Eurovision 2018 was filled with gaps. There was often a chasm between how the jury and televoters rated songs. In the grand final, for instance, Sweden came second with the jury, but fourth from last with televoters. There was also a difference between how some countries fared in the semi-final versus the final. Australia came fourth in its semi, but 20th in the grand final.
Eurovision fans aren’t the only ones scratching their heads over the various cleavages. Moldova’s composer and Russia’s 1995 entrant Philipp Kirkorov has shared his thoughts on the results — and asked some very leading questions.
His Instagram rant comes after his Molodovan pupils DoReDos finished in a respectable tenth position, keeping Kirkorov’s track record of Top 10 finishes alive.
The Russian king of pop took to his favourite medium to share multiple posts talking about his Eurovision experience on Sunday evening. For starters, he congratulated the “charming” Netta for winning with her “crazy hit” song “Toy”.
Then, he wrote a long post airing his frustration about the difference between the result of Moldova and his Norwegian friend Alexander Rybak in the semi-final and the final.
As we all know by now, Norway won the second semi-final, while Moldova finished third, receiving 24 points from both Russia and Romania (that’s 12 points from the jury and televoters in each country). However, in the final, Norway only achieved 15th place and Moldova did surprisingly better than Rybak by coming 10th.
Philipp said: “Stubborn things: FACTS and STATISTICS! This is data on how voters voted in the second semifinal and the results of the general ‘competition’. As you can see, according to the audience vote, MOLDOVA WAS SECOND PLACE, and in the sum of the points with the vote of the jury was third, and on the first place NORWAY AND ALEXANDER RYBAK – the winner of EUROVISION 2009!”
“So in spite of this what happened one day before the FINAL and why did the leader of the semifinal ALEXANDER RYBAK AND NORWAY achieved in the FINAL of the competition a 15th place, and in the case of Moldova, IN THE SAME FINAL, why the jury who gave in many countries MOLDOVA AND OUR DOREDOS’ song ‘My lucky day’ 12 points in the semi final, put ‘0’ in the FINAL!!!”
“What happened with respected jury members in the same Romania overnight or other countries? What scared or who frightened these 5 music connoisseurs in the professional jury in a number of countries and why did they change their opinion so drastically? That they were so frightened about and disappointed in a cheerful, ironical 3-minute piece of humour overnight, in a 3-minute musical from MOLDOVA, which the TV viewers liked so much and which was highly appreciated by the professional JURY – literally the day before. Is the Russian roots of the composer? [laughing emoji] which they got to know or were they ‘forced’ to learn the night before the FINAL? Or else what kind of ‘compromising and discrediting’ information of the contest, about the same Composer from Russia [were they informed]?”
“Why, so frankly, again in a number of countries, the jury ignored and gave 0, (for example in Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia), and the viewers gave high scores at the same time? Those who want can check and verify all these data and try to analyze these statistics on the official website of the EUROVISION competition! I think, wishing to understand what happened, will bring pleasure and will present many unexpected and even surprising. [winking eye emoji]”
“And as a poet in a famous song – ‘YOU ALL UNDERSTAND, YOU ALL SEE YOURSELF!’ In general, we received tremendous pleasure from everything that happened here, and we had many friends from Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Israel, Bulgaria, and even from Ukraine!”
In 2016, Philipp Kirkorov also let his frustration out after Russia’s Sergey Lazarev won the televote with the Kirkorov-composed song “You Are The Only One”, while only coming fifth in the jury vote.
There is, of course, one very clear explanation for why many jurors and indeed televoters ranked Moldova and Norway more lowly in the grand final. That’s the addition of strong songs and performances from Semi-Final 1 and the automatic qualifiers. Indeed, the Top 8 positions went to Semi-Final 1 acts (Israel, Cyprus, Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia) or Big 5 countries (Italy and Germany). The only Semi-Final 2 act to fare better than Moldova was Denmark. And, in fact, Moldova ultimately finished higher than Sweden and Norway — the only two countries to beat it overall in that semi.
