Azerbaijan’s Chingiz underwent futuristic heart surgery. Russia’s Sergey Lazarev brought us emotion from inside a shower of tears. And Cyprus’ Tamta slayed with her dress reveal. But in the end, it was The Netherlands’ Duncan Laurence who walked away as the winner of Eurovision 2019 with his song, “Arcade”.
Eurovision 2019 Winner: Duncan Laurence – “Arcade”
In a tense results sequence, the Netherlands placed third with the jury vote. But the televote saw “Arcade” take the lead with 492 points. Italy was a close second place on 465 points. Russia’s Sergey Lazarev repeated his 2016 position by taking third place, this time with 369 points.
Sweden’s John Lundvik won the jury vote for “Too Late for Love”, while Norway won the televote, with KEiiNO picking up top points for their song “Spirit in the Sky”. It was a real mixed bag this year, and the first time since 2016 that the televote winner did not win Eurovision.
This marks the Netherlands fifth Eurovision victory — and it’s first since Teach-In won with “Ding-a-Dong” in 1975.
In the winner’s press conference, Duncan told us how he overcame rehearsal fatigue this week, after rehearsing “Arcade” dozens on times. Performing it twice tonight, he compared both performances:
“The first time I sang tonight, it struck me that I got back to the essence – which was just about the music. I went back to the roots of why I wrote this song.
But the second time I performed it tonight (after I won) it was not so good! But its because I had the trophy!”
Talking about what this year’s Eurovision slogan ‘Dare to Dream’ meant to him, he said he never dreamt of a win:
“I never ‘dared to dream’ to win this trophy. Because this is Eurovision. Anything can happen, and that’s why I love it. But it (the win) did happen, so the predictions came true. I kept seeing the win as predictions. This trophy is a result of the hard work that we did.”
Ahead of Eurovision, The Netherlands came first with our Wiwi Jury – our in-house panel of music unprofessionals. “Arcade” scored 9.15 out of 10, the highest result in the Wiwi Jury since Loreen‘s “Euphoria” in 2012.
At the time, we wrote:
“There is beauty in fragility. The Dutch entry manages to court hype, and maintain credibility at the same time. Duncan Laurence’s vocal delivery evokes sensitivity whilst unveiling deep emotional maturity through the lyrics of Arcade. Not many Eurovision songs can make you cry, yet this one does.”
Eurovision 2019 Final Results
Eurovision 2019: Jury Results
Eurovision 2019: Televoting Results
During the show, we saw a number of interval acts take to the stage as well. A Eurovision classic mashup saw Conchita, Mans Zelmerlow, Eleni Foureira, Verka Serduchka and Gali Atari nearly steal the show.
Madonna, predictably, brought controversy to the stage — with one of her dancers wearing the flag of Palestine.
What do you think of the Eurovision 2019 results? Are you happy with the winner? Whose finishing position surprised you the most? Let us know all your thoughts in the comments section below!
Photo: Thomas Hanses
1499 comments looks so weird so mine makes1500 🙂
Wiwibloggs jury was right this year….
https://www.change.org/p/bbc-eurovision-drop-the-bbc-from-picking-the-uk-entry-for-2020
If you guys could take a moment of your time, to look at this petition aswell, it would mean so much thank you.
I’m so sad Eurovision is over ;(. Can’t wait for Netherlands 2020!
The final results are actually normal, seeing the songs that made to 10 still have the same spread of points. However, how can Duncan won in a Jamala-esque situation and not in a landslide? It’s worth noting that Duncan had to fight against: 1. Mahmood, that has Soldi already being a huge hit. 2. Sergey, that came back for Russia and ensures stable fanbases all across Europe to vote for him. 3. Luca, that has ‘She Got Me’ also being quite a huge hit. 4. John and Tamara, that unexpectedly surpasses his jury point by only 8 and 6 points.… Read more »
According to the televoters the race was between Norway, Netherlands & Italy, which Norway won by a margin of 30 points. According to the jurors it was between Sweden, North Macedonia & Netherlands. If the Jurors were unbiased then we would have had a thrilling fight between Netherlands, Norway, Italy & Russia for the top prize The jurors killed Norway (Jury: 15th with 47 pts) and Russia ( Jury: 9th with 125pts), and elevated Sweden (Tele: 9th with 93 pts) & North Macedonia (Tele: 12th with 58 pts). By elevating these last two, and ignoring the first two they altered… Read more »
But juries aren’t the only one to blame. Salvador and Netta rightfully won their televote and contest, but still there are people thinking their songs are unworthy to win. Is the televoting also made up? Probably not, but their taste aren’t also the best, either.
Besides, we don’t know if juries can listen to songs before the jury rehearsal. They might not know if an entry is a public’s choice before televotes could apply.
Besides, politics will obviously always be here. Juries might vote for the best songs, but it’s kind of normal if Serbia-Montenegro or Greece-Cyprus exchanged top marks. When we see it as a political voting, they probably see that as a chance to support their brother country (who doesn’t want to support their sibling’s journey, after all?). That’s the charm of the contest, I guess, and I’ve learned to take it easy.
I agree. A couple of countries doing that kind of voting, when they are never considered favorites to win, is ok. I mean it doesn’t affect the contest so much.
