. In my opinion, 16th or 17th in both halves of the voting and overall would have been more appropriate for this entry, but it wasn’t good enough to break into the top 15.

Song 9: Estonia - 5MIINUST x Puuluup “(nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi” (20th place, 37 points)

This was one of my “Prefer not to qualify” songs on Thursday evening, but I saw this as one that could just slip through that evening. The Estonian national final, Eesti Laul 2024, took place on Saturday 17 February 2024, and I watched it online from the UK, on demand, three days later. The winning song, “(nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi”, whose title means “We (really) don't know anything about (these) drugs”, is a rock song, which has a powerful beat. Just like at Eesti Laul, the song was performed in Estonian tonight; it’s great to hear Estonia perform in its native language for once. The band members had their unusual stringed instruments for tonight’s performance, though its uncertain whether they were actually playing them, or just miming them. The performance made use of illuminated squares on the background screen and stage floor, which were yellow for most of the song; however, there was an interlude when these were green and purple. Altogether a very lively rock song, though it's not my musical taste, and there must be plenty more who this would equally not appeal to. Furthermore, anyone who has seen a translation of the title or lyrics, in their own language, may have concern about the content. Nonetheless, immediately after the Grand Final performance of this song, I thought this could still do well, just being for so unforgettable. Anyway, there was a considerable difference of opinion between the juries and the public, because this finished 25th (last) with just 4 points in the jury vote and 13th with 33 points in the televote. Consequently, this ended up 20th with 37 points overall. I’m not surprised this ended up where it did in the jury vote, as I don’t think juries would go for this style in any year. The televote placing and score is hardly surprising; evidently there were plenty of viewers who liked this. In my opinion, this called for a bottom three placing in both halves of the voting and overall.

Song 10: Ireland - Bambie Thug “Doomsday Blue” (6th place, 278 points)

Ireland tried something out of the ordinary this year. It’s unclear whether Bambie was singing or talking in the opening section. The three-line section starting “I, I, I know you’re living a lie” is very unusual, I personally don’t like this style, but presumably there are enough people in the world who enjoy this style. Anyway, Bambie was on a predominantly dark stage, with strobe lighting (which presumably simulated sheet lightning), during the first instance of this. The section “I, I, I guess you’d rather have a star than the moon” to “I’m down, down, in my Doomsday blue” is more down to Earth, and to my taste, in that it’s what I’d call typical singing. Presumably this is a chorus, as more instances of this section appear later, but anyway, the last line of this section is where the title is mentioned. Lighting was static, and a moon appeared on the background screen during this part of the song. Later, the section “For your romance” to “Compared to the others is doom” was sung in a rather haunted manner, with some siren sounds in the background, but it goes well with the other parts. For some reason, static red lighting featured here. Presumably this serves as a bridge. After several instances of “Blue”, accompanied by flashing blue light, the song ended with “Avada Kadavra I speak to destroy!”, which sounded as though Bambie is almost screaming, albeit very softly. Flames appeared during this closing section, and “Crown The Witch”, in capital letters and a rather unusual font, appeared on the background screen right at the end. Altogether a very unusual style of song; with a mixture of styles, and very well staged. One may like this in whole, in part or not at all, depending on one’s musical taste. I for one had this on my “Definitely don't want to qualify” list in the First Semi-Final, on Tuesday evening, but I saw this as a likely qualifier that evening, just for being so out of the ordinary and unusual. For the same reason, by the end of the Grand Final performance, I guessed this could do well in the final. This was one of my least liked entries in the Grand Final, and I would have preferred this to have finished bottom three in both halves of the voting and overall. However, the juries and plenty of viewers clearly liked this, because this finished 6th with 142 points in the jury vote, 6th with 136 points in the televote and 6th with 278 points overall. I’m amazed and surprised this did so well with the juries, as I didn’t think they would go for this sort of style. At least this result showed perfect consistency, in terms of placing, between the juries, public and overall, and this was Ireland’s best result for several years. RTÉ took a big risk sending this to Eurovision, and the gamble paid off.

Song 11: Latvia - Dons “Hollow” (16th place, 64 points)

Latvia went for a ballad this year. This was one of my “Definitely want to qualify” songs on Thursday evening. However, before and during the Second Semi-Final, I thought this style of song would do well in a jury vote, but struggle in a public vote. Being as the semi-finals were televote only, I thought it would be a miracle for this to qualify. Amazingly, this qualified. The opening verse is sung quite slowly, and a piano can be heard clearly. Dons sings the chorus in a more powerful manner and various other sounds can be heard. The second verse is sung at a similar pace and vocal level to the first verse, but there is a regular soft beat as well as the piano here. This is followed by a second full instance of the chorus, and finally a couple of lines in a softer voice to close the song. The centrepiece of the staging was the giant circular structure. At the start of the performance, Dons stood in this circular structure, lit by a spotlight. As the song progressed, a river effect momentarily appeared on the stage during the first instance of the pre-chorus, and circular patterns appeared on the background screen during the first instance of the chorus. During the second verse, Dons stepped out of the circular structure and walked forwards, along the stage. During the second instance of the chorus, a tree appeared on the background screen, and there were light beams, in multiple directions, from overhead. Altogether, a beautiful ballad (or perhaps some might call it a power ballad), Dons has an excellent voice and has the talent to sing amazingly well both softly and powerfully live. Furthermore, the simple staging, including subtle lighting and background images, suited this song perfectly. It's a pity there wasn’t a special prize for unexpected shock qualifier, because this must have been the finalist song most deserving of such an award. As expected, this ended up higher in terms of place and points with the juries than the viewers, but not much higher, because this finished 15th with 36 points in the jury vote and 16th with 28 points in the televote. As a result, this finished 16th with 64 points overall, which was a good achievement for this entry. One place and eight points apart between the juries and public was closer than I expected; I thought this might get a much higher score in the jury vote and few, if any points in the public vote.

Song 12: Greece - Marina Satti “ZARI” (11th place, 126 points)

This was one of my “Prefer not to qualify” songs in the Second Semi-Final on Thursday evening, but I saw this as a likely qualifier that evening. Marina performed most of “ZARI” in Greek, but there were a few lines in English. It’s nice to hear the artist representing Greece sing predominantly in Greek for once. Marina has a beautiful voice, and I like the way plenty of Greek style sounds could be heard throughout the song. However, I don’t like the beat that dominated the song after the opening verse, and I question the need for the (ΤΑ ΤΑ ΤΑ ΤΑ ΤΑ ΤΑ) lines at various points. As for the staging, was it really necessary to show Marina occupying a narrow section at the centre of the screen, to resemble a smartphone style video image, during the opening verse? Thankfully viewers saw a full widescreen picture at the start of the line “I’m gonna do it my way”. I question the need for the series of rapidly flashing, and colour changing, background and floor images that followed; they seemed rather random to me. Fortunately, the background changed to a blue sky, with white, puffy clouds, plus a sky-blue stage floor, for the gentler part of the song “Móni ki an méno” to “móni pethaíno an eísai alloú”, which, presumably, was intended to be a bridge. Rapidly flashing images and colour changing returned for much of the rest of the song, though there was one brief overhead view of Marina on the stage floor, which showed an aerial view of building rooftops. All in all, a rather unusual entry really. Not my taste in music at all; but without a shadow of a doubt plenty enjoy this style. There was a difference of opinion between the juries and the public, in terms of both placing and points, because this entry finished 14th with 41 points in the jury vote and 8th with 85 points in the televote. Evidently viewers at home liked this considerably more than the juries, for the public to have given this song over twice as many points as the juries did. As a result, this ended up 11th with 126 points overall; thus, it placed midway between its jury and public vote placings. In my opinion, this was over-rated by the juries, let alone the public; I saw this as a bottom five contender.

Song 13: United Kingdom - Olly Alexander “Dizzy” (18th place, 46 points)

The fourth automatic qualifier, and the third Big Five country to perform tonight, that being the United Kingdom. During the opening verse, Olly appeared to be upside-down, whilst sitting, and then walking around, inside a box. This box consisted of what looked like tiled walls on the side panels, and illuminated squares on the top and bottom. By the first instance of the chorus, Olly was upright. A spinning galaxy of stars could be seen at the back of the box, which was tilted left and right, during the chorus. This in itself must have confused some viewers. It’s unclear whether the section immediately after the second instance of the chorus was an instrumental break or a bridge. Anyway, throughout this instrumental break, or bridge, the box was shown upside-down, and some background voices could be heard. The final instance of the chorus was effectively in two parts. Olly was shown upright, performing the first part alone, in the box, and eclipsed sun could be seen on the back wall. Suddenly, there was an overhead view of the box floor, during which it looked like several layers of grid squares split apart, to reveal Olly and his four dancers on the open stage, where he performed the rest of the final instance of the chorus. Spinning circular patterns, on the open stage floor, enhanced this part, and a quick burst of fireworks provided the perfect end to the performance. From a technical point of view, it’s obvious that the upside-down and tilted views, seen by TV viewers, must have been illusions. Presumably these were either created by turning the camera upside-down or on an angle, or alternatively the camera could have been kept upright, with the digital video images inverted or tilted using a computer or vision mixer. The biggest technical challenge must have been the clever transition from the box to the open stage. Were the audience in the Arena able to see the inverted / tilted box views, or the box to open stage transition? As for the song itself, the verses have a heartbeat like sound in the background, whereas the chorus is quite catchy, with a beat and what sounds like bells. All in all, this is one to be valued more for the staging than for the song itself, which I personally consider to be a run-of-the-mill pop song. As for the outfits, Olly in his white vest and red trousers, with his four dancers topless with red shorts on, may not have pleased some. By the end of the Grand Final performance, I expected this to place 13th to 15th at best, and that was being optimistic. In the end, there was a considerable difference of opinion between the juries and the public, because this finished 13th with 46 points in the jury vote, 25th (last) with 0 points in the televote and 18th with 46 points overall. The public vote result was, in my opinion, harsh and unjustified, but anyway, 18th place overall was about right for this song.

