Moldova SunStroke Project O melodie pentru Europa 2018 song submissions

Back in May, “Amar Pelos Dois” gave Portugal its first ever Eurovision win, while Moldova’s “Hey Mamma” finished in a very respectable third place. But two months later, it’s the SunStroke Project’s party tune that’s the YouTube hit. The grand final performance of “Hey Mamma” now has more views than “Amar Pelos Dois”.

Since Salvador Sobral’s victory in May, the video of his grand final performance has been the most popular of all the 2017 grand final videos. It’s held a comfortable lead, and fans have revisited the simple yet touching performance.

But challenging it for the lead is Epic Sax Guy and friends. The break-out upbeat hit of Eurovision 2017 has been attracting more and more views. Only a week after the grand final, “Hey Mamma” was getting more daily views than “Amar Pelos Dois”, slowly but surely eating into the winner’s lead.

“Hey Mamma” now has over 8.55 million views, compared to “Amar Pelos Dois” on 8.54 million.

But this isn’t so unusual. As past years have shown us, the winning song isn’t always the one people want to repeatedly listen to in the months after Eurovision.

The most viewed video from 2011 is Eric Saade’s aptly named “Popular”. The song that only placed third in Düsseldorf is currently sitting on 2.97 million views, while the winning song “Running Scared” has 2.71 million.

Likewise, the most popular video from the 2016 grand final is televote winner Sergey Lazarev with “You Are the Only One” on 19.9 million views. Overall winner Jamala follows behind on 16.03 million views.

And of course, winning Eurovision is all about the impact a song makes at the grand final. Sometimes the winning song is like “Euphoria”, an enduring pop hit that is still played years later. Other times the winning song might not have a strong afterlife, but it captures a special moment at the final.

Eurovision 2017 – grand final video YouTube views

One of the biggest surprises in the overall list of YouTube views is Spain in sixth place with 2.13 million views. “Do It For Your Lover” notoriously placed last in Kyiv, so why the YouTube popularity?

Well, most of those views happened in the first week, when Eurofans were repeatedly enjoying the drama of Manel’s unfortunate bum note in the live performance.

  1. Moldova: Sunstroke Project “Hey, Mamma!” 8.55 million
  2. Portugal: Salvador Sobral “Amar pelos dois” – 8.54 million
  3. Romania: Ilinca ft. Alex Florea “Yodel It!” – 3.65 million
  4. Bulgaria: Kristian Kostov “Beautiful Mess” – 2.68 million
  5. Sweden: Robin Bengtsson “I Can’t Go On” – 2.29 million
  6. Spain: Manel Navarro “Do It for Your Lover” – 2.13 million
  7. Italy: Francesco Gabbani “Occidentali’s Karma” – 2.06 million
  8. Hungary: Joci Pápai “Origo” – 1.69 million
  9. France: Alma “Requiem” – 1.64 million
  10. Belgium: Blanche “City Lights” – 1.43 million
  11. Norway: JOWST “Grab the Moment” – 1.28 million
  12. Cyprus: Hovig “Gravity” – 0.98 million
  13. Belarus: Naviband “Story of My Life” – 0.83 million
  14. Greece: Demy “This Is Love” – 0.79 million
  15. Azerbaijan: Dihaj “Skeletons” – 0.76 million
  16. Germany: Levina “Perfect Life” – 0.71 million
  17. Netherlands: O’G3NE “Lights and Shadows” – 0.71 million
  18. Ukraine: O.Torvald “Time” – 0.64 million
  19. Croatia: Jacques Houdek “My Friend” – 0.56 million
  20. Israel: IMRI “I Feel Alive” – 0.49 million
  21. United Kingdom: Lucie Jones “Never Give Up on You” – 0.49 million
  22. Austria: Nathan Trent “Running on Air” – 0.43 million
  23. Australia: Isaiah “Don’t Come Easy” – 0.39 million
  24. Poland: Kasia Mo? “Flashlight” – 0.38 million
  25. Denmark: Anja “Where I Am”- 0.37 million
  26. Armenia: Artsvik “Fly with Me” – 0.22 million

Read more Eurovision 2017 news

44 Comments
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AngieP
AngieP
6 years ago

“Hey mamma” is the kind of song you want to listen again and again. Sth like a guilty pleasure.
It’s happy, it’s fun, it’s entertaining, it’s summer!

