This year at wiwibloggs, we are celebrating the festive season with a series of different polls. For the next few days, we’re going to stuff your stockings with a selection of end-of-decade Eurovision votes. Consider this a unique riff on the classic “Twelve Days of Christmas” carol.
Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, you can join us and let us know your thoughts for each and every poll.
Last place in the Eurovision grand final: 2010 to 2019
We’ve got boundless love for every Eurovision act, even if it’s not always love at first sight. The average Eurovision viewer, though, needs to fall in love with a song instantly. If that doesn’t happen, there’s a good chance that an act will end up last on the scoreboard.
Nonetheless, last-place finishers often develop a strong cult following in the months and years after the contest.
For our latest poll, we’re taking a closer look at those who came last in every Eurovision final since 2010. Today the losers are our big winners as we want you to decide who is the best last-placed act at Eurovision this decade.
Eurovision 2010: Josh Dubovie “That Sounds Good To Me” (United Kingdom)
Our journey starts in Oslo, where the first – and only — big five victory of the 2010s happened: Lena brought the trophy home to Germany. Whilst the Germans celebrated after a long streak of poor results, the UK flopped at Eurovision 2010. Right after Josh Dubovie got selected at the national final, the odds didn’t look good for the Brits. In the end, it became a reality: Josh only scored ten points and came last. He sang “that sounds good to me” — Europe disagreed.
Eurovision 2011: Anna Rossinelli “In Love For A While” (Switzerland)
After four years of non-qualifications, Switzerlands needed a lucky break at Eurovision. And at least they made the final this time, surprisingly. They even managed to pass Turkey and Armenia, countries who had never failed to qualify before. In the final, the romantic number “In Love For A While” maybe wasn’t striking enough to place higher than 25th.
Eurovision 2012: Tooji “Stay” (Norway)
The closest outcome we ever saw at a Eurovision semi-final was back in 2012: of course, we’re talking about semi-final two in Azerbaijan. The Land of Fire had equal love for the legendary Sofi Marinova from Bulgaria and Tooji from Norway. Both gained the same amount of points and came tenth in the semi. According to the tie-break rule, the country which received points from the most nations would proceed to the final. Ten countries gave points to Sofi, but 11 voted for Tooji. In the final, Tooji gave us a powerful, fiery performance, but Norway still came last.
Eurovision 2013: Ryan Dolan “Only Love Survives” (Ireland)
The year after back-to-back Jedward. Eurovision 2013 marked the fourth time in a row where Ireland made it to the final. Unfortunately, due to a very complex voting rule where the average placing was counted, Ireland came last. However, the country did not place that low with either the public or the juries. In fact, Ryan even managed to come 14th in the televote. This voting procedure was criticised by many fans which led to a less complex voting style from 2014 on. But after the final, Ryan himself wasn’t too upset about his finish. Because as we all know: “in the end, only love survives”.
Eurovision 2014: Twin Twin “Moustache” (France)
After choosing its Eurovision act internally for many years, the French broadcaster decided to finally let the public have a say in 2014. In a three-act national final, Twin Twin won the right to party on stage in Copenhagen. In the end, people did not like the “Moustache” and were more in the mood for a real beard. While Austria’s Conchita won, France placed last. In the years after, the French broadcaster again decided internally before the shortlived Destination Eurovision was introduced.
Eurovision 2015: Ann Sophie “Black Smoke” (Germany)
Eurovision 2015 – or as we call it: the year of drama! For the first time ever, the Eurovision winner wasn’t the public’s favourite. Sweden’s Måns Zelmerlöw won the competition over televoting winner Il Volo from Italy. Well. Meanwhile, Ann Sophie from Germany didn’t even come close to winning. After the German national final already went down in history – the public’s winner refused to go to Eurovision and second-placed Ann Sophie sang in Vienna instead – she placed last in Austria with zero points. Austria also got no points at all. However, due to a tiebreaker rule determined by the running order, Austria was placed one spot higher than Germany on the scoreboard.