Malin briefly spoke before the start of a break. During this break, Lynda Woodruff spoke briefly about Käärijä and Loreen in last year’s Grand Final, and this year’s Semi-Finals. Finally, Lynda sang a song about Martin Österdahl, "You're Good to Go". Upon return from the break, Petra and Malin spoke for a little longer before introducing the next song.

Song 14: Norway - Gåte “Ulveham” (25th place, 16 points)

I watched the Norwegian national final, Melodi Grand Prix 2024 Final live, online from the UK, on 3 February 2024. Interestingly, the lyrics of this song had to be rewritten for the MGP Final. Just like at MGP Final, this was performed in Norwegian in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. This is good, because I think performing this song in any other language would spoil it. Just like at MGP, the lead singer Gunnhild Sundli performed this on a plinth, with rocks, however I'm mystified as to the significance of that plinth. Early on, she was surrounded by a cone of narrow light beams. During the choruses, there was considerable use of flashing lights and lasers. In addition, some spectacular wave effects appeared on the background screen during the choruses. As if the lighting effects and screen images weren’t enough, smoke or dry ice provided further enhancement throughout the performance. One member of the band had an unusual stringed instrument, one had an electric guitar and another was seated at a drumkit, but it’s unclear as to whether they were actually playing, or just miming, their instruments on this occasion. All in all, an out-of-the ordinary entry, consisting of two distinct musical styles: rock in the choruses and a softer style in the verses. These two styles together are a marriage made in heaven, in my opinion, but not everyone will agree with me on that. Gunnhild’s voice is quite beautiful in the verses, but during the MGP Final, I thought she was too screechy on each instance of the chorus. For some reason, she didn’t seem quite so screechy during the Eurovision 2024 Second Semi-Final and Grand Final performances. This was one of the songs I most wanted to qualify, and one I thought was likely to qualify, in the Second Semi-Final on Thursday evening. By the end of the Grand Final, this finished 23rd with 12 points in the jury vote, 24th with 4 points in the televote and 25th (last) with 16 points overall. This was the one song which placed just above last in both halves of the voting, but anomalously, ended up last overall, which was a pity. In my opinion, this was heavily under-rated by the juries and the public; 15th place or thereabouts would have been more appropriate for “Ulveham”.

Song 15: Italy - Angelina Mango “La noia” (7th place, 268 points)

The fifth automatic qualifier, and the fourth Big Five country to perform tonight, that being Italy. This was one of my least previewed entries in the run-up to this year’s Contest, so I saw the live Second Semi-Final performance of this entry, on Thursday evening, with barely any knowledge of the content. Due to lack of time between Thursday evening and Saturday evening, I still hadn’t found out any background information about “La noia” by the time the Grand Final started, so I’ve tried to find more about this song retrospectively. From the English version of the lyrics, on the Eurovision website, one can clearly see the title translates as “The Boredom”. According to Wiwibloggs, Angelina sings about breaking free from a life filled with monotony while expressing her longing to find greater meaning; addressing women trapped in “boring” lives that conform to societal norms. During both the Second Semi-Final and Grand Final performances I was trying to guess what the noticeably different parts of the song were. According to the English translation of the lyrics on Genius, the song begins with the first verse. The next part is the refrain, consisting of “La noia” four times over. This is followed by the pre-chorus, and the four-line chorus. The song continues with the second verse, followed by second instances of the pre-chorus and chorus. After that, there is a bridge. The rest of the song consists of final instances of the refrain, pre-chorus and chorus. These final instances of the pre-chorus and chorus differ slightly from their earlier instances. The Eurovision performances included what looked like flowering thorn tree images on the stage floor and background screen. At times the song’s title was shown on the background screen. One key feature was the unusual chair-like object at the back of the stage, though I was mystified as to its significance. Presumably it was there for a purpose. The performance drew to a close with falling fireworks at the back of the stage. Rising fireworks provided the perfect end to the performance. Summing up, an unusual style of song, to say the least. The pre-chorus and bridge sound pleasant enough to me, but I’m less keen on the verses, which contain significant amounts of rap-like singing. Furthermore, Angelina has a nice voice, and the five dancers were a worthwhile enhancement to the Eurovision performances. However, I think one needed to read the background information about this song, and fully analyse the lyrics, in the run-up to the Contest to fully appreciate the song. During the Grand Final performance of this song, I wondered what casual viewers, who hadn’t seen or heard any of the songs in the run-up to Eurovision week, would think of this entry, and how that might affect its popularity in the public vote. Anyway, this finished 4th with 164 points in the jury vote, 7th with 104 points in the televote and 7th with 268 points overall. Maybe I under-ranked this in My Eurovision Scoreboard whilst watching the Grand Final, but anyway, I think 11th to 13th from me would have been a generous ranking for “La noia”; I don’t think it was good enough for top ten.

Song 16: Serbia - TEYA DORA “RAMONDA” (17th place, 54 points)

Now for a ballad. I liked the introduction, and the zooming through the cloud effect which appeared at the start of the performance. When Teya started singing, she was sitting on an artificial rock. However, the rippling water effect must have been graphically simulated on the stage floor. Just like in the preview video, the opening verse was sung softly. I particularly liked the way Teya sang the lines “A nema ko da vodi me”, “do svetle zvezde Danice”, which mean “And there is no one to guide me”, “Towards the bright North Star”. By the start of the first instance of the chorus, which consists of multiple instances of “Lila ramonda”, Teya was standing, but the rock could still be seen behind her. She sang this in a more powerful manner, and overhead views showed some spectacular radiating patterns on the stage floor. I question the need for the strobe lighting during the second verse, but evidently the lighting designer felt they fitted in here somehow. During the next instance of the chorus, the first two lines were sung softly, and the rest was sung more powerfully. Presumably this was a way of providing some variation in a chorus which may otherwise have been seen as repetitive. Finally, the two lines at the end, sung softly, were the perfect way to close this song. Teya sat back on the rock, and a graphically simulated purple flower grew on the background screen at this point. Altogether, a beautiful ballad, some of which is sung softly, but there are some more powerful parts. This was one of the songs I most wanted to qualify from the First Semi-Final on Tuesday evening. Unfortunately, at the time, I saw this as a song which would do well in a jury vote, but could struggle to get votes from the public, and due to the absence of a jury vote that evening, I saw this as a “maybe” qualifier. Anyway, having qualified for the Grand Final, this finished a rather disappointing 18th place with 22 points in the jury vote; so much for me thinking this would do well with the juries. Thankfully, and surprisingly, this did slightly better in the public vote; 14th with 32 points. Even so, this ended up 17th with 54 points overall. This masterpiece deserved better, especially with the juries.

Song 17: Finland - Windows95man “No Rules!” (19th place, 38 points)

I watched the Finnish national final, Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu, otherwise known as UMK, live, online from the UK, on Saturday 10 February 2024. “No Rules!” is a lively, high tempo song. After winning UMK, it was questionable whether or not Windows95man, whose real name is Teemu Keister, would be allowed to call himself Windows95man at Eurovision. Fortunately, he was allowed to perform under that name in Malmö. The chorus is sung rapidly, and is highly memorable. Just like at UMK, I liked the way they had a giant egg, covered in denim, at the start, which opened to reveal Windows95man dressed in a Microsoft Windows 95 cap and T-shirt (albeit with the Windows 95 logos pixellated), and the associate singer dressed as what presumably is a bird. During tonight’s performance, some viewers may have been alarmed what Windows95man was wearing (or lack of?) below his T-shirt, until his denim shorts were within reach near the end. In fact, was the use of the clipboard and other objects as hiding devices, at certain points in the performance, planned or an unexpected necessity? Shortly after Windows95man finally donned his denim shorts, he waved ropes, with fireworks at their ends, as a closing effect (or in my opinion, gimmick). All in all, a very lively, catchy fun song, which will be difficult to forget. The question is, some may express their concern at the line “I don't even care what's wrong or right”. During tonight’s performance, I saw this as likely to pick up plenty of votes from the public, thereby leading to a high televote score, but I thought the professional juries may mark this down for its lyrics. As I expected, there was a considerable difference of opinion between the juries and the public, because this finished 24th with 7 points in the jury vote, 15th with 31 points in the televote and 19th with 38 points overall. The low jury placing and score is hardly surprising, and what I expected. As for the public vote placing and score, what this entry got was, in my opinion, more than enough; I predicted an undeserved top ten score of over 100 televote points.