But the problem I see is block NON voting. Every year the UK, Spain and Germany only get a handful of points. It doesn’t matter what song they send….the UK’s singer was fabulous this year…didn’t he deserve more points? And not just from televoting, but the juries that are supposed to judge professionally.
Silly people complaining….
Everybody knew the rules before entering the competition (50%jury/50%tele). And that’s because of all that garbage , what was wining about 20 years ago.
Saying that, I understand the complaining in some cases (GREE/CYP, Unsportsmanlike Italy jury giving ZERO points to the rest of the top 5 etc etc) But I guess that’s the charm of Eurovision in a strange way.
I’m happy with jury (San Marino top 10 -rest my case).
https://www.change.org/p/bbc-eurovision-drop-the-bbc-from-picking-the-uk-entry-for-2020
If you guys wouldn’t mind just taking a look at this petition, and if you could just sign as well, that would be much appreciated, thank you.
God please ban Ikea lamps and fake pianos
RIGGED 100%. Sergey is the real winner.
I prefer Victor
Russia will never win with their present politics towards their neighbours.
Rigged? Excuse me…. the only thing that was rigged are the results from the Russian jury…Please shut up.
Why? Because you got 12 points from (ONLY) all the countries where lots of Russians live, because of your violent Soviet history? Take those points away and almost nobody voted for Russia.
Why?
CAUSE YOU JUST CAME WITH QUITE A BAD SONG (sang by a good singer)
Hey, he lost TWICE, then be a good boy, drink warm milk, take your teddy bear and go to sleep.
So once again we’ve seen how the ESC juries destroyed the people’s choice. 2015 it was Italy, 2016 it was Russia, 2019 its Norway. Even worse, the way they decided to announce the televote points this year totally took away from Norway’s televote victory. While the points were being announced, it looked like Netherlands won the televote and that Sweden was the televote runner up, and it wasn’t until I saw the official release of jury and televote lists hours later that I realised that Norway was actually the televote winner. I don’t want to show any disrespectful to Duncan’s… Read more »
Oh please. Austria had a great song last year, and juries thankfully rated this very high as well. We all know racist televoters didn’t want a black guy to win and therefore didn’t vote for him.
I am very happy the judges exist.
That’s total bull! The colour of John’s skin had absolutely nothing to do with people not voting for Sweden. The song was boring.
The reality is that the jurors are totally biased. They play favourites, and Sweden is one of the favourites. We see that year in, year out. On the other extreme, we also see how they destroy Russia’s entries year after year.
Juror politics is destroying the competition. The Juries need to go.
Not really. Eastern countries seems too obvious to not vote for black. Comparing Austria 2018 to Sweden 2019 televotes, their marks are almost the same with almost no Slavic and Mediterranian countries giving them points.
As a norwegian, I am super happy for KEiiNO. We are all very proud of them and I appreciate all your support. Ofcourse we are disappointed over the jury results and I truly think KEiiNO had deserved the victory. With that said, I think Duncan is a deserved winner as well, and the hate against him makes me sad. He seems like such a nice guy, and I am so happy for him. Actually I cried a little when I saw his face when the winner was announced. I was never the biggest fan of Arcate, but I still thinks… Read more »
kva kan eg seia? eg har likt songen
Beautiful comment, thank you.
So much love back from a Amsterdam to you. Jeg elsker deg already. I don’t understand why your song did so well in televoting and I also didn’t expect The Netherlands to win televoting, but of course I’m happy (enough) with how things turned out. Sorry Norway…. I understand your pain and I hope your song next year, in my country, will be amazing and that it will be a winning game for you then.
Yes, let’s hope that! I’m really looking forward to it, I’m sure you guys, after waiting all these years, will make an amazing show. Maybe I’m going to Amsterdam in 2020?
Here is my full evaluation of the competition (based on 10 criteria): 12 points for the Netherlands (9.69) 10 points for Italy (9.53) 8 points for Switzerland (9.49) 7 points for Denmark (9.47) 6 points for Sweden (9.46) 5 points for Russia (9.46) 4 points for Malta (9.45) 3 points for Serbia (9.44) 2 points for Spain (9.44) 1 point for Norway (9.43) (11) France 9.39; (12) North Macedonia 9.37; (13) Azerbaijan 9.37; (14) Australia 9.37; (15) Iceland 9.37; (16) Czech Republic 9.37; (17) Slovenia 9.36; (18) San Marino 9.36; (19) Israel 9.35; (20) Greece 9.34; (21) Cyprus 9.32; (22)… Read more »
My bad; make that 3 of the last 4 years for Malta’s languish. I forgot about Ira Losco’s 12th-place finish in 2016.
So what if Duncan didn’t get 500? Nobody else did. He did what he had to do; win over the jury and the public in equal and large-enough portions to win.
Very late as this may be, I must correct one more piece of errata: Alexander Rybak won in 2009, not 1989.
Another very late addition to this post:. Margaret Berger’s 4th-place finish in 2013 was Norway’s highest finish since Rybak’s 2009 victory.