Eurovision 2016: Jamie-Lee “Ghost” (Germany)
Yes, Germany is the only big five country to this decade. But that doesn’t mean, it doesn’t know how it feels to fail hard. For the second year in a row, Germany placed last. This time with former The Voice winner Jamie-Lee Kriewitz. The disconnect between her anime-inspired style and melancholic song probably jarred with viewers.
Eurovision 2017: Manel Navarro “Do It For Your Lover” (Spain)
The Euro-drama was real in 2017! And the Spanish national selection Objetivo Eurovisión was the source of much of it. Similar to the German 2015 selection, the audience became angry and aggressive after the results were announced. Fan favourite Mirela didn‘t win because the jury favoured Manel. At Eurovision, only neighbour Portugal gave points to him. His feel good-song didn’t impress the rest of Europe at all. Spain came dead last and fans are still wondering how Mirela would have done in Kyiv.
Eurovision 2018: Cláudia Pascoal “O Jardim” (Portugal)
After finally winning in 2017, Portugal was thrilled and hyped when it came to hosting Eurovision. Broadcaster RTP again was searched for the perfect song through Festival da Canção. But this time, the emotional yet modern and fresh sounding winning song “O Jardim” didn’t enchant Europe as Salvador did. But even if they came last, Cláudia can be proud to be the only Portuguese singer to ever represent their county on home soil.
Eurovision 2019: Michael Rice “Bigger Than Us” (United Kingdom)
Again the UK selection left fans and viewers cold. The emotional and well sung “Bigger Than Us” fell flat in Tel Aviv. For 2019, the BBC will use a new method to select its act for Rotterdam, working with music company BMG. Will the UK finally shine again? Its best result this decade has been an 11th place-finish by boyband Blue.
Which loser is your winner? Vote for your favourite last place act of this decade.
Apart from Josh Dubovie, Ann Sophie and Manel Navarro, none of them should have finished last.
I am unable to vote for my favourite last place finisher from 2010-2019, because the option is missing from your poll! “I Am Yours” by The Makemakes from Austria in 2015 is my favourite last place ever! Remember, Austria and Germany tied for last, both on “nul points?” It’s too late now to add it as an option, but Austria 2015 gets my vote! I still listen to I Am Yours at least weekly.
Favourite would be O Jardim great song but the stageing was weak, should still have been further up the scoreboard so. Also liked Ghost but yeah she did kinda create a wtf momment with that dress.
I’m sorry but how on earth can any music fan vote for Josh from the UK. The song and performance were horrendous. I’m from the UK and everything about it embarrassed me. Please get you hearing checked if you voted for this abomination.
Sympathy.
That and he was cute. Probably still is.
Tooji was training with me at the same gym and hit me up on grindr. He’s an impressive looking guy.
Twin Twin definitely, very underrated. And o Jardim.
Definitely O Jardim! It was the best that year and one of my favourite ESC songs of all time.
Switzerland 2011 is definitely the best.
Switzerland had so many amazing entries this decade, but they were almost never in the final.
“Do it for your lover” is cute somehow. And Twin Twin too.
Cláudia Pascoal all the way! I still listen to it all the time, it’s so trippy and soothing. I’m glad Portugal was hosting that year, otherwise this song would have been lost in the SF and yet it SO deserved the final!
Unpopular opinion alert. I love Do It For Your Lover (although I do acknowledge the live performance was bad) and Bigger Than Us and I am not sorry about it! 😉
In my opinion these are all good songs apart from O Jardim, I just find it extremely dull. But hey, that’s just my opinion. It’s quite obvious that I’m in the minority on that front, haha!
robbed winners of the decade – maybe next poll?
Slovakia 2010, Iceland 2016, Norway 2016/2011
Malta 2015/2018, Greece 2018, Estonia 2016/2017/2014
Ireland 2014/2015, CZ 2015
Finland 2012/2010
@William Lee Adams Looking back on the decade I wonder if there is more like this? – Making fun of their own song and performance – this was one of the best moments I had in the last decade with Eurovision, watching this before the grand final.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3_QJ-lyX0s
if there is more like this you could present it in a New Year’s Eve fun posting in reminiscence of the decade.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_WVhEagH1Cs
I adore this cover by ZIBBZ of o jardim ..
