Yesterday afternoon we published a story about suspect voting in Azerbaijan, Belarus and Montenegro. The voting pattern among each nation’s five “independent” jurors didn’t seem so independent on closer inspection. Today we’re turning our attention to Armenia, and specifically its jury votes for the other Top 5 finishers. It looks like the Armenian jury may have colluded to boost Aram Mp3’s chances against Conchita Wurst, Sanna Nielsen, Andras Kallay-Saunders, Mariya Yaremchuk, & Molly.
It’s perhaps not surprising that every single Armenian juror ranked Azerbaijan last in the grand final, or 25th out of the 25 countries it could rank. The ongoing political conflict between the two nations is longstanding and well-documented so we won’t recount it again. If you need to catch up, you can read a primer here.
What’s more interesting is looking at how the Armenian jury ranked the other countries that had a shot at winning. Keep in mind that 1 week before the contest the betting was the winner would be one of Armenia, Austria, Hungary, Sweden, Ukraine, or the United Kingdom. The Netherlands shot up in the odds only in the last week.
Here you can see the jury votes for the expected 6 (plus The Netherlands). The left side lists the country’s jury and the top is the country being ranked. So, as you can see, Armenia ranked Austria 24th, and Sweden ranked Austria first.
| Austria | Netherlands | Sweden | Armenia | Hungary | Ukraine | United Kingdom | |
| Austria | 7 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 17 | |
| Netherlands | 1 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 13 | 15 | |
| Sweden | 1 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 13 | 11 | |
| Armenia | 24 | 7 | 22 | 23 | 20 | 21 | |
| Hungary | 8 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 10 | 7 | |
| Ukraine | 3 | 15 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 17 | |
| United Kingdom | 3 | 7 | 5 | 24 | 12 | 18 |
The other 6 countries that were contenders gave strong votes to the other contenders. Looking at the countries that placed in the top 5, Sweden and Austria ranked three of these four countries in the Top 4, The Netherlands did so for two of the four. These countries all ranked the other top contenders in the Top 10.
However, Armenia gave the worst possible rankings (aside from the required last place to Azerbaijan) to Austria, Hungary, Sweden, Ukraine, & The United Kingdom. They did give 7th place to The Netherlands, but that is probably due to The Netherlands not being mentioned as a contender until the week of the show.
Each of the countries listed above was listed in the Top 6 by the bookies on the eve of the final, so Armenian jurors could have been motivated to mark them down.
What’s really interesting about the Armenian votes is they have a good spread for most countries, which means at first glance they look valid. But the spread on most of the votes is a better way to hide where they did collude (note to Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Montenegro – pay attention).
And then there’s the uniform top votes to Belarus, Montenegro, and Malta. As you can see above, the dots for jurors A, B, C, D and E cluster around the same point for these three countries. The Montenegro and Malta juries reciprocated with a #1 ranking for Armenia (the only other #1 jury ranking for Armenia came from France). Belarus’s jury reciprocated by ranking Armenia #5.
- By what musical standard did they universally hate Austria, Hungary, Sweden, Ukraine, & United Kingdom? Maybe there’s some common cultural dislike for one of them – but all 5? So bad they go in the last places?
- It looks like they worked out which ones to trash before The Common Linnets shot up in the odds – which happened the week of the show.
- Did Armenia trade votes with Belarus, Montenegro, and Malta?
Statistically I don’t see how the above could occur without cooperative intent. Not across the board like this.
Two final notes:
- I don’t call out the unanimous 25th place assigned to Azerbaijan, nor the 25th place Azerbaijan assigns to Armenia because that’s something very different. The two countries are at war – that’s understandable and definitely doesn’t require collusion.
- Aram had an incredible song and could well have had no knowledge of this. The issue here is with the Armenian jury, not Aram Mp3.
Photo: screenshot of final broadcast from EBU YouTube channel.
