On Sunday night Australian Eurofans celebrated the second-ever Australian Eurovision Preview Party, hosted by the Eurovision Song Contest Fans of Australia Network — aka ESCFAN. Over 100 attendees dressed up, indulged in Eurovision-themed cocktails and viewed this year’s entries on the big screen. Then they voted for who they want to win Eurovision 2016.
Among this sample of Australians, France’s Amir wins in a landslide — 134 points ahead of their second favourite Spain! There was a clear preference for upbeat, fast and mid-tempo entries as Russia’s Sergey Lazarev, Belgium’s Laura Tesoro and Iceland’s Greta Salome follow them in the top five.
The viewing included Romania’s Ovidiu Anton and his song “Moment of Silence” — despite it being withdrawn by the EBU. It received a large, supportive cheer from the audience…but in the voting it received just 18 points, making it 39th if counted.
AUSTRALIAN PREVIEW PARTY: VOTING RESULTS
Australia’s diaspora communities — including Greek, Maltese and UK fans — is immense. Interestingly this is not reflected by the results. ESCFAN Interim President Sharleen Wright suggests Aussie fans vote “from their hearts rather than their national allegiances.”
The hearts of the Australian fans also seem to hold a special place for San Marino’s “I Didn’t Know”. Serhat placed 14th on their scoreboard at 108 points.
Last year the Australian Eurovision Preview Party voting results accurately predicted a Swedish win. Do you think they’re on the money again this year? Let us know in the comments below!
San Marino so high could be easily explained that there are many people who actually like the disco pop cheese (where is Eurovision without one of these entries?) and the fact that Australia does have a strong Turkish diaspora (especially when you have dawn services at Gallipoli)
Bella… SVT believes that he can win and they are well ready to host again if that happens 🙂
Euguene… You are right… 100 persons does not indicate how Australia will actually vote 😛
Cher EugeneESCUK,
Thank you for your contribution but you represent only one person. At least, since there is no OGAE in Australia, this group can indicate want Australia televote may be, no more, no less.
Cordially yours,
Maxime
France and Spain clearly the popular songs. I agree with this chart. About France, I think for a big part of us it is the best song, not by a great margin like Euphoria’s year, but still is. He’s very charming and connects with people like very few singers this year. A modern, catchy tune. Strong favorite at this point. Spain is one of the best songs too, but I think this song hides something more important and difficult to achieve: an emotion. This will be even more evident on stage, as the music video kind of misleads you with… Read more »
Loo so you mean by saying that only fans dont believe in a swedish victory that svt believes that Frans will charm
the other europeans like he did with the swedes?
I wouldn’t take the votes of 100 people too seriously. They may be of an indication of the general tele-vote, but not jury vote. Given that, we really need to see the staging/rehearsals before things settle. I still see it as a battle between France and Russia, when all is said and done. Sweden is deservedly low, while Belgium is undeservedly high in this poll, tbh. 🙂
Lol as an Australian fan I understand that San Marino is so high, it’s because we see the contest as a joke, basically a big gay crazy freak show like the 2000s. Also i love Belgium its upbeat and funky and fun, quite popular here
@aphis: That’s a fair enough assessment of my previous comment. And now that you mention it, I can definitely see that it would be very likely for that to happen. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
@Skandar: I’m really flattered that you appreciate my rambling. I honestly agree in that I wish there was more analysis and in-depth discussion in the comments, but it honestly really depends on what you define as analysis rather than people imposing their own musical tastes. I’m sure that I did some of the latter in my comment, though something like that is inevitable. I hope I didn’t go on a tangent along the lines of ‘Oh god, why is Russia near the top? Belgium? Why? D’:’, because I do feel like some of that attitude did come through. I swear,… Read more »
Belgium 4th? I bet no-one saw that coming! Looks like funk ain’t dead yet down under.
I was at the party (and believe me, I awarded 8 points to Armenia so was very disappointed with that outcome). You can work out how many votes were cast by dividing the total by 58, if you are really interested (12 + 10 + 8=>1). I wanted to comment on Marshpan’s observations below – they may very well be an accurate assessment of the makeup of the small subset of Australian voters who actually attended, but that demographic will have a greater bearing on the eventual televote than the teenagers who will supposedly be going all out for Denmark… Read more »
It’s not the second coming of Jesus Christ as the eurofans would like to believe, but I’d still much rather have France winning than the completely uninteresting, way-too-calculated entries from Russia and Australia…
Stats don’t lie about the popularity of these songs: http://eurovisiontops.com/
Same first three. Same strong margins. Coincidence much?
But this is just an indicator about the SONG. Staging can change the whole thing and bring new favorites, take some of the favorites out of the equation or reinforce them.
Will be interesting to see.