I cannot understand how people can compare this to “Fairytale” and “Euphoria”, when the song didn’t win neither the jury, nor the televoting. It only has two highest scores from the televoters… It is just a normal ballad, reminding me of Ed Sheeran or Sam Smith. I think the actual winner is Norway, because they won the televotes, and this is all that metters! Just like Il Volo back in 2015, Sergey Lazarev in 2016, Keiino in 2019. Even if my personal winner this year is Russia, I understand that most of the viewers choose Norway. So Duncan, your song… Read more »
Come on, don’t be so jealous, He did a great job and is a deserved winner, get over it.
I agree with you but Duncan fanboys and fangirls would never acknowledge that fact even if they were for Il Volo or Sergey back in 2016. They somehow feel like we’re attacking Duncan personally for pointing out different taste or mere facts for not wining jury or public votes.
Russia: Eurovision Visual Contest
lol “reminding me of Ed Sheeran or Sam Smith” How is that not a compliment?
Cool! Have fun next year May in Oslo!
Um, we’re in the Netherlands next year.
Possibly Amsterdam or Rotterdam
Look for the term ‘sarcasm’ in a dictionary, please
The EBU released all the numbers today. All together Duncan did get the most votes, when all votes from all the countries are added up (and not put into points per country). So you can delete your comment.
I think one Sam Smith is enough, now they find one more. Awwww the most boring song ever, song for funerals.
Rusian jury is always giving 0 points for the strongest contenders, have you noticed
Smart jury , Russia I love you
One of the reasons why I want juries to be out. Not only do 200 people shouldn’t decide for half the points but also they tend to reinforce the block voting they were supposed to limit + they are not there to save “artistic” entries as most of the times they are the ones to sanction original entries like Portugal or Iceland for this year.
I wonder what the jury is going to do about block non voting….I mean, how is it possible that countries like the UK, Spain, and Germany for example to get almost 0 points every year?? Don’t the juries hear anything good in the voice or music??
That is not fully true. Germany placed well last year with a better than average song and Lena won the whole thing. I am not biased against any of those countries but I usually just don’t like their songs enough to place them within my top 10, so if I were a jury member they wouldn’t get points from me either most of the years
Ordered by Putin himself
Hello to everyone, Mahmood is my favourite and I think he deserved to win. Not many people know that before the show Mahmood received a very important Eurovision prize, called “Marcel Bezençon”, as the BEST COMPOSER of Eurovision. The most important european composers decided that Soldi is the best composition of Eurovision ! It is a fantastic prize, Mahmood well done !!!!
Are you lena or Anna?
Hi Anna-Lena-Whoever!
WTF?! Everyone on here knows that. DUH!!!!
So convenient for you to leave out that Dunkiepunkie won that same prize for BEST SONG!
Congrats to Duncan, but my personal winner is Mahmood. His song is more innovative and unique than the winning song, and he’one of the very few singers singing in his his native language, Italian (and also a few lines in Arabic!). And we know all that this is a big disvantage because a lot of people doesn’t follow eurovision stuffs before the show, and the majority of people don’t know italian and so they can’t get the message in the song, that in the case of Soldi is so important. But Italy arrived, however, second with a few votes of… Read more »
Listen Jamie Woon Night Air you will see that Arcade is bad copy of this song
https://youtu.be/EL0pTo9Z_XU
you must be really deaf….and blind.
there is nothing similar in both songs.
not the melody, not the beat, not the voice and not the lyrics.
Yes, just a bad loser and jealous as hell.
Your comment is a losing game
Looking at the jury voting I think there is one thing that is noticable. Sergey Lazarev is to low! He is really incredible and his singing was the best in the final. It was almost to perfect. The song was a little bit over constructed according to me. But wow that voice!
Yeah,but he is not bisexual like Duncane (this is not true at all, he just want votes)
Listen this song https://youtu.be/EL0pTo9Z_XU
This ESC was the worst ever and thisI bad performance of Madonna omg, she is even worst then Duncan
I also don’t know if Duncan is bisexual. I do know he has a boyfriend….. OOOOOOOH, HE MIGHT BE GAY!
He is bi, and for real.
Completelly agree with you. 17 countries (Jury) out of 41 gave Sergey Lazarev zero points, just like they did in 2016. This is unfair, he was very memorable this night and his voice was so strong!
Everybody has different tastes, Lazarev is indeed a very good perfomer and he has a great voice but his song was dreadfull… Get over it.
I am over it. he was not my favorite, but i can see and hear that he was amazing. he deserved more than zero points from any jury. The Swedish jury have him 8 points. That is according to me correct.
How tastes differ! I, for once, think that his song this year was far better than “thunder and lightning it’s getting exciting” – it was actually very very good indeed. As much as I’m not a fan of his singing (very good, but not spectacular), I think the song itself was his strong point this year.
Did you notice that only countries with many Russians living there, have Russia 12 points. Now THAT is the unfair part, cause he sang truly just a mediocre song.
Well, that was certainly a show. Congrats to Duncan and all of the Netherlands! His victory was totally deserved and it’s wonderful to see them take the crown after 45 years of waiting. 😀 Notes of mine: – Norway winning the televote was one of the best moments of the night! I was seriously beginning to wonder if they would even get unto the Top 10, let alone the Top 5. Alexandra and Fred-Rene’s reactions were adorable. – Sweden’s reaction after they realized the Netherlands had won. Oof. – Sergey came 3rd again. Double oof. (Though, I’m a bit surprised… Read more »
Listen this song https://youtu.be/EL0pTo9Z_XU
Arcade is justso bad copy
What are you trying to reach with this?? Arcade is not a copy, it’s an original song, He won, get over it.
