“Look at me, I’m a beautiful creature!” she sings. And, as Youtube views indicate, you’re heading Netta’s command.
As of March 24 at 12:00 CET, Netta’s “Toy” has amassed a whopping 7.4 million views on Eurovision’s official Youtube channel. Those views come just two weeks after the song’s release on the video platform. The Israeli entry for Eurovision has struck a chord with fans and farm animals alike, spawning a women’s empowerment movement, feeding an animal rights movement and inspiring young people in an underserved area of Uganda. The video clip is also full of life and colour, showing different sides of Netta as she performs with her iconic vocal looper.
Netta told wiwibloggs in an exclusive interview that her live performance on the Lisbon stage will take inspiration from her video clip — and our expectations are bock-bocking raised.
Taking second place in Youtube videos is Spain’s Alfred & Amaia with “Tu canción”, whose official video clip has gained over 1.8 million views two weeks after its release. While this is a fair distance behind Israel’s “Toy”, this does not take into account the 2.2 million views that Almaia’s national final performance has garnered on the official Eurovision channel. The couple recently filmed the official video shoot and slightly revamped their song, taking the ‘less is more’ approach to their entry.
Rounding out the top three in Youtube views are Bulgaria’s Equinox with “Bones”. Although their official video is only a lyric video, the newly formed supergroup have already amassed over 1.68 million views.
Ironically, the top three most viewed 2018 entries on Eurovision’s official Youtube channel were released on March 11, making them among the last videos to be released on the channel.
Other songs which have amassed over 1 million views to date include Julia Samoylova’s “I Won’t Break” (1.36 million), Benjamin Ingrosso’s “Dance You Off” (1.19 million), Sennek’s “A Matter of Time” (1.09 million), Jessica Mauboy’s “We Got Love” (1.03 million), and Eye Cue’s “Lost and Found” (1.03 million).
Here is a list of every 2018 entry ranked by Youtube views (to the nearest thousand) on Eurovision’s official Youtube channel (as of 24 March, 12:00 CET):
- Israel: Netta – “Toy” (7,379,000)
- Spain: Alfred & Amaia – “Tu canción” (1,839,000)
- Bulgaria: Equinox – “Bones” (1,680,000)
- Russia: Julia Samoylova – “I Won’t Break” (1,363,000)
- Sweden: Benjamin Ingrosso – “Dance You Off” (1,192,000)
- Belgium: Sennek – “A Matter of Time” (1,092,000)
- Australia: Jessica Mauboy – “We Got Love” (1,027,000)
- FYR Macedonia: Eye Cue – “Lost and Found” (1,026,000)
- Estonia: Elina Nechayeva – “La forza” (968,000)
- Poland: Gromee feat. Lukas Meijer – “Light Me Up” (933,000)
- Denmark: Rasmussen – “Higher Ground” (920,000)
- Czech Republic: Mikolas Josef – “Lie to Me” (846,000)
- Serbia: Sanja Ilic & Balkanika – “Nova deca” (679,000)
- Austria: Cesár Sampson – “Nobody but You” (673,000)
- Greece: Yianna Terzi – “Oneiro mou” (540,000)
- Portugal: Claudia Pascoal – “O Jardim” (526,000)
- Slovenia: Lea Sirk – “Hvala, ne!” (503,000)
- Lithuania: Ieva Zasimauskaite – “When We’re Old” (487,000)
- Ireland: Ryan O’Shaughnessy – “Together” (480,000)
- Norway: Alexander Rybak – “That’s How You Write a Song” (448,000)
- France: Madame Monsieur – “Mercy” (413,000)
- Malta: Christabelle – “Taboo” (379,000)
- Azerbaijan: Aisel – “X My Heart” (360,000)
- Belarus: Alekseev – “Forever” (334,000)
- Armenia: Sevak Khanagyan – “Qami” (300,000)
- Cyprus: Eleni Foureira – “Fuego” (290,000)
- United Kingdom: SuRie – “Storm” (289,000)
- Italy: Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro – “Non mi avete fatto niente” (287,000)
- Croatia: Franka – “Crazy” (264,000)
- Moldova: DoReDos – “My Lucky Day” (262,000)
- Georgia: Iriao – “For You” (251,000)
- Romania: The Humans – “Goodbye” (224,000)
- Finland: Saara Aalto – “Monsters” (220,000)
- Albania: Eugent Bushpepa – “Mall” (219,000)
- Ukraine: Mélovin – “Under the Ladder” (212,000)
- Switzerland: Zibbz – “Stones” (201,000)
- Germany: Michael Schulte – “You Let Me Walk Alone” (192,000)
- Montenegro: Vanja Radovanovic – “Inje” (188,000)
- San Marino: Jessika feat. Jenifer Brening – “Who We Are” (170,000)
- Netherlands: Waylon – “Outlaw in ‘Em” (157,000)
- Iceland: Ari Ólafsson – “Our Choice” (151,000)
- Hungary: AWS – “Viszlát nyár” (148,000)
- Latvia: Laura Rizzotto – “Funny Girl” (141,000)
Even though Israel has climbed up the odds and Youtube views tally, history tells us that the pre-contest favourite doesn’t always take the winner’s crown at the contest. Last year, Italy’s Francesco Gabbani took Youtube by storm, amassing over 100 million views by late April and breaking all sorts of records to become a clear pre-contest favourite. But the Italian stallion only managed to secure a 6th place finish in the grand final, well behind eventual winners Portugal.
