Over the past few years, songs from national finals have dominated the Eurovision Song Contest — Emmelie de Forrest, Jamala, Loreen, Salvador Sobral and so on. However, last year it was the internally selected entries that came out on top.
The three highest ranked countries (Israel, Cyprus and Austria) all selected their entries behind closed doors, reminding us there is no real “best recipe” to choose an entry.
A few weeks ago, we asked our readers, which of the 15 internally selected songs was their favourite and now, it’s time to evaluate the results
Breaking down the numbers
In total, 11,483 votes were cast in the poll with the Netherlands’ Duncan Laurence emerging as the clear favourite amongst the pack.
Earning just over 2000 votes, the Dutch singer was a considerable way in front of second placed Katerine Duska from Greece – who earned a respectable 1,455 votes.
Moving a little further down the table, the next few entries are more closely clumped together. Rounding out the top five were Switzerland, Malta and Cyprus, with just over 100 votes splitting the three countries apart. All three earned over 1000 votes overall, making the aforementioned nations the only five to exceed the millennial boundary in the poll.
Here are the full results and overview of the poll:
1. | The Netherlands | Duncan Laurence | “Arcade” | 2,040 | 17.77% |
2. | Greece | Katerine Duska | “Better Love” | 1,455 | 12.67% |
3. | Switzerland | Luca Hänni | “She Got Me” | 1,180 | 10.28% |
4. | Malta | Michela Pace | “Chameleon” | 1,108 | 9.65% |
5. | Cyprus | Tamta | “Replay” | 1,039 | 9.05% |
6. | Russia | Sergey Lazarev | “Scream” | 710 | 6.18% |
7. | Armenia | Srbuk | “Walking Out” | 709 | 6.17% |
8. | Azerbaijan | Chingiz | “Truth” | 701 | 6.10% |
9. | Belgium | Eliot | “Wake Up” | 579 | 5.04% |
10. | Poland | Tulia | “Fire Of Love” | 428 | 3.73%% |
11. | San Marino | Serhat | “Say Na Na Na” | 399 | 3.47% |
12. | North Macedonia | Tamra Todevska | “Proud” | 378 | 3.29% |
13. | Ireland | Sarah McTernan | “22” | 314 | 2.73% |
14. | Israel | Kobi Marimi | “Home” | 240 | 2.09% |
15. | Austria | Paenda | “Limits” | 203 | 1.77% |
The Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019
“The Voice of Holland star Duncan Laurence carries with him great expectations to Eurovision 2019. The little-known 24-year-old from The Netherlands is the clear favourite of this year’s contest, having bypassed established artists including Sergey Lazarev, Luca Hänni and Tamta with the bookies. Fans attribute this to his beautiful, enchanting voice, and the spectacular song that is “Arcade”.
Duncan wrote the song himself with help from songwriters Joel Sjöö and Wouter Hardy. Despite the group effort, “Arcade” remains deeply personal. It’s about searching for the love of your life — a hope that Duncan says is sometimes “unattainable”.
“When I was studying at the Rockacademie I learned that you can appeal to a large audience without losing your own story in the process,” he said of the songwriting process. “I searched for touching stories that move people, from my own life or someone else’s. I got my inspiration from the story of a loved one who died at a young age. I decided to call the song ‘Arcade’ — the words and chords came by themselves, which is why, despite the alternations in the song, it still sounds so organic.”
What do you make of the results? Do you agree with the victor of our poll? Let us know in the comments down below
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For those who were interested, these are my current Top 41 according to my pre-contest reviews. Some ratings were difficult to do and some will probably change until the contest ends, but I’ll let them marinate for a few days. 1. THE NETHERLANDS – 10/10 2. ICELAND – 10/10 3. ALBANIA – 9.5/10 4. ESTONIA – 9/10 5. AUSTRALIA – 9/10 6. ITALY – 9/10 7. PORTUGAL – 9/10 8. RUSSIA – 9/10 9. SLOVENIA – 9/10 10. NORWAY – 9/10 11. GREECE – 8.5/10 12. ROMANIA – 8.5/10 13. CZECH REPUBLIC – 8.5/10 14. UNITED KINGDOM – 8/10 15.… Read more »
YES YOU GONNA LIKE IT!!1!
Netherlands winning its semi might be a possibility, but there could also be a possibility of people being so confident it would qualify easily that they’d not care to vote for it. Although, on second hand, this might be our winning song this year, in all its possibilities.
Boring song.
Like your life
Not a surprise I guess, even though I prefer Greece.
So the expected winner won a poll.
See how boring that is?
Just saying. 🙂
Congratulations Duncan. I will likely being saying that a lot over the next few weeks. x
Congratulations ??? this song is so amazing ?
a recycled song that is losing points on odd
AAh, Envious Alessio trolling again at a Duncan article, Yes, we know it now, you want Mahmood to win.
2017 or 2019 ?
Blah blah blah… Repeat repeat repeat
Weeeell, it’s been internally selected since 2017, right Duncan?
Brought the sass. I’m shook. Stan this.
(How is my lingo, mariahs?)
Watch out for songs of 2019, they might be played for Eurovision 2021.
at least its better than nothingness from Belarus, malta although malta has also got more life than the dull song from belarus
Yep, sounds about right.
In 2018 top 3 consisted of internally selected songs, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that was the case this year, damn are those songs strong!
Also, 14th place is quite low for “our favourite automatic qualifier” *wink*.
I mean it’s a cute song… deserves top 10
top 12 maybe.
The internally selected songs are amazing this year and Duncan is my winner too, but I hope national selections won’t die… Because they’re like the most exciting thing prior to Eurovision, without them it’d be so boring. I feel like it might happen… 🙁
you can rest easy, for many countries, their national selections are like yearly traditions (like melodi grand prix in denmark)
I don’t think this bodes well that all of the dead on arrival songs are NF winners……
All of these internally selected entries are in with a shot of going through. Probably even San Marino (televotes) and Ireland and Austria (Juries)
Second rigged poll result of the day.
The Netherlands are the favourite to win buddy, nothing rigged here.
No, not this one.
The Netherlabd gonna win. 10/10
Yes my lab dog’s nether regions
What kind of a person are you? And do you really own a pet? I feel sorry for your pet.
Yes , he loves me btw
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