Russia’s Sergey Lazarev, France’s Amir and Sweden’s Frans may be the bookies’ favourites to win Eurovision 2016, but when it comes to YouTube views Italy’s Francesca Michielin comes out on top. The official video for the Sanremo version of “No Degree of Separation” has already racked up an impressive 13,257,103 views. Does this indicate a win for Italy?
Francesca Michielin “No Degree of Separation” Sanremo version
Francesca is a long way ahead of the pack. Only two other entries have managed to surpass five million views. Russia’s Sergey Lazarev is the second most watched with 6.9 million hits. The view count for Poland’s “Color Of Your Life” stands at 5.6 million. Altogether, 21 of this year’s 43 entries have exceeded one million views. At the other end of the scale we find Georgia. Nika and his Lolitaz have only managed to get a measly 236,000 views for “Midnight Gold”.
YouTube Rankings: The Limitations
Ranking Eurovision entries by YouTube views is not an exact science. There are several limiting factors which we need to keep in mind. Firstly, between the official Eurovision channel, national broadcaster channels, artist channels and fan uploads, there are multiple versions of every song. For the purpose of our ranking, we’ve pulled out the single most viewed version of each song. In some cases that’s the final version, in other instances it’s the national final performance. Even when we apply this ranking method we still have to remember that some songs have been on the site for longer, therefore giving them more time to amass views. And we also have to consider geographical factors such as the size of a country’s population and its diaspora. Artists with a large pre-existing fan base also tend to rack up a higher number of views, at least before the contest commences.
Nonetheless, YouTube views can give us a good idea of what songs are going to do well. Italy’s Il Volo topped the rankings in 2015 and finished third. But that’s not always the case. The most watched video of 2014 was from Poland’s Donatan & Cleo. They only came 14th in the final.
You can take a look at the full rankings below.
Please note: This information is correct as of 00:00 CET on Friday 15 April 2016.
Eurovision 2016 entries ranked by YouTube views
- Italy: Francesca Michielin with “No Degree Of Separation” (Sanremo Version) on FrancescaMVEVO 13,257,103 views
- Russia: Sergey Lazarev with “You Are The Only One” (Official Video) on Sergey Lazarev 6,902,076 views
- Poland: Michal Szpak with “Color Of Your Life” (Official Lyrics Video) on MichalszpakVevo 5,630,609 views
- Germany: Jamie-Lee with “Ghost” (Official Video) on Digster on Stage 4,886,361 views
- Sweden: Frans “If I Were Sorry” (Melodifestivalen performance) on Melodifestivalen – All access 3,761,636 views
- Australia: Dami Im with “Sound Of Silence” (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 2,588,826 views
- Armenia: Iveta Mukuchyan with “LoveWave” (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 2,359,005 views
- Azerbaijan: Samra with “Miracle” (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 2,213,162 views
- France: Amir with “J’ai Cherché” (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 2,182,689 views
- Croatia: Nina Kraljic with “Lighthouse” (Official Audio) on NinaKraljicVevo 1,992,314 views
- Bosnia & Herzegovina: Dalal & Deen feat. Ana Rucner and Jala “Ljubav Je” (Official Presentation) on Eurovision Song Contest 1,893,373 views
- Hungary: Freddie with “Pioneer” (Official Audio) on MistralMusic 1,794,235 views
- Serbia: Sanja Vucic ZAA with “Goodbye (Shelter)” (Official Presentation) on Eurovision Song Contest 1,573,406 views
- Malta: Ira Losco with “Walk On Water” (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 1,474,783 views
- Spain: Barei with “Say Yay!” (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 1,376,374 views
- Netherlands: Douwe Bob with “Slow Down” (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 1,257,125 views
- Bulgaria: Poli Genova with “If Love Was A Crime” (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest with 1,221,133 views
- Lithuania: Donny Montell with “I’ve Been Waiting For This Night” (Official Video) on Donny Montell 1,173,132 views
