Every year the various chapters of OGAE — the international Eurovision fan club — select their favourite entries from national selection season that didn’t quite make it to ESC as part of the OGAE Second Chance contest. This year the clubs fielded a total of 23 non-winners. Some, like Malta’s Brooke (“Golden”) and Finland’s Mikael Saari (“On It Goes”) finished as runners-up at home. Others — including Albania’s Besa Krasniqi (“Liroje zemrën”) and Norway’s The Hungry Hearts (“Laika”) — finished lower down the table, but have stood the test of time and aged better than their domestic rivals.

Ahead of the official results from OGAE, which will be released this summer, we decided to ask our readers to vote for their favourites. After two weeks and 6,280 votes, we can now reveal that our readers believe Poland’s Margaret is the best of the rest, and could have potentially slayed at Eurovision 2016.

This, of course, is no surprise. When the digitally re-mastered version of her song “Cool Me Down” was released ahead of Poland’s national selection, Poland shot straight to the top of the Eurovision 2016 betting odds. It won the Wiwi Jury in Poland, with one of our jurors writing:

“Cool Me Down” is a Scandi-pop hybrid of Rihanna and Kesha at their very best. Lyrically the song is on point…As an entry, this “gets” airplay, TV and every other contemporary audio-visual medium. With bad-ass choreography in tow, “Cool Me Down” could easily clinch victory both at the national selection and at the mother contest. The only concern here is Margaret’s live vocals.

Latvia’s MyRadiant U (“We Will Be Stars”) finished second with our readers, followed by Sweden’s Wiktoria (“Save Me”).

You can review the complete results below.

Who should win OGAE Second Chance Contest 2016?

  1. Poland: Margaret – “Cool Me Down” 16.93% (1,063 votes)
  2. Latvia: MyRadiantU – “We Will Be Stars” 13.3% (835 votes)
  3. Sweden: Wiktoria – “Save Me” 8.18% (514 votes)
  4. Ukraine: The Hardkiss – “Helpless” 7.53% (473 votes)
  5. Denmark: Anja Nissen – “Never Alone” 6.04% (379 votes)
  6. Finland: Mikael Saari – “On It Goes” 4.35% (273 votes)
  7. United Kingdom: Bianca – “Shine a Little Light” 4.12% (259 votes)
  8. Norway: The Hungry Hearts ft. Lisa Dillan – “Laika” 4.06% (255 votes)
  9. Spain: María Isabel – “La vida solo es una” 3.95% (248 votes)
  10. Austria: Elly V – “I’ll Be Around (Bounce)” 3.65% (229 votes)
  11. Estonia: Laura – “Supersonic” 3.61% (227 votes)
  12. Hungary: Kállay Saunders Band – “Who We Are” 3.15% (198 votes)
  13. Belgium: Tom Frantzis – “I’m Not Lost” 3.07% (193 votes)
  14. Malta: Brooke – “Golden” 3.06% (192 votes)
  15. Slovenia: Raiven – “Crno bel” 2.32% (146 votes)
  16. Israel: Ella Daniel – “Somebody Out There” 2.23% (140 votes)
  17. Germany: Avantasia – “Mystery of a Blood Red Rose” 2.02% (127 votes)
  18. Romania: Florena – “Behind The Shadows” 2.02% (127 votes)
  19. Albania: Besa Krasniqi – “Liroje zemrën” 1.67% (105 votes)
  20. Lithuania: Erica Jennings – “Leading Me Home” 1.62% (102 votes)
  21. Belarus: NAPOLI – “My Universe” 1.27% (80 votes)
  22. Italy: Patty Pravo – “Cieli Immensi” 1.08% (68 votes)
  23. Switzerland: Vincent Gross – “Half a Smile” 0.75% (47 votes)

Total Votes: 6,280

Which songs do YOU want to see come out on top in the Second Chance contest? Let us know below!

16 Comments
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blodina
blodina
7 years ago

Latvia should have been in first place. Margaret’s live singing is horrible!

oooops
oooops
7 years ago

Avantasia is underrated 🙁

khm
khm
7 years ago

I will never understand the love for CMD.

Héctor
Héctor
7 years ago

Hungary, Belgium, Israel, Slovenia, Romania and Albania should be higher. There are some songs overrated here too like Finland, Latvia, Denmark or UK (I like the song, but 2nd place?). I also think a win for Margaret wouldn’t be fair as she doesn’t know how to sing.

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
7 years ago

1. Margaret.
2. Kállay Saunders Band.
3. Brooke.

Seriously. All of the rest of the choices were not even the best songs from their national finals this year. Margaret should win by a landslide.

Zebb
Zebb
7 years ago

Expected more for Elly V though there’s not much difference until its top 5. Okay.

karminowe.usta
karminowe.usta
7 years ago

Germany is underrated, Avantasia is similar to AC/DC – my favourite rock band:)

(J)ESC Fanatic
(J)ESC Fanatic
7 years ago

@Niceee

If you are implying that pop singers are not real singers, then you must know that you are really stupid.

#Justice4Margaret
#Justice4Margaret
7 years ago

She’s the obvious winner. Talent always wins.

Also congrats to Latvia, but what’s that mediocre Swedish song doing at #3? Y’all need to listen to all the songs before voting, not just Mediocrityfestivalen entries lol.

Antonio
Antonio
7 years ago

My Top 10:
1. Poland
2. Finland (I didn’t know this song… But it’s AMAZING!)
3. Sweden
4. Hungary (Andras-Kallay Saunders, nothing more to say)
5. Germany (I love rock… And of course, I love this song)
6. Ukraine (it’s not my cup of tea, but high quality)
7. Lithuania
8. Belgium
9. Latvia
10. Denmark

Bottom 3:
21. Switzerland
22. Albania
23. Norway

Niceee
Niceee
7 years ago

AVANTASIA! It’s legend, not the other pop Esc one-hit “singers”.

(J)ESC Fanatic
(J)ESC Fanatic
7 years ago

No surprise here.

Correction: Mikael Saari finished third at UMK.

Ben Rafter
Ben Rafter
7 years ago

Not too shocked about that tbh

Ross
Ross
7 years ago

I’m astounded that Darline weren’t chosen for the UK. They had the best song in the selection by miles – the rest were very average.

Eurovision pour les nuls

1. Finland (the performance was so waw)
2. Ukraine (same)
3. Poland
4. Belgium
5. Estonia

Not a fan of Wiktoria for Sweden, would have prefered Molly Sandén !

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
7 years ago

Not a surprise. There were not many good choices put forward.