Did you listen song from Jamie Woon? First listen then comment
You’re hate campaing will not work, Netherlands won.. Period.
How come your name sounds so English, and your English sounds so Russian?
Eurovision audience deserves its own righteous ESC in Oslo next year, with KEIINO being the true winner! To hell with that weird Dutchman and his creepy grin.
He look scary omg
Get over it
Too many televoters were drunk Saturday
Indeed. The same people who whined about the jury results (year-in and year-out) are now whining just as loudly about Serhat’s 10th-place TELEVOTE finish. He did put on a good show on Saturday; good enough that I thought San Marino would crack the top 20, ahead of one or two perennial favorites.
Boohoo…. now try to get a life
Good job Duncan. I am overall actually very pleased with this year’s outcome overall. I agree Macedonia had a great performance and expected it will do great with the jury, but also expected it to flop with televote – no matter how great she was and her message, it is not a song you would listen on the radio on your way to work. Really pleased that Italy was so high – for me that is a sign, Europe is getting more mature in its music taste; also Duncan’s song for me is musically one of the best in the… Read more »
Sweden win in jury vote, Norway in public vote and in the end the worst song win haha , because he is bisexsual or? He has how many words in song?5?
#justiceforNorway
How old are you?5?
There were more gays than straight guys in this competition. I heard that Norwegian bloke had an orgy with Mahmood, Luca (closeted, but hey), Mr. Azerbaijan and Sergey…. so Duncan being bisexual won’t be why he won.
Oh and one other thing: GO BACK TO SCHOOL AND LEARN HOW TO COUNT!
Itunes today
5. Duncan
10. keiino
13. Mahmood
15. luca
21. john
25. chingiz
36. Leonora
39. Victor
pretty close to the result
No one is Sweden use ITunes. Can you give the numbers? We use Spotify and if you look there naturellt Sweden is the highest followed by Duncan mahmood and Luca Hänni. Norway is on number 62. Not so impressive for a eurovision crazy country where the televotes were von by Norway. I don’t understand actually who woted for Norway.
Vel, kva kan eg seia, den svenske songen var ikkje fin.
I am not talking about the Swedish song but the fact that Swedish public vote for something they dont want to listen to.
This year’s edition reminds us that winning is not about topping the jury or public, it is about CONSISTENCY in these two aspects of the point system.
It was a well-deserved victory for the Netherlands . Happy for Italy as well.
Eurovision is always said to be the music Olympics but consistency is not how you win in there. Also it’s a bit hypocrit when back in 2016 everyone was screaming (little pun there) that Sergey was the true winner after winning the televote yet now since Duncan is more liked than Jamala it is all about “consistency”. People should understand why the Netherlands is not seen as a deserving winner for others. Especially since FOR MONTHS they had been the extra favorite and end up not winning the jury nor public vote.
what is hypocrite is you generalizing things. to say that everyone was screaming that the overrated Sergey was the true winner of 2016 is an exaggerration.
Yes Eurovision is the music olympics. But you should not take it literally.
You can’t say that there was no “Sergey is the true winner of 2016” comments at all, especially each time his song was in the “top 10 most watched video” in the Eurovision youtube channel. Seriously Jamala received WAY too much hatred next to Duncan despite them winning in a similar way and you can’t deny that. This comments section alone next to the one back in 2016 is proof. Also, you can’t say Sergey is overrated judging how well known and appreciated he is, you may not like him but saying he is ‘overrated’ is a bit an exaggeration… Read more »
I couldn’t have said it better, Tibor. I agree on everything. It’s time to EBU having a serious conversation with all the countries concerning the juries.
I agree. And it seems each country can chose whoever they want to put in the juries, when EBU should demand a plurality of opinions. Of course it’s good to have the opinion of mainstream local producers and former Eurovision performers, but every jury should have at least an academic and also someone that works independently from the music industry. It’s hard to find the right balance, but they aren’t even trying to do that.
Look at that main picture. He could fit Mahmood and Luca at the same time in that gob! 😛
Loved this one ?
Wait, you mean their-
I was watching the final with some people who never seen Eurovision and also a few newcomers were in touch with me on Facebook and before the results were announced, all of the bystanders had 3 clear winners : Norway, Iceland and North Macedonia. So what I’m trying to say is that Norway winning the televote doesn’t come as surprise to me as someone might think. I’m still so effing proud of Tamara. That was epic. After all the songs were performed, she was my winner. Tamara and Kobi moved me to tears.
Yes I agree with you
For all the people bashing Netherlands because they were behind Norway in televote: Fact is that Duncan Laurence made the best over all impression. He also recieved points from televote from every single country, while Norway did not. I know it’s not sure but this could mean that Netherlands might not have won by points and amount of votes, but by recieving votes from the most various individuals. (Since every person can vote up to 20 times).
Just to be clear, I am not bashing the Netherlands, I am bashing the supercilious fans of the Netherlands who feel like that song had a divine right to win and was the best song by far in the competition. The truth is none of us know exactly how many people voted for each entry, but the one thing we do know right now is that the only way the Netherlands won was due to a small number of people who have too much power.