- Ukraine: Jamala with “1944” (National Final Performance) on TV Channel STB 1,144,663 views
- United Kingdom: Joe and Jake with “You’re Not Alone” (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 1,112,990 views
- Czech Republic: Gabriela Gunciková with “I Stand” (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 1,066,789 views
- Austria: Zoë with “Loin d’ici” (Wer singt für Österreich? performance) on Eurovision Song Contest 963,132 views
- Belgium: Laura Tesoro with “What’s The Pressure” (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 916,575 views
- Cyprus: Minus One “Alter Ego” (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 835,399 views
- Denmark: Lighthouse X “Soldiers Of Love” (Dansk Melodi Grand Prix performance) on Melodi Grand Prix 800,801 views
- Norway: Agnete with “Icebreaker” (Official Lyrics Video) on Agnete 773,750 views
- Greece: Argo with “Utopian Land” (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 740,454 views
- FYR Macedonia: Kaliopi with “Dona” (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 545,410 views
- Israel: Hovi Star with “Made Of Stars (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 481,271 views
- Romania: Ovidiu Anton with “Moment Of Silence” (Selectia Nationala performance) on TVR 478,510 views
- Albania: Eneda Tarifa with “Fairytale” (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 472,978 views
- Iceland: Greta Salóme “Hear Them Calling” (Official Audio) on Eurovision Song Contest 445,997 views
- Montenegro: Highway with “The Real Thing” (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 389,811 views
- Switzerland: Rykka with “The Last Of Our Kind” (Die Entscheidungsshow performance) on Eurovision Song Contest 383,377 views
- Estonia: Jüri Pootsmann with “Play” (Eesti Laul performance) on Eurovision Song Contest 381,025 views
- Latvia: Justs with “Heartbeat” (Official Lyrics Video) on Justs Sirmais 366,241 views
- Ireland: Nicky Byrne with “Sunlight” (Official Lyrics Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 337,920 views
- Slovenia: ManuElla with “Blue And Red” (EMA Performance) on EMA Evrovizija 306,479 views
- Belarus: Ivan with “Help You Fly” (National Final Audio) on OGAE Belarus 305,953 views
- Finland: Sandhja with “Sing It Away” (Official Video) on SandhjaVEVO 278,517 views
- Moldova: Lidia Isac with “Falling Stars” (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 266,948 views
- San Marino: Serhat with “I Didn’t Know (Official Video) on Eurovision Song Contest 243,480 views
- Georgia: Nika Kocharov & Young Georgian Lolitaz “Midnight Gold” (Official Presentation) on Eurovision Song Contest 236,985 views
Spotyfy is swedish, BUT!!!
BUT!!!! Sweden “If I were sorry” youtube history untill today -> 8.582.119 total viewers
4.103.311 viewer (melfest Gävle)
3.165.784 viewer (vevo the video)
759.835 viewer (offical Eurovision video)
553.185 viewe (final of the melfest)
I don’t understand people who are suprised that Poland is so high in rankings… please be objective…. I undestand that people have different tastes but come on… if you are at least a little bit into music you must agree that Michal has the best voice among all males, the song is very beautiful (lyrics!!!) and knowing that Szpak is a very colorful person I’m sure his performance is going to be really big. It’s ok if you don’t enjoy his song… but at least don’t say you don’t understand why it is so popular and that it shouldn’t be…… Read more »
If Michal moves to the final it’s all over for France and their hopes of winning again. BWAHAHA 😀
BTW, “Cool me down” has currently more than 11M visualizations. Only 2M short of Francesca and It could have easily been on top, were it chosen.
What have you done, Poland?
Youtube views are one of many indicators on how an artist is doing at a given time. However, we should also pay attention their likes/dislikes, as well as online polls with large numbers of voters. Given this, I’d say the leading contenders are France, Russia and Australia. I’d not pay too much heed to the bookies for now. Let’s see what they say after first rehearsals are complete. 🙂
I’d take Francesca & Michal over Russia’s dated song anyday.
Italy has a lot of views because everybody watch Festival Di SanRemo in Italy, it’s the same in Sweden.
