Grab your towels, and come together! Tonight the BBC aired it’s Eurovision: Come Together show, celebrating the best of the best in Eurovision. The programme gave the British public a chance to vote online for the greatest Eurovision song of all time. In the end, ABBA claimed the victory with their Eurovision 1974 winning song “Waterloo”.
A shortlist of songs for the British public to choose from had been drawn up by a panel of “experts and superfans”. These included Eurovision commentators Ken Bruce, Rylan Clark-Neal and Scott Mills, plus former UK Eurovision acts SuRie (2018) and Nicki French (2001). “Uber fans” TV host Mel Giedroyc and Radio 1’s Adele Roberts also had a say. As did our own William and Lucy.
“Waterloo” by ABBA crowned the UK’s favourite Eurovision song
After a quick-burst round of voting the public chose Sweden’s 1974 winner “Waterloo” by international superstars ABBA as their winner. It’s not surprising they were chosen. The song is famous beyond the borders of the Eurovision Song Contest.
In addition to the band’s well-known discography, the Mamma Mia stage musicals and films have helped increase ABBA’s brand around the world.
The top ten
ABBA were up against stiff competition. A total of 19 songs were shortlisted for Eurovision: Come Together. There were a mixture of winners and other memorable songs spanning 61 years of the contest competing for the crown.
Update 22:00 17/05: The BBC have now revealed the top ten songs that the public voted for as part of the show. The result was as follows:
- “Waterloo” – ABBA (Sweden 1974)
- “Rise Like a Pheonix” – Conchita Wurst (Austria 2014)
- “Euphoria” – Loreen (Sweden 2012)
- “Love Shine a Light” – Katrina & The Waves (UK 1997)
- “Heroes” – Måns Zelmerlöw (Sweden 2015)
- “Fairytale” – Alexander Rybak (Norway 2009)
- “Dancing Lasha Tumbai” – Verka Serduchka (Ukraine 2007)
- “Making Your Mind Up” – Buck’s Fizz (UK 1981)
- “Save All Your Kisses For Me” – Brotherhood of Man (UK 1976)
- “Ooh…Ahh…Just a Little Bit” – Gina G (UK 1996)
The remaining nine songs that made it to the Eurovision: Come Together shortlist were:
- “Diva” – Dana International (Israel 1998)
- “Fuego” – Eleni Foureria (Cyprus 2018)
- “Nel Blu Dipinto Blu” – Domenico Modungo (Italy 1958)
- “Poupée de cire, poupée de son” – France Gall (Luxembourg 1965)
- “Rhythm Inside” – Loic Nottet (Belgium 2015)
- “Satellite” – Lena (Germany 2010)
- “Soldi” – Mahmood (Italy 2019)
- “Sound of Silence” – Dami Im (Australia 2016)
- “Toy” – Netta (Israel 2018)
Come Together – A big success
Sadly, we don’t know how close the vote was, with a lack of scoreboard. But, the show has gone down well with viewers nonetheless.
Eurovision: Come Together has been widely praised on social media for it’s positivity and for the celebratory vibe to it.
Tonight has been a great showing from the Beeb well done on your own fantastic show a sad but good night never the less @bbceurovision #ComeTogether #EurovisionShineALight
— Jazzi?? (@MikiMunSigra) May 16, 2020
Absolutely brilliant show by @bbceurovision there very pleasantly surprised ? #ComeTogether
— Grace’s Tears ????????? (@grace_is_sugoi) May 16, 2020
I’ll say it now but the bbc come together show was great, and a good step forward for positive mainstream representation for the most part. Hope it continues. #ComeTogether
— Curtis Lee (@CurtyLeeX) May 16, 2020
Do you think ABBA are worthy winners? Who did you vote for, or would’ve voted for? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Where was Modedades Eres tu, probably the best song that never won.
I find the lack of vindication for Hard Rock Hallelujah disturbing
I really enjoyed Come Together – the choice of performances, the at home montages and the fun. I hope it gets a good response from casual ESC viewers (as opposed to us obsessives) and makes them think about other similar programming next year – Maybe a best of British entries or something similar.