Song 18: Portugal - iolanda “Grito” (10th place, 152 points)

The Portuguese national final, Festival da Canção 2024 Final, took place on Saturday 9 March 2024, and I watched it on demand, online from the UK, the following evening (10 March 2024). The winner, out of 12 finalist songs, was “Grito”, sung by iolanda. The opening verse is sung in a slow and gentle manner. There is a noticeable build up in the section starting “Passos largos, presa na partida”, which I have since found out is a pre-chorus. The song becomes comparatively lively at the start of the chorus, which starts “(Ainda arde!) Transformei cada verso de mim”. I particularly like the chorus lines: “Sou chama que ainda arde “ “Ainda arde, ainda arde!”, which mean “I'm a flame that still burns, still burns, still burns”. The comparatively lively pace continues throughout the second verse and a second instance of the chorus. After that, two instances of “Sou chama que ainda arde, ainda arde”, sung slightly differently, serve as a bridge. Finally, the song draws to a close with one final instance of the chorus, sung at a gentler and slower pace. Just like at Festival da Canção, iolanda was accompanied by dancers tonight; they appeared part way through the opening verse. Their dance routine, from the first instance of the pre-chorus to the bridge fitted the applicable parts the song well. Interestingly, iolanda and her dancers all wore white for tonight’s performance. Altogether, quite an unusual song; I like the way iolanda starts by singing in a slow and gentle manner, builds up to a comparatively lively “middle section”, and returns to singing in a slow and gentle manner for the final section. Furthermore, the first two instances of the chorus each have quite a powerful beat. It’s great to hear Portugal bring its traditional musical style to Eurovision, and perform in its native language, Portuguese. This was one of my “Definitely want to qualify” songs in the First Semi-Final, on Tuesday evening. However, before and during that semi-final, I saw this as another song which would do well in a jury vote, but struggle in a public vote, and because both semi-finals were televote only, I had my doubts as to whether or not this would qualify Tuesday evening. I for one was amazed to see this reach the Grand Final. Sadly, once there, the wide difference of opinion between the juries and viewers at home, which I previously expected, occurred, because this finished an impressive 7th with 139 points in the jury vote, and a disappointing 20th with 13 points in the public vote. Consequently, this finished 10th with 152 points overall. In my opinion, this was grossly under-rated by the public; the jury placing is where this ought to have finished in both halves of the voting, and overall.

Song 19: Armenia - LADANIVA “Jako” (8th place, 183 points)

This was one of my “Wouldn't mind qualifying” songs in the Second Semi-Final on Thursday evening. The song was performed in Armenian; it’s great to hear a country sing in its native language. Looking at the lyrics, it seems as though there is a seven-line verse (whose first line means “They tell me”): and a four-line verse (whose first line means “Come, come, come and join me!”). Apart from that plenty of “La La La” appears in the gaps, presumably to serve as a crude chorus. The rest of the composition is largely instrumental, but it features plenty of eastern style sounds, including a flute (or some other wind instrument) which someone was playing (or perhaps just miming) on stage tonight. During tonight’s performance, the stage floor had a multi-coloured eastern style pattern, which I particularly liked, and which I think suited the style of the song appropriately. However, I’m mystified by the purpose of the stepped platform, with triangular lights on the risers. Altogether, an unusual entry, which seems to be more music than singing. At least the music is eastern style. Finally, this must be one of the shortest songs in this year’s Contest, because the preview video is just two minutes and 39 seconds long, including the Eurovision slide at the start. I’ve since measured the Grand Final performance to be two minutes and 24 seconds, not counting the title and information slide at the start. This finished 9th with 101 points in the jury vote, 9th with 82 points in the televote and 8th with 183 points overall. From this, it can be seen there was consistency, in terms of placing, between the juries and public (9th), but anomalously this managed to finish one place higher overall. In my opinion, this was over-rated; 14th to 17th in both halves of the voting, and overall, would have been more appropriate for this, as I felt there were other songs more deserving of a top ten place than this.

Song 20: Cyprus - Silia Kapsis “Liar” (15th place, 78 points)

This was the first song in the First Semi-Final on Tuesday evening, and it ended up being song number 20 in the Grand Final. Furthermore, this was one of the songs I most wanted to qualify, and one I saw as a likely qualifier, on Tuesday evening. The performance began with an overhead view of the stage, to show a turquoise circular pattern, which shrunk inwards. Unsurprisingly, there were some Greek style sounds during the first verse which, just like in the preview video, was sung quite softly tonight. A beat began in the first instance of the section starting “Should’ve known that you are a liar”. I particularly liked the section “Because of you”, “I'll make it through”, which appeared just before each instance of the chorus. As for the chorus itself, that was very lively and catchy, with a fast and powerful beat. The second verse also had a beat to it, and Greek style sounds could be heard during that verse. Between the second and third instances of the chorus, there was an instrumental break, with a powerful beat, and Silia fitted in a few instances of “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah”. This part of the song included considerable use of flashing lights. During tonight’s performance, Silia managed to sing powerfully enough to overcome the beat which featured in much of the song. There were some spectacular turquoise patterns on the background screen and stage floor for much of the song, some of which included swirling and fountain effects, but for some mysterious reason, these changed red for the final instance of the chorus. Unsurprisingly, there were dancers on stage, and their dance routine provided further enhancement to the performance. Altogether, a very lively, catchy song, well staged and well performed tonight. In my opinion, this was one of the best entries in the Grand Final. Despite that, this ended up 16th with 34 points in the jury vote, 12th with 44 points in the televote and 15th with 78 points overall. I think this was severely under-rated with the juries, the public and overall. As far as I’m concerned, this should have finished at least top ten, if not top five, in both halves of the voting and overall.

Song 21: Switzerland - Nemo “The Code” (Winner, 591 points)

This was one of my “Definitely want to qualify” songs in the Second Semi-Final on Thursday evening, and one I guessed was almost certain to qualify that evening. Furthermore, this was the favourite to win the Grand Final jury vote. On the official Eurovision website, Nemo states “’The Code’ is about the journey I started with the realisation that I am neither a man nor a woman.” Just like in the preview video, the first verse was sung in a bouncy manner, and a beat could be heard. In the first line, “the show” presumably means the story which Nemo wanted to tell within the song. The pre-chorus was sung in quite an unusual manner, operatic (or perhaps spooky), but powerful. The chorus was sung in a bouncy manner. Presumably the lines “I, I went to hell and back”, “To find myself on track” are Nemo’s way of stating the problems they had being accepted by society with their lifestyle. The second verse was a rap section, performed at high speed. The section which seemed like a bridge or middle eight, was sung at a noticeably slower pace. Having read the background information, it’s clear to me that 0s and 1s is referring to male and female, but casual viewers who hadn’t done any background reading may not have interpreted it that way. “That’s where I found my kingdom come” is Nemo getting their lifestyle message across; neither male nor female. For tonight’s live performance, no attempt to recreate a railway carriage (as seen in the preview video) was made, either on stage or on the background screen. Instead, the centrepiece was a circular platform, which could tilt and spin. Nemo stepped on to, and jumped off this more than once during their performance, so some of the time they were on the platform and at other times they were directly on the stage. It’s amazing how Nemo managed to continue singing whilst running around the stage, stepping (or jumping) on and off the platform, and sliding down the tilted platform. Flashing lights appeared at times, and for some mysterious reason, a totally eclipsed sun could be seen on the background screen at the end of the performance. Altogether, a lively, catchy song, with a mix of styles, but to understand what Nemo is trying to get across in the song, one needs to do the background reading. Casual viewers watching tonight, without having previewed any of the songs beforehand, let alone done any background reading, may have been unaware of what the song is about, and they would have either liked or not liked this song depending or whether not they like this style of music. Some who read the background information beforehand, but who also have an aversion to LGBTQIA+ lifestyles may have refused to vote for this when they realised what this song is about. People who read about this song, and find such lifestyles perfectly acceptable are likely to have voted for this. Unsurprisingly, this won the jury vote by a landslide, with a jury total of 365 points. This fared less well in the public vote, 5th with 226 televote points, but that was still enough for this to win the Contest with 591 points overall.

A break occurred at this point. During this break, Malin spoke to Chrissy Wickham in the audience. Upon return from the break, Petra spoke about the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 DVD, CD and LP. The DVD case, which was on display, contained this year’s sleeve, but obviously couldn’t have contained DVDs of this year’s Eurovision shows at this moment in time. After that, there was a seamless transition to the next postcard.