BUT ARMENIA IS NOT AT WAR WITH AZERBAIJAN
@wergie I know Armenia was a favorite but it wasnt a song anymore! And Belgium putted him on the last what most countries do. So Belgium dont need to bannend and they do nothing wrong. Yes iam Belgian !
Pretty sleezy stuff. It’s pretty poor sportsmanship to mark down other songs just because they are the main competition to your song. Makes me wonder if it might be better to axe the juries after all. But it’s such a huge and complicated voting process, it’s not easy to completely get rid of the scandals.
I wonder why worthless beggar armonians think that they are so important and they weigh as much as Russia, Turkey, Israel, Azerbaijan,Kazakhstan or UK, Germany?
Fucking low armonians before bitching constantly on others look at yourselves in the mirror!!!
@Rogesc there is nothing wrong with my blood pressure and i know about Turkey’s absence in ESC.. How old are you 10? Look, no matter what generation -they are the turks, they stay turks and they’ve been taught to feel sympathy for their ‘brothers’ azeris, that’s why they will vote for Azerbaijan. Ok, exclude, lets say 70% turks (as you claim) who don’t feel connection we’ll still have 155,000 turks and azeris who have that connection. Its it way more than entire ‘mighty’ Armenian diaspora of ca. 10,000. The dutch to death boring esc commenters and especially that bunch of… Read more »
Not a good move Armenia. Next year, other ESC fans & countries will not be treating you lightly just like your rival neighbor Azerbaijan this year. Tsk tsk tsk…
@Wergie Turkey doesn’t take part in Eurovision anymore sweetheart so they don’t have a country anymore to vote for in the Netherlands. The years Turkey did take part they got 12 (or 10 or 8) points many times from the Netherlands, look it up. If you would know something about the Turkish people in The Netherlands you wouldn’t say they’re the same as the Azeris because most of them are second, third generation immigrants and doesn’t feel the connection with Azerbaijan that the Turkish people in Turkey feel. And about the diaspora voting thing the Dutch commentators would cite all… Read more »
@Rogesc are you stupid? I compared turkish population of Netherlands (ca.500,000) plus azers 17,000) which are practically the same with ca. 10,000 dutch armenians. Now, according to you, all the (10k.) armenians vote like crazy just to have dutch 12 points and those half million turks/azers do not care at all (remember? turks and azers are the same, so they vote for azers.., oh and they really want to win each year)) So cut the bs there is no logic in your words, your’e just biased and butthurt like those losers dutch commenters who monotonously say all the same shit… Read more »
is anyone really surprised>?
There is nothing about Azeris…but armenians here are talking about Azerbaijan…..
…Dear Armenians,it is your news,your problem…….don’t show that you are clear….
@wergie again you are talking nothing but crap. What on earth has the turkish population in the Netherlands to do with the armenians voting in our country for Armenia. It’s pathetic to read that anti-western european sentiment of yours. Deal with the fact that these countries go to eurovision (this whole site is about that) and only do good when they have a good song (fairplay you know). Armenia Russia Belarus Azerbaijan etc rely on the the governments in the neighboring countries to get top points (except when they accidentally have a good song). If you could only watch a… Read more »
Another excellent article David. It really looks like the EBU need to implement more rules in order to avoid organised voting and corruption.
@pierrefr oh, yes of course, as you wish, our retarded ‘european’ azer.
Armenians are the most corruptible nation in the world. They shouldn’t be here in Europe.
@stomme
Hey, this is not cheating you silly, but a banal bias (not supporting this and i already said enough about that) and perhaps a revenge for deliberate voting Armenia down in previous years by butthurt western jurors especially dutch and belgian ones.
Oh Lord, here we go, conspiracy all around. The EBU has very clear guidelines and scrutineers are present, so no, no collusion no vote rigging, it’s just the way they fell about the songs.
@Wergie, you can react rude all you want. Doesn’t change the fact that Armenian was caught cheating, not the Netherlands. Deal with it.
