Later this month, #EurovisionAgain will celebrate Eurovision non-qualifiers, with a fan rewatch and vote of 20 of the best songs that never made it to a grand final. But before that, we want to know which non-qualifiers are your favourites. We’re running a series of polls to see which acts wiwibloggs readers think deserve a second chance.
The polls include all countries who had more than one non-qualifier in the semi-finals era — from 2004 onwards. Listen to the non-qualifying tracks and vote for your favourites! We’re continuing with Poland, Portugal, Romania and San Marino.
What is your favourite non-qualifier from Poland?
- 2005: Ivan & Delfin – “Czarna dziewczyna”
- 2006: Ich Troje feat. Real McCoy – “Follow My Heart”
- 2007: The Jet Set – “Time To Party”
- 2009: Lidia Kopania – “I Don’t Wanna Leave”
- 2010: Marcin Mroziński – “Legenda”
- 2011: Magdalena Tul – “Jestem”
- 2018: Gromee feat. Lukas Meijer – “Light Me Up”
- 2019: Tulia – “Fire of Love (Pali się)”
What is your favourite non-qualifier from Portugal?
- 2004: Sofia Vitória – “Foi magia”
- 2005: 2B – “Amar”
- 2006: Nonstop – “Coisas de nada (Gonna Make You Dance)”
- 2007: Sabrina – “Dança comigo”
- 2011: Homens da Luta – “A luta é alegria”
- 2012: Filipa Sousa – “Vida minha”
- 2014: Suzy – “Quero ser tua”
- 2015: Leonor Andrade – “Há um mar que nos separa”
- 2019: Conan Osíris – “Telemóveis”
What is your favourite non-qualifier from Romania?
- 2018: The Humans – “Goodbye”
- 2019: Ester Peony – “On a Sunday”
What is your favourite non-qualifier from San Marino?
- 2008: Miodio – “Complice”
- 2011: Senhit – “Stand By”
- 2012: Valentina Monetta – “The Social Network Song”
- 2013: Valentina Monetta – “Crisalide (Vola)”
- 2015: Michele Perniola & Anita Simoncini – “Chain of Lights”
- 2016: Serhat – “I Didn’t Know”
- 2017: Valentina Monetta & Jimmie Wilson – “Spirit of the Night”
- 2018: Jessika feat. Jenifer Brening – “Who We Are”
Previous polls
- Part 1 – Albania, Andorra, Armenia and Austria
- Part 2 – Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia
- Part 3 – Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia
- Part 4 – Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark and Estonia
- Part 5 – Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Latvia
- Part 6 – Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Monaco
- Part 7 – Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway
Which non-qualifiers are your favourites? Who would you like to see have another shot at Eurovision? Tell us your thoughts below!