Song 22: Slovenia - Raiven “Veronika” (23rd place, 27 points)

This was one of my “Prefer not to qualify” entries, and one I saw as a questionable qualifier, in the First Semi-Final on Tuesday evening, but it qualified. It’s unclear what type of song this is; presumably this is a power ballad. I like the way the opening section is sung softly. The first two lines mean “I hid in the river. And went into the silent night.” This clearly explains the significance of the person underwater in the preview video. However, the chorus, which has a beat, is sung in a powerful and somewhat unusual manner, which I’m not particularly keen on. The second verse (if it can be called that) seems to be louder than the opening verse, and this is followed by another instance of the chorus. As for the staging tonight, blue light streaks appeared on the background screen, and on the stage floor, during the opening section. Clouds appeared on the background screen during the first and second instances of the chorus, and sea foam and waves appeared on the background screen during the second verse. The climax was towards the end, when some flashing lights were used. Finally, I question the need for the five dancers who accompanied Raiven from the first instance of the chorus to the end, but anyway, was it really necessary for them to be wearing nothing except flesh-coloured pants? This finished 22nd with 15 points in the jury vote, 21st with 12 points in the televote and 23rd with 27 points overall. This was another finalist song which, anomalously, placed lower overall than in either half of the voting, but at least the jury, public and combined placings were all in the range this deserved.

Song 23: Croatia - Baby Lasagna “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” (2nd place, 547 points)

From one ex-Yugoslav country to another. I watched the Croatian national final, Dora 2024 Final live, online from the UK, on Sunday 25 February 2024. This was the hot favourite to win Dora 2024 Final during the run-up to, and throughout, that show. Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that this was also the hot favourite to win the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 First Semi-Final and Grand Final. It’s difficult for me to judge this fairly as I don’t normally like this style. At the time of Dora 2024 Final, I "half liked" the chorus (but could just tolerate the rest), but by the start of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 First Semi-Final, I began to like this a little more. The song “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” has a powerful beat throughout. According to the Eurovision website, singer-songwriter Marko tries, for those who listen carefully, to convey a deeper message about the worries and sufferings of our environment. This is reflected in the chorus with the lines “There’s no going back, My anxiety attacks”. Having previously looked at the song’s lyrics in several languages on Eurovision World, the title stays the same; therefore, it appears to me as though the title is untranslatable. Tonight’s staging included considerable use of smoke / steam jets, and flame effects during the latter stages of the song. Neon style images of farm animals, in various colours, appeared on the background screen at times, and various coloured shapes appeared on the stage floor. A burst of fireworks rounded off the performance. Altogether, a very lively, punchy song, which will not be everyone's taste in music, but it was performed well tonight, with all the stage elements this style of song calls for. It’s hardly surprising this won the public vote with 337 points, though with a televote winning margin of just 14 points, that wasn’t the landslide televote victory some might have expected or wished for. Even the juries liked this, because this finished 3rd with 210 points in the jury vote; I for one didn’t think this style of song would finish anywhere near that high in the jury results. By the end of the scoring procedure, this ended up 2nd with 547 points overall, which is Croatia’s best placing and absolute score to-date as an independent country.

Song 24: Georgia - Nutsa Buzaladze “Firefighter” (21st place, 34 points)

This was another of my “Definitely want to qualify” songs in the Second Semi-Final on Thursday evening, and one I guessed was a likely qualifier that evening. According to Wiwibloggs website, Nutsa conveys a powerful message in the song, expressing a metaphorical fight against various negative aspects like wars, envy, and hate. Tonight’s performance began with thunder-like sounds. Just like in the preview video, Nutsa sang the opening lines quite slowly, I liked the various sounds that could be heard between lines there. As she sang these lines, a red circle formed, bottom up, on the background screen. The first verse proper has a noticeable beat to it, of rising and falling pitch. The line “Did we build empires, just to watch them burn?” could be interpreted as “Did we build cities, to see them destroyed by war?” There seems to be a slight increase in the tempo on the pre-chorus. In addition to the beat, other sounds can be heard. The first two lines in this block could be seen as a representation of damage being caused by war, and “It's getting harder to breathe” could be seen as “it’s getting increasingly difficult to live one’s life with war in progress”. I particularly like the way in which Nutsa sings the chorus, in a rising and falling pitch. The line “I'm rising from these ashes like a phoenix, yeah” could be interpreted as determination to succeed, despite destruction caused by conflict. The second verse has a good beat to it, and just like in the preview video, Nutsa raised the pitch during “rise higher, and higher, and higher”. Being as the title is “Firefighter”, it's hardly surprising that fire was a key feature of the performance, including simulated flame and smoke effects on the background screen, and actual rising flames around the stage edges at various moments in tonight’s performance. The performance ended with Nutsa being raised on a platform, and a final burst of flames from the stage. As if that wasn’t enough, the four dancers enhanced the song further with their dance routine. Altogether, an excellent song, which presumably could be classed as a power ballad. However, I think you need to read the background information, to understand what this song is about, and one needs to be able to interpret the lyrics in connection with the background information. This made me wonder if casual viewers, seeing or hearing this song for the first time tonight, would want to vote for this or not, and hence what effect that would have on this entry, in terms of points and placing, in the public vote. Anyway, this finished 21st with 15 points in the jury vote, 18th with 19 points in the televote and 21st with 34 points overall. I think this was grossly under-rated by the juries and the public. In my opinion, this should have finished top ten in both halves of the voting, and overall.

Song 25: France - Slimane “Mon amour” (4th place, 445 points)

For once, the last automatic qualifier, and the last Big Five country to perform (France) happened to be the penultimate entry in the Grand Final line-up. This was another of my least previewed entries in the run-up to this year’s Contest, so I saw the live Second Semi-Final performance of this entry, on Thursday evening, with barely any knowledge of the content. For the whole of this performance, the stage floor was lit plain white and the rest of the Arena was predominantly dark. Slimane started by lying down, on his side, on the stage, but before the first instance of the chorus, he was kneeling. He continued kneeling through the second verse, and stood at the start of the second instance of the chorus. Vocally, he started by singing the first verse and first instance of the chorus softly. He sang the second verse a little more powerfully, and second instance of the chorus even, more powerfully. Musically, piano sound could be heard in the first verse and first instance of the chorus, and a beat could be heard, in addition to the piano, in the second verse and second instance of the chorus. The highlight of the performance has to be when he sang the final instance of the chorus a cappella, at a distance from the microphone. His voice could still be heard clearly during this part of the song. Finally, he performed the last three lines near the microphone, and accompanied by music. Altogether an amazing ballad, and best of all it was sung in the native language, French. I particularly like the way this entry builds up musically and vocally as the song progresses. Furthermore, the staging was perfect for the Eurovision performances; this is an example of a song for which the simplest staging works best. The addition of a little smoke / dry ice, after the second instance of the chorus, was a worthwhile enhancement for the most powerful part of the song. By far, this was one of the best entries tonight. This finished 2nd with 218 points in the jury vote, which is hardly surprising as this is very much jury friendly material. The public clearly liked this as well, because this finished 4th with 227 points in the televote; I for one didn’t expect this to do as well as that with viewers at home. As a result, this finished 4th with 445 points overall. Although those were impressive results for France, I think this masterpiece should have won both halves of the voting, and overall.

At this point, Petra stated that back in 1974, history was written in Brighton when ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest that year. A short film clip “Brighton - How did the historic ABBA victory change the city?” was shown. After that film clip ended, there was a seamless transition to the next postcard.

Song 26: Austria - Kaleen “We Will Rave” (24th place, 24 points)

The final song of the Grand Final already; it's amazing how time flies! Austria went for an upbeat song this year, and their entry was among my “Definitely want to qualify” songs in the Second Semi-Final on Thursday evening. I like the way in which Kaleen sings the opening verse. The section “So I go go go” to “They will never know”, which I presume to be a pre-chorus, has a beat. The section starting “When the darkness hits and we can’t be saved”, which I presume to be the chorus, is sung in a powerful manner, and is very catchy and memorable. An instrumental section follows before the second verse. The second verse is sung in a similar manner to the first, but this has a beat. This is followed by second instances of the pre-chorus and chorus. As for staging, I like the way the performance contained extensive use of blue light or laser beams throughout, including fan effects of the beams. Unsurprisingly, for a song of this style, flashing lights were also used at times. Rising smoke jets provided the climax to this entry during the final instance of the chorus. Altogether, a very lively, catchy disco song, which includes plenty of use of electronic sounds, and a good beat. It’s hardly surprising there were four dancers on stage for the performance. All in all, the perfect entry to close the Grand Final. Before and during the Second Semi-Final, on Thursday evening, I thought this entry would be likely to attract plenty of votes from the viewing public, but this would struggle in a jury vote. For that reason, I thought this song should have no difficulty qualifying in Thursday’s televote only semi-final, but this would be totally reliant on viewers’ votes to get a respectable overall placing in the Grand Final. By the end of the Grand Final, this finished 20th with 19 points in the jury vote, which was disappointing but hardly surprising. As if that wasn’t bad enough, this did worse still in the public vote, 23rd with 5 televote points. So much for me thinking this would do well with the public in the Grand Final. Consequently, this ended up 24th with 24 points overall, which was a lower combined placing than either half of the voting. This was grossly under-rated, especially by viewers at home; as far as I’m concerned, this should have finished 11th to 13th overall.