Maybe some English lyrics would have helped
Random thoughts: 2010- just horrible. It sounded like he was in an over-produced high school musical. No song deserved last place more than this in this decade. 2011- Never understood how this ended up last. It was a bit repetitive, but it was surely better than many other songs that night. (surely better than that cruise-ship performance by Lithuania). I would even place it higher than pre-contest fave France (and my better half is French). 2012- Another mystery. I know I am in the minority, but after the semis, I thought this was heading to TOP 5. And how the… Read more »
Heart of stone could definitely have reached the top 5! Last time i said that on here i got lots of downvotes though xD
Strange. Heart of stone was the best German song of the decade.
“O Jardim”, definitely. But I always liked “In Love for a While”.
2010 Josh Dubovie – Deserved last place, quite cringy, cheaply produced and incredibly dated. But a bigger crime is how badly they (The people, The label and the BBC) treated him Post-Eurovision. Watch the link below. LINK: https://youtu.be/wxEAMCnd9EQ 2011: Completely undeserved, Estonia should have been last that year. A really sweet, charming song that was done dirty, thank god the UK gave it 10 points. 2012: Not my cup of tea, but much better than Humperdinck who should of finished last in my opinion. 2013: My third place, behind Moldova (Aliona Moon 2nd) and Germany(Cascada Winner), completely undeserved and a… Read more »
I agree with most, Liam. I posted above before seeing your post. 🙂
BTW, Thanks for the Josh Dubovie interview. Wiwibloggs should cover this as a story. It is absolutely shocking.
Voted for 2018, 2015 and 2019. 2018 is obviously the clear favorite and the only one that shouldn’t be here. The song was amazing because of it’s intimacy. The Festival da Cancao performances visually and to an extent were better but it was still powerful. While I still think the song became weaker because of it’s transition to the big stage, it still managed to move and I was really sad and suprised to see it last although I never imagined it finishing on the left side of the scoreboard. 2015 is my second but purely because of the song.… Read more »
Do it for your looOOOOOooohhhver ?
So many of these are actually really good and didn’t deserve last place at all. Germany 2015 was one of my favourites that year, a really superb song (and I actually thought the live performance was quite solid too!). I absolutely love Twin Twin too, they were such a breath of youth and fresh air for France in ESC at the time and I was convinced they’d place much higher – really undeserved, they were amazing! Really enjoyed Anna Rossinelli and Jamie-Lee too. Claudia and Tooji were far from the worse in their finals too. The rest were just generic… Read more »
We Eurovision fans disagree about pretty much everything, but it’s heartwarming to see pretty much everyone here uniting in agreement that O jardim deserved better.
Nice. It even echoes the comment I just made. 🙂
Wow. Great minds think alike!
I’m a Portuguese speaker, so I choose “O Jardim”. This is one of the best songs from a host country I’ve ever heard, it didn’t deserve to be in the last place.
I voted for Portugal 2018, so it is heartwarming to see that it is top in the poll right now. It’s a truly beautiful song that didn’t deserve last place that year.
Some other thoughts: I honestly don’t remember the 2011 entry.
2012 and 2015 were tough years; I liked both those artists.
2013 was due to a weird statistical anomaly, so shouldn’t really count.
2010 and 2017 were truly awful songs. (Not sorry.)
2014 is a difficult one, but it’s fun.
2019 – Dated song, maybe.
2016 – That dreadful outfit. Good song though.
Ghost was one of my favorite songs of 2016 but the anime styling was so weird and off putting. O Jardim had no business placing last, that was top ten caliber people just love to underrate Portugal for some reason.
Ann Sophie. She didn’t deserve that. Especially after what happened in Germany’s national selection.
