It’s a regular fixture on the fan calendar, where OGAE fan club members decide their favourite of the national final acts who didn’t quite make it to Eurovision. Now the clubs have had their say and declared France’s Seemone the winner of the OGAE Second Chance Contest 2019 with her Destination Eurovision entry “Tous les deux”.
This year’s edition of the “visual event” was hosted by OGAE Italy, after Sanremo act Annalisa won Second Chance 2018 with her song “Il mondo prima di te”.
Italy came very close to winning for a second time. Sanremo super finalists Il Volo placed second in the OGAE poll on 292 points, just two points behind Seemone’s 294.
In third place was Melodifestivalen comeback queen Anna Bergendahl whose “Ashes to Ashes” earned 272 points.
Australia took fourth, with electro-pop duo Electric Fields. Their popular entry “2000 and Whatever” clocked up 242 points.
Rounding out the top five was the outspoken Unser Lied für Israel act Aly Ryan, whose national final entry “Wear Your Love” confirmed its status as a Eurovision fan favourite with 185 points.
The contest also had a few surprises. Bella Santiago’s “Army of Love” and María Villar’s “Muérdeme” were huge fan favourites to win each their national finals. However, several months on, enthusiasm seems to have cooled for their songs, picking up 75 and 71 points respectively.
At the bottom of the table, András Kállay-Saunders’s duo The Middletonz was 22nd with only five points for “Roses” and Finland’s Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman was 23rd with his national final song “Superman” on just three points. While in last place, Portugal’s mid-table Festival da Canção finisher Surma did worse with nil points for the avant-garde “Pugna”.
Each OGAE club whose country selected their Eurovision entry using a national final nominated one unsuccessful national final song as their entry for the Second Chance Contest.
Missing from the 2019 national final season is an act from Montevizija and Georgian Idol, as neither Montenegro nor Georgia have an OGAE club. Instead OGAE Rest of the World voted between the national finalists from Montenegro, Georgia and Moldova (which also doesn’t have an OGAE) and selected Moldova’s Maxim Zavidia as their entry.
OGAE Second Chance Contest 2019 – results
- France: Seemone – “Tous Les Deux” – 294 points
- Italy: Il Volo – “Musica Che Resta” – 292 points
- Sweden: Anna Bergendahl – “Ashes to Ashes” – 272 points
- Australia: Electric Fields – “2000 and Whatever” – 242 points
- Germany: Aly Ryan – “Wear Your Love” – 185 points
- Denmark: Julie and Nina – “League of Light” – 159 points
- Norway: Mørland – “En Livredd Mann” – 128 points
- Czech Republic: Barbora Mochowa – “True Colours” – 108 points
- Lithuania: Monika Marija – “Light On” – 88 points
- Romania: Bella Santiago – “Army of Love” – 75 points
- Spain: María Villar – “Muérdeme” – 71 points
- Ukraine: Kazka – “Apart” – 65 points
- United Kingdom: Kerrie-Anne – “Sweet Lies” – 62 points
- Croatia: Lorena – “Tower of Babylon” – 40 points
- Albania: Mirud – “Nene” – 36 points
- Slovenia: Ula Lozar – “Fridays” – 35 points
- Serbia: Ivana Vladović & Wonder Strings – “Moje Bol” – 28 points
- Iceland: Friðrik Ómar – “Hvað ef ég get ekki elskað?” – 24 points
- Moldova (OGAE Rest of the World): Maxim Zavidia – “I Will Not Surrender” – 24 points
- Estonia: Lumervav feat. Inga – “Milline päev” – 14 points
- Latvia: Edgars Kreilis – “Cherry Absinthe” – 12 points
- Hungary: The Middletonz – “Roses” – 5 points
- Finland: Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman – “Superman” – 3 points
- Portugal: Surma – “Pugna” – 0 points
Wiwi Poll results
Earlier in the year, we asked wiwibloggs readers who you thought should win the OGAE Second Chance Contest 2019. Y’all had roughly the same favourites as the overall contest winners.
Your favourite was Australia’s Electric Fields, who took the top spot with 15.02% of the vote. Other OGAE favourites in the top five were Germany’s Aly Ryan, France’s Seemone and Sweden’s Anna Bergendahl.
Wiwibloggs readers also liked the UK’s Kerrie-Anne whose “Sweet Lies” placed fourth in the pool. “Sweet Lies” didn’t do as well in the overall OGAE poll, taking a mid-table result in 13th place.