He’s actually of Armenian and Hebrew origin. His father is a well-known Bulgarian singer.
OMG! I’m very upset when songs for Russian and their friends are sent to Eurovision. They are mediocre artists, and the song is far from Europe.
This year I was finally disappointed in this contest!
I’m sad only about Denmark and especially about Ukraine.( I saw Melovin almost cry ) By the way, I had problems with sending sms for Ukraine from Romania, only one SMS was sent, the rest were blocked.
Should Balkan countries be eliminated too? And what about Cyprus and Greece? They love Russia too much, as well as Bulgaria. I think ESC need 20 stable western countries with original culture in one show. Other second world countries should be banned. :))))))))))))
Stop being such a racist, will you?
Maybe he should stop competing if he is such a sore loser. His songs are terrible and are always saved by fantastic performers and memorable staging. He should be happy with the scores they got. If it hadn’t been for DoReDos and their creative team, this would have been an obvious NQ.
Fantastic performers? DoReDos were equal to their atrocious song, so they both qualify as SH*T!!!
Note how he complains about countries that got low Jury scores but mentions nothing about the likes of Sweden and Austria who scored high with the jury but got near the bottom with the public. I mean literally as the post above says all of the countries that did better than Moldova were either in Semi final 1 or in the Big 5. While I am all for any country in the Broadcasting Area taking part, this just makes the whole thing pointless because it pushes and promotes neighborly voting. He complained literally about Eastern countries not showing support to… Read more »
Dont not why but I see the same traditions in Skandinavia and other Western European neighbouRs.
I guess bloc voting is as common in Scandinavia as it is in Eastern Europe in general or the Balkans in particular. What’s kind of funny from a German perspective: Germans always tend to complain about bloc voting and not being a part of that because of their neighbours. Yet, if you take look at this year’s voting results … Seems like we’ll never ever get completely rid of that. But, in my opinion, even that’s only a problem as long as there are corrupted juries such as the Azerbaijani, Armenian, Belarussian, Greek and Cypriot ones who double-down on this… Read more »
His 1995 entry was atrocious.
I think he is too dramatic. It’s true there are big discrepancies, like Sweden or Italy and Denmark. But he shouldn’t complain about Moldova, because 10th place is a great result.
I agree with Dr. Phil on this one. Those were some very questionable results. Moldova 25th and Norway 26th would have been more credible for my brain/ears. So don’t sweat it Phil, once again you get better than you deserved. Be happy.
“Is the Russian roots of the composer? [laughing emoji] which they got to know or were they ‘forced’ to learn the night before the FINAL? “
think he’s just full of himself. Surely, they are fun to watch, but sadly it’s a song competition. In my opinion their song was meh, but the staging is quite good. And the juries were only doing the job. Get over it, and realized that the song was just okay, not that kind of next-level-stuff.
even his 1995 song was plagiarised and suddenly wiwi never asked about it in an interview
This man is pathetic and ridiculous. May we should question the Russian diaspora that makes possible those top 10 placings. And yeah, they received less points because there were better songs coming from the SF1 and the Big Five.
His face scares me
lol he should be happy that the jurries didn’t place Moldova and Norway last in the finals because imo if these people wanted to be called proffesionals they should have done just that!
Can‘t resist, but omnomnom salty tears.
I mean come on, people should be happy what they have achieved in general. Moldova would‘ve never finished that high without the show, but impressed a lot during rehearsals and the live shows. And it is nothing new, that judges votes can change from show to show, there are 16 songs they hadn‘t in their list on their respective semifinal and sometimes even your performance is changing from one day to another (f.e. In my opinion, Denmark was much stronger in Final than in semifinal). You can complain, but it won‘t change any results..
I don t also understand big oscilation in voting from same jury member in semi final and final for same country.
Example voting of Mariette from Sweden
In II semi final she put The Netherlands on 8 place, Serbia on 9 place, Ukraine on 10 place
In final she put The Netherlands on 20 place, Serbia on 24 place and Ukraine on 11 place.