It’s only the fans that don’t believe in a swedish victory. They will once again be wrong. I’m not saying that Sweden is the ultimate favorite to win, but it can very well happen. I would not be surprised at all. At the end of the day we have the best song once again. It’s NOTHING like the fans are saying that the song is booring or something. They cleary don’t live in a modern world where the popular quality music sounds like “If I Were Sorry”. They seems to live on a whole other planet. Frans is the ultimate… Read more »
This scoring table could end up being very insightful and precursory about the whole european televoting, when it all ends.
You have to look at the big amounts of points the first three songs achieved to know these three are having a great impact on people.
Australia is probably the most neutral country when it comes to neighbouring and sympathy voting. They’re speaking the truth from a pure musical taste.
I’m surprised about Poland being so low. I consider this one and Spain the most underrated ones out of the top 10 in the betting system.
I guess it’s gonna be considered old fashioned, especially for the western european countries who embrace something similar but in a more modern and danceable way, like France or Spain.
Loo People dont expect a swedish victory this year and Frans receive undeserved hate, but there is always hope…Maybe Frans will charm everyone just like Lena did.
@bella
The last couple of days I have had a strong feeling that Sweden might win again.
San Marino in 14th, you gotta be kidding me. Denmark massively overrated as well (Belgium also although I like the song). Plus of course Spain. I will probably never get the song’s popularity.
Meanwhile Germany, Sweden, Poland and Croatia are too low. Like really.
Loo odds will change after the rehearsals.If Sweden will impress it will be higher and if France hasnt a good staging it will be lower.I expect Norway and Hungary to get highet positions in odds.They have really good songs.
Watch out Spain this year. Barei is a strong, thoughtful woman. She didn’t let RTVE (spanish television) take part of the staging this year, which has been the tradition (see where all the bad stagings from the past came from) She’s doing it all by herself. She composed this song and she’s going to act it out her way on stage.
The song is already quite popular. Let’s see how she sells it on stage. A powerful, universal message always create an impact if it’s correctly staged.
This year it’s between France and Russia. I like them both….Russia I liked straight away it’s the song you say this is the winning song. Lately I’m starting to like France too. It will be a close battle.
This is what happens when musically someone like Amir is the best … he slays and the audiences appreciate … no Russian desperation and egocentrism can overshadow any kind of natural and authentic talent 🙂 Trés bien Amir.
Armenia only 16 pts? Huh?
@Marshpan Good job! I love this kind of analysis like yours. I wish we had more comments like this between two fan fights.
I really ought to be studying Japanese, but I’ll make a few comments regarding the results of the preview party… As an Australian myself, I don’t particularly find these results all that surprising. However, do mind that these are only from a group of perhaps a hundred out of the thousands of viewers who will be watching and voting in the real thing. Additionally, take into account that these are the opinions coming from rather invested Eurovision fans, mostly those who got into the competition because of the cheese and over-the-top drama from a decade or two ago. Of course,… Read more »
How can Armenia be so low on the list? Unacceptable, in my opinion.
Spain are not gonna win. But i hope France do
hovi star should win
Sweden near the bottom – such a surprise. Wonder what Crystal Bonbon would have to say about that.
@Nicky91
I agree.
I hope it’s an accurate prediction for France! Surprised to see Belgium so high, but why not.
This makes me even more happy to be in semi final with Australia, 170 points.
100 Eurofans is much more than most of the OGAE countries voting numbers.
It’s an opinion of just 100 eurofans…
Dream top 2 <3
Great to see Belgium so high. But what is Denmark doing so high is a massive mystery. It’s also unfortunate that Australians can’t vote for San Marino because I imagine they would get quite a few points from the general public
Barei sucks
@georgekirkas
i Always like backing singers, especially if they make the song better
for me it’s about teamwork and not just one singer, because you’re representing your country and it’s better to have a team behind you of backing singers maybe a few dancers and some good staging 🙂
The fact that Armenia is so low is beyond me…
@Nicky91
I loved the backing singers, too!
I’m happy with France and Spain at the top and Ukriane in the top 10. What I’m not so happy about is how high San Marino is, which just proves my point about how a lot of Australians still don’t treat esc seriously. (Also how did Denmark get so high)
I have always thought that if SVT gives the last place in the running order, Belgium will be the dark horse. This could be the first time since 2013 that both Belgium and The Netherlands compete in the Grand Final. They will probably give eachother 12 points.
That smile…. 100 points right there.
@georgekirkas
yeah i was shocked as well with the OGAE results so far
Belgium will be with Laura Tesoro, and hopefully her backing singers from eurosong will be with her in Stockholm 🙂
I can’t believe that Malta has no points in the OGAE clubs voting so far, this party has clearly better taste! Finally, Belgium does well for once but San Marino is way too overrated!
SPAIN IS THE DARK HORSE 😀
I searched one of the live version on YT and I think Laura can definitely rock it.
HELLO HELLO MRS. FIGHTERS ????????????
well some respect for Belgium and Malta after OGAE didn’t give them points so far 🙂