For Poland, it is a big shame. I don’t understand how he manage to have so much views. The song is boring, old and Michal soooo old-fashioned. I hope Poland won’t reach the final. I would be bad for Eurovision.
Please…
It depends on the population of the country, on when was the song released (one released in december 2015 would be normal to have more views than one realeased in march 2016) and much more other stuffs. Beside that, this are views of some videos before the live show, which could totally change the impression about an entry. I think that this views has no relevance on predicting a winner, Francesca participated in San Remo, it is normal to have many views, she is certainly not a favourite. However, I can’t say that Michal doesn’t have an impressive number of… Read more »
Like/Dislike ratio is a better indicator than view count, but still can’t predict the winner.
@georgekirkas
i feel so sorry for your country Greece, hopefully you’ll enjoy their performance, let’s hope they bring the comedy factor 🙂
but based on that Malta has done a good job in the views so far 🙂
@georgekirkas
Also, I forgot to say that Youtube views of a song also depend on the population of the country sending it or their diaspora.
Youtube views sometimes do predict the final result, but not always! The youtube views of each country’s song always depend on how interesting or controversial is their entry, not only how much people like it!
Malta now has 1.5 Million viewers on YouTube
and @Jonas
you’re probably right, and I liked Il Volo more last year, they were robbed of victory
It does not matter because of jury.
In 2014, Cleo and Donatan would be in the top 5 if only viewers have the right to vote. This year, Poland has a lot of views because a lot has been said about the high level of Polish preselection. Later, people were curious who defeated Margaret. That’s the reason all these views for Poland
You really can’t judge by the views. Marco Mengoni and Francesca are extremely popular in Italy and they rack up insane ammount of views. I myself live outside Italy and simply enjoy Marco’s music, just like Francesca’s, Lorenzo Fragola’s, Emma’s, etc. They are one of the most popular musicians in Italy, with Marco probably being on top, since his tour is outsold before it even began.
Though I really like Francesca’s song, the views don’t mean anything, just like Russia (who probably picked up because of the looks), Poland because… I have no idea why, that song is horrid.
Really, I am so surprised that Estonia and Latvia are 35th and 36th.
Using YT views as an indicator of success at Eurovision is a dead-loss. In addition to the factors you mentioned there are factors such as the demographics of the people who look at clips on YT, who will definately be at the younger end of the spectrum and therefore not representitive of the voting public on the night. They are also not representitive of the average age of the jurors, which is definately over 45. You also mention diaspora, but there are other voting blocks that exist that have an impact in the voting, such as those based on cultural… Read more »
Michal Szpak sucks!
Poland is not the final. 15 place is SF
Italy or France … everything is fine by me for as longs as I don’t have to see the second-rated version of Dima Bilan win this whole thing undeservingly …
She can surprise on May 14 if she manage to get a “moment”. The song is REALLY good.
@EugeneESCUK I agree with you mostly. YT is not that good of a indicator, but Spotify CAN be if a song cross the borders. That happened to Loreen, Emmelie de Forest and Måns. They were hits before the contest. Same with Frans this year. “If I Were Sorry” is a big hit in whole Scandinavia.
“The most watched video of 2014 was from Poland’s Donatan & Cleo. They only came 14th in the final.”
—
They were dragged down by the juries but they were big on televote.
Italy 13 million views????
I’ve just watched the video for the second time. Her live performance wasn’t convincing. This is not a TOP 10 song IMO, but everything is possible.
Barei has 1.400.000 in Eurovision channel and 1.100.000 in VEVO too!!