Will Netta break the Eurovision favourite curse and take the contest this year in Lisbon? Which music video do you watch the most? Let us know in the comments below!
I just really don’t like this song. I often like the more ‘fun’ entries (like Moldova last year), but I don’t think this song is fun… It’s just really weird and not in a good way. Non-eurovision fans will definitely not vote for this and I also don’t think the judges will appreciate this entry. And this song is not even about the me-too discussion, but in my opinion she just screams that all boys are bad, which is not too kind.
I think Spain and Russia they have to be banned from the Contest!! They don’t have a real democracy.
catalanla_not_spain you are a Nazi
I love this staging!
https://twitter.com/RaulMarcos15/status/978208052238344192
Arrogance only leads to downfall… Be humble.
The Netherlands hace 1,2 million views not 157.000 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8TowcElmyek
Greece is a POS song (go look it up, you arrogant a-hole!)
Wont go even past the semi finals, mark my words.
Spain has a stronger song in whole contest.
Greece is gonna pass the semi final 100%. Mark my words!
You’re so confident that Europe will vote for Greece, when in reality Israel is in the front of the bandwagon.
I’d say Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Italy and Poland all have better entries than Greece.
Greece will not pass semi final as its song is crappy and by bulling other comment poster with foul language ain’t going to change it – you are a loser just like your pathetic entry. You’ll probably get points from Cyprus which will also get points from you since you care not and know not about music which is why the Greek song is soooo bad and you can only get points by neighbors, cest tout! Now stop embarrassing your country by acting like a degenerate obsessive compulsive child and prepare yourself for voting for Spain – we need all… Read more »
Even my farts, after eating a stinking gyros, sounds like a better song than the noises the Greek singer utter from her mouth… Greece won’t make the cut to the finals, #markmywords
#madrid2019, and Greece is not welcome there – we are a country of culture and Greek “songs” like that are an insult to culture all over the world!
Coming from parasite living in a bankrup country begging countries like Spain for financial support id say you really hit rock bottom, that made you dillusional to think you have a good song… #markmyords you plate smashing, spit talking concha – you wont make it to the finals! #madrid2019
I don’t think so.
I still think a lot of those views are repeat views and are a small percentage of those who will watch the actual contest. Of course, having a lot of views is better than not having many but I do not think you can use it as a true indicator of how a song will do in the televote.
I would consider Belarus. Many are rooting fot it! Name it Forever or Navsegda it is more than 10 million views and it’s addictive, I’ve worn you! I’m not from Belarus or former CIS republic, I ‘ ve never voted Belarus or other russian republic in my life but I’ m going to.
A possible winner, yes. A runaway winner, not sure. It is indeed a very good song and it is very catchy. I do like it . The only issue here with the song and act is how Netta is going to captivate the audience and juries attention for 3 minutes if she is standing behind her looper device like a DJ. Not sure this will work. Backing dancers are not your winning formulae these days, or having someone dressed as a chicken, which I doubt will happen. there are also no LED screens to add to the flavour of the… Read more »
She is a versitile artist – look at this – you need to be a highly skilled singer for Avant-garde music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfO0QRuaDhs
I guess Experimental Music is the right term for this
Anita, she is a versatile artist and agree her arrangements relate to Avante-garde music. The video is cool , I like it and her music style is cool. My worry still , this may not get the votes she needs to win with. Standing behind a voice looper may be her downfall. It may not come across appealing, by the average voter especially if she is distracted by pressing buttons all the time and having a mike in front of her. I may be completely wrong, but she is taking a big big risk. Only time will tell.
