Before the Eurovision semi-finals existed, only the countries competing in the Grand Final were allowed to vote. At this year’s contest in Copenhagen, however, televoters from all 26 countries, plus the 11 eliminated semi-finalists, could cast their votes, which were then combined with the national juries of their respective countries.
Below you can see what would have had happened if the pre-2003 system had been applied in Copenhagen. Differences between the actual and alternative voting results are indicated in brackets. These results are based on the actual points awarded by the 26 Grand Finalists, so this does not include the full split voting results. The current tie-breaker rule is applied to all the countries that need separating as a result.
Alternative Results
1. Austria – 197 points (No change)
2. The Netherlands – 167 points (No change)
3. Sweden – 146 points (No change)
4. Armenia – 126 points (No change)
5. Hungary – 92 points (No change)
6. Ukraine – 68 points (No change)
7. Norway – 62 points (Up 1 place)
8. Denmark – 62 points (Up 1 place)
9. Finland – 60 points (Up 2 places)
10. Iceland – 58 points (Up 5 places)
11. Poland – 55 points (Up 3 places)
12. Russia – 53 points (Down 5 places)
13. Switzerland – 49 points (No change)
14. Spain – 40 points (Down 4 places)
15. Romania – 40 points (Down 3 places)
16. Belarus – 34 points (No change)
17. Germany – 30 points (Up 1 place)
18. Malta – 28 points (Up 5 places)
19. United Kingdom – 28 points (Down 2 places)
20. Greece – 27 points (No change)
21. Azerbaijan – 26 points (Up 1 place)
22. Italy – 21 points (Down 1 place)
23. Montenegro – 19 points (Down 4 places)
24. San Marino – 10 points (No change)
25. Slovenia – 8 points (No change)
26. France – 2 points (No change)
Once all the results are counted, checked and verified, the pre-2003 voting method used on this year’s results means that we would still be heading to Austria next year. The top 6 contestants remain unaffected and the same goes for the bottom 3, so once again France is left with the wooden spoon.
The alternative voting results see 8 countries doing better than their actual results. The biggest winners are Malta and Iceland, both of them gaining 5 places. As a result, Malta climb above the United Kingdom (due to the tie-break situation) and Iceland sneak into the top 10!
The old system also sees 6 countries doing worse than their actual result. Without the points from the semi-finalists, Russia would’ve dropped 5 places and slipped out of the top 10. It’s also the exact same scenario for Spain, dropping down 4 places to 14th.
Photo: Eurovision.tv (EBU)
Anthony Ko contributed this report from the U.K. Follow him on Twitter at @bjorneo. You can also keep up-to-date with the latest Eurovision news and gossip by liking our Facebook page.
Hi kaden.
As we’ve already mentioned, we’ve used the actual 50/50 combined results based on this year’s contest and from all 26 Grand Finalists. Since you’ve gone one step further with 100% televoting, we would still be heading to Austria next year.
I looked into these results further, and if the 2003 rules are used, the real results would be: (i.e televotes ONLY (except San Marino who only did 100% Jury) and 26 finalist only) 1. Austria – 230 points (No change) 2. The Netherlands – 158 points (No change) 3. Sweden – 138 points (No change) 4. Armenia – 129 points (No change) 5. Poland – 124 points (Up 9 places) 6. Switzerland – 93 points (Up 7 places) 7. Hungary – 75 points (Down 2 places) 8. Russia – 73 points (Down 1 place) 9. Romania – 62 points (Up… Read more »
You must look into how the results would have looked under the 2009-2012 rules!
i like this version because it means sweden, norway, denmark, finland and iceland are in the top 10!
Not interesting.
Nordics are up because all qualified and switching votes between them. Montenegro down because no other Balkan qualified. Eastern Europe is down because many countries from that region didn’t qualified, Russia is main affected because it was close in points with many other countries.
UK and Spain are down because block voting is much more pregnant with 2003 rules and members of blocks are those that qualify mainly in final.
Just goes to show – it doesnt matter. The same song wins – there is only one winner – and only good songs win. The rest – is history so to speak.
Iceland in the Top 10. I like it!
poor russia 🙁 deserved to win! i think they had the best song in esc history…
Weird. o.O
interesting!