Your characterisation fits the swedish fans much better.
Completely agree with you. Supercilious fans annoy me more than the artist – Duncan was actually quite humble and never got ahead of himself. But he did not win by a landslide either. 27 points between him and Italy I think? 8 points between them in the televote. Not a landslide victory by any means. The song was good but not as great as everyone was making it out to be. Very Coldplay sounding. The voting from SF2 and GF show that not everybody thought it was a winning song/or the best performance on either of the nights. Yes, he… Read more »
He won.. outright or not outright.. He won…
If you win with one point or you win with 300 points
who cares.. You still win
Please Kosey get your facts right.
He was 2nd on televoting… How was that due to a small number of people who have too much power????
All the moaners are swedish and norwegian. The rest of us all are very happy for you.
I’m not Swedish nor Norwegian. I just simply think Duncan’s song was boring AF. Even Ireland had a better song. It might be because I absolutely despise Coldplay and that’s how the Dutch song sounded like.
Many excuses for mistaken you for a grumpy swede/norwegian.
I’m Polish, thank you very much. And Tulia was c.rap. 😛
I agree with you and also hate Coldplay
It really did sound like a Coldplay song. His voice sounded eerily similar to the singer of Coldplay too. When I first heard it I got Coldplay vibes instantly. I’ve seen a lot of other people pointing this out too so, you’re not the only one.
You would think they’d show more gratitude. The Dutch public helped more than hurt them; as they gave Sweden 8 and Norway 12!
Yes Coldplay Fix You and Jamie Woon Night Air, listen this 2 songs, Arcade is just bad mix of this 2 songs. And I am notfrom from Sweden and Norwey, I am from Switzerland. For me the best weree Sweden and Switzerland, but Norway was also very good.
The former, I’m tempted to give you a mulligan for, but Duncan’s song doesn’t sound anything like the latter. And the Dutch voters gave you guys 6.
Let’s face it, we haven’t had a worthy winner since ‘Euphoria’. 😛
I wouldn’t even say since Lys Assia… eye roll
Hence the 😛 emoji. I just like to troll people lately since this website went down the toilet. It’s like a mean girls club and nothing else. It used to seem like a professional Eurovision blog. Unfortunately these days I can’t find any good ones in English so I read it, but it’s too cliquey and childish. I don’t expect journalism at its highest standards but cmon!
You didn´t noticed yet…..
There are much more than uptempo songs….Open your eyes!
The people who voted for Salvador in 2017 would think otherwise.
I agree with you, Euphoria is so powerful song. This Arcade is song forfor children who like Coldplay and Sam Smith boring songs
What would you consider as ‘worthy’? It won on account of being a good song, reasonably well performed, appealing to a wide circle of people of different musical backgrounds. I’m afraid that your definition of worthy is close to “according to my taste”.
With all the hype before the contest , the Netherlands still didn’t win the televoting nor the jury.I think this says it all…I really like the song, good voice,but it was not the best…sorry.And this “haven’t won for 44 years” is not such a good reason. There were countries in the contest that had never won before and yet they didn’t win.This is a contest where lately the odds always turn out to be true and it would not surprise me to actually be a relation between the odds and the contest itself. All in all I just want to… Read more »
I am really feeling for you. By rights, ESC should be going to Oslo next year. It was such an uplifting meaningful song as well, so it is such a shame it got deliberately binned by the autocratic judges. Nothing against Duncan or the Netherlands, it just must feel like a hollow win.
Completely agree! I’ve always said it: The Netherlands had a good song, but honestly it was not winning material, as we’ve seen both in the juries and televotes.
I would have loved to see Italy winning .
I’m Dutch and I really feel for you. If The Netherlands got the most votes from televoting and didn’t win, I would be very disappointed and maybe angry as well. I would have to take a deep breath, but I would never be such a cunt as you. Bye now
I’m Dutch and I really feel for you. If The Netherlands got the most votes from televoting and didn’t win, I would be very disappointed and maybe angry as well. I would have to take a deep breath, but I would never be such a c*nt as you. Bye now
You were robbed in 2014 by Austria.
Sorry Dennis but I do not remember swearing anyone like you do…and you even talked about the contest bringing people together but yet here you are offending and calling Norway’s song mediocre.Just like you didn’t enjoy Norway’s song , others didn’t like the Netherlands that much, we all have different opinions.Anyways ,I really hope you will be a great host next year in Amsterdam.
You’d never be such a C**T, wow. You sure look like one with that comment though. No need for that word.
If the difference was a huge gap, I would’ve totally understand. The Netherlands was only ‘8’ points behind in jury votes to finish ‘third’, and 30 in televote to finish as the runner-up. He slayed in each category and got the approval of both audience and juries, while it was one-sided unexpected victory for both Sweden and Norway.
Waiting for Amsterdam 2020 now, still I wish you best of luck
Just shut up! NL has best song since Euphoria. three juries gave it 12 p, Keino was more fanhyped!
Gosh, calm down. No need to be so rude. Norway fan hyped? Lol, please – Netherlands was fan hyped way before 1st rehearsals. Duncan was more humble about his chances but fans hyped it up for months. And wow, 3 juries? such a big number. He did not win by a land slide by any means. 27 points between him and Italy. Calm down.