- Australia: Electric Fields – “2000 and Whatever” 15.02% (1,695 votes)
- Germany: Aly Ryan – “Wear Your Love” 10.43% (1,177 votes)
- France: Seemone – “Tous les deux” 7.2% (812 votes)
- United Kingdom: Kerrie-Anne – “Sweet Lies” 6.63% (748 votes)
- Sweden: Anna Bergendahl – “Ashes to Ashes” 6.58% (743 votes)
- Romania: Bella Santiago – “Army of Love” 6.23% (703 votes)
- Spain: María Villar – “Muérdeme” 6.19% (698 votes)
- Lithuania: Monika Marija – “Light On” 5.06% (571 votes)
- Croatia: Lorena – “Tower of Babylon” 3.95% (446 votes)
- Norway: Mørland – “En livredd mann” 3.9% (440 votes)
- Italy: Il Volo – “Musica che resta” 3.89% (439 votes)
- Czech Republic: Barbora Mochowa – “True Colours” 3.75% (423 votes)
- Ukraine: Kazka – “Apart” 3.59% (405 votes)
- Hungary: The Middletonz – “Roses” 2.97% (335 votes)
- Denmark: Julie And Nina – “League of Light” 2.85% (322 votes)
- Albania: Mirud – “Nene” 2.09% (236 votes)
- Latvia: Edgars Kreilis – “Cherry Absinthe” 2.01% (227 votes)
- Portugal: Surma – “Pugna” 1.75% (197 votes)
- Slovenia: Ula Lozar – “Fridays” 1.75% (197 votes)
- Estonia: Lumervav Feat. Inga – “Milline Päev” 1.12% (126 votes)
- Finland: Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman – “Superman” 1.11% (125 votes)
- Serbia: Ivana Vladović & Wonder Strings – “Moje bol” 1.09% (123 votes)
- Iceland: Friðrik Ómar – “Hvað ef ég get ekki elskað?” 0.53% (60 votes)
- Moldova: Maxim Zavidia – “I Will Not Surrender” 0.31% (37 votes)
What do you think of the OGAE Second Chance Contest 2019 results? How would “Tous les deux” have faired at Eurovision? Should any of these acts enter a national final again for 2020? Tell us your thoughts below!
Not a bad set of results compared to previous years but Denmark and Slovenia were far too high. Mirud and Mørland were still my winners here.
Mokina 9th and Mirud 15th????????? aff
How did Arisa’s Mi Sento Bene not get more love? It should have won!
Well, it’s no “Controvento”, but still a fun, feel-good song that I listen to from time to time.
Btw, I’m still bitter about the fact that of all the years after their comeback, they had to choose 2014 for an internal selection. A year with a great San Remo winner, that’s actually eager to participate in Eurovision. And we got “La mia citta” instead – a pretty mediocre song and the only Italy’s finish below the 20th place.
I would really like to know why and how this particular entry got chosen internally. It was like Italy wanted to sit that year out in terms of quality and being relevant. Meanwhile, I can still think of a couple more Sanremo songs from this year that should have won Eurovision 2019.
No, in fact the broadcaster revealed the participant a whole month before the Sanremo final. And Arisa said in the interviews that she dreams of participating in the contest.
Wow. How mean. I hope Arisa can keep writing those great songs and win again. The question remains: What possessed RAI to consciously select that thing? A mystery to me.
I believe her too, she even recorded Amar Pelos Dois on her recent album. I hope she gets there one day.
I wonder how Controvento would have fared. I’m not sure I have enough faith in either the juries or the public to be confident of a good result. I think it probably wouldn’t have done much better than Emma. Maybe similar to 2016.
In any case, “Controvento” would have made sure Italy’s quality streak remained unbroken and that’s the most important thing. I wonder if Arisa was asked and declined or if RAI just wanted to choose internally all along. A pity in both cases. If it weren’t for 2014, Italy would have had all hits and no misses since their return. I still don’t get it. There was nothing special about that noisy thing they chose that year.
Mørland deserved it so much more… And still don’t see all the hype around Il Volo
What’s funny to me is that OGAE members are more biased than Eurovision juries as if winning this competition or finishing in a high spot actually means something. No, it doesn’t. It is an irrelevant competition made by fans just for fun. So why not act like it and vote based on the songs and not flags? I’m talking about results of past few years (in general of course) and not this year specifically.