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Televoting and Interval Act

As soon as Kaleen finished performing, shots of the audience were shown. Shortly afterwards, Malin and Petra reappeared. They reminded viewers that the voting lines were already open, and the voting methods that were available. Graham Norton outlined the voting procedure for UK viewers, including the fact that UK viewers could not vote for Olly Alexander or vote by text. A recap of the songs followed with the phone numbers at the bottom of the screen. Since the Netherlands had been disqualified, and thus their entry was not performed tonight, there was no song extract with the suffix 05. Were any viewers, in any country, foolish enough to try dialling the voting stem with 05 at the end? When the UK's song extract appeared, a caption at the bottom of the screen stated “UK VIEWERS CANNOT VOTE FOR THE UK ENTRY”. Were any UK viewers foolish enough to try dialling the voting stem with 13 at the end? Knowing that the lines would almost certainly be extremely busy during this recap (despite them having been open since just before the first song), I deliberately delayed voting until later. When I eventually tried voting (22:31 to 22:36), I successfully voted for: Cyprus, France, Israel, Georgia, Lithuania, Portugal, Ukraine, Germany. Voting for 8 songs might seem extravagant, but they were my top 8 on My Eurovision Scoreboard during the Grand Final. Whilst the voting lines were still open, there was a series of acts, and intermediate fillers, as outlined below.

Interval Act 1: Alcazar - “Crying at the Discoteque”

Three members of Swedish nu-disco group Alcazar reunited to perform their song “Crying at the Discoteque”, which was originally released as a hit single in April 2000. They were joined by a group of dancers on stage. A giant glitterball was suspended above the stage, and the name Alcazar appeared on the background screen, in block capitals. There was a burst of fireworks at the start of the performance, and further fireworks at various points during the performance, which provided further worthwhile enhancement. However, I’m mystified as to why someone walked on to the stage with a fire extinguisher at the end, as by then there were no fireworks or flame effects to extinguish.

Interval Act 2: ABBA Tribute - “Waterloo”

This began with a pre-recorded segment from the ABBA Voyage concert, in London, in which ABBA, as their virtual avatars, discussed their Eurovision experience. As they started to perform their Eurovision Song Contest 1974 winning song “Waterloo”, there was a seamless transition back to the Malmö Arena. Images of ABBA’s Eurovision 1974 performance could be seen on one screen, and images of their other song videos were displayed on the overhead movable LED cubes (which were at various heights). During the first instance of the chorus, three past Eurovision Song Contest winners; Carola (Sweden 1991), Charlotte Perrelli (Sweden 1999) and Conchita Wurst (Austria 2014), entered the stage to sing the rest of “Waterloo”.

Next, there was a second recap of the competing songs, complete with the voting numbers. During this recap, Graham Norton reminded UK viewers of the voting numbers, and that UK viewers could not vote for the UK entry.

Interlude

As soon as the second recap ended, a sting marking start of another break. The following fillers were shown during this break:
• Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023: clips of songs from Armenia, Spain, United Kingdom, France.
• Petra gave a short speech in the Green Room.
• Highlights of jury voting presentation from recent years.
• Postcard of Petra (similar to the ones for the competing artists). Her past Eurovision appearances included a clip of the interval act “Swedish Smörgåsbord” from the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 Grand Final.

Another sting marked the end of this break. Upon return from the break, Malin and Petra reminded viewers that Loreen won for Sweden with “Euphoria” in 2012 and “Tattoo” in 2023, and introduced the next interval act.

Interval Act 3: Loreen

The final interval act, during which Loreen performed her new single “Forever” followed by her Eurovision Song Contest 2023 winning song “Tattoo”. She performed both songs whilst sitting (or lying back) on a stool. Both songs were presented to viewers at home in a letterboxed format, creating a super widescreen effect. In addition, streamers hung vertically from above, and there were smoke / dry ice effects at stage level, which enhanced the performance. From time to time, an overhead view was briefly shown; during these overhead views, the smoke / dry ice trails could be seen swirling around the stool. The transition between the songs was seamless, with no pause in between. Altogether, quite an impressive interval act, but I didn't like the rather distorted version of “Tattoo”. I think Loreen ought to have performed original version, like she sang at Liverpool last year, even if she couldn't have the “giant sandwich” this time.

This was followed by the third (and final) recap of the competing songs, complete with the voting numbers. This time, the song extracts were shown in reverse order of performance, i.e. 26 (Austria) to 1 (Sweden). Presumably this was done to help viewers, who still hadn’t voted, remember the earliest songs more easily. During this recap, UK viewers heard Graham Norton reading out viewers' messages. Once again, when the UK’s song extract was shown, he reminded UK viewers that they could not vote for the UK entry.

When this recap ended, there was less than a minute of voting time remaining for viewers. The table which was to be used during the voting procedure was already in place on stage. Malin and Petra were behind it, speaking to fill in time. They counted down the final 15 seconds aloud, as the countdown figures appeared on the background screen, one by one. At the end of the countdown, both hosts shouted “Stop voting now”, and the message “STOP VOTING NOW” appeared on the background screen. The time was 22:51 when the voting lines closed. Graham said, to UK viewers that the lines were now closed, and Olly’s fate was sealed. At this point, the background screen split in two; its upper half was raised, and its lower half was lowered, to create a letterbox effect, which allowed the audience (and viewers at home) to see the artists in the Green Room. Shots of the artists were briefly shown.

Jury Results

At last, it was time to start the presentation of the voting results. The voting system first used in 2016 was used again this year. That meant the jury results from each country yielded one set of 1 to 12 points, and each country's televoting results generated a completely separate set of 1 to 12 points. Malin and Petra gave a short speech. Martin Österdahl stated that the jury results had been checked and verified, and they were good to go. The points from the jury voting were about to be presented in the traditional way first. When Martin had finished speaking, Petra was alone, behind the desk, to announce the link to the first spokesperson.

All 37 countries, including the 11 non-qualifiers, and the Netherlands (which qualified on Thursday evening, but was subsequently disqualified Saturday morning), voted in the Grand Final. The voting order was:
Ukraine, United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Azerbaijan, San Marino, Malta, Croatia, Albania, Czechia, Israel, Australia, Denmark, Spain, Norway, Germany, Armenia, Slovenia, Georgia, Switzerland, Moldova, Greece, Estonia, Netherlands, Austria, France, Italy, Finland, Portugal, Belgium, Iceland, Latvia, Ireland, Poland, Cyprus, Lithuania, Serbia, Sweden.

Ukraine, which announced its jury points first, gave 12 points to Switzerland. That meant Switzerland, which was strongly tipped to win the jury vote, and ended up being the jury vote winner as expected, was in the lead already. Thereafter, Switzerland held its lead all the way through to the end (even during the pause between 1 to 10 being put on to the scoreboard and 12 points being announced for the first few calling countries after Ukraine). In fact, the gap between Switzerland in the lead and whichever country was second generally increased, with few exceptions, as each country announced its jury points.

For this reason, it’s worth looking at the race for second and third place as the voting progressed on this occasion. Ukraine (1st to call) put Ireland into second place and Sweden third. After the United Kingdom (2nd to call) announced its jury points, Ireland was still in second place, whereas Portugal had moved into third place. Once Luxembourg (3rd to call) had announced its jury points, Portugal appeared second and Croatia appeared third, but since both of them had 18 points so far, they must have been momentarily separated by tiebreaker rule. Ireland was now fourth with 17 points. Azerbaijan (4th to call) put Ireland back into second place, and kept Croatia in third place; however, Ireland and Croatia were now 5 points apart. After San Marino (5th to call) announced its jury points, Ireland was still in second place, and Portugal was in third place again. Malta (6th to call) kept Ireland in second place, and put Croatia back into third place. Croatia (7th to call) kept Ireland in second place, and put Italy into third place. After that, Ireland stayed in second place, and Italy stayed in third place (ignoring temporary fluctuations during the pause between 1 to 10 being put on to the scoreboard, and 12 points being announced, within individual countries’ rounds) until Germany (15th to call) had announced its jury points. Armenia (16th to call) gave no jury points to Ireland, 12 to France and 8 to Italy, thereby keeping Ireland in second place, but putting France third and Italy fourth. Slovenia (17th to call) also gave 12 jury points to France, but only 1 point to Ireland. As a result, France was in second place for the first time in this voting procedure, and Ireland was third. As the next three countries (Georgia, Switzerland, Moldova) announced their jury points, a cat and mouse situation arose between Italy and Ireland for third and fourth place, whilst France stayed in second place.

