Christmas has come and gone and so has our Eurovision advent calendar. But January doesn’t have to be a downer just because Santa Claus is no longer dropping loads in your stocking. In fact, it’s going to be a party as we celebrate the new year — and the 24 winners of our various Eurovision polls from December.
Best Eurovision Comeback this decade
On December 3 it was all about the comeback. Why? Because this year we’ve already seen two former acts confirm for Eurovision 2016. Macedonia’s Kaliopi is returning after taking part in 2012 and Bosnia and Herzegovina is sending Deen, who finished ninth in 2004. And then there are the many acts hoping to get back to the Eurovision stage, including Iceland’s Greta Salome and Lithuania’s Donny Montell. They all hope to do better this time around, but as we know from past editions, that doesn’t always happen…
This led to an obvious question: Who had the best Eurovision comeback this decade? After counting 2,594 votes, we can reveal that Germany’s Lena Meyer-Landrut is your favourite. She came out on top with her 2011 entry “Taken By a Stranger”.
After winning the entire contest in 2010, Lena made the bold decision to try and defend her title the following year. It was highly unlikely she could win again. Numerically the only place to go was down. But performance-wise Lil’ Miss Lena went up, up, up. She morphed from an awkward teenager to a complete B.I.T.C.H. — a badass in total control of herself. Lena’s sex kitten realness helped her purr all the way to tenth place.
“Taken By A Stranger” had it all. Lena wore an amazing obsidian jumpsuit and stalked the stage like a huntress. The song was dark, moody and underscored by a thumping beat, and there was a mesmerising light sequence to slice through the darkness. Some have suggested Sanna Nielsen later took inspiration from Lena. And they’re probably not wrong.
Lena’s “Taken By a Stranger” (Eurovision 2011)
Macedonia’s Kaliopi, who we recently spoke with in Skopje, came second with “Crno i belo”.
You can see the full results below. Do you agree with them? How did your favourite do?
Best Eurovision Comeback: Full Results
- Lena (2011) 12.64% (328 votes)
- Kaliopi (2012) 12.03% (312 votes)
- Valentina Monetta (2013) 10.33% (268 votes)
- Željko Joksimovic (2012) 10.06% (261 votes)
- Dino Merlin (2011) 8.6% (223 votes)
- Valentina Monetta (2014) 8.37% (217 votes)
- Paula Seling and Ovi (2014) 6.63% (172 votes)
- Elnur Hüseynov (2015) 6.01% (156 votes)
- Jedward (2012) 5.13% (133 votes)
- Jónsi (2012) 4.82% (125 votes)
- Feminnem (2010) 3.97% (103 votes)
- Dana International (2011) 3.32% (86 votes)
- Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov (2013) 3.24% (84 votes)
- Niamh Kavanagh (2010) 2.62% (68 votes)
- Zdob si Zdub (2011) 2.23% (58 votes)
Total Votes: 2,594
It Was creepy! Totally not what I was expecting. And for Elnur to come so low? Pah! Y’all just silly.
Dana was the best. Sorry guys
I don’t get the hype over Taken by a Stranger. It’s just creepy and repetitive.
Željko, Kaliopi, Dino Merlin 😀
Balkan power
Love in rewind & Never Forget are the best come back songs, with Lena’s of course.
@mad-professor – Because it’s a better song!
Dino Merlin is forever a winner.
Eh, forget it, the poll was only about this decade… 🙂
How did Charlotte Perrelli (Sweden 2008) do in this poll? 🙂
It’s not really a comeback is it? More like a sequel?
Not great comebacks in this list to tell the truth… the best in my eyes has to be Dino Merlin.
That’s a joke… Valentina in 2014 had the best comebook.
Kalipoi, Željko, Dino Merlin, Jónsi, and Elitsa & Stoyan would be my favorites. Most of the others I absolutely hated their second (sometimes first as well) time around. Especially the horribly overrated Paula Seling & Ovi. If I heard “It’s a miracurlll” one more time I would’ve cut my ears off.
For me Taken by a stranger is nowhere near as “good” as Satellite. (And I’m saying “good” because I do like the song, but I don’t think it deserved to win that year, for me it wasn’t THAT good). I really don’t see what people see in Lena, I mean as a person I love her, she’s a very likeable girl, but music-wise she’s nothing special for me, but evidently I’m in the minority here.
Glad to see Kaliopi, Zeljko and Valentina near the top of this poll though, I think any of them had far better comebacks.
For me Lena song from 2011 is much better than her winning song from 2010.
All hail Lena. Taken by a stranger with black smoke are Germany’s best entry’s to date.
Because Love in rewind was a great song.
Really loved Niamh’s performance in 2010, even though the song was a bit average. Shame she was beaten by Jedward.
Also, how did Love in Rewind beat Never Forget?