With Eurovision 2020 cancelled and fans seeking relief, Swedish broadcaster SVT has stepped up and given us all a little slice of a Eurovision Song Contest. And tonight, in the conclusion of Sveriges 12:a — that’s “Sweden’s 12 Points” — the public and a jury of music professionals named their Eurovision winner: Iceland’s Daði & Gagnamagnið.
Yes! Iceland’s Dadi Freyr won with the maximum 24 points, securing top marks from both the jury and public with his cool retro-style track “Think About Things”. As a reward for their victory, the group will receive a statue of a Swedish flag and enduring glory. But they will also be invited to perform at Melodifestivalen 2021 as an interval act.
Second place went to Malta with 20 points. Destiny scored second place with both the Swedish public and jury. Switzerland’s Gjon’s Tears scored 7 points with the Jury and 3 points from the public to finish third.
Juror Charlotte Perrelli said that the jury based their scores on what they could see themselves listening to after ESC and not only what’s good in the Eurovision bubble. They voted on what could be a hit on the radio.
Ties were broken using the public vote. SVT received a total of 1,461,000 votes.
Iceland wins SVT’S Eurovision: Sveriges 12:a
- Iceland 24 points
- Malta 20 points
- Switzerland 10 points
- Lithuania 9 points
- Russia 9 points
- United Kingdom 8 points
- Bulgaria 8 points
- Denmark 6 points
- France 5 points
- Italy 5 points
- Germany 4 points
- Belgium 4 points
- Australia 3 points
- Ireland 1 point
Countries that ended with 0 points:
Azerbaijan
Estonia
Netherlands
Spain
Poland
Norway
Finland
Georgia
Greece
Austria
Israel
Sveriges 12:a: Jury vote
Sweden’s so-called Eurovision Week started on Saturday, May 9 with the show Inför ESC, hosted by Christer Björkman along with comedian David Sundin, who we all know as one of the hosts of this year’s Melodifestivalen.
The Swedish public watched all 41 songs and voted for their favourites using the Melodifestivalen app. As per Eurovision rules, Sweden were not able to vote for themselves, so The Mamas didn’t compete. Instead they performed an acoustic of their entry “Move” and debuted their new track “Let It Be”.
The 25 songs that got the most votes qualified for the final. That means no automatic passes for the host country or the members of the Big 5. In the final — Eurovision: Sveriges 12:a — the 25 songs that qualified were presented to the Swedish viewers one more time.
Thanks to Wiwiblogger Tobias for his help with Swedish translation!
What do you think of the winner? Do you think it is the right result? Let us know in the comments below.
What self respecting jury member would vote for that crap from Iceland?
Worth pointing out the voting took place during the actual songs, with an app, and there was no chance to watch snippets of the songs again after the final song had performed. And those who did not have the app could not vote in the contest. So the result is indicitative of the first impression of the songs and their music videos in the moment. I have no doubt Iceland would have been given Sweden’s 12 points in the actual contest too, but as for some of the other songs, I’m not so sure. For example, the UK and France,… Read more »
I loved to se how happy the singer from Island was when he was invited to melfest next year to sing his song.
Hey, Tom. There WERE free passes for big 5 and the host country. 9 songs from semi 1 and 10 songs from semi 2 were selected by the public votes before the final. The other ones got a free pass. It would be suitable to correct those errors in the text, thank you.
Very enjoyable show. I wished the passion Sweden puts into the contest was imitated by all the countries. It is just a joy to watch and enjoy, wish I was Swedish!
The opening medley by Dotter and SDF was amazing, she was my winner this year in Mello, although The Mamas are also lovely and have powerful voices and beautiful harmony.
Tack Sverige!
Best from Spain
Show wise, it was very enjoyable. I liked how they tried to emulate the ESC feeling as much as possible. having commentary booth and all. As far as fake ESC shows go this was really good, and I love SVT for providing us wit that ESC feeling..
Exciting though it is to think Iceland might have won the whole thing, do people really think it would have been a radio hit? I fear it would have been dismissed as a novelty song and wouldn’t have had much of a life out of the Eurovision bubble. I’m surprised that the UK did so well especially as they were given draw #2. But then what do I know, I thought Finland were going to win.
Well, it’s already been played on Swedish radio. Quite a few times..
Think About Things is a novelty song. The nerd dance is something Eurovision haters will latch onto.
That trophy is the Marcel Bezancon Award that was left over from 2016?
I think this televote is interesting as it shows what the votes would like without diaspora gathering mass online support to vote for countries without a percentage of the voters actually watching the song/contest.
I’m from the UK and there’s no way our song should have finished as high as sixth. Ahead of Bulgaria… come on. Azerbaijan and Norway zero points. I loved the concept but the results are not representative of the actual final.
The worry I have for the UK is that we usually chose a stinker the year after choosing a decent one. So here’s looking forward to a stinker for 2021.
Not representative of the actual final. Well, duh. It is not meant to either. It is only a vote of Swedish people AND Swedes likes British radio pop songs. And if you step outside the Wiwi world you find out the song is generally liked.
Less of the duh….. I am not Homer. My point is simply that the votes do not reflect what would happen in the actual final. I don’t really understand the point of the pseudo competiveness. Either leave it out totally or have votes from all over Europe. To have a false result doesn’t make any sense. If you don’t grasp that concept then I give up on you. No hard feelings. We all belong to the Eurovision family.
It is not false results. It is Sweden’s votes based on the perfromances/music videos we have of the songs. No, I donät think the UK would end up as high as 6th pace either. But I think that Sweden would place it as high. And the video is quite good. No one knows what would have happened if you added the live show. But personally I would rather listen to UK than Bulgaria.