My rankings of last placed songs this decade:
1) O Jardim
2) Only Love Survives
3) In Love For a While
4) Black Smoke
5) Stay
6) Moustache
7) Ghost
8) Bigger Than Us
9) That Sounds Good to Me
10) Do it For Your Lover
My rankings:
Good:
1) Bigger Than Us
2) Moustache (Forgot how funny this was)
3) Ghost
4) O Jardim
5) Black Smoke
_______________________________________________
Okay:
6) Only Love Survives
7) In Love For a While
8) Stay
_________________________________
Guilty pleasure:
9) That Sounds Good to Me
_________________________________
Just bad:
10) Do It For Your Lover
Definitely O Jardim. That song was so beautiful and I still don’t understand how it managed to finish at the last spot…
Because it was booooooooooooooring
TWIN TWIN deserved top 10
Toss-up between O jardim and In Love for a While, two songs I absolutely love. I also think Black Smoke was great and deserved way better than it got.
For me worst last place in final is Austria 1988.
I actually love many of these songs, LOL. Anne Sophie, Claudia, Tooji, Twins Twin, Ryan Dolan, all very enjoyable songs.
Let’s take a look here. The only country that gave televote points to the UK was Ireland, their neighbor and still felow EU member, and it was only a 3. And while it’s true that 4 out of the 5 countries whose juries gave points to the UK are not EU members (Hungary being the exception), those points where three 2’s and two 1’s. Even an UK columnist acknowledged that the song was ‘mediocre’ and the staging was ‘lackluster’. So unless UK stops the Brexit whining and sends songs that can actually cut it, they’ll keep on losing. It’s simple… Read more »
Can’t understand why all entries from 2011-2015 ended up last. Surely they weren’t that bad?
2011 – issa cute song but it was objectively the weakest in the final
2012 – home of phobia
2013 – sounded like half of the songs in the final but weaker so nobody bothered to vote for it
2014 – the public thought it was embarrassing
2015 – the performance was highkey horrid but at least it got 5 points from the televote
I really hate the production in Stay. Sounded overbearing and loud. I totally get why that one finished last.
Stay sounds like those Kpop songs you would hear in the early 2010s
Yeah, blaming homophobia won’t win you any cases. especially not in ESC..
UK finishing the decade as they started it
I’ll be a rebel and pick Finland 2009.
I don’t like any last place from 2010 to 2019, but oh my, the two UK ones and the Spanish one really got what they deserved.
That Sounds Good to Me still kind of stuns me with how generally awful pretty much every single element of it is. I don’t know how anyone thought that song was in any shape to be performed at Eurovision. Of all the songs here, I’d easily call it the worst.
It’s bigger than us, so just do it for your lover and that sounds good to me. 🙂
(That joke was wayyy too easy!)
Anna Rossinelli and Tooji were not bad at all. Big 5 entries mentioned here were atrocious, with the exception of Jamie Lee. Who on his or her right mind would pick Josh or Twin Twin?
Not really. Many Eurovision participating countries are non-EU members.
Most of these songs didn’t deserve last place. My absolute favorite of these would definitely be Switzerland 2011 which is in my top 10 of the year. I do understand why it finished last though. It was cute and singalongy but not super memorable. Germany 2016 was also a good song, though I again understand why it finished last. Portugal 2018 was also a fairly good song. Norway 2012 and Ireland 2013 suffered from a field with better dance songs than them. The other 5 last places were more justifiable to me, I don’t like those songs more or less.
So many bops and Do It For Your Lover. We stan.
Germany 2015 with Ann Sophie’s “Black Smoke” and Portugal 2018 with Claudia’s “O jardim”. Both were good songs and singers, people just overlooked them.
I agree. Both of them were on my top 5!
I guess O Jardim was just forgotten by many people. I mean after what happend to Surie there was no more focus on it plus before Portugal came Alexander Ryback a well regonized face, usually the countries that came last aren’t horrible to listen to or have a terrible act. People just forget about them….
It’s a shame Portugal had no say over when they performed since they had to randomly draw their performance slot. I’d have moved them between Hungary and Israel, as sort of a breather. (Unless setting it between a metal song and the eventual winner would be even more of a death knell. Poor Portugal.)