Obviously, 15 finalist countries were still on 0 points after Ukraine (first to call) finished announcing its jury points. As the next four countries (United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Azerbaijan, San Marino) announced their jury points, the number of countries still on 0 points fell by two each time. Thus, there were seven countries (Israel, Estonia, Greece, United Kingdom, Norway, Serbia, Austria) still on 0 points when San Marino (5th to call) finished announcing its jury points. Malta (6th to call) gave 3 jury points to Israel. This left six countries (Estonia, Greece, United Kingdom, Norway, Serbia, Austria) still on 0 points. Croatia (7th to call) gave 3 jury points to Serbia. This left five countries (Estonia, Greece, United Kingdom, Norway, Austria) still on 0 points. Albania (8th to call) gave 6 jury points to Norway and 7 jury points to Greece. This left just three countries (Estonia, United Kingdom, Austria) still on 0 points. Czechia, which was 9th to announce its jury points, was the first country to give no points to any countries still on 0. Israel (10th to call) gave 7 jury points to Austria. Only two countries (Estonia, United Kingdom) were still on 0 at this point. After that, Australia (11th to call) gave 4 jury points to the United Kingdom. From this point, Estonia was the only country still on 0 points.

A break occurred between Moldova and Greece. At this point, the top five were: 1st Switzerland 184, 2nd France 113, 3rd Italy 102, 4th Ireland 96, 5th Croatia 92. At the other end of the scoreboard, Estonia was still last with 0 points. During this break, Malin spoke to Nemo from Switzerland, who was currently in the lead, followed by Slimane from France, who was currently in second place.

After the break, Austria (24th to call) gave 2 jury points to Estonia. Thus, Estonia was the last country to get off the mark in the jury vote. All 25 finalist countries now had points, and no-one was going home pointless. At the top end of the scoreboard, Switzerland’s lead continued to grow until it temporarily peaked at 125 points after Portugal (28th to call) had announced its jury points. Switzerland’s lead fell slightly after the next two countries (Belgium and Iceland) announced their jury points. After that, Switzerland’s lead started growing again, to another new peak of 137 points after Poland’s jury scores had been added to the board. Despite one more slight drop after Cyprus (34th to call) announced its jury points, Switzerland’s lead grew still further as the remaining three countries (Lithuania, Serbia, Sweden) announced their jury points. Meanwhile, France stayed in second place on the scoreboard throughout the second half of the jury results presentation (despite having to announce its own jury points during this time). It was now a race for third place in the jury vote. Italy stayed in third place until Italy (26th to call) had announced its own jury points. After Finland (27th to call) had announced its jury points, Croatia was in third place and Italy was fourth. Croatia was still third, and Italy was still fourth, after Portugal (28th to call) had announced its jury points. Belgium (29th to call) gave 7 jury points to Italy, and nothing to Croatia, thereby putting Italy back in third place, and pushing Croatia to fourth. Iceland (30th to call) gave 10 jury points to Croatia, and nothing to Italy, thereby putting Croatia in third again, and pushing Italy to fourth place. Croatia remained in third place as the remaining seven countries announced their jury points. During the second half of the jury results presentation, the gap between second and third fluctuated, peaking at 31 points when Latvia (31st to call) had announced its jury points, and gradually reducing thereafter to just 8 points when Sweden (last to call) had announced its jury points.

Switzerland became uncatchable on jury points alone as soon as Portugal (28th to call) had announced its jury points. Switzerland’s leading score was now 273 points, and France was second with 148 points. With nine countries still to announce their jury scores, the maximum number of jury points still available to second-placed France (who had already announced their jury scores earlier) was 9 x 12 = 108 jury points. Even if France had received 12 jury points from each of the remaining nine countries, and Switzerland had received no more jury points, the final top two would have been 1st Switzerland 273 points, 2nd France 256 points. Effectively Switzerland had already won the jury vote, even though 9 countries had yet to announce their jury points. Had the EBU done jury voting only this year, and not bothered with televoting at all, Switzerland would have been the outright winner at this point. Of course, with televoting totals to follow, after the remaining jury results were announced, countries placed lower than France could still possibly have been in with a chance of winning outright.

Unsurprisingly, Serbia gave 12 jury points to Croatia. However, this was the only exchange of 12 jury points within the former Yugoslav area. Croatia gave 10 jury points to Slovenia, but Serbia gave no jury points to Slovenia. Serbia received just 3 jury points from Croatia and 4 jury points from Slovenia. This clearly shows that the ex-Yugoslav countries don’t necessarily give each other high jury points. Anyone expecting high jury points to be exchanged in the Nordic area must have been disappointed this year, because the highest individual jury score from one Nordic country to another was 7 jury points from Finland to Sweden. Finland received no jury points at all from the other four Nordic countries, so the 7 jury points that Finland ended up with all had to come from outside the Nordic area. This clearly shows that the Nordic countries don’t necessarily give their highest jury scores to each other, and that a Nordic finalist isn’t automatically guaranteed points from other Nordic countries. The United Kingdom gave 7 jury points to Ireland and Ireland gave 4 jury points to the United Kingdom. Evidently, the United Kingdom and Ireland don’t necessarily give each other 12 jury points when they have the chance to. Perhaps the biggest shock was seeing Greece give 10 jury points to Cyprus, and Cyprus give just 7 jury points to Greece. Clearly, Greece and Cyprus don’t necessarily give each other 12 jury points when they have the chance to. For the record, Greece gave its 12 jury points to Switzerland, and Cyprus gave its 12 jury points to Croatia. A more detailed analysis of voting, within various country groups, is available here.

Once the spokespersons from all 37 countries had announced their jury voting points, the scoreboard looked like this on screen:

1	Switzerland	365	14	Greece	41
2	France	218	15	Latvia	36
3	Croatia	210	16	Cyprus	34
4	Italy	164	17	Lithuania	32
5	Ukraine	146	18	Serbia	22
6	Ireland	142	19	Spain	19
7	Portugal	139	20	Austria	19
8	Sweden	125	21	Georgia	15
9	Armenia	101	22	Slovenia	15
10	Germany	99	23	Norway	12
11	Luxembourg	83	24	Finland	7
12	Israel	52	25	Estonia	4
13	United Kingdom	46

At this point, Malin spoke to Nemo from Switzerland, who had won the jury vote.

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Televoting Results

Petra reappeared to present the results of the public vote. She explained how the televoting works. In each of the 37 countries, the public's phone / text / app votes were totalled up, and converted to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12 points to the top 10 voted-for songs. However instead of going around all the 37 countries and having the spokespersons announce each country's televoting points in the same manner as the jury points, all 37 countries' televoting points were added together behind the scenes to produce one total televoting score for each finalist. In addition, countries which did not take part at all this year, including outside the European Broadcasting Area, were eligible to vote as part of a Rest of the World online vote; their top 10 voted-for songs were converted to a 38th set of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12 points and added to the applicable finalist totals. By the time Petra had finished explaining, Malin was back at the desk. Malin and Petra took turns to announce the total amount of televoting points each finalist had received from each of the other 36 countries, plus Rest of the World. Just like in 2019 to 2023, they announced the televoting totals starting with the finalist that had the lowest jury score, which was Estonia, and worked their way up the scoreboard until they reached Switzerland, which had won the jury vote. Graham Norton's comments, which BBC One / BBC One HD viewers in the UK heard, are shown in square brackets.

Petra: We start with Estonia; the audience has awarded you 33 points. [Looks like they’re already ready for their day jobs.]
Malin: Next up we have Finland, and the members of the public have given you [This’ll be big, I’d say] 31 points [Oh, not so big, OK]
Petra: We continue with Norway, from the public, you have received 4 points. [It is harsh, but it’s over, it happened, here we go.]
Malin: And now Slovenia, the televote has given you 12 points.
Petra: Georgia, you have been awarded 19 points. [Well, we now know that Norway are going to come last.]
Malin: OK Austria, the audience has awarded you 5 points. [Oh, poor old Austria, poor old Kaleen, she gave a great performance there, but …]
Petra: Spain, you have been awarded 11 points. [I thought that might do better in the public vote, but no.]
Malin: Serbia, you have been awarded 32 points. [United Kingdom now been shifted back to the right-hand side of the scoreboard.]
Petra: Lithuania, you receive 58 points. [Well, that’s not a great number, but it’s a big one so far.]
Malin: Next, we have Cyprus; the audience has awarded you 44 points. [OK]
Petra: Latvia, you will receive 28 points. [Good for Dons, and his song “Hollow”.]
Malin: Next up we have Greece, and you have been rewarded 85 points. [OK, good luck Olly.]
Petra: Now United Kingdom, you have received 0 points. [Oh, that is brutal. Well done for clapping Olly, well done for smiling. Not popular in the Arena. I don’t know why that happened; really, really unfortunate.]
Malin: Next, we have … next we have Israel; you have received 323 points. It seems that we have a new leader. [As expected, it’s a very big number for Israel, but it’s unlikely they’ll win with that. I’m thinking Switzerland or France will do better than that. Here we go, back to the scores.]