Did Malovin sing so nice in jury final and Serbia and The Netherlands so bad
And we had many juries members with similar judging like Maritte from Sweden.
The juries can change their mind justas much as the televoters.. There is a big difference between a semi amd a final.
Agree. The most blatant was all the professional jury from Cyprus. In semifinal an ethical tsunami lead 12 points to Israel (Greece only 8 points!!!!!) In final 0 points to Israel. Yes, we understand … or try to understand….
Please @William Lee Adams read my full comment and tell me what you think about it. Thank you 🙂 I agree with Kirkorov that something seems not right if top countries from the semis do not finish at the top in the final. But then again only half of the countries vote in the semis so that might change the results. The thing I dont understand is the huge differences between Jury and Televote. If there were only a few I could understand but it seems to me that it gets worse every year. 2015: Italy wins public vote, Sweden… Read more »
Yup it’s all Swedens fault hahaha
You do know it’s swedens fault when it rains and when your back is hurting. Bring it on… it’s all because of sweden.
Lol yeah I don’t know how we tolerate u Swedes, tbh the song was allright just the dancing it was kinda cringe think that’s why he struggled on televote
Man Kirkorov is soo dumb ….. the difference comes from MORE COUNTRIES participating in the grand final and more songs to choose from , this year semi 1 was so much better then 2nd one , ofc all the points that Norway , Moldova or other countries had went to songs from the 1st semi or the big 5.
He should be celebrating that his horrible song came 10th, way higher than it deserved. Sick of this man complaining user after year
Moldova didn’t finish higher than Sweden which finished 7th and was a semi 2 qualifier
Before he complained, he congratulated the winner. In my book, that puts him a cut above Sobral & Bijkerk.
moldova and norway had terrible songs, they should be grateful with the results they got
Rybak scored much higher than that song deserved.
He looked tired, thought he was going to sell that song a bit better than he did, Ohh the irony of writing a song called that’s how you write a song and the fact that it was not very good lol even by eurovision standards it was kinda lame
Jeez, that dude couldn’t be more arrogant. He’s pissed about his precious Doredos coming 10th! What did he expect, a win or something? And for that matter what about the countries that were almost completely ignored by the juries – Italy, Denmark and Ukraine? Somehow he chose not to mention this. And yeah, he did not write the song for Lasarev, sweds did.
You are right about those countries, I’m angry about them , too. The very big discrepancies between jury and televoting are not a good thing, they show somehing is just not right! Juries acted like one and they were not fair!
Preach ! Italy, Denmark and Ukraine were robbed so much….a big disgrace for EBU …
so called processional jury…. what a shame!
Why eurovision is not showing the whole results??? Just the top 10 in the televote… these last years thew were showing everything, who was 1st and who was 26. Same for the semifinals. That gave interesting facts like the Azerbaijan public vote not voting last Armenia in their semifinal, etc
Really? Have there ever been a published full televote result? I have never heard of it.
You can see the full jury result here: https://eurovision.tv/event/lisbon-2018/grand-final/participants
Click “show detailed voting results” to view how the juries ranked all songs. It will get you quite a laugh!
Aforementioned reasons aside, Moldova‘s entry was one the most terrible songs to qualify for the Grand Final in recent years. Perhaps even THE most terrible. Kirkorov should thank every single god there is for the juries to be so generous with his trainwreck of a composition. Just think about how high the juries ranked Moldova while at the same time they completely failed to acknowledge the wonderful Georgian masterpiece. Especially as the juries were installed to spare gems like ‘For you’ a miserable finish and save (or rescue) the contest’s musical credibility. Frankly, Kirkorov should stop whining for no reason… Read more »
Agree, Zdob si Zdub are badly needed again!
Come on let’s be honest semi final 2 was piss poor that’s why Norway and Moldova failed miserably in the final when they actually had real competition to contend with.
Agree. But Philipp doesn’t seem to understand it.