Unexpected but well deserved winner. Electric fields and Aly might’ve cancelled each other out. But this and Emmy’s second place last year in second chance shows the strength of DE as a national final.
Although I think Duncan and Tamara in particular would’ve have overshadowed Seemone had she gone to Tel Aviv
I’m positively surprised with Seemone winning it. Definitely one of my favorites of the season. Also glad that Anna Bergendahl, Electric Fields and Morland did well. On the other hand, Il Volo wouldn’t even be my Italian pick to get into the Second Chance Contest, I guess the “Grande Amore” love still carries them with the fandom. I agree with NickC, Moje Bol deserved a much better place.
As usual we agree dear Sabrina
Nice to see you here, Nick. At least concerning with Destination Eurovision we were on the same page for 2 years in a row. By the way, I would love a confirmation that this national final will keep happening.
– I thought “2000 And Whatever” would be a no-brainer winner, but I’m happy with Seemone winning, “Tous les deux” is a charming song and its victory just shows how high is the level of the songs in Destination Eurovision, I really hope France is gonna keep using that format. – Il Volo in second? Really? – “Pugna” with zero points to me is a crime, yet I kinda expected that result, being aware of its anti-radio-friendliness. – I more or less can accept the top 10, but if it was just for me to decide, I’d remove Italy and… Read more »
“Tower of Babylon” would be an interesting addition to Eurovision’s lineup. Obviously, I don’t agree with all the national finals’ choices, but Croatia and Germany were the countries that made the worst decisions in my opinion.
Possibly, I’d say Lithuania made the worst one – they had a pretty fine line-up, but both the jury and the viewers collectively chose the most whatever song from the bunch. Still, they somehow missed the final by just one point, so maybe I’m wrong here, but I was really disappointed when “Run With The Lions” won.
And also, even though I admit that Germany made the wrong decision, I have to say that I still really enjoy “Sister” and think that the staging (or the lack of it) was a major part of the reason why they got so little points in the final.
Well pointed, I had forgotten about Lithuania. At least they have the excuse that the “Monika Marija x Monika Marija situation” ended up leading to Jurij’s win. About “Sister”, I don’t think it’s a bad song, but they had a creative alternative on Lily, an emotional one on Makeda and an entertaining one on Aly and picked an entry that most people wouldn’t dislike, but very few would love. And yeah, the staging clearly hasn’t helped, though I would say it would end up in the bottom anyway.
Il Volo was the best act.
Decent winner, but ll Volo so overrated. I didn’t like their ESC song, and I didn’t like this one either. Latvia and UK were underrated. Am happy for Monika Marija and Bella Santiago doing well – Lithuania and Romania please send them next year!!
Overrated for you….. for me not.
Personally I think ROTW should have chosen Me Mjera from Georgia, or Ja Sam Ti San from Montenegro. But hey, I’m not part of OGAE.
OGAE is broken. More block voting than the actual contest.
It would have been very nice to watch the voting without knowing the winner beforehand. Just an idea for next’s year post 🙂
Good winner. On behalf of RotW, we should’ve sent Andrea Demirovic. But hey, we got Romania to vote for us!
Well… Congrats to Il Volo and Anna Bergendahl 😉
Annalisa ( winner of Second Chance 2018) remains the best for my taste, and her final score is record after the results of Second Chance 2019 (350 points).
I really love the winner ^^ And nice top !
i still think tous les deux would’ve done much worse than bilal, she’s nothing special. the ogays got one thing right: surma last with 0 points. that was unlistenable. italy n sweden’s songs were mediocre but of course they’re on the podium… whack results tbh (might be bc the selection wasn’t good to start with)
“i still think tous les deux would’ve done much worse than bilal”
I can understand this point of view, but…..Arcade won. Tous Les Deux is better than Arcade.
that’s true but many songs were better than arcade, just like many songs are better than the winner in many editions
The lack of taste tho…
“Ashes to Ashes” all the way for me, I’ve grown to really la-la-love it. And, of course, the everlasting great Mørland. Man, how I could have cheered for the Nordics this year with those picks.
Seemone is the rightful winner, but Serbia is underrated. That was a real gem. I also thought Lithuania would have done better.
Moje Bol grew on me a lot after the NF. Of course, in Ogae, it wasn’t going to do that well though.
Right winner, but the rest of the list i don’t agree with.
Meh, these OGAE queens should stop showing their out-of-date tastes. The top 3 are just safe choices with the two past participatants they can’t leave behind.