Portugal 2018 for me, although I must admit a soft spot for Tooji as well…
How Switzerland in 2011 and Ireland in 2013 came last i will never understand. Off topic: Have you seen Eurovision Hub videos on youtube? There are one from 1993 and a guy says ” I dont like old songs” haha. Are you a fan then? My opinion is no
Honestly, there’s so many amazing last place finishers – Sweden 63, Finland 68, Norway 69, Portugal 74, Norway 76, Norway 78 (for THAT moment alone), Spain 83, Finland 96… But while those were definitely undeserved, I’d say last place is still an achievement of some sort and a reason to be rememered for. I think it’s much better to finish last than to finish second to last and be “kinda the worst, but not really”.
Sweden 63, Turkey 75, Norway 76, Portugal 97, Switzerland 98 for me best last placers
If we’re talking pre-2010, my favorite songs that finished last would probably be Turkey 75, Norway 78 (one of the most iconic Eurovision performances ever), Finland 82 (punk at Eurovision! I love it!), Finland 96, Iceland 01, Denmark 02, Ireland 07, and UK 08. And talking of semi-finals, I’ll restate my unironic adoration for PKN, one of the most bada** performances ever.
The song sure kicks ass. It’s not my favourite when it comes to the semis though – I’d have to go with Ireland this year, they butchered the staging but the song was worthy of a place in the final. Also, I wouldn’t call Finland 82 a true punk act, but you gotta have balls to sing a song about nuclear crisis at Eurovision.
Man, I was really rooting for Ireland to get another qualification. I was so pleasantly surprised about San Marino qualifying in the first semi that I thought maybe my magical improbable qualifier juju/some luck of the Irish would get them to the final. Alas, it joins Sennek in the “songs that sounded great in the studio cut but were so poorly-done live that I can’t even watch the video” club.
Finland 82 weren’t really a true punk act, no. PKN though? Absolutely. That’s as punk as Eurovision gets, save for maybe Iceland this year (except there’s no act to what PKN did – you gotta be frank, for all their political convictions, it was fundamentally an act). Functionally, what they did at Eurovision in ’82 wasn’t too different from what Iceland did this year: a gut-punch of reality in the midst of the silliness.
Joe, you made my day. It is so nice to see TUR75 is appreciated outside our borders. I found the lyrics among the best ever written. So poetic.
I really don’t know how that song flopped so badly. Fantastic vocals and orchestration. I don’t understand the lyrics but they sounded pretty. An objectively top-ten worthy song that inexplicably flopped.
I love Switzerland 2011!!!
I’m still sour on “O Jardim” ended up last place because it was my top 10 -_-
Top 3 for me! I just don’t think it was enough people’s absolute favourite even if it was well liked.
All in all, the song quality level in Spain’s 2017 national final was terribly low, so I highly doubt Mirela or any of the other contenders would have cracked the top 20.
With that said, we finished last that year because Manel’s performance was awful on many levels (unimpressive song, overdone staging, unnecessary backup band… and of course the freaking squawk), and it’s sad he’s mostly remembered for it, because he’s actually a far better musician than the Kyiv fiasco suggests.
I dont think Mirela would have been last.
I guess Spain saved Germany from an “imperfect trilogy”.
Portugal 2018 .. absolutely stunning song.. it’s like a Portuguese version of London Grammar style art..
maybe the problem was it was too much art and too simple and classy .. very much the opposite of the 2018 winner Toy which I despise
I was vibing with this comment until you dissed Toy
O Jardim deserved to be on the left-side of the scoreboard. Had not it been for the host-nation factor, I bet it would have received much more attention. It is a pity that countries try to bring good quality songs when they host the contest, but they are not given as much attention as they deserve…
O jardim, the rest is either terrible or flat.
Ok, black smoke is kind cool too.
“O Jardim” – what a wonderful song and singer. The first time I saw the video from the national selection I felt the text although I hadn’t read the translation- and when I did I knew why the song touched me so much. It is not understandable to me why this song got the last place. Although the staging could have been better…