@Rogesc @stommie Ffs, I wasn’t talking about this year’s dutch votes. However, they does that fiercely since introducing the jury and even very proud and satisfied about having control of ‘holy dutch points’. Those in no way should go to the east anymore! It is funny how ‘civilized westerners’ (dutch esc commenters) during the grand final voting, expressed their secret desire about having the high points from Portugal only because one of the Portuguese jurors was Dutchman. So as i said, those morons, openly expressed their hopes in possible influencing the portuguese to give Netherlands highest points! As for Armenian… Read more »
@Wergie Get the facts straight before you rave out nonsense. All Dutch jurors placed Armenia in the top 10 this year and the televoters placed them 3rd resulting in 7 points. Besides of that, The Netherlands awarded Armenia many many points since Armenia participated for the first time (thank mainly the Armenian people in the Netherlands for that). And now that we’re talking about facts, it is not the Dutch jury who is placing a certain country consistent last no matter what that country sends to the Eurovision stage, Armenia on the other hand does because of that bitch fight… Read more »
@David – point taken. It’s better if this analysis takes more time to complete as long as it covers all the suspicions and is able to factually support them, rather than point a finger at one or two countries at a time.
Yes, you also need to specify that some juries of different countries took 12 points which earned ARMENIA( ISrael ,Belgium, Greece, ….) HOW to understand that? Again politica !!! There is no musical Contest! YOU need to change the name or rules
@DR – Those are very good ideas, especially 2 and 4. However, it seems unrealistic at this day and age to enforce a media blackout or delay the release dates of all the songs, because we know very well that some countries make their choices as early as December and others after the official deadline. The idea to have 2 sets of juries for the semi-final and the final would be right in an ideal world but is probably impractical because the EBU will never carry the burden of monitoring each country’s internal jury choice: this has to be based… Read more »
Funny how some people, even though they are caught with their hand in the cookie bar, still put on the blame on others.
Yes, Belgian juries this year put Armenia last on their ranking. But the Dutch jury had Aram at place 4, 9, 10, 8 and 5. Combined 7. So stop talking out of your ass, Wergie.
As for last year’s Armenian song. It was bad, it was a disgrace it qualified. It was one of the worst songs of the night, so every juror who put it last was completely right.
It would mean that all countries would have to sing in english. Sorry France, and Italy
We need to many things to create a fairer jury. 1. Media black out. Push back the deadline for song admissions, and give a date where songs for national selections can be released. During this time have all jurors in the host country under a limited media black out, so they don’t know who songs are which. 2. Double Jurers. With double the jurers there will be a double benifit. One, less chance of jurers being bribed as there are more people, and a more fairer distrabution of tastes. 3. Jury Rotation. Have two sets of juries for the semi… Read more »
This alone should be the article that EBU needs to have on mind when delivering a decision whether to have juries next year…or whatever year next that is.
People of (example) Belgium weren’t ashamed to the death because of their lovely jurors who placed one of the favorites of ESC beneath everyone else, while televoters gave it 12 points. I’m talking about Armenia. Guess, who started this dirty jury game? Yes, your lovely fkn civilized West. The dutch jurors deliberately vote Armenia down each year. Lets ban Belgium and Netherlands too?
@Woz racist? No, not at all- it sounds plain stupid.
I totally agree with Woz. It’s just exactly the way you wrote it. Enough said. (And I go on hoping Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia and Belarus leave the ESC right nows and never ever come back).
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Belarus should be admonished in some way. Which way? Let EBU decide. Depending on what these countries decide to do in ESC next year, this might not be necessary.
The eurofans from these countries, on the other hand, have no arguments to deffend their representatives. Numbers speak for themselves.
These countries have proven to be unfit to cohexist with western countries, where not everything is fair and wonderful, but at least we have some shame. And I don’t care if this sound racist.
For all of you saying “take a look at…”, don’t worry, we’re still working our way through the jury results. It takes a bit of time to connect the dots on some of them so give us time. But yes, we have more on the way.