Bandido, do you really think this was the best song since Euphoria? Let’s be honest… it’s not. And you can’t possibly say the Norwegian song was fan hyped…. it was actually completely invisible before the contest even started, like it is now….after the contest. Downloads and streaming are way behind many, many other countries. Still Norway got the most votes…. and that’s that. I’m happy for Norway. Fan hyped were the Swedish, Russian and Dutch song. I think it weren’t even mainly the Dutch who did that and also not the Swedes. Europe just always hyped Sweden, even with songs… Read more »
The most boring and iritating song win, this time jury was right. Sweden must win, N.Macedonia the best voice and Checz Rep. the cutest song
I wouldn’t go that far. Slovenia and Germany seemed more boring and irritating, but I must admit Arcade did nothing to me. I was unable to connect with the song. It sounded like a movie theme from a war drama or something. And I can’t stand drama. I want to party. 😛
Yes, I like party songs, but also balads if they are good, but this Arcade not good for me. Even Slovenia Avatars were better for me.
Arcade, Soldi and She Got Me slaying the charts.
Don’t forget the Norwegian song. I saw that in a few charts as well
Duncan’s even doing well on the iTunes charts here in Canada!
What did Duncan mean by his winning statement “music first always”? Sounded a bit patronizing, like Salvador’s statements that his music is real and somehow better than the freak shows….
He want to says that other songs are not music because the other have show, but I think his song is just bad and wiwiblogs and other blogs write too much about him to made him favourite. If this songs is art then jury will recognize that. And yes Sweden didnt win only because he is black, this is so obvious and so sad. #proudforsweden
It would be incredibly sad (but perhaps not surprising) if racism played a part in Sweden’s poor televote score. Sometimes it is a very depressing world that we live in.
Yes very depressing, especially reading all your annoying and envious comments here … you’re such a bad loser… poor you.
Demented crap. Don’t play the victim always. They voted for italy. What a shame that all the swedish narcissists only talk about how they were robbed instead of congratulating the Netherlands. What is wrong with you.
I think you are incredibly naive if you think it didn’t play a part. Take a look at football, especially when played in Eastern Europe and you’ll have your answer.
Why wouldn’t there be truth to this?
He did not claim his music is better. He just claimed that music is essence for him and means the most in his heart tk him. Later in the press conference he said that fireworks in a show are very good when they suit the song. Just for his beautiful calm song they don’t fit.
No, he didn’t mean that circus staging was not a good thing. He always explained he likes the circus staging. He loved Netta for example. He just said it didn’t match with his song, but he could do it or use it if he wrote another song with another beat and topic.
He just meant that music brings people together and that Eurovision should be about bringing people together through music (and staging).
Yet another messaiah. Hang him on the cross then!
https://www.change.org/p/bbc-eurovision-drop-the-bbc-from-picking-the-uk-entry-for-2020/share_for_starters?just_created=true
Please look at my petition, and if you could maybe sign it that would be amazing, thank you.
Many people are saying that Norway was robbed because they won the televote and that the juries should have ranked them higher… well, it’s obvious that the system is far from flawless, but strategies, conspiracies and subjectivity affects all countries. Just to use as an example: the Netherlands got televote points from ALL the 40 countries. However, the Russian, Italian and Azeri juries (Netherlands’s main contenders) did not give them a single point. The Russian jury members, in fact, all ranked Netherlands around 18th-20th place (seriously?!) and they didn’t give any points to Italy, Sweden or Australia either. That is… Read more »
How does any of what you have just written justify Norway being robbed?
I am sorry, Kosey. If you are unable to think by yourself I cannot help you with that.
I already know the answer Rimig, mate, I was just seeing if you knew how to construct a coherent argument, and you’ve now confirmed the answer, cheers!
Explain to me how The Netherlands, Italy and Switzerland are on top of every European download chart and Norway is only to be found in 2. There has been no robbing. I understand how horrible this must feel, I would be angry too, but let’s be honest…..the high televoting score for Norway must have been a technical error. The song is just mediocre. I mean, I like the song ….and that always says it all!
Technical error? What, just because you don’t agree with it? How insulting. Norway’s song was not my favourite by any means but I can see how it won the televote. People liked it, so they voted for it? Just because you think differently doesn’t mean their high score must be down to a technical error. Gosh. People are allowed to vote for their favourite song, geez. More people voted for it than the Netherlands. So what? He still won.
Emma, I’m sorry you didn’t get that my ‘technical error’ part, was a joke.
Just saying that nobody even listened or mentioned the Norwegian song before the contest and they are also not really downloading and streaming it now…. so what happened that Saturday evening is difficult to explain.
Fun to think that it was a tecnical error or the immens Norwegian diaspora…. every year there is a song liked the televote that is beyond me. Poland a couple of years ago is one.
Norway is not robbed because song is not good, Sweden was robbed ( so little vote from public, yeah right) . On Euuvrovision can vote everybody but only with white skin, this is so sad.
I agree with you about Sweden, but not about Norway – it was a beautiful song that did not deserve to be bludgeoned like it was by the juries.
Juries rarely have connections with ethnic noises. Romania 2017 might not be an exaxt sample but it can give us the idea why.
