Eurovision 2010: Complete Televoting and Jury Results

Official results released by the European Broadcasting Union reveal that for the second year running televoters and jury members agreed on the contest’s winner. But discrepancies in voting also show that Eurovision fans liked Germany’s Lena Meyer-Landrut a smidge more than the music professionals did.

Televoters awarded the “Satellite” singer first place with 243 points; they gave the second-place finishers from Turkey just 177. And while the jury also awarded Lena first place, they only handed her 187 points—just two more than their second favorite act from Belgium. Televoters and jury members both rated Britain’s Josh Dubovie last—a result, no doubt, of his lackluster performance and the pompous remarks made by his songwriter Peter Waterman. Here’s the complete breakdown for the final.

Until 2008, televoters had total control over who won. But the introduction of a jury has diluted televoting power and done much to shake up results. France’s Jessy Matador would have placed eighth this year if the contest were decided strictly by televoting. But the jury ranked him a disappointing 20th, so he finished 12th overall. That discrepancy of 14 places between televoters and jurors represented the biggest discrepancy in the final. On the flip side, Israel’s Harel Skaat benefited the most from the jury: they ranked him fifth, while televoters ranked him 19th. The following chart lists contestants in the order that the jury hurt them. A negative number represents a downgrade by the jury, zero represents no discrepancy, and a positive number represents a boost from the jury.

FIRST SEMI-FINAL

In the weeks leading up to Eurovision, bookies saw the first semi-final as a contest between Slovakia’s Kristina, Belgium’s Tom Dice and Greece’s Giorgos Alkaios. But as the complete results show, neither televoters nor jury members had much love for Kristina’s timid performance, ranking her 14th and 16th respectively. Televoters awarded Greece victory by a margin of two points over Iceland, and five points over Belgium. The jury begged to differ. It awarded guitar-strumming Tom Dice first place with a margin of 58 points. Proving they value musicality more than flash, they awarded second place to Portugal’s Filipa Azevedo. Her ability to sing in tune placed her eight points ahead of Greece (the ones with all the homoerotic thrusting and grunting).

As in the final, televoters and jury members both agreed on the last-place finisher. Aisha, the daughter of a Latvian pop star, proved that the apple can sometimes land very far from the tree. The lyrics to her entry “What For?” were simply excruciating: “I’ve asked my uncle Joe/ But he can’t speak/ Why does the wind still blow and blood still leaks?/ So many questions now with no reply/ What for do people live until they die?”

Again, the following chart indicates how the jury influenced the results. Russia’s Peter Nalitch, whose depressing ballad “Lost and Forgotten” proved popular among Prozac users, was hurt the most by the jury.

SECOND SEMI-FINAL

Bookies also misjudged how the second semi-final would play out. For months they had forecast that Azerbaijan’s Safura would pout her way to the top of the leader board, followed closely by Israel’s Harel Skaat, Armenia’s Eva Rivas and Denmark’s duo Chanée and Tomas N’evergreen (who, Wiwi might add, have no chemistry. She looked like she would rather hold hands with a serial killer when they were on stage in Oslo).

In the end, Safura won televoter hearts and minds: they ranked her first, seven points ahead of Turkey’s maNga. But jury members only placed her third, behind Georgia’s Sofia Nizharadze and Turkey. Wiwi suspects the professional producers ranked Sofia first because of her strong resemblance to British pop icon Cheryl Cole.

In terms of relative placement, Lithuanian funk band InCulto suffered the most at the hands of the jury. Under the old system, they would have placed eighth and advanced to the final. But their combined total left them in 12th, so they had to catch an early morning flight to Vilnius. Anna Bergendahl, the first Swedish contestant ever to be eliminated in the semi-final rounds of Eurovision, would also have advanced under the old system.