Poland has 5,5 on vevo + 2 from ESC channel under national final perfomance and + 3 under official video on ESC channel 🙂
Polish entry is the first which make 3 milions on ESC channel
Usually a song loved by its country and being a hit does pretty well in Eurovision (at least in the televoting). Il volo had a massive win, Poland in 2014 got a 5th place. About winners, Rybak, Lena or Loreen were huge number one hits in their own countries before the contest. Having said that, the only songs being a real hits in their countries are Italy, Iceland and Sweden. Then, we have Germany, Spain, Belgium, Estonia, Ukraine and Poland that also have quite success in their countries. Eastern countries have another rules and they don’t play the same way,… Read more »
Iceland should be up much higher. You must of got the wrong video
Italy will not win
Ireland is too low
And even though Azerbaijan is my favourite I was a bit surprised how high up she is but for the rest I’m happy
Poland in 2014 came 14th in the final only becouse jury. In televoting they came 6th…
Bonsoir Stockholm, As mentionned, in the text il Volo had most views last year. As you may know, Italy won the televote last year ! People may want Italy to win this year as a revenge… I think that the European people love Italian music and have great expectations for the song, since Italy had success last year. Personnaly, il think Francesca is very good. Victory in Eurovision also depends on the jury behaviour which is less predictible. Last year, il Volo performance deserved the victory and jury should have them rewarded. Sono convinto che Francesca avrà successo al Eurovisione,… Read more »
I don’t think so at all.Italy has 13 millions views thanks to San Remo festival it is watched by 80% of the viewers in tv.A great number of views were before it was announced her participation in eurovision. and 80% of the youtube viewers are italian..
How many Russians watched the Russian video ?
How many Italian watched the italian video?
How many Swedish watched the Swedish video?
and so on.
the most important thing is to know :
how many europeans apart their own country watched the videos?
you will be may be surprised !
I am not Italian l live outside italy and I listen to this song a lot online when my friends hear they love it too I believe it’s viewed not only by Italians but also by other people all over the Europe and outside Europe. The truth is italy always send great song and add quality to eurovision I live what they do thank you italy
i hpe this eil be the result ITALYS SONG IS BEAUTIFUL AND FRANCE OR SPAIN TOO
JUST CROATIA OF THE COUNTRIES that never win isbin my top 5
This is sign that Italy is going to do well with televototing and ofcourse it’s going to be high with jury too since the song is original with message that connect with viewers and no doubt Francesca will deliver the song with excellent performance and hit the right notes as in video Italy send original song every year unlike many others who try to copy previous results from other countries e.g France combined molly youniverse and man’s heroes lol. No degree of separation already got 2nd position with sanremo that’s another bonus, if people stop paying too much attention to… Read more »
Justs has 3 other videos, which makes it about 1M+ views, and one video was deleated, as that channel broke copyright law. It got about 400k views there.
You’ve got to take into account the substantial number of views the songs can gather from the video posted on the country’s broadcaster’s YouTube channel. For example, if you counted the views Albania’s song had on RTSH’s channel, it would pick up an extra 250,000 views.
Poland was it in views in 2014 and they didn’t win.
There’s nothing that can predict victory, it’s all about how you sell your song on stage come May 14th.
Obviously, lots of songs already have no chance as they are not good enough, but then you have something around 7-12 songs competing for the victory. Any of them can can take the crystal mic with the adequate staging and a brilliant performance.
@Isaac Muscat – The article is using his lyrics video. Justs also has his national final performance, official music video etc.
Youtube views are not a good indicator. Italy/Russia/Poland always have strong views (as do Armenia and Azerbaijan). This is mainly because these countries are immensely proud of their own music scenes. The only one out of the top ten that might make one take note is Croatia’s.
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Croatia and Bosnia & Herzigovina are all countries with relatively low populations, yet they have done well on this list. Surely that’s more than just neighbours viewing. Watch out for those.
About Italy – I think Francesca is amazing, but that her popularity is largely down to San Remo. Italians love their music. Outside that country she is perhaps an unknown, although i could be wrong.
Lastly, poor Georgia! 🙁
How can Justs from Latvia be at 36th? And I really don’t think that Poland will come 3rd
I agree with Jonas. Also, one has to take into consideration the population of a country. Russia has a population of over 150 million people and Sergey is easily one of the biggest stars there, so his youtube views mostly reflect his fan base. Armenia and Croatia are two of the countries that are very interesting – both countries have little population (compared to the others in the pack) yet they have impressive number of views.
In answer to the question posed : no. Most of Francesca’s views likely come from Italy, from viewers who are fans of this singer (not the contest) and obviously won’t be any help to her when it comes to voting.