The Wiwi Jury—our international panel of music un-professionals—has now completed half of our reviews for ESC 2012. As such, it’s time to review the standings, and to reflect on all the music—and short skirts—we have encountered thus far.
In recent days Deban—one-fourth of the Wiwi team—has come under attack from some of you on our comments page over his review of Romania’s entry “Zaleilah.” Wiwi, Vebooboo, and Meows Kitty all gave the song a 6 or higher—but Deban dismissed it with a 2.5. First of all, can I please ask that you NOT make death threats on our comments page? Second, I may not agree with Deban’s rating, but I 100% support him for sharing his opinion in such a public space—even if it differs from my own.
With that in mind, I now realize that ranking the songs by an average score out of ten isn’t the wisest move. Instead, we should use an ordinal system just like the Eurovision Broadcasting Union does. Jury members at the real Eurovision do not rate songs out of 10. They judge them relative to one another based on a ranking system. Wiwi opened up an Excel spread sheet, and has started playing around. You can see how the first 21 countries rank based on scores and based on rankings below. This helps reduce the effect of any “outlier” scores from our jury members (like the big fat zero Meows Kitty gave to Georgia).
How the jury scored
Wiwi | Vebooboo | Meows Kitty | Deban | Average | |
Albania | 8 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 7.75 |
Austria | 2 | 6.5 | 3 | 5 | 4.13 |
Cyprus | 7.5 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 7.13 |
Denmark | 6 | 7 | 7.5 | 4.5 | 6.25 |
France | 7 | 5.5 | 8 | 2 | 5.63 |
Georgia | 1 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1.75 |
Hungary | 2.5 | 4 | 6.5 | 5.5 | 4.63 |
Iceland | 3 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 4 |
Ireland | 8 | 6 | 5.5 | 9 | 7.13 |
Latvia | 1.5 | 2 | 2 | 2.5 | 2 |
Malta | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3.75 |
Netherlands | 9 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 6.5 |
Norway | 6.5 | 7 | 7.5 | 6.5 | 6.9 |
Romania | 8.5 | 8 | 6 | 2.5 | 6.25 |
Russia | 6.5 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 5.63 |
Slovenia | 3 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 4.75 |
Sweden | 10 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9.25 |
Switzerland | 8 | 8 | 5 | 8.5 | 7.4 |
Turkey | 2 | 7 | 5 | 2.5 | 4.1 |
Ukraine | 8 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 4.75 |
U.K. | 8.5 | 6 | 8 | 5.5 | 7 |
Average | 5.69 | 6.24 | 5.33 | 4.95 | 5.55 |
How the countries rank based on scores
1. Sweden: Loreen with “Euphoria” (9.25)
2. Albania: Rona Nishliu with “Suus” (Personal) (7.75)
3. Switzerland: Sinplus with “Unbreakable” (7.4)
4. Cyprus: Ivi with “La La Love” (7.13)
4. Ireland: Jedward with “Waterline” (7.13)
6. United Kingdom: Engelbert Humperdink with “Love Will Set You Free”
7. Norway: Tooji with “Stay” (6.9)
8. The Netherlands: Joan Franka with “You and Me” (6.5)
9. Denmark: Soluna Samay with “Should’ve Known Better” (6.25)
9. Romania: Mandinga with “Zaleilah” (6.25)
11. France: Anggun with “Echo (You and I)” (5.63)
11. Russia: Buranovskiye Babushki with “Party for Everybody” (5.63)
13. Slovenia: Eva Boto with “Verjamen” (4.75)
13. Ukraine: Gaitana with “Be My Guest” (4.75)
15. Hungary: Compact Disco with “Sound of Our Hearts” (4.63)
16. Austria: Trackshittaz with “Woki mit deim Popo” (4.13)
17. Turkey: Can Bonomo with “Love Me Back” (4.1)
18. Iceland: Greta Salóme & Jónsi with “Remember Me” (4)
19. Malta: Kurt Calleja with “This Is the Night (3.75)
20. Latvia: Anmary with “Beautiful Song” (2)
21. Georgia: Anri Jokhadze with “I’m a Jocker” (1.75)
ordinal rankings
At Eurovision, points are awarded to country based on where they are ranked relative to other countries. Jury members, for instance, do not rate a song out of 10. Instead, they merely rank them in the order of their preference. As such, Wiwi has gone through and determined how each individual member ranked the countries based on their raw score. For each Wiwi jury member, several countries received an 8 or a 6, etc., so that is why many countries share a ranking.
