Over the past two years Eurovision fans, pundits, and bookies have pretty much agreed on the winner months in advance. This year it’s anybody’s game. Although the bookies have Armenia’s Aram Mp3 down as the runaway favourite, plenty of Eurovision fans have argued that his success in the odds—and in various fan polls—is the result of hype from within Armenia. They say fans are placing bets like crazy and voting repeatedly in polls. It’s difficult to say whether that’s true. Aram Mp3 has lots of fans outside of Armenia, too.
We do know one thing for certain: Aram Mp3 is currently the undisputed king of YouTube views. Surely that’s indicative of popularity on some level. Below we take a look at the number of views that each Eurovision act has recorded on the official Eurovision.tv YouTube channel thus far.
There are obviously several limitations to using the Eurovision.tv YouTube channel alone, and we detail these below. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how views on this specific YouTube channel change over time.
Please note: These numbers were accurate as of 15:30 GMT on Sunday, 30 March 2014.
Eurovision Stars ranked by YouTube Views
- Armenia: 1,446,801
- Austria: 960,652
- Montenegro: 623,432
- United Kingdom: 411,6987
- Italy: 398,085
- Azerbaijan: 374,838
- Spain: 365,249
- Israel: 321,064
- Romania: 248,791
- Ukraine: 222,989
- Macedonia: 200,438
- Poland: 179,550
- Hungary: 173,642
- Sweden: 144,945
- San Marino: 131,508
- Lithuania: 129,346
- Russia: 127,401
- Ireland: 125,363
- France: 121,267
- Greece: 115,804
- The Netherlands: 110,729
- Albania: 101,660
- Belarus: 93,901
- Norway: 91,015
- Georgia: 89,654
- Iceland: 87,592
- Estonia: 78,012
- Malta: 73,177
- Moldova: 72,776
- Slovenia: 72,550
- Portugal: 72,490
- Belgium: 70,051
- Switzerland: 64,746
- Latvia: 55,401
- Finland: 49,427
- Denmark: 48,182
- Germany: 3,591
There are a few caveats to all this. Different videos were uploaded at different times. Contestants selected earlier have had more time to rack up views. And some contestants uploaded their official videos to their own YouTube channel prior to sending them to Eurovision.tv. In any case, a popular song will overcome these various hurdles and climb this table as the competition approaches.
Armenia is currently the only contestant with more than one million views. Of course, we don’t know how many of those come from outside Armenia.
Conchita Wurst, our favourite male contestant with a female persona, sits in second with 960,000 views. She will probably crack a million views in the coming days.
In a bit of a surprise, Montenegro’s Sergej Cetkovic has reached third position with just over 600,000 views. Is he at an advantage for being the only Balkan ballad in this year’s ESC?
Towards the bottom we have Germany, but let’s not count them out just yet. They only uploaded their video yesterday.
Denmark, the bookies’ fourth favourite, sits next-to-last. Ouch.
Eurovision fans are watching YouTube, and we’re watching YouTube views. We’ll update these numbers every two weeks.
William Cahill is an Irish correspondent. Follow him on twitter @williamcahill16. Follow the team from wiwibloggs.com on Twitter @wiwibloggs and keep up with the latest Eurovision news by liking our Facebook page.
It’s so hilarious that people are bringing politics to a website about music. Guys, refrain from your political nonsense, especially when most of the time your so called ‘sociological point of view’ is a whole load of dark coloured matter ejaculated from your anal cavity (not naming any usernames, @Erin, who, might I say, was verbally demolited for his/her racist bull dark coloured matter). Anyway, I think the YouTube views are partly representative of how well a countries doing, especially if you check the view count now as Sweden is no longer #14 but much closer to the top, with… Read more »
Lolilly APR 03, 2014 @ 08:47:49 Heloooooooo everyone! Why are people so full of jealousy? I’m not even going to argue about what Aram said or didn’t say. A normal person, regardless of their sexuality, should know that seeing a woman with a beard is a little strange. When was the last time you saw that? As a psychology professor, (at a major University in California) It was interesting for me to watch Conchita’s video with my students and listen to their opinions. I have 138 students in total and it’s a very diverse group BTW, with only a few… Read more »
It’s interesting another ranking with which countries use youtube? Does in Albania the same success than UK?
youtube is not popular everywhere…
Everyone calm down! Facts stay as facts. Aram got over 90% positive reviews. There might be a good reason for this. Maybe people love his song? Opinions are just opinions. I guess that’s why there are like and dislike buttons on youtube. You don’t like the song then dislike it. It’s simple, really. We will see soon. Let the best song and the best singer win and not the popular countries with political reasons.