N.B. I’ve done a post-Contest analysis in a spreadsheet. At this moment, 685 televote points had been allocated to the scoreboard so far, and there were 1519 televote points left to share among the remaining eleven finalist countries. From my analysis, it would, in theory, have been possible for all the remaining eleven finalist countries to stay at least one point below Israel at this stage, depending on the spread of the remaining televote points. Obviously, Switzerland would have had to have received 9 televote points or less, and the rest of the televote points would have had to have been spread among the countries which placed second to eleventh in the jury vote. With over two thirds of the original number of televote points still available, anything was still possible. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t know how many televote points had been allocated so far, or how many were left, whilst watching the televote sequence as I hadn’t been deducting the televote scores from the maximum available as they were announced. Anyway, the voting procedure continued as follows:

Petra: Luxembourg, you receive 20 points. [Alright.]

With just ten countries left to receive their points from the public, the scoreboard looked like this at this point (countries which had already received their televote totals are in bold):

1	Israel	375	14	Lithuania	90
2	Switzerland	365	15	Cyprus	78
3	France	218	16	Latvia	64
4	Croatia	210	17	Serbia	54
5	Italy	164	18	United Kingdom	46
6	Ukraine	146	19	Finland	38
7	Ireland	142	20	Estonia	37
8	Portugal	139	21	Georgia	34
9	Greece	126	22	Spain	30
10	Sweden	125	23	Slovenia	27
11	Luxembourg	103	24	Austria	24
12	Armenia	101	25	Norway	16
13	Germany	99

N.B. From my post-Contest analysis, in a spreadsheet, 705 televote points had now been allocated to the scoreboard, and there were still 1499 televote points left to share among the remaining ten finalist countries. It was still, in theory, possible for the remaining ten finalist countries to all finish at least one point below Israel, which was still in the lead. Unsurprisingly I didn’t know how many televote points were still available at this point during the live broadcast.

Unlike last year, the hosts didn’t say there were ten countries left. Instead, Malin went straight on to announce the next country’s public vote score.

Malin: Now we have Germany, you have received 18 points. [More than Olly.]
Petra: Armenia, you receive 82 points. [Germany going to be on the left-hand side of the scoreboard. Not too shabby at all, they’ll be pleased with that.]
Malin: Next up we have Sweden; the audience has awarded you 49 points. [Ooh, performing first, always difficult, but not a bad result for Sweden, top ten.]
Petra: Portugal, you will receive 13 points. [Ooh, the public did not like Portugal.]
Malin: Next up we have Ireland; [Now, another big number here, I think. Will it be enough to overtake Israel?] you have received 136 points. [Pretty decent showing there. In third place, a great showing for Ireland though, a great showing for Bambie Thug.]
Petra: Ukraine, the audience has awarded you 307 points. [Wow, we did not see that coming. Ukraine there, 307 points.] We have a new leader, it is Ukraine. [Wow. Well, I said it could change tonight, they could be the first people to ever perform in the second position in the Contest and win.]

N.B. From my post-Contest analysis, in a spreadsheet, 1310 televote points had now been allocated to the scoreboard, and there were still 894 televote points left to share among Italy, Croatia, France and Switzerland. In order for all four of these countries to stay at least one point below Ukraine, their televote scores would have had to have been no more than: Italy 288, Croatia 242, France 234 and Switzerland 87. If Italy, Croatia, France and Switzerland had each received those amounts of points, there would have still been 43 unallocated televote points. In other words, it was already mathematically impossible for Ukraine to hold its lead and win. Of course, few, if any, viewers would have known that at this time during the live broadcast.

Malin: Next, we have Italia, and you have been awarded 104 points. [Not too shabby, but not a winning number.]
Petra: Croatia, you receive 337 points. [Wow Baby Lasagna, the public loving Baby Lasagna, what a result. That should be enough to get Croatia to the top of the leader board, I believe. They were the bookies’ favourite all along.] We have a new leader, it’s Croatia. [It’s looking harder for Switzerland now, I’m not sure they can do that.]

With just two countries left to receive their points from the public, the scoreboard looked like this at this point (countries which had already received their televote totals are in bold):

1	Croatia	547	14	Lithuania	90
2	Ukraine	453	15	Cyprus	78
3	Israel	375	16	Latvia	64
4	Switzerland	365	17	Serbia	54
5	Ireland	278	18	United Kingdom	46
6	Italy	268	19	Finland	38
7	France	218	20	Estonia	37
8	Armenia	183	21	Georgia	34
9	Sweden	174	22	Spain	30
10	Portugal	152	23	Slovenia	27
11	Greece	126	24	Austria	24
12	Germany	117	25	Norway	16
13	Luxembourg	103

Malin: Next we have France.
Petra: Yes, very soon, you see that step by step, we’re getting closer to the end. We now have only three potential winners, and before we give the points to France, let’s see who they are. France is in the lead, sorry Croatia is in the lead of course, but France and Switzerland have not yet received their points from the public vote. Will they get enough points to pass the current leader?

N.B. From my post-Contest analysis, in a spreadsheet, 1751 televote points had now been allocated to the scoreboard, and there were still 453 televote points left to share between France and Switzerland.

Green Room shots of the artists representing Croatia, Switzerland and France were shown, left to right, across the screen, at this point. The current scores for those three countries were shown alongside the applicable country names.

Malin: Croatia, Switzerland and France, one of you is the winner tonight, and we turn to France, the people voting at home have given you 227 points. This is so exciting. [Not quite enough to get to the top of the leader board, in third place; a great result for France, the best they’ve done since Barbara with “Voilà” in 2022.]

N.B Barbara Pravi actually represented France with “Voilà” in 2021.

Green Room shots of the artists representing Croatia and Switzerland were shown, left to right, across the screen, at this point. Their current scores were shown alongside the country names.

Petra: And we now know that it is between these two, Croatia and Switzerland, one of you will be the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. Switzerland, you need 183 points to win. Anything less, and Croatia is the winner, with the higher score from the public. Croatia or Switzerland, are you ready? OK, here we go, Switzerland, from the public, you have received 226 points. The winner, the champion, of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, it is Switzerland. [He’s done it, Switzerland have won the 68th Eurovision Song Contest.]

Altogether, announcement of the televoting totals took about 12 minutes. Just before the scoreboard was shown for the final time, the UK's televoting results were displayed at the bottom of the screen, and Graham Norton read each of the ten scores out. Did other countries' broadcasters present their own televoting points in a similar manner?

When the scoreboard was shown for the last time (with Switzerland's televoting total included), it looked like this:

1	Switzerland	591	14	Lithuania	90
2	Croatia	547	15	Cyprus	78
3	Ukraine	453	16	Latvia	64
4	France	445	17	Serbia	54
5	Israel	375	18	United Kingdom	46
6	Ireland	278	19	Finland	38
7	Italy	268	20	Estonia	37
8	Armenia	183	21	Georgia	34
9	Sweden	174	22	Spain	30
10	Portugal	152	23	Slovenia	27
11	Greece	126	24	Austria	24
12	Germany	117	25	Norway	16
13	Luxembourg	103

Here is a summary of the televote totals, in order of announcement:

Finalist	Televote Total
Estonia	33
Finland	31
Norway	4
Slovenia	12
Georgia	19
Austria	5
Spain	11
Serbia	32
Lithuania	58
Cyprus	44
Latvia	28
Greece	85
United Kingdom	0
Israel	323
Luxembourg	20
Germany	18
Armenia	82
Sweden	49
Portugal	13
Ireland	136
Ukraine	307
Italy	104
Croatia	337
France	227
Switzerland	226

Switzerland won with a final score of 591 points. With a possible maximum of 12 jury points from each of the other 36 countries (including the 11 semi-finalists which failed to qualify, plus the Netherlands, which qualified from the Second Semi-Final, only to be subsequently disqualified), i.e. 12 x 36 = 432, plus 12 televoting points from each of the other 36 countries and Rest of the World, i.e. 12 x 37 = 444, the maximum achievable score this year was 876 points. Thus, Switzerland won with 67.47% of the maximum possible score, which is just over two thirds of this year’s maximum possible total. The record for the winner with the highest percentage of the maximum possible score since 1975 still rests with United Kingdom - Brotherhood of Man "Save Your Kisses For Me"; 80.4% in 1976.

An in-depth analysis of the jury voting and televoting is available here.