Marty, did you listen to the song – she is only using the looper at the beginning of the song – so she will be free to dance and make her gestures like in the video during the rest of the song…
Then Italy should get the win.
I can image how bad it will be in live show. Pure Israel fans- they think that they are going to win but in real life she even will not go to the final :):)
But bad voice and not beautiful girl summary is that it is real contender for last place.
She’s BEAUTIFUL!
You are vile.
Arrogance only leads to downfall… Be humble.
Also, you’re sick! #notofatshaming
It seems that you haven’t seen any act of her at Israel’s NF. I recommend you her performance of Wannabe. She absolutely can sing.
And btw, she is pretty beautiful.
@marge – disgusting comment by a bitter who wants his country to win. shame on you.
I am not sure Neta will win but she is amazing live on stage!
Maybe they like the song…
San Marino did pretty well with the views too lmao.
Anyway, I remember Poland’s video in 2016 also had quite a lot of views, and he finised 3rd with the audience just like Moldova 2017, so maybe…
I’m happy for Netta but I think this article is missing some information. The videos from internal songs will have more views compared to songs from NFs than fans have heard since quite a time. Also many songs were published like Armenia last Wednesday when others are there since 2 weeks so it’s natural that they may have less or more views. I think it should have been included in the article. Anyway regarding Netta’s song like any songs I wish to her and to all the best. :3.
True, Armenia now for the 5 days after release of its video clip has more fews, than many of those who were published two weeks ago or even months.
Netta has this year in her pocket. Jury must vote for radio friendly, Toy is the ultimate radio friendly, in the same league with Lambada, Macarena, Gangnam Style, Despacito.
The jury should not let this get to the final. But if they develop a taste for populist take on crap music, misandrist messages and animalistic gimmicks, then the ESC should be considered compromised. I can see them loosing me as a fan, and I’m perfectly okay with it.
Ahaha, you stayed a “fan” when a woman with a beard and a group of monsters won but this is where you draw a line huh?
Learn the difference between a SONG and a PERFORMER. I may like Netta and still despise her song. Duh!
But you were talking about gimmicks in your previous comment.
@Enchanted Lobster – nothing you saying make any sense…
Lordi won because of their looks. If not, why did Hanna get that low the next year?
The difference is that you liked Lordi’s song, as well Conchita’s.
I can fully agree on that and the thing is the amount of views doesn’t even matter. Anyone can click that video open multiable times and each time the view is register as new. I hope that people will honor the memory of Lys Assia who said: The most important thing in song is a good melody. And votes go for the best tone and melody and a song good which will last and play next 60+ years as the Refrain 1956 done. ( it doesn’t matter ballad, rock or country) Toy as a song is quirky but easily forgotten… Read more »
You forgot Sweden 🙂
So, you may stop being a fan just because a song you don’t like win?
For you it may be crap music, but let me tell you that not for everybody it is crap music.
Saara Aalto would be at spot 2 (second ofcourse) if you counted Monsters that was very early posted by Saara Aalto. 1,882,643 views + 220 000 on ESC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syjrB5lVIQI
the video from ESC were posted very late. Peolple still watch the first post (same video though)
Actually I think that there is better songs than Israel. Ok it is in my top 10, but is it a winner? Not for me.
And Wiwibloggs for each song in youtube there are way more videos than only one there is live versions, fan posted videos, official videos in their own profiles and eurovision page. On Eurovision youtube page there is more than one video for each contestant how you can make top by useing only one video? Not hate!
andy, which song fo you think is better than this one?
Nothing special. Actually it is quite bad song and terrible voice. My prediction 22-25 place ( if she pass to the final)
@ Sebastian Diaz: Saara’s video released on Feb 9 by UMK has got over 1,800,000 views. So I think this list is not correct.
You are right .. Neta has been 7,808,386 views
And more 6,517,638 views in another post https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFZ2F8V9qVk
Every time you click the video open it is register as new view it does not mean new VIEWER! So the amount of viewers on Toy is far less.
FYR Macedonia again doing surprisingly well… I would wish for them to go to the finals…
I come close to hate semi final 1 for being so strong. It will leave out so many deserved qualifiers… It’s a pity that song-wise the semis are so unbalanced…
Cyprus and Greece ( on the Panik Records videos) have both surpassed 2 Million views. Cyprus has 2.7 Million and Greece has 5.4 Million.
We’re only counting views on the Eurovision official channel. And Israel still beats them.
People jumping on the hate train? Can we just stop this and get along?
But there’s no need to be a jerk about it.
Some videoes were uploaded earlier than others..