Thai Tiger – I’m having a hard time believing that you actually believe in what you wrote in the second paragraph since your first paragraph is the complete opposite. Ughhh. Why can’t you people just leave politics outside of this show.
Everytime i think Spain is the country most deserve to win this year , have all ingredients of a winner song ,
Some good songs this year esc stronger than last year
4 me the winning song silent storm by carl espen
Victory 4 norway
WE MUST FOCUS ON THE SONGS!MANY COUNTRIES HAVE POLITICAL PROBLEMS, IT IS A DIFFICULT PERIOD BUT LET’S FORGET THEM FOR A WHILE.MUSIC UNITES PEOPLE!
Still, Eugene, at least 1/3 of the messages are about that.
I have never seen the most downloaded youtube popular entry win eurovision but know other pools like OGAE does predict correct winner in some years even though not all the time. Here are this years result just after 2 OGAE’s That is Belarus and Germany and total scores: OGAE Belarus : 12 Sweden 10 Armenia 8 UK 7 Ireland 6 Russia 5 Ukraine 4 Switzerland 3 Germany 2 Slovenia 1 Austria OGAE Germany 12 Sweden 10 Austria 08 Hungary 07 Greece 06 Norway 05 Israel 04 United Kingdom 03 Armenia 02 Denmark 01 Spain Combined votes from Belarus and Germany… Read more »
Lev I know you want attention so badly here is one for you. first of all I am not Azeri as you put it and you don’t even know me but you foolishly make mistake, and I have to be azeri for you even if I am not cause you have problem with Azerbaijan that you can pick on any comment and refer to it as Azeri, sad isn’t it oh never mind this is not the first time you pick on comment, sometime time you will need to spit your poisin out poor thing,good luck, listen to more of… Read more »
@William Adams Cahill…I think you should remove all offensive comments.
Calm down! Just enjoy the songs and their videos. It all gets to be decided May 6-10 (with some of the most decisive voting being behind closed doors on the night before the Final, you know).
By the way, is that number next to United Kingdom a weird figure, or maybe Molly’s phone number? I’d like to have a chat with her 😉
Just a few little notes to several comments I have seen but cannot remember the user
-No I am not Armenian, I am Irish as it said at the end of the article.
-I specify that we are talking about Eurovision.tv in bold at the top of the article. Please note that.
-Please refrain from making any political comments, which have nothing to do with the article at hand.
it is known that this year’s winner is armenia…their song is normal but not deserve to win…but armenia bought eurovision
i am from azerbaijan..and i think aram’s song is normal..not the best not the worst….But special good luck to our friend-UKRAINE….I LOVE UKRAINE…TICK TOCK&START A FIRE<3FOREVER
@Ayka – Nobody gives a sh*t on this site what happened in 1918, please refrain from politicizing this site. Thank you.
This is my opinion:
This is not the first time you write ‘bad-comments’ and ‘hate’comments’ against Aram MP3.
Typical Azeri 😉
Some of the people posting comments here are disgusting. I’m sorry, if you don’t know how to hide your hatred, or can’t politely express your opinions, keep your mouths shut. And yes, I understand that people have freedom of speech, but when you make hateful comments, I think those comments need to be removed. And yes I am referring to @Boris Durham and @Trainspotter. And at @Erin, I don’t think Eurovision is even close to being a “national project” for Armenians. You’re mistaking it with Azerbaijan who were advertising their country through post-cards. Post cards are supposed to illustrate something… Read more »
Keep in mind that songs that went through national finals have more versions up on youtube. For example, Ukraine has the NF wining performance, than the first remake at the Malta final AND THEN the music video final version. That could account for some low views for countries like Spain, Hungary, etc.
I like how if anyone else made transphobic comments, there’s outrage, but if an Armenian contest says something, it’s “okay”.
fuuuuuuuuuuu
pfffffffff ..
Wow, jealousy)) Greg Massourd, trainspotter and co. please don’t choke in your own vomit. Would you? Lol, stupid azers)) Oh, yes, please stop projecting your own qualities (lies, falsification, being genocidal fuks, fascists, gypsies(nomad turkish tribes.. oguz? black sheep, white sheep, kadzhars, kypchaks etc. lol) and actually being a total ZERO as an ‘nation’. Oups, you’re not even a nation. Remember in 1936 Stalin gave you new name -Azers (they called themselves before just ‘muslims’ haha.. they do that even today)) And yes, Armenians should have be ashamed about Charles Aznavour, Helene Segara, Patrick Fiori, Michele Legran, Henri Verneuil erc.-… Read more »
Dear Wiwibloggs,
didn’t you notice that some countries have more than one video on official eurovision youtube profile (Finland for instance) ?
