Eurovision is all about reaching through the TV screen and grabbing a global audience. But being crowned the winner doesn’t always indicate chart success. Jamala, who won the 2016 contest, didn’t manage to dent the European market and Duncan Laurence, who won the most recent edition in May, hasn’t managed to leverage his win into long-lasting chart success either.
But looking further down the scoreboard from Tel Aviv, our readers have identified a talent they think has what it takes to hit the radio waves and earn some cold hard cash. After counting your votes, we can now reveal that Italy’s Mahmood has won the Vision Music Award 2019 for Most Likely To Succeed Commercially.
Mahmood takes the VMA by one of the biggest margins, with more than half of your votes going to the Italian stallion. It’s perhaps unsurprising that we expect great things from Mahmood, as over 100,000,000 of us have streamed Soldi on Spotify. Mamhood ain’t just racking up the Spotify hits. He’s also a YouTube sensation, as his Eurovision performance video managed to be the most viewed video on the official Eurovision YouTube channel since Tel Aviv. It’s called momentum.
But Mahmood hasn’t got time to rest on his laurels. Instead he’s launching a European tour, releasing new music such as his sizzling new single “Barrio“, and he even found time to open for fellow megastar Lauryn Hill when she performed in Italy.
Mahmood joins an esteemed list of former VMA winners, who have gone on to top the charts at home and abroad. These artists include Belgium’s Blanche in 2017, Australia’s Dami Im in 2016, Belgium’s Loïc Nottet in 2015 and The Netherlands’ Common Linnets in 2014.
Most Likely to Succeed Commercially: Full Results
1. Italy – Mahmood: 1,947 votes (50.1%)
2. France – Bilal Hassani: 330 votes (8.49%)
3. Cyprus – Tamta: 483 votes (12.43%)
4. The Netherlands – Duncan Laurence: 944 votes (24.29%)
5. Sweden – John Lundvik: 182 votes (4.68%)
Vision Music Awards 2019: The Nominees
This award is just one of a dozen awards we have launched as part of the Vision Music Awards 2019 (VMAs).
Our 13 categories — from best dressed to most wronged at ESC — identify the contestants who left the biggest impression on Eurovision fans, regardless of whether they won the contest or not.
You can watch the nominations video and read more about the awards here.
A strange “Top 5” when number 4 has three times as many votes as number 2. And I can understand that the author of the article wants to contrast Mahmood with others, but he does not stick to the facts. Arcade was in the charts in more countries than Soldi. It is true that Soldi has more streams than Arcade, but most of them were streamed in Italy, after Mahmood had won San Remo. Internationally Arcade had more streams. What the author obviously does not know is that Duncan Laurence explicitly said he does not want to rush releasing music.… Read more »
No I think Soldi has internationally more streams. But that is hardly the point. The author makes it seem as if Arcade flopped. But it had more success then any song from the contests of 2018 and 2017. And we have to go back to Frans’ “If I were sorry” to find a song to have similar success.
And if we really have to compare Jamala and Duncan:
1944 has 8.110.891 Spotify streams
Arcade has 73.651.508 Spotify streams
Happy birthday to Mahmood! ???
I forgot to link this article, published today by Time and dedicated to the wonderful artist Mahmood
https://time.com/5673880/mahmood-eurovision-italy/?amp=true#click=https://t.co/StkYqkmice
Mahmood is more and more a sensation in European music… fresh, innovative and talented.
In October he’ll play in Tel Aviv, where people adores him, then he’ll do a concert for the annual event of the European Parliament’s Friends of Music, where the best and most talented artists in Europe and beyond are invited to perform.
And just the day after this event, Mahmood will start his European Good Vibes tour, with a lot of dates already sold out.
We can just wish him to continue with his wonderful career and his amazing songs, a real present for us
most likely ? he already happened. he’s already succeding. he had to add a second london concert date bc the first one sold out.
alessandro not only stunned us Italians already confident in him but Israel itself and all the contest participants and foreign spectators
Mahmood is our little big Italian proud!
Jamala has a pretty good career in Ukraine….also Duncan was considerably less established than Mahmood, so of course the latter could start making new songs quicker than the former. I predict Duncan to have continued success, although that Mahmood would remain more successful in terms of chart success.
both started from zero, mahmood was unknown before sanremo. the difference is that unlike duncan, mahmood isn’t an overhyped industry plant who can’t sell 600 tickets for a concert in london lmfao
At least Duncan’s certifications in Norway and Belgium are real. Not like made up to make success seem bigger then it really is.
soldi is also gold eligible in norway, it’s well over 3 million streams which is the threshold so idk whatchu talkin bout
And Arcade is gold eligible in Sweden. But you won’t hear Duncan or his fans brag about that.
well so is soldi, which is also eligible for gold in holland + the platinum threshold in switzerland has long been passed, his label will officialize it at the end of the year as it usually happens there. mahmood is TABS, dunce cannot relate
Eligible is another word of doesn’t exist. Just like the international success of Barrio.
Is debuting at Sanremo which has 10 million viewers on average really starting from zero when comparing it to a song which was uploaded onto YouTube. Duncan isn’t an industry plant either so you can take your “tin foil hat” off, just because you don’t like Arcade doesn’t mean there is a conspiracy behind it’s success. Even though I’m not hating on Mahmood and I’m happy for his success he hasn’t managed to sell out a show in Lugano that’s held in a venue of only 450. So maybe stop making fun of Duncan’s apparent failures as if his career… Read more »
The shade against Jamala and Duncan… I cannot—
It’s what Mahmood deserves!
Given the fact that it has already succeeded, I’d say yes, highly likely.
I guess it’s time for Europe to prepare for solo good vibes, solo good vibes! The potential of the rising star slumbered in Mahmood and now Eurovision opened the decisive door! Mahmood will conquer Europe with attitude, charisma, talent and uniqueness guided by the invincible gauntlet of his selfmade repertoire of fresh, diversified, meaningful and characteristic music. Maestro Alessandro will begin his conquest beyond the borders of Italy to spread his magic and his good vibes in every corner of Europe! Roll out the red carpet and start playing fanfares for the kings arrival!
To put things in perspective, this is how Mahmood’s new single Barrio does commercially at the moment:
iTunes:
#8 Italy
#168 Switzerland
Spotify:
#12 Italy
#196 Greece
YouTube:
#7 Italy
Apple Music:
#9 Italy
#130 Greece
#152 Israel
#152 Spain
#176 Switzerland
#446 Luxembourg
He won’t conquer Europe with Italian songs…. but I could easily see him being successful with a Spanish language album.
“Duncan Laurence, who won the most recent edition in May, hasn’t managed to leverage his win into long-lasting chart success either.”
The contest is four months old. Maybe it is time to give artists at least some time to work on their career before making these judgements. Arcade charted in more countries then Soldi. Is gold in Norway, Belgium and platinum in the Netherlands. Arcade has 73 million streams on Spotify. Duncan goes on a European tour, several of these concerts are already sold out. But according to the writer of this article he didn’t have any long lasting success.
He was in the studio last week.
https://twitter.com/dunclaurence/status/1169888895506366464
arcade left the charts quicker than a ray of light. it’s all bout longevity, which mahmood has while dunce stays forgotten n canceled
Yes, Mahmood has so much success that the only country in which his new song is streamed is Italy. Today ranked 12 in the Spotify chart. Nowhere to be seen in other countries.
let’s see how dunce’s second single does if there’s ever one lmao
Duncan tweeted today that he listened to his next single for the first time, so it’s only a matter of time (pardon the Sennek pun) until it’s released. As Bigger said, he wants to take his time to make sure everything is just right – sometimes good things take time and care