Before we look to Eurovision 2020 in The Netherlands, we still have a few results from the 2019 contest to share with you. And don’t worry — it’s not another jury scandal!
A few weeks ago we asked you to review all 41 of this year’s postcards. For those that need a quick reminder: the postcards are those tantalising 50-second clips between songs that introduce us to each act. They also introduce us to the country that has the honour of hosting and gives us a flavour of the country’s most loved places and treasures.
Our readers cast a total of 13,298 votes and the results are now in. We did not use Ernst & Young. We do have a valid result. Congratulations to Iceland’s Hatari — you did it!
The Winning Postcard
Hatari’s postcard took them to Beit She’an National Park. It’s situated in northern Israel in the Galilee region — where the Harod Valley and Jordan Valley meet. It’s also one of Israel’s largest archaeological sites. Beit She’an is mentioned in the Bible several times and is best known as the site where King Saul and his sons where hung from the city walls.
Today the main attraction is the National Park where tourists can get a taste of Israel’s history through archaeological remains, which date from each major historic period. The reconstruction offers a clear picture of what the city would have looked like.
The postcard whizzed through the Roman streets and into the amphitheatre — which is still used today — where the Icelanders danced with other serious looking people who wore white costumes with black belts around their torsos. They wouldn’t look too out of place in one of Hatari’s stage shows.
Hatari’s lead vocalists Matthias and Klemens wore matching white kimonos over their risqué performance attire. On the whole it was a memorable postcard that managed to showcase Israel’s history while also capturing Hatari’s eccentric charisma. A worthy winner.
Best of the Rest
In second it’s Bilal Hassani from France, who shot his postcard at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The museum houses a comprehensive collection of classical and contemporary art, especially Israeli art, a sculpture garden and a youth wing. The Museum was also the location of the Semi Final allocation draws. The modern setting worked well for Bilal, who threw some very modern shapes and major hand choreography.
Portugal’s Conan Osiris took third by dancing in his onesie on the Red Sea, while Israel’s own Kobi Marimi swept to fourth by tango-ing in Jerusalem. Rounding out the Top 5 was Eurovision winner Duncan Laurence of The Netherlands. He took in the view of Mount Arbel — and has now been celebrated with a meme on Twitter.
Falling into Last
Our readers’ least favourite postcard — with only 45 votes — comes from Montenegro’s D Mol.
The “Falling” sextet carried surfboards out on Mikhmoret Beach. Lying north of Tel Aviv between Netanya and Caesarea, Mikhmoret is a quiet, white sandy beach popular with windsurfers because of the favourable conditions for surfing, windsurfing and kitesurfing. It may be popular with them but not so much with you guys. Sorry D Mol!
Here is the final table of results
1. Iceland: Hatari – 1374 VOTES (10.33%)
2. France: Bilal Hassani – 997 VOTES (7.5%)
3. Portugal: Conan Osiris – 895 VOTES (6.73%)
4. Israel: Kobi Marimi – 773 VOTES (5.81%)
5. Netherlands: Duncan Laurence – 625 VOTES (4.7%)
6. Spain: Miki – 544 VOTES (4.09%)
7. Italy: Mahmood – 521 VOTES (3.92%)
8. Poland: Tulia – 481 VOTES (3.62%)
9. Russia: Sergey Lazarev – 420 VOTES (3.16%)
10. Switzerland: Luca Hanni – 404 VOTES (3.04%)
11. Greece: Katerine Duska – 386 VOTES (2.9%)
12. Romania: Ester Peony – 363 VOTES (2.73%)
13. Australia: Kate Miller-Heidke – 354 VOTES (2.66%)
14. Cyprus: Tamta – 317 VOTES (2.38%)
15. Czech Republic: Lake Malawi – 317 (2.38%)
16. Norway: Keiino – 307 VOTES (2.31%)
17. Georgia: Oto Nemsadze – 299 VOTES (2.25%)
18. Malta: Michela – 285 VOTES (2.14%)
19. Albania: Jonida Maliqi – 266 VOTES (2%)
20. Azerbaijan: Chingiz – 257 VOTES (1.93%)
21. Sweden: John Lundvik – 246 VOTES (1.85%)
22. Slovenia: Zala Kralj & Gasper Santl – 239 VOTES (1.8%)
23. Belarus: Zena – 238 VOTES (1.79%)
24. Denmark: Leonora – 235 VOTES (1.77%)
25. Germany: S!sters – 233 VOTES (1.75%)
26. Armenia: Srbuk – 186 VOTES (1.4%)
27. North Macedonia: Tamara Todevska – 169 VOTES (1.27%)
28. Serbia: Nevena Bozovic – 158 VOTES (1.19%)