Richardinho
Richardinho
6 years ago

Interesting list. Curious to see Lucie Jones at 21 after all the WiWi Brit contingent were hyping this thing up to be the most amazing thing ever. Sorry, it was decent. no more.

Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago

Who would’ve thought? Keep in mind that this is also the best-selling song from the contest this year… it’s truly remarkable for a Moldovan act! The public went crazy for Hey Mamma here in Italy, by the way!

Alex
Alex
6 years ago

It would be nice if we in the USA could actually watch any of these videos on Youtube. Thanks for nothing, EBU, Viacom, and Logo TV.

Maclaren
Maclaren
6 years ago

I loved both, Salvador and the Sunstroke Project, and voted for both too commencing from semis. Both deserved their sudden fame and I hope both will capitalize on it, in whatever categories and aspects of life that they consider meaningful. A musician life is quite hard and seldom prosperous so let’s be happy for the folks who worked hard to bring the right momentum to their lives.

L'oiseau
L'oiseau
6 years ago
Reply to  Maclaren

Wise words!

David
David
6 years ago

Oh my God!!!! What happened to the real winner Blanche… 10th place?!?. I cannot understand it. And why is Salvador second after being first because he was NOT the real winner… my world is upside down

jayjay
jayjay
6 years ago
Reply to  David

Lol. The real winner is now Sunstroke Project, don’t you get it?… 🙂

greenmoon
greenmoon
6 years ago
Reply to  David

yes Lisbon is capital of Romania
and the real place of Spain is 6th, nice see them doing well in Eurovision again 🙂

Vic
Vic
6 years ago
Reply to  David

I am particularly happy that Germany got the real second place! Levina really deserved it. Greetings from the real beach of Tehran, real capital of Australia.

Hovannes Boratyan
Hovannes Boratyan
6 years ago

Excusez moi, Hayastan 2019 !!!

Hovannes Boratyan
Hovannes Boratyan
6 years ago

Armenia rules! Hayastan 2018 !!!

Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago

Ruling the bottom of the list lmao NEXT

Mattias Sollerman
Mattias Sollerman
6 years ago

Combining views from Final and Semi gives the following Top 5:
1 Portugal, 15.3 m
2 Moldova, 13.2 m
3 Bulgaria, 7.2 m
4 Romania, 5.5 m
5 Belgium, 5.1 m

Doing the same for previous years:
1 Sweden 2015, 48.2 m
2 Austria 2014, 41.1 m
3 Sweden 2012, 36.2 m
4 Russia 2016, 32.9 m
5 Ukraine 2016, 28.2 m

I’m only counting the live performances from the contest itself. Adding views for other videos obviously gives different results.

Charles
Charles
6 years ago

When people have not time to listen to music, you go back to your childhood days and you listen on repeat this kind of bubble gum meaningless pop that serves as entertaining piece of … whatever … apparently it works … this was worthy of a Phd Thesis but …. ain’t nobody got time to wanting to understand that either …

disposable saga
disposable saga
6 years ago
Reply to  Charles

That advocate spirit has just fluttered out of you when you shot childness in humans, sir!

Charli Cheer Up
Charli Cheer Up
6 years ago

Moldova to win next year then?

Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago

They were lucky they got a strong song in their national final. It could happen to anyone. It’s not like if a country does well one year they’re bound to do the same the next year.

Jo
Jo
6 years ago

I think that the Sanremo’s performance is the most watched for Italy.

Jo
Jo
6 years ago
Reply to  Jo

And Portugal has another one as well.

Roelof Meesters
Roelof Meesters
6 years ago

Portugal still has 13 million views on the Music Video.

Marta
Marta
6 years ago

VERY CLOSE SOBRAL and Hey Mamma 😀

Ghostface
Ghostface
6 years ago

how is artsvik last? she was my favorite!