Wiwi | Vebooboo | Meows | Deban | Average | |
1. Sweden | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1.25 |
2. Albania | 5 | 2 | 12 | 1 | 5 |
3. Switzerland | 5 | 2 | 12 | 4 | 5.75 |
4. U.K. | 3 | 13 | 2 | 8 | 6.5 |
5. Romania | 3 | 2 | 8 | 14 | 6.75 |
6. Cyprus | 9 | 2 | 12 | 5 | 7 |
6. Netherlands | 2 | 7 | 6 | 13 | 7 |
8. Norway | 11 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 7.25 |
9. Ireland | 5 | 13 | 11 | 2 | 7.75 |
10. Denmark | 13 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 8.75 |
11. Russia | 11 | 2 | 8 | 18 | 9.75 |
12. France | 10 | 15 | 2 | 18 | 11.25 |
13. Hungary | 17 | 17 | 7 | 8 | 12.25 |
13. Ukraine | 5 | 7 | 19 | 18 | 12.25 |
15. Turkey | 18 | 7 | 12 | 14 | 12.75 |
16. Iceland | 14 | 17 | 8 | 13 | 13 |
16. Slovenia | 14 | 16 | 16 | 6 | 13 |
18. Austria | 18 | 12 | 18 | 10 | 14.5 |
19. Malta | 14 | 17 | 16 | 12 | 14.75 |
20. Latvia | 20 | 21 | 19 | 14 | 18.5 |
21. Georgia | 21 | 17 | 21 | 18 | 19.25 |
Scores and Rankings for individual jury members
wiwibloggs
Score | Ranking | |
Sweden | 10 | 1 |
Netherlands | 9 | 2 |
Romania | 8.5 | 3 |
U.K. | 8.5 | 3 |
Albania | 8 | 5 |
Ireland | 8 | 5 |
Switzerland | 8 | 5 |
Ukraine | 8 | 5 |
Cyprus | 7.5 | 9 |
France | 7 | 10 |
Norway | 6.5 | 11 |
Russia | 6.5 | 11 |
Denmark | 6 | 13 |
Iceland | 3 | 14 |
Malta | 3 | 14 |
Slovenia | 3 | 14 |
Hungary | 2.5 | 17 |
Austria | 2 | 18 |
Turkey | 2 | 18 |
Latvia | 1.5 | 20 |
Georgia | 1 | 21 |
vebooboo nadella
Score | Ranking | |
Sweden | 9 | 1 |
Albania | 8 | 2 |
Cyprus | 8 | 2 |
Romania | 8 | 2 |
Russia | 8 | 2 |
Switzerland | 8 | 2 |
Denmark | 7 | 7 |
Netherlands | 7 | 7 |
Norway | 7 | 7 |
Turkey | 7 | 7 |
Ukraine | 7 | 7 |
Austria | 6.5 | 12 |
Ireland | 6 | 13 |
U.K. | 6 | 13 |
France | 5.5 | 15 |
Slovenia | 5 | 16 |
Georgia | 4 | 17 |
Hungary | 4 | 17 |
Iceland | 4 | 17 |
Malta | 4 | 17 |
Latvia | 2 | 21 |
Meows Kitty
Scores | Ranking | |
Sweden | 9 | 1 |
France | 8 | 2 |
U.K. | 8 | 2 |
Denmark | 7.5 | 4 |
Norway | 7.5 | 4 |
Netherlands | 7 | 6 |
Hungary | 6.5 | 7 |
Iceland | 6 | 8 |
Romania | 6 | 8 |
Russia | 6 | 8 |
Ireland | 5.5 | 11 |
Albania | 5 | 12 |
Cyprus | 5 | 12 |
Switzerland | 5 | 12 |
Turkey | 5 | 12 |
Malta | 4 | 16 |
Slovenia | 4 | 16 |
Austria | 3 | 18 |
Latvia | 2 | 19 |
Ukraine | 2 | 19 |
Georgia | 0 | 21 |
Deban aderemi
Scores | Ranking | |
Albania | 10 | 1 |
Ireland | 9 | 2 |
Sweden | 9 | 2 |
Switzerland | 8.5 | 4 |
Cyprus | 8 | 5 |
Slovenia | 7 | 6 |
Norway | 6.5 | 7 |
Hungary | 5.5 | 8 |
U.K. | 5.5 | 8 |
Austria | 5 | 10 |
Denmark | 4.5 | 11 |
Malta | 4 | 12 |
Iceland | 3 | 13 |
Netherlands | 3 | 13 |
Latvia | 2.5 | 14 |
Romania | 2.5 | 14 |
Turkey | 2.5 | 14 |
France | 2 | 18 |
Georgia | 2 | 18 |
Russia | 2 | 18 |
Ukraine | 2 | 18 |
[…] our first 21 reviews, and see the standings based on ordinal rankings by clicking here. Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Share with Stumblers Tweet about it Subscribe to the […]
I like this, William! It will be interesting to see when all are ranked.
@Deban: you better buy a bulletproof vest-jacket for Azerbaijian, you could probably get one for a decent price on eBay. You’ll need it — no IP address blocking can save your Apricot stone loving ass.
@ Deban. OK, I did not know people are that passionate…I thought the situation was over-dramatized just based on Ana’s comments, that although a bit much, do not mean threats…Anyway, this site is great and as a matter of fact I’ve heard of it from Huffington Post.
@ M. I did get quite a number of private death threats. My email is public on here, and it got nastier behind the scenes. Just so you know..
Thank you for expressing your opinion on the entries though, even if we don’t always agree. We all share a passion for Eurovision, and that’s what really counts.
You can hear the Wiwi Jury review UK, Romania, and Austria this week on the Wiwi Show. Jury comes up around 18/20-minute mark I think: http://wiwibloggs.com/2012/03/03/the-wiwi-show-on-song-contest-radio/14771/
Zolan: Thank you for your interesting calculations!
The actual death threat is not listed below. It has been deleted and the user’s IP address recorded and marked as spam.
(oops, left out). …The split goes between France.and Hungary.
Correction: The ‘tiers’ were based on where both rankings agree, but you have a tie between Hungary and Ukraine that I overlooked, so I shouldn’t have put the split between them.
Since this is preferential voting, I combined the judges ranking via Condorcet method. [sum of judges’ results as (# strictly worse – # strictly better).] The ranking is broadly similar, differing only within each ‘tier’, separated by spaces below. I left the scores in because they give a good feel for strength of preference. 1 Sweden . . . . 77 2 Albania . . . . . 38 3 Switzerland . . 32 3 U.K. . . . . . . . 32 5 Netherlands . . 27 6 Norway. . . . . 24 7 Cyprus . .… Read more »