“Light Me Up” videoclip has over 5.5 million
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQLmYaSCDYw
That’s the official channel, not the Eurovision one.
We know there are chicken lovers. Kfc s are always busy. Let them enjoy their chicken advert called TOY good for kfc s good luck to chip buckabucka buck YOU STUPID BOOOOOOY…isnt that cheap enough..GOSH
Praying to Jesus Christ for your mental health. Netta really got you PRESSED.
Well, that’s just counting the Eurovision channel. You should count all videos from official channels – Netta is about to surpass Italy there.
It’s like Italy 2017 all over again and we all know how it ended. Though Occidentali’s Karma was light years better than Toy
Well, usually the most viewed video ends up winning (the televote). That’s been the case every year since 2012. 2017 was just an exception, so don’t base your opinion on an outlier.
Wasn’t Russia the most viewed in 2012.. Any way.. this year could very well become another “exception”.
In your dreams! She has televote on lock.
Are you trying to tell us that you think Toy won’t slay the televote? Because if so I’ll be praying to Jesus Christ for your delusion.
2014 is also an exception. Donatan&Cleo had 40 sth million views back then (Today it’s almost 65 million).
Well that’s a different case, the song was published in October 2013 in Poland and it was a huge hit there before it got selected.
Eleni is the true runner up – most viewers saw her PanikRecords video, not the ESC official channel one.
He’s referring to Eleni Foureira, not Elina Nechayeva. Panik Records is greek record company. He meant runner up as in terms of views, not by the odds.
Marketing stunt. People are jst curious about the chicken song but this will flop HARD in the final. Juries will kill it
Netta fans attacking you in 3…2…1…
@Rory – “netta fans attacking”? really?
Everyone can have his own opition and its perfectly fine. I love Netta song and I think its perfect. as you can see, more than 7 million people agree with me and maybe there is 7 million which not, all good… no need to get into defensive mode lol
If you look in the comment sections it’s the other way around
100% agree. It will be lucky if pass to the final but I think it will stay at semifinal.
I don’t think saying netta will flop because occidentalis karma did also last year is a good argument. Just because something happened in the past doesn’t mean it will repeat itself. Factors that might have stood in his way were the awkward cut to 3 minutes, him performing close to salvador. And epic sax guy stealing a lot of the “fun” vote
Also i’m certain netta will also be able to get high jury points if she just aces her live vocals (and gets the staging on point) the jury even gave higher points to norway last year than the televote did
…the history book on the shelf is always repeating itseeeeeeeeelf… 😀
Well thank god- Fransisco didn’t do any gorilla-like sounds. Just get over the hype – Israel’s song is SILLY and the singer herself is not charming. She won’t be anyone’s toy 😀 I really hope she won’t win, I wanna see a classy winner with a GOOD song.
What’s there to love in Nettas song? I get that #metoo vibe and so on but any way I try to listen that song it just annoys me. It’s messy. The way she sings and what she sings, her (facial) expressions… It’s just little bit too silly for me. And overhyped.
This is just a numbers game. The real contest is in May!
Cyprus has 2.2 million
These numbers are from the official ESC channel.
Well Italy has 15 million, but not on the ESC channel. The views on the ESC channel matter more IMO because a lot of people from artists’s homeland are viewing these videos on their own channels. Occidentali’s Karma sold 5x platinum in its home country, which also indicates that almost everyone in Italy saw the music video at least once, thus racking up a huge amount of views. And you cannot vote for your own country, as far as I know 😉
It would be amazing if Israel won only the year after their spokesperson announced a dramatic exit from the contest in Kyiv, which sounded like a very dramatic “goodbye forever”.
Is the brand new Israeli television station up to the challenge of hosting the contest so soon after their establisment?
It’s not anymore a host-broadcaster game. Everything can be sourced. Last year Ukraine just got the whole Swedish team on board. You don’t “need” a broadcaster, a production company can do the event for you, just have the money. 🙂
Greek entry has about 5-6 million views
In other channels. so do Israel (more than 5 more millions just from the Israeli broadcast channel…). for convient they check just in ESC. but be assure its the most viewed anyway…
Sorry but this is a little bit misrepresentative. The video of the Italy’s ‘Non mi avete fatto niente’ amassed 15 million by now. And before RAI took decision to remove live Sanremo’s videos there were millions more.
You’re right, I remember the RAI one had over 10 million before they removed it. The list is quite inaccurate since it doesn’t show the real numbers. Some of them have more views since they are the only source to watch are on that channel (Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Macedonia etc). If we would count all the views from all the other videos, also including the national final and the ones before they are reuploaded, then we would see how it really is. For sure the list would be drastically different.