It had more viewers than Europe Shine A Light, so that may be good news.
I do think the shortlist was very UK biased but overall it was 90 minutes of great entertainment. Congratulations to the BBC for honouring the contest. Overall the whole evening was very enjoyable. Just another 12 months to Rotterdam 2021.
Great show BBC, Graham Norton has been a fantastic replacement for dear old Sir Terry Wogan, his wit & charm where it was needed but still remembering the terrible Coronavirus, well done Graham. The icing on the cake was Waterloo winning the viewers choice, my top five.
1. Waterloo. ABBA
2. Euphoria. Loreen
3. Volare. Dominico Modugno
4. Rise Like A Pheonix. Conchita Wurst
5. Poupee De Cire Poupee De Son. France Gall
I thought the BBC did a great job, it was a fantastic selection of songs and the montage of at home performances was charming. It was a shame they couldn’t have made more of the results announcement, a top three at least would have been nice instead of ‘ABBA won, thanks for watching’, but otherwise it was all good. And Verka looked as fresh as ever.
The last 5 minutes was the only part filmed live, but they’ve provided the top 10 on the website: 1. Waterloo – Abba (Sweden) – 1974 2. Rise Like A Phoenix – Conchita Wurst (Austria) – 2014 3. Euphoria – Loreen (Sweden) – 2012 4. Love Shine A Light – Katrina & The Waves (UK) – 1997 5. Heroes – Måns Zelmerlöw (Sweden) – 2015 6. Fairytale – Alexander Rybak (Norway) – 2009 7. Dancing Lasha Tumbai – Verka Serduchka (Ukraine) – 2007 8. Making Your Mind Up – Bucks Fizz (UK) – 1981 9. Save Your Kisses for Me… Read more »
Even more importantly, SuRie won a pointless trophy…
I miss Duncan Laurence, The Common Linnets, Celine Dion, etc. It’s not a fair game imho.
Firstly let me say I was the first who criticized the fact the BBC were going to ditch shine a light in favour of their own show based on what type of joke shows they have produced before at Eurovision. But tonight I finally felt they had grown up and produced a fantastic show leading into shine a light. BBC produced a show of good songs in full with humour without sounding sarky. Maybe now this is the new way forward for the future which will reflect in future song choices now they know what gathers points from the selection… Read more »
It was so obvious Abba was going to win, I’m not sure why they bothered with a public vote. They could have just said “you’ve heard the song, our panel of experts have voted…”
Or had a public vote, and excluded Abba.
I was surprised by Belgium 2015 being featured as one of the top entries. But it was great to see a less obvious song featured (though I would have chosen City Lights instead.)
Surie the UK 2018 entrant was the one who picked it. She was a backing singer for Loic in 2015
Didn’t Graham say she wasn’t allowed to vote for it?
Yeah, he said she wasn’t allowed to put it as an option.
Would love to know the mindset of people who continually vote for Sweden 74 in these things.
Are they genuinely voting for Waterloo as the best song ever, or are they just voting for Abba, because it’s Abba?
I don’t know, it make it all so predictable I wonder why they bother. They should just not include Waterloo in these things, or maybe make it the “best Eurovision song of the last 40 years” or something.
Anyways, Sweden is the overall winner.
Euphoria is better by far, but as a group (performer) is way ahead of everyone else for sure.
Sure the anti-UK crowd will be on there way over here shortly, but genuinely think the BBC’s version was better than what the EBU produced.
Although the BBC has a real phobia of revealing any voting results other than the actual winner for some reason, its annoying.
Was hoping for a top 10 at least, maybe in the 12 – 1 style
The BBC show was at least somewhat upbeat. The EBU show was dismal, they got the tone so wrong. It was so morose, and some joviality would have been nice (and not disrespectful).
It said on screen they’d be publishing it on the website. Nothing yet though.
The results segment was the only live part of the show, so they were probably just trying to wrap everything up as quickly and smoothly as possible to not cut into Europe Shine A Light.