29. United Kingdom: Michael Rice – 154 VOTES (1.16%)
30. Austria: Paenda – 151 VOTES (1.14%)
31. Ireland: Sarah McTernan – 141 VOTES (1.06%)
32. Hungary: Joci Papai – 132 VOTES (0.99%)
33. Estonia: Victor Crone – 131 VOTES (0.99%)
34. Belgium: Eliot – 128 VOTES (0.96%)
35. Finland: Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman – 122 VOTES (0.92%)
36. Lithuania: Jurij Veklenko – 97 VOTES (0.73%)
37. San Marino: Serhat – 89 VOTES (0.67%)
38. Croatia: Roko – 87 VOTES (0.65%)
39. Latvia: Carousel – 76 VOTES (0.57%)
40. Moldova: Anna Odobescu – 56 VOTES (0.42%)
41. Montenegro: D Mol 45 VOTES (0.34%)
What was your favourite postcard and did it make the top 5? Or were you one of the 43 people who loved D Mol on the beach? What could The Netherlands do next year to make the postcards even better? Let us know in the comments below.
Well deserved Hatari! Well done, Iceland!
I really like Portugal postcard my 1st and second is Ireland it’s just so beautiful filmed & all the exotic vibes. Postcards at this year are very good produced & represented
Correction : Conan’s postcard was shot at the dead sea not the red sea.
I Relly got summer vibes with Cyprus Postcard!
Loved the postcards this year, they where fun, while really showcasing the sights, heritage and culture of the host nation. Definitely my favourites alongside 2011, 2015 and 2018.
Netherlands, Portugal, Ireland, Israel, Russia and UK where some of my favorites.
There is only one qualifier among the bottom 12 in this ranking. Do the less successful countries in the contest also have the worse postcards? Interesting, but I don’t believe that.
Inshallah, may allah light their way to his path.
Really well choreographed, unique, well coordinated with graphics…. it’s the perfect choice.
Yay. They also had the cooles song, sexiest boys and girls, best stage !! Hatari 4 ever !
Ew.
Personally I think Hungary’s postcard was the best.
So the Hatari fans voted in droves, no surprise there.
Also, am I the only one who saw Moldova’s postcard being shot in a vineyard as a sneaky reference to ‘Ca Adriano Celentano’? 😉
I’m happy that Hatari won because I did really enjoy their postcard, but I’d have loved to see Georgia come higher than 17th – it was so cool to see a different side to Oto and it was probably my favourite this year
Also glad to see that I can’t spell my own name
IT’S WHAT THEY DESERVE!
I enjoyed the postcards this year. Eurovision should never ever drop them. Regarding Tel Aviv 2019, I loved those postcards with a retro vibe: Greece, Serbia, Austria… but I also really liked the modern approach in the Cyprus one, for example. I understood that not all contestants may be into dancing, but at least KAN managed to make that fit into the general concept.
I just wonder what is coming in the following years. Wouldn’t Eurovision run out of concepts for future editions?
Well 2016 and 2017 were very similar in their overall concept, with just a few twists (showing the artists off in their lives beyond Eurovision) as were 2015 and 2018 to each other (contestants being tourists in the host country), so you can always add a new twist to an old concept.
I loved Hatari’s postcard, but I think Romania should’ve placed higher. Her dancing on a mountaintop looked so mystical.
A legendary location, with a legendary artist to grace it. Well done Hatari, I’m really glad you won something this season – you deserve it!
Hatari was one of my biggest crimes of the year. Eurovision is no place for politics. Please look into their political views before you blindly support them. It’s revolting.
Your username is pretty accurate.
I looked a lot into their politics and it makes me love them even more !
I don’t know if each country edited their own postcard, or if KAN did them all, but a big shoutout to them because the editing was so cool and slick this year, and it was awesome to see each act showcased front and center (some years they don’t show the acts at all lol)
the dancing theme got a little bit old when watching the grand final, cause in some of the postcards the acts aren’t even really dancing- just doing like hand motions or bare-minimum stuff and the styles were repeated a lot. but it was a cute idea
Think it was KAN, generally if the postcards are filmed in the host country the bulk of production would occur within KAN and not the country’s own broadcaster