It’s not really misrepresentative, because it clearly says the article clearly states that it is only countinng the official Eurovision channel views. Okay, so they have 15 million views on their other video, but that is probably largely from a home audience so actually to include that would be misrepresentative.
Counting the official Eurovision video views makes the most sense because it puts everybody on an equal footing.
Yes, it’s true about the home audience. Let’s see how the numbers will be in May or late April since the interest will be higher compared to now.
Sergey lost because politics
Gabbani lost because the language…in the end he was just a guy with a monkey
Netta has the whole package
Italy lost because many votes of them go to Moldova and Romania instead
And weak live vocals
Italy’s message was never meant to win, even on English.
And as per Netta having the whole package…no. She is the “chicken lady”. Referring to the Gabanni comment.
The language?? Portuguese is much more foreign than Italian. It didn’t win because the live act was a mess and the monkey was a basic unfunny gimmick. And Netta has a messy song with with a chicken gimmick with a supodesely strong message about empowerment but which sounds in reality too basic and aggressive.
Plus, Israel got another 6M views on the IPBC official channel.
What killed Italys win last year was the awful and the very not standing out stage they had last year while bulgaria slayed the staging last year and they stole all the ettention….. On any means we did not see any of the reharsals or the staging Ideas yet nither the live perfomences from the many pre parties this year…. saying that Netta is overhyped might be true but numbers dont lie she stands out mostly in terms of the video clips…. and if Israel will have bomb staging this year they will definatly slay… and I do think Israel… Read more »
sorry for my bad english its not my first languge … hahah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4zO_1Z_1S8
15 million views right there.
This was pointed out with Gabbani’s Vevo video last year, too!
True, i do think most views are generated from it being the san remo winner tho.
No one watched that awfull ‘music video’ from The Netherlands, the song release has over 1 million views, and on Gromees channel Light Me Up has 5.4 million views.
Some entries are released first on ESC Youtube channel, so they achieve higher numbers. Notice that most songs with fewer views came from NF.
Cyprus has about two million on her record labels channel so back off
I guess I need to apologise to Elina for calling her song “overhyped”.
Toy == Occidentali’s Karma 2.0
definately
But “OK” is miles ahead in terms of quality, imo.
Toy is still not in the same level as Occidentalis Karma…
I’m sure that the first two places will fight Bulgaria and Israel. The two best songs are theoretically without a dispute! I like Israel, but the televotes will stay behind, maybe it’s time to win BULGARIA!
My prediction
1.Sweden (in Top 3 with juries and televote), Sweden is Ukraine 2016
2.
2.Belgium(win juries, but out of Top 5 with juries) Belgium is Australia 2016
3.Israel (win televote,but out of Top 5 with juries) Israel is Russia 2016
4.Norway ( in Top 3 with televote, and out of Top 8 with juries)
5.Germany ( in Top 3 with juries,out of Top 8 with televote)
but you have 3 songs in your top three though dgkjjnds for the televise
Why should Norway be anywhere near to top 5? Kidding me? And why on earth would Sweden win with such mess.
8. Poland (Top 3 televote, 25 with juries) Poland is Poland 2016
Poland will finish much better with the juries this time.
Sweden will do very fine but not win… Still counting on a dark horse
I also believe this is the duel, between two songs that couldn’t be more different from each other.
Well. That’s only from official esc chanel. Gromee has aprox 5,7 m views on his own chanel.
Most of them from Poles I guess xD.
So?
Germany’s song got over 1,5 million views on Michaels own YouTube channel, you should count them as well
The gap between the first and second place in views says it all. I know its hard for all those who think that since salvador, eurovision should be a snoozefest, but people LOVE this entry and actually eurovision needs her.
yes, preach! I believe that Eurovision needs a shake up. an actually meaningful and relevant song (a love ballad has been heard how many hundred times on the ESC stage??) but a song that supports the #MeToo Movement, that IS SOMETHING!
Macedonia and Australia come thruuuu.
So glad that other aNY song received the most views other than Alfonso and Aliar like by boo boo your Spanish stans cannot support you in every way jgdsjnkgdj
the irony that songs that were released months after theirs have more views sgdhjdgsjg
The video posted on the official youtube channel was only posted a week ago honey
Let’s clarify some facts …
The song of Macedonia was published on March 11, 2018
The song of Australia was published on March 8, 2018
The song of Israel was published on March 11, 2018