@Steve, I don’t think it has anything (or mostly) to do with color, as the same happened last year with Benjamin. I believe there is a general feeling that Sweden is always overrated by the juries and I think that the average televoter tries to compensate for that. Of course, that is very unfair, and I totally believe Sweden deserved much more televote points this year and that John would have been a totally deserved winner too (I also believe that Benjamin didn’t deserve all the jury points he got last year, though)
Do you really think most people in Europe think “oh, I won’t vote for Sweden because the juries always overscore them?” Maybe in the bubble of Eurovision that is true, but at least 99% of Europe wouldn’t have a clue about the history of jury voting. Benjamin last year was not a good song. I fear that there could be something sinister going on.
Kosey, do you have a clue what”@steve” at the start of my comment means? It means it is not addressed to you, “mate” (unless you two were actually the same person, what would make quite sense).
However, let me give you some advice from the heart (feel free to dismiss it, though, I do not really care that much): spend some more time enjoying life instead of spending it all here critizising and spreading hate, cause you sound kinda bitter!
😉
I’m sorry, I know I have been too angry on this site this past day or so. I care very much about injustice, and it pains me to read about it especially on a site like this which is normally very open-minded and inclusive. I will never stop calling it out when I see it, but i’ll try not to upset other people who also have kindness in their heart.
True, Eastern European countries mostly don’t vote black. This time, Sweden having a song that was just nothing special might have a tiny little thing to do with it as well.
About the swedish lady who reverted the score it may be time for limiting who can be elected to a jury. She is a member of the cheesy swedish pop band alcasar and don’t know the difference between 1 and 12. A similiar case was in the danish jury with a 70 year old woman who sang in the 70’s. Because you sing/sang it doesn’t mean you are a music proffessional – whatever that means.
Congrats to Duncan…. may this victory be a springboard for your career. And congrats to the Netherlands for getting to host Eurovision 2020
I want to congratulate Mahmood as well…. even though not the winner, 2nd place in the finals and already 2 #1 singles in your home country, is a victory in it’s own way …. I can’t wait to see what how his career goes.
Duncan voice is so bad omg, he will not have career at all. Mahmood was better and Sweden was the best. Sweden must win.
A bad voice? Maybe you don’t like the sound, but bad? You weird girl!
Well, his voice wasn’t a strong point of his act, for sure. Having listened to the song the first time in my life live in the semis, I sincerely thought for the first 2-3 lines that he was singing in Dutch.
Just some ramblings: 1) The big difference between the juries’ voting results and the televote shows that something does not match. Maybe it’s time to adjust the weighting to a 45/55 or 40/60. But let’s be careful: the masses do not always have a taste for quality. 2) By looking at Cyprus and Malta’s results, we could conclude that the Fuego recycling did not work much. 3) Many countries should take off their blindfold about Sweden. Yes, Sweden is a powerhouse with a prestigious music industry; but this time they brought in an Austria 2018 duplicate -a song that could… Read more »
Well looking at Switzerland i would not say that it does not work using Swedish help. Russia and Norway also used swedes. And Azerbadjan. Even the winner used some Swedish help. Italy is an exception . However i do agree with someone here who said that maybe one need to really state how everyone uses different professionals from different countries so that it will be obvoius.
You told the truth masses dont have taste for quality, jury votes were real vote. Sweden must win, this was happy song, but they chosen this deppresive Sam Smith/Chris Martin song, very bad.
In a contest with so many cheap and poor songs qualifying to the final, in the end there is just quality at the top. But I think the format needs big changes, it’s not normal to continue with the political vote from the juries. I thought their role is to cancel the political vote from the public, but I see that they are just accentuating it.
Jury votes were better then public vote. This Netherland song quality?! Are you sure? I think I heard that song 1000 times before ESC (Sam Smith?!). This is nothing new and orginal, and it is very boring and irritating.
It’s a modern radio song, quite cute, but what won in fact was the artists’ interpretation. He put charisma into the performance and was great vocally, it’s pretty unusual to sing that good a more of a studio version song. Otherwise, yes, not much originality and not something standing out for the history, but let’s face it, someone had to win, there was no outstanding entry. In the end, Netherlands didn’t win by a big margin, so I think the result is fair.
Accentuating it?! I agree that juries and televoters suffer from similar problems, but have in mind that their actual rankings were extremely different this year – they are supposed to balance each other out, which they did splendidly.
He looks like he’s about to eat the trophy.
He looks like he is sick
This is the biggest robbery in the history of the contest! Norway was a CLEAR televote winner in both semi-finals and the grand-final. Norway is the true winner of ESC 2019! The jury just needs to go.
I feel cheated. People spent their hard earned money to vote and they did not end up getting their favorite song be crowned the winner. I am devasted for KEiiNO.
Heart-broken.
Blame your neighbour and stop giving him 12 point.
Norway was strong, totally different from The Netherlands though in terms of genre, I think that both would have been meritous winners. The Netherlands was a little more original, Norway was kinda clicheic. But I think you’re right about the juries, Norway would have deserved to get much more from the juries.
Omg, if somebody was robbed this is Sweden. They robbed John only because he is black.
nonsens
omg I can’t 😀 😀 😀
If we had more black artists in the competition, maybe we would have a wider pool to test the hypothesis but sadly there was only one. I wonder why that is?