Yes Greg massourt!!! POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!!
nice… reminded me of this
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
I think peace loving free democratic Europe and the world community must ban fascist state Russia and their vassal Armenia totally for the occupation of Crimea bearing in mind the occupation of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine by the mentioned authoritarian fascist states such as Russia and Armenia. We are in free Europe and beyond shouldn’t be categorically in the the same boat with gay haters, gay beaters, fascists, trolls, liars, fabricators, dictators, tyrants, aggressors and illegitimate occupants and their supporters! Boycott fascist Russia and their vassal dog Armenia! We show disrespect to our freedom, beliefs, sovereignty and democracy in Europe… Read more »
I think Boris Durham comment easily qualifies for a delete.
As for the winner i am 70% sure that UK will win 😀
The views mean nothing, Romania has over a million views because it has more videos on more channels like eurovision.tv, Paula Seling and TVR. Armenia’s video is deleted from all others channels, you can watch only from eurovision.tv and of course I TOTALLY AGREE with @Erin
EUROVISION YOUTUBE SONG CONTEST hehe, its weird 2 see aram at top of the list wiv dat song. Nice voice horrible song.
The youtube is over 1 million views, not to watch the video but to reply all the comments. Somehow the commentary in the box below the video is more interesting than the song itself.
Half of the views in Aram’s video are mine jajajajajajaja I watch it like 3 or 4 times a day, I really love that song
Half of the views came from the Armenians themselves. Not surprised if its the same for Odd Checkers as well. It would be cool if someone online ran a proper winner prediction poll that can filter out the results from people who vote for their countries.
TO BA-ad
I TOTALLY AGREE WITH.I HAVE JUST SEEN THAT FREAKY FORTUNE HAVE MANY VIEWS THROUGH MAD CHANNEL AND NOT THROUGH EUROVISION.TV.CHECK THIS OUT,743.798 VIEWS!SO.THE ARTICLE IS NOT SO ACCURATE.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgxOGTm6Lns
Do we have any data from previous years pointing to predictability of the winner based on YouTube views? It seems as good of an indicator as any.
Poland has 40 mio. They are winners. Nobody can beat them.
Conchita is your “favorite male contestant with a female persona?” Seriously? After Verka Serduchka gave us German counting, an anti-Russian message, and butt slapping, you still don’t appreciate her more than Conchita?!
Poland: 40.532.250 views
***This is not meant to offend anyone – just an attempt to look at it from a sociological point of view*** Eurovision is almost considered a national project in Armenia and therefore it’s perhaps understandable why a victory is something that Armenians yearn for because there aren’t any other big platforms that can put their country in the spotlight and ‘on the map’, not to mention the fact that Azerbaijan had already won and they haven’t yet… It’s easier to mobilize people for a cause like this when you’re still a young and struggling nation with strong social conformity desperate… Read more »
This doesn t seem so accurate. Greece’s ytube video as well is mostly played through another channel (from Mad) and there the esc video has 734.078 views..
Ukraine is clear winner. 12 points from all countries
Also, just because there’s many views doesn’t mean that people like it. Rebecca Black’s “Friday” had millions of views but nobody actually liked that song. The likes/dislikes bar would be a better way to tell even though neither than or views are actually a good way of predicting.
I don’t think YouTube views is a good way to predict who’ll win. There’s a large percentage of viewers who choose not to listen to the songs before the semis and also people who aren’t obsessed with it who just watch the show and maybe their national finals. And also, as you mentioned, it’s unknown where all these views came from as they could’ve been from the same country as the performer or from a non-voting country.
Aram will eat Conchita´s wurst
MY TOP 5
1.San Marino
2.Austria
3.Denmark
4.Spain
5.Hungary
6.Ireland
7.Sweden
….
37.Malta
But I think TOP 10 in final will be
1.Denmark
2.Armenia
3.Sweden
4.Hungary
5.Azerbaijan
6.Greece
7.Ukraine
8.Romania
9.Norway
10.Spain
@Huh – Yes, but we only count the official eurovision.tv one
Armenia: 1,446,801 and maybe 1,400,000 is from Armenia and armenia diaspora
Help me reach 1,000 vievs of my TOP 37! Thak you 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPJEzLFh5_I
I like Armenia but Poland song has 40 529 500 views!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr1DSgjhRqE
My ranking of music videos:
1. Iceland (fun to watch really)
2. Hungary (fits the song but maybe a bit depressing to be no.1)
3. Armenia (quality)
4. Switzerland (has kind of a plot and fits the song well)
5. Italy (her facial expressions are just priceless)