But come on he’s a music Mogul in Russia with the best will in the world have you seen how low rent there pop music industry is, he probably thinks it’s really good. Theres a DAMN good reason in the real world none of that daft music makes it past Minsk.
I always think if Moldova was represented by DoReDos this year. To me, it seems like it was represented only by KirKoRov the whole time.
It’s like they were his little puppets. Very strange.
He is right about the Romanian jury, their vote was shameful and bizzaar! 5 morons with big ego and bad taste, or even corrupted, who knows?! So they gave 12 points to Austria, the swedish baby, 10 points to Spain (why?) and only 7 to Moldova?! With the Romanian flag in it, with Romanian dance and rhythm, with the Romanian joie de vivre, with all Romanians cheering for Moldova from all over?! They even gave points to Australia, case closed. I know y’all tend to be cynical because it’s about others but the juries were extremely tactical this year, such… Read more »
i am so sick of this dude .. every year i see his face and steal singers spotlight.. he speaks at the interwiews more than the actual singers.. what the hell
But becouse he cares, unlike you, he analyse it and pinpoints something that went fishy
He wants to sing at Eurovision again, but he’s too afraid of flopping.
Philipp only complaines. What is the point of having juries/televote, if they are ths same. Of course there should be differences. Just be happy for the 10th place that is overrated in my opinion.
People are so dumb. If the jury and televotes was a complete match the purpose of the jury would be pointless. The jury groups are professionals who work with music daily… Of course they have another angle then the televoters
?h hey troll who support juries, tell us how these prestigious jury member change their minds over a night. Also, i would love to hear your view on the impartial jury member of sweden in 2016, Lisa ajax. She placed azerbaijan and sweden first and second, who had songs of the same lebel as hers. Kisses
And diaspora voters who have voted for the same country for 10 years in a row. Explain that? “kisses” And the lisa thing. Just beacuse you are on a label you dont know the other 1000 artists on it. If you are in the industry, ofc you know someone. Look at who is last on the Azeri/armenian jurys since 2008 instead. thats a problem.
oh i forgot to mention that apart from the same lebel, they were also swedish. quelle coinsidence right?
Hey you tele voting loving person, tell us how smart audiences exchange votes every year. Like Greece/cyprus. Or how Germany always gave 12 points to Turkey even if they were among the last. Or how Serbia/Montenegro/Croatia/B&H always exchanged 12 between each other.
Quality songs?
Word!! Denis is on point. Televoters are so bad some times…. The worst winners was selected in the years of 100% televoting.. Who can remember Marie N?
Of course, who can even remember Charlotte Perreli before the lifting
It wouldn’t be ESC without Kirkorov complaining about unfairness.
He would fit in very well on here!
Basically russian jury put Portugal in 26th but Moldova in 1st…. maybe just because Kirkovov is russian, and Russia didn´t qualify for the very first time in Lisbon
Many juries and televoters put Portugal #26, check the final results!
check the final results again….nobody put Portugal in 26th like Russia!!
Was Portugal dead last or what?! I liked Portugal this year also and voted for it but it came last, and I am not happy about this but it’s a fact.
3 of the 5 russians jury put Portugal in 26th. Also San Marino put 3times Hungary in 26th place…
I know someone must get the last place, i just said its strange when 3 of 5 jury gave you the last place
I feel your pain because I also voted with Hungary 10 times and it did not matter, and I feel my juries betrayed me and my fellows badly, like Cyprus jury giving no points to Israel and televoting was 12 points, and viceversa! Too much tactics from the juries, it’s just shameful!
I think you got a mistake, Sweden did finish in 7th place, higher than Moldova in 10th place.
I think he forgetting not everyone can vote in semifinal
Many people complained that the second semi final was much weaker than the first one and, well, the results in the final proved them right. The highest placed entry from the second semi final was Sweden finishing seventh! Almost all semi finals held between 2004 and 2017 included at least one song that would finish in the top three of the final. The only other semi final that did not include a top three finalist was the first semi final in 2010 (the highest placed entry reached number six in the final).