And any suggestions, with specifics as to why (ie, “I hate Russia so they must be corrupt” isn’t useful), please post in the comments here.
Omfg — no one is saying Armenia is bad. just saying the jury system needs to be reformed. A 10-member jury would at least make it more difficult to rig. Malta and others would have to pay off more people
@Bogdan – I realize the historical and cultural landscape concerning Moldova and Romania, but it’s inexcusable for any 5 member jury to unanimously rank the same country at the number one spot. That’s why I also gave the Polish unanimous vote for the Netherlands or the Finnish one for Austria. Each case stems from a different mindset, but juries speaking in one voice is a sham no matter how you turn it around.
That’s why a minimum of a 10 member jury with 5 men and 5 women from distinct ages and backgrounds is the next logical step (for me).
Armenia should be ashamed. And of course Aram mp3 hardly helped his country’s reputation with his ‘jokes’ (or were they misquotes ?).
And what about the jury of Belgium (not only this one, other countries too), they put Aram Mp3 LAST!!! Why don’t you judge them too??? Oh I know the answer, it’s because is a “western” country. With the “western countries” everything is all right, they have very “just” people.
This contest sucks as well as the majority of the so called “esc fans”.
I think we’ve found another country to put on the blacklist
shame on you Armenia. I thought you were too good to fall for this shit that Azeris do every year. Shame on you. Cheap!
@ingo don’t be stupid, this kind of jurors behavior can’t cause disqualification of country. Seriously? Because of stupid jurors?
EBU should ban these people. They shouldn’t be allowed to vote next ir any other year in future. In fact, jury shouldn’t be such influential as it is today. This is just wrong..
Not only Armenia do this..are you stupid? Many other countries gave us last place. Is it normal for you?
And you saw real Armenia
Yeah well the worst thing about this is that EBU does nothing. So damn sick of their threats all the time when they do nothing. Georgia’s jury vote was disqualified and what was their punishment for cheating? Nothing.
@Amy
http://wiwibloggs.com/2014/05/27/azerbaijan-belarus-montenegro-jury-votes/51355/
(Are you Armenian by the way?)
why you show only Armenian votes….show other countries which do the same
Pffff.. this is so sad. I feel like these countries are ruining our bevoled Eurovision Song Contest…. and the worst part is,the EBU does NOTHING! For example.. just for this, Armenia should be banned for the next year´s Eurovision! its obvious that the jury manipulated the results.. please EBU, save Eurovision!!!!
It is rather telling that the Netherlands was ranked 7th by the Armenian jury. Unlike Sweden, Hungary, the UK, the Ukraine and Austria, the Dutch song was probably thought of as not dangerous.
Hi, Europe!
I am Armenian and I am ashamed that our jury did this. Here in Armenia after result everyone bashed them a lot.
Personally I think that this jury voting is unfair not only from Armenia but everywhere. So ESC should stop counting 50/50, but 100% televotes should be counted instead.
Azerbaijan, Russia, Malta, Armenia and Georgia all need to be asked to leave immediately.
Malta are so desperate to win, their juries used to cheat in the past, ranking songs low, or changing votes to alter the winners, now they cheat again, making deals with the devils trying to buy points here and there.
Thank you for taking this up in a seperate article. As I wrote in my post yesterday (on the other suspicious jury results), I think its way too obvious that the Armenian jury was voting the other favorites down. The EBU introduced the juries to get a more balanced voting picture. I agree with Thiefo – the EBU now really needs to look into how these juries work.
It’s great to read this… so I’m not the only one thinking the Armenian jury cheated! I remember thinking: wow, the gave no points to Austria at all? But Austria did give its 12 points to Armenia. I’m hoping so much that countries like Armenia, Azerbeijan, Russia and Belarus leave the contest; they are not only clearly homophobe, they don’t fulfill Western standards of fairness.
do the juries sit together in a room and voted after discussing all the performances among themselves? if that’s the case, it’s no wonder the rank is as such.