Yeah, yeah, sure :)) Sweden was great by staging and voice, but the song was kinda weak. Enjoyable, but not something memorable, 6th place is even maybe higher than it deserves.
Tell me you’re joking, right!?
Duncan is not original – he screams a Coldplay rip off.
I’m sad that Keiino got destroyed by the juries, too (they were my winner this year), but I mean, Top 5 is still really good. I’m extremely happy they won the televote!
Thing is, while Norway was my winner, Netherlands was my runner-up (and Italy my 3rd, call me basic), so I’m 100% down with NL winning.
Compared to both semifinals, the Grand Final was so much better. A couple of comments….First, switching Australia and Russia would have made more sense in the Final Combined Results. Also with Sweden coming first in one of the two votes, it was surprising that they only placed sixth in the combined results. Also, our viewing party thought Spain should have been higher. Why did the juries hate him so much. Lastly, the oddsmakers predicted Duncan to win by a landslide which meant they thought he would have won the jury or televise. Like Jamala in 2016, he won neither and… Read more »
About spain I think it was too late in show. People was tired.
Congrats to the Netherlands, you made a proper comeback after many dark years at ESC. I hope my country (UK) can follow soon, but our broadcaster simply doesn’t care! I seriously hope this is a wake up call for them!
Hello people from Slovakia! Congratulations to The Netherlands and Italy! They were the best! But I have so many negative thoughts about Eurovision ! Where to start from? So Norway was 1st in the televote but juries had them in 11th place of the Semi final? Seriously? Also They give so much power to juries in order to vote to neighbours or based on political criteria. Sweden again and again was so high in juries . I am mean first place? Was a good song but not the best! Also I can’t understand why people BOO Greece and Cyprus for… Read more »
Lina Hedlund made a mistake. She gave her scores upside down, the Swedish press reported on it. Very unprofessional.
Excellent points.
Best comment of the forum, I feel everything you say and I think you’re right.
Happy with Netherlands winning (Best song won) but I will never understand how juries and the public vote. It’s frustrating to see Sweden overrated and overrated every single year. Okay their song was ok but what the hell do they do so high. its like even if they send a dude farting they’d somehow be still higher. Plus the huge bias towards generic songs is unbelievable. Juries placed an authentic, beautiful and unique song like Portugal last in their semifinal, they put 7th a repetitive song that made no sense like Czech Republic, they disqualified Albania & Norway and qualified… Read more »
exactly my thought….. ALL juries change the results from the semi final to final in order to achieve what they want every time . A Swedish jury had last The Netherlands in semi final and first in the final!! and many things like that .
Adam You should check your sources. What you are saying about the Swedish jury is not true.
you dont appreciate good music. The music professionals do.
Music professionals can also be biased, you know.
Sweden song was the best. This Netherland song is boring and deppresed (also plagiat)
Well, if you say so…
Oh yeah, any recommendation on great stage designers for 2020, besides you-know-who?
No doubt it will be Ingvar Feodor Kamprad
The length of the broadcast is starting to become an obstacle. With the amount of participants, it is no longer possible to finish at midnight (I understand that), but an average of four hours is too long, even for die-hard fans. The show itself, the amount of participants and the voting is just fine, but do we really need 30 minutes to vote? Really? All those items, extra acts (ouch, Madonna…) and 3 recaps take the momentum out of the show. It is just too long. Go back to 15 minutes max and then start the jury part after that.… Read more »
The interval act was too long for me. Long and not rewarding at all except for the Idan Raichel Project which I LOVED. The former ESC segment was cringe, Madonna’s performance – I can’t comment because I used her segment for a nap. Gal Gadot’s segment was only about Tel Aviv. 15 minutes to vote is more than enough.
Visit the USA during Eurovision week, watch the show at 2pm from the SVT app (or start it at 6pm like we did), pause the broadcast whenever you like, and fast forward through the parts you don’t want to watch. We were done by 10pm. Also, you have to stay away from social media starting at 2pm until you are through with the broadcast. Best wishes from Texas!
i am confusion- if the televote awarded norway the best in the semi finals why in hell were they given a bad running order position??? They would perhaps do even better in a later position in BOTH the jury and televote (probably still not won but whatever). i have an issue with trying to bury a threat which i think is obvious is what has happened here, i am angry and i want justice lol
some more points:
-the sheep need to stop voting for sweden every time, it’s embarassing and obvious which countries will vote (baltics/nordics), this is literally what the jury is there to stop (also the former yugoslavian republics)
-congrats the netherlands, not my fav but good for you
-australia should withdraw- i have a feeling they can’t win because they’re australia ygm?
-the new announcing system is too confusing and i don’t think norway got enough credit for winning, i didnt realise theyd won until this morning ://
But they’re not stopping it, sometimes they’re enhancing it. How do you stop a sheep from beeing a sheep?
This is the best possible outcome in this finale. My two top favorite won nr1 and nr2. As Duncan said, music first! Quality won!
No, dictatorship won.
Oh yeah? Why is that?
It’s fairly obvious, you can see what I’ve written in other parts of this thread – a small group of people who think they know better than everyone else and have some God-given right to decide what “quality” is. Writing a phrase like “Quality won” is so facile and deliberately antagonistic – perhaps that’s what you were aiming for?