Sadly Denis, “generally liked” hasn’t converted into into much of a chart performance in the real world, has it?
Let’s talk about them letting Dotter open the show with a 5 minutes medley of Arcade + Bulletproof, and then announce the jury vote. They put her under the Spotlight big time, they loveee her. I think they are aware of her potential if she wins Melfest one day. It will be interesting to see if they « set things up » for her to win in the years to come. I mean by helping her in the running order, etc. I think they want to make her happen.
I was more taken by how the mamas new song is so much better than move
I’m glad Iceland is doing very well in these kind of contests or voting
I was somehow hoping to be better, more interesting and bigger show. What was Estonia doing in the final? Also i can somewhat understand why Serbia, Czech, Latvia, Ukraine, Albania and Armenia didnt make the cut, but how Romania wasnt in final?
Maybe because Romania is this year’s fan wank? Hyped up by the fans but actually not liked by mainstream audience?
I agree Romania should have gotten through.
I’m really happy about this result, as were my kids who voted for Iceland, Malta, and Lithuania in the semi (they were asleep during the final, which went from 9-11:15 pm – one wonders if that time slot affected the results?). My kids have been doing the Icelandic and Lithuanian dance numbers for weeks. There’s an error in the article, though: the Big 5 and the Netherlands DID qualify automatically for Sweden’s final. Only 19 acts went through from the first round of voting, and then the others were added in for the final, just like in the ESC final.
The silly dances are a large part of these songs appeal.
Malta is doing great considering how they usually get only few televoting points.
Destiny is only 17 yrs old but what a voice! Sheer talent
This was such an obvious win because they are neighbors.
Look at a map, Sweden and Iceland are not neighbours…
Then why have Norway and Finland 0 point
Iceland is good, but I think there were better songs for the win this year. I think, based on personal opinion on what would make an impact, I think it would come down to Malta, Bulgaria, Switzerland, or Italy. Iceland would not have done as well with juries and would’ve had a Norway 2019 type result where it wins or places high in televote to balance out a lower jury vote.
I think Iceland would have done decent with juries. Not winning jury vote but well enough.
It won Swedish jury vote as well which is the same method for Esc. It did well in Euro jury. So many contestants are saying Iceland was their favourite. Would have done well.
I love Keiino so much but they had that Europop vibe that hurt them with juries (stupid argument imo) like Denmark 2018 or Austria 2016.
I actually think they would do really well in jury vote. Only thing we have to go with is the euro jury and Iceland did well there. I think they even won the jury voting there, but Switzerland won the “televotes”. So Iceland could definitely have won everything for real.
Denis do you think Swedish televote might have voted similar to this at Esc?
I expected Iceland, Lithuania and probably Denmark as Top 3 but rest no clue.
I think the swedish votes would be quite similar if the would have been an ESC. But the addition of a live show can make or break a song. So exactly the same, no I don’t think that. But similar. Yes. I still think Iceland would have gotten the 12 p from Sweden.
Totally agree with you. Iceland, Lithuania and Russia are way way way overrated. As also Ukraine.
Hmm Malta, hope they will send Destiny again next year. They could just push X Factor Malta to the middle of 2021 if they want to select an artist for 2022.
Yes, she was really good. I thing she will be played here in Sweden
The UK is doing much better in some of these votes than what people thought it might at ESC.
Actually think it could have done better than predicted in ESC too. Outside the Wiiwi bubble it has got some decent ratings. And it is a good solid pop song, the best entry UK has had in years..
Gotta say I’m very surprised by some of those results.
Iceland winning was a no brainer tho. Expected Lithuania, Russia and Denmark were going to do very well.
Didn’t expect France and Malta at all if I’m honest.
I thought Bulgaria, Norway and Netherlands could do well.
I wanted to think Italy could get something but I was never sure with nordics so yes.
Interesting results. I wish we would really know in real Esc though
I think that fact that France’s song was partially the work of G-sson helped. Don’t get me wrong though, I do like france’s song (unlike many), I just don’t know if I would expect it to do as well throughout Europe.
No one voted for France’s song. The votes were for the Eiffel Tower.
Although this is just one country, it does raise up an issue that I thought could come up which is…where would Bulgaria’s televote support come from?
Also, happy to see the UK doing so well. Maybe these results will help convince the broadcaster to send him again next year.
Is it only my quarantine brain or does that trophy look a vagina?
Surprising that UK finished ahead of Bulgaria, Norway and Israel. How did Norway and Azerbaijan get no points?! Maybe it would be cool without so many finalists
– Bulgaria was too much Billie Eilish. It does not sit well if an artist is too much of a copy (yes Sweden has sent many of those also but now they were not judging Sweden they were judging Bulgaria) – Norway was really a sleeping pill…it was really bland, she sang incredibly good but it just melted in with the rest of the ballads – Azerbaijan was more unlucky with the starting number i believe, but also the song only reaches certain types of audiences and age groups, not many peoples cup of tea here in Sweden unfortunately. –… Read more »
I think that we are harder when we judge ballad and Norways ballad isn’t the kind of ballad that would have a success in melfest. There are a lot of good ballads whith amazing singers that has no susess in melfest. I think that a lot of swedes don’t like when artists are portaited as sexual as the singer is in Azerbaijan . We are post metoo. Some don’t care , other think that “isn’t this how women were portaited twenty years ago? Vad tror andra svenskar? Tror många i Sverige tycker det känns lite unket med allt åmande framför… Read more »
I agree with you Gunilla. As a swede I think Azerbaijans number wasn’t feeling very fresh and modern. The song itself was really bad too. I had an overall un-modern feeling to it.
What a farce.
¿