Darth Thulhu
Darth Thulhu
6 years ago
Reply to  Ghostface

Many people in the Americas (myself included) watch the pre-contest official music video rather than the Grand Final video, because it is vastly easier to do so. Other people watch the alternate video because they like it more, or they dislike the CGI at the end of the Grand Final video. The views add up.

In the same vein, Francesco’s full video for the full version of Occidentali’s Karma has well over 100m views.

Charles
Charles
6 years ago
Reply to  Ghostface

Being your personal favourite never meant and never will mean that it has to be everyone’s fav … that’s the way it is ….

Áustria
Áustria
6 years ago

Hey Mamma is a summer tune and the performance is very funny. I think I watched it the most as well, although I never wanted this song to win and was a massive Salvador supporter.

Artsvik’s last place is astounding. It is in my personal video top 3, I love the sensual voguing.

Richardinho
Richardinho
6 years ago
Reply to  Áustria

I thought there was a massive Armenian diaspora of several billion people and that is the only reason why they normally finish well at Eurovision. Couldn’t be that in previous years they’ve just had good songs and this one was a bit of dud?

Alex
Alex
6 years ago

low number of views for the UK entry whY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Belgium has more views in total if you count the semifinal video.

steph
steph
6 years ago
Reply to  Alex

the same for Bulgaria

Wlalak
Wlalak
6 years ago

Spain at 6th just because of his voice crack and all the hate needed LOL

cwbcna
cwbcna
6 years ago

Artsvik’s at 26th? Where were the Armenians spamming the polls?!

Charles
Charles
6 years ago
Reply to  cwbcna

Arguing with the Azeris I guess ….

greenmoon
greenmoon
6 years ago

comments saying “real winner”
3..2..1

steph
steph
6 years ago
Reply to  greenmoon

Salvador got the 8m views only because he won and he got all the spotlight, even people who dont follow esc clicked the video out of curiosity to see who was the winner
Moldova’s 8mviews are a lot more impressive, cause they managed to get them just by giving a goog fun performance

greenmoon
greenmoon
6 years ago
Reply to  steph

but I noticed the crazy increase views after the first semifinal on the official video of Amar Pelos Dois, and before the festival the song had lots of covers on youtube.

josh
josh
6 years ago
Reply to  steph

Steph LOL Salvador HAD millions of views before he won. I follow him since the beggining. his first semi final video was the one with more views in just one day, so was his music video.

Charles
Charles
6 years ago
Reply to  steph

,,, but a good performance does not mean that it’s a good song … the Moldovan entry became nothing but the “let me forget about my depressive life and pretend everything is fine” moment … and in that sense is has worked the same way a clown can entertain us all by throwing pies against someone else’s face … but where is the music in that?

Jo
Jo
6 years ago
Reply to  greenmoon

3..2..1.. ROCKET TO THE STARSSSSSSSS

Reese
Reese
6 years ago

Call the police

Charles
Charles
6 years ago
Reply to  Reese

I would call the psychiatrist … apparently a lot of people still can’t handle the fact that Eurovision can actually be won by MUSIC and not … by this ….

Fatima
Fatima
6 years ago
Reply to  Charles

Oh dear Charles (yawn), you’re the one who can’t handle the fact that people might just enjoy something which you’ve dismissed. So now we need psychiatrists. Is there no end to your snobbish judgements? I don’t need you, or the police, or a psychiatrist to tell me what I should and should not like. Salvador won the battle, but Sunstroke won the war.

David
David
6 years ago
Reply to  Fatima

Which war?…

jayjay
jayjay
6 years ago
Reply to  Fatima

One thing is disliking the winning song. This is perfectly normal. What is not normall is creating a parallel universe where people are desperately trying to find other so-called “real” winners and attacking anyone that actually like the winning song. Charles is right in pointing that out.

Denis
Denis
6 years ago
Reply to  jayjay

However Charles is the first one who will comment whenever someone has something positive to say about the other acts. And calls them stupid for liking them. As if Salvador is some sort of God that needs to be praised. Charles should realise not liking Salvador isn’t a crime and should stop going on the defence.
There is a difference between liking an artist and mocking others for not liking the same artist.