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Jury and Televoting Comparison

Perf Order	Finalist	Jury Total	Jury Count	Jury Place	Televote Total	Televote Count	Televote Place	Combined Total	Combined Place	Tele-Jury Pts Diff	Tele-Jury Place Diff
1	Sweden	125	26	8	49	14	11	174	9	-76	-3
2	Ukraine	146	28	5	307	36	3	453	3	161	2
3	Germany	99	23	10	18	5	19	117	12	-81	-9
4	Luxembourg	83	18	11	20	4	17	103	13	-63	-6
6	Israel	52	11	12	323	35	2	375	5	271	10
7	Lithuania	32	8	17	58	16	10	90	14	26	7
8	Spain	19	5	19	11	5	22	30	22	-8	-3
9	Estonia	4	2	25	33	5	13	37	20	29	12
10	Ireland	142	21	6	136	32	6	278	6	-6	0
11	Latvia	36	9	15	28	8	16	64	16	-8	-1
12	Greece	41	8	14	85	21	8	126	11	44	6
13	United Kingdom	46	10	13	0	0	25	46	18	-46	-12
14	Norway	12	5	23	4	2	24	16	25	-8	-1
15	Italy	164	27	4	104	27	7	268	7	-60	-3
16	Serbia	22	8	18	32	6	14	54	17	10	4
17	Finland	7	2	24	31	11	15	38	19	24	9
18	Portugal	139	25	7	13	3	20	152	10	-126	-13
19	Armenia	101	18	9	82	23	9	183	8	-19	0
20	Cyprus	34	9	16	44	9	12	78	15	10	4
21	Switzerland	365	35	1	226	36	5	591	1	-139	-4
22	Slovenia	15	3	22	12	2	21	27	23	-3	1
23	Croatia	210	30	3	337	37	1	547	2	127	2
24	Georgia	15	5	21	19	4	18	34	21	4	3
25	France	218	30	2	227	37	4	445	4	9	-2
26	Austria	19	4	20	5	2	23	24	24	-14	-3

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Trophy Presentation

As soon as Switzerland was confirmed as the winner, Nemo proceeded from the Green Room to the stage. Due to the long walk, shots of the audience were shown between images of Nemo descending flights of stairs and walking through corridors. Having reached the stage, Loreen presented the winner's trophy to Nemo. Nemo took the opportunity to give a short speech. After that, Malin and Petra appeared together on stage for the last time to give their closing speeches.

Reprise

After all the closing speeches, Nemo performed the winning song “The Code” again. Unlike the main performance earlier, the circular platform, which could tilt and spin, was not used in this reprise performance. Instead, Nemo performed the whole song directly on the stage, but they danced around the entire stage whilst singing. Towards the end of the performance, confetti fell onto the stage. Afterwards, closing credits appeared at the left-hand side of the screen, accompanied by music. UK viewers also saw the BBC's own additional credits at the bottom of the screen. Finally, the Eurovision ident accompanied by Charpentier's Te Deum prelude "Marche en rondeau" marked the end of the show.

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And Finally

Altogether another great Contest. Well done to the Swedish broadcaster SVT for producing the two semi-finals and Grand Final. Most of the songs in the Grand Final were OK or very good. Fair enough, my only “Definitely don't want to qualify” country on Tuesday evening, that being Ireland, ended up qualifying against my wishes. In addition, one of my “Prefer not to qualify” countries (Slovenia) qualified from the First Semi-Final, on Tuesday evening, and all three of my “Prefer not to qualify” countries (Greece, Estonia, Netherlands) qualified from the Second Semi-Final, on Thursday evening. I would have preferred Azerbaijan and Australia to have qualified instead of Ireland and Slovenia on Tuesday evening, and any three out of Malta, Albania, Denmark and Belgium to have qualified in place of Greece, Estonia and Netherlands on Thursday evening. Nonetheless I appreciate many people have different musical tastes to me. At the end of the day, I cannot possibly expect to have all the songs I personally like the most qualify for the final and have all the ones I dislike eliminated in the semi-finals. This year it was obvious that Bambie Thug - “Doomsday Blue” (Ireland) was a likely qualifier on Tuesday evening, and that Joost Klein - “Europapa” (Netherlands) was almost certain to qualify on Thursday evening, and even I would have been shocked if either of those hadn’t qualified. After all that, it’s a pity it was considered necessary for Joost Klein to be disqualified on the morning of the Grand Final, and thus there was one less finalist country in the line-up. Nonetheless, the Grand Final was still a spectacular show, in which the 25 remaining artists entertained the world with their diverse range of different songs, and there was a good selection of opening and interval acts to add to the evening. I for one enjoyed watching the Grand Final very much, even though there was one less finalist country than originally planned.

Congratulations to Nemo for winning with a combined total of 591 points. After a landslide victory of 365 points in the jury vote, Nemo also proved quite popular with the public, because they finished 5th with 226 points in the televote. This was Switzerland’s third Eurovision Song Contest victory to-date. Switzerland: Winners 1956, 1988, 2024. 36 years' gap between its two most recent wins (1988 - 2024).

Well done also to Baby Lasagna from Croatia, who won the public vote with 337 points, and finished second overall with a combined total of 547 points. This is Croatia’s best placing and absolute score to-date as an independent country. In terms of the maximum possible score for this year (876 points), that amounts to 62.44% of the maximum possible score for this year. During the announcement of the televote results, Croatia was momentarily in the lead after receiving its televote points, but was pipped to second place when Switzerland received its public vote score last of all.

This is the second year running in which the jury vote winner ended up winning outright, and the televote winner became the overall runner-up. Once again, some Eurovision fans were dissatisfied at Switzerland’s win, especially as a) Croatia won the public vote, but Switzerland finished 5th in the public vote and b) Switzerland received just one 12-poiint score, whereas Croatia received nine 12-point scores, in the televoting. Like it or not, Switzerland won outright fair and square. Once all the televote totals had been put on the scoreboard, except Switzerland’s televote score, Switzerland only needed 183 televote points to pass Croatia and win. As a result, 226 points from the public was more than enough for Switzerland to win, despite that being only the fifth highest televote total. Furthermore, the top three countries, in the public vote, received over 300 televote points, so unlike the jury vote, there was no landslide victory in the public vote. Croatia won the televote only 30 points ahead of Ukraine, which finished third with 307 televote points. Continuing down the televote table, there was a large gap of 80 points between third-placed Ukraine and fourth-placed France, which received 227 televote points. Thus Switzerland, which finished fifth in the public vote, was only one televote point behind fourth-placed France.

Personally, I think Slimane, who represented France with “Mon amour”, should have won overall. Slimane has an outstanding voice, and during his performance, he demonstrated his talent to sing a cappella, at a distance from the microphone. Furthermore, “Mon amour” is an excellent song. This was an example of an entry for which the simplest staging worked best; and which didn’t need gimmicks which many other artists felt were necessary to spice up their entries. Congratulations to Slimane for finishing 2nd with 218 points in the jury vote, 4th with 227 points in the public vote and 4th with 445 points overall.

Commiserations to Olly Alexander from the UK; after receiving a reasonable 13th with 46 points from the juries, he finished last with zero points in the public vote. As a result, the UK ended up 18th with 46 points overall. Still, Olly Alexander did the UK proud tonight; despite receiving no points at all from the public, at least he got some love from some of the juries. Furthermore, he ended up with a higher overall placing and combined score than Mae Muller did last year. Looking positively, 18th overall out of 25 finalists is nothing to be ashamed of; 7 finalists finished below the UK once both sets of points had been put on the scoreboard. The question is, where does the BBC go from here in finding a winning song for the UK in 2025, or thereafter? The UK will need to make the effort to choose songs which will achieve high scores and placings from both juries and viewers in future years.

Interestingly, 5MIINUST x Puuluup, from Estonia, finished 25th (last) with just 4 points in the jury vote, 13th with 33 points in the televote and 20th with 37 points overall. Thus Estonia and the United Kingdom both finished 13th in one half of the voting and last in the opposite half of the voting, which is a co-incidence. Although Estonia managed to get some points in both halves of the voting, Estonia finished two places below the UK once both sets of points were on the scoreboard.

Commiserations to Gåte, from Norway. Despite finishing 23rd (3rd from last) with 12 points in the jury vote, and 24th (2nd from last) with 4 points in the televote, their entry ended up 25th (last) with 16 points overall. This is the twelfth time to-date that Norway has finished last in a Eurovision Song Contest Final (for this statistic, “final” includes the single shows before the introduction of semi-finals in 2004). Furthermore, this is the first time since 2013 (which was also the year the Contest was last held at the Malmö Arena in Malmö, Sweden) that the country which finished last in the Grand Final was one which qualified via one of the semi-finals. Although it is disappointing for any country to finish last in the Grand Final, unfortunately someone has to come last. Being as Gåte had to qualify via the Second Semi-Final, on Thursday evening, they can have the feeling their result could have been worse than last in the Grand Final (i.e. failed to qualify), unlike the years when an automatically qualifying nation finishes last in the Grand Final.

Well done to all 25 finalists, no matter where on the scoreboard they placed. Don't forget, 19 out of the 25 finalists which actually participated tonight already did well just to get past the applicable semi-final in the week; 11 countries' songs were eliminated in the semi-finals, and thus, their artists didn’t have the chance to perform in the Grand Final. At the end of the day, the important thing is not to win, but to participate.

Roll on the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest from Switzerland. Can SRG SSR do as well or better? Time will tell. Mark my words, next year's Contest will tell another story as far as the results are concerned, especially if the EBU retains the method of separate jury and televoting points from each country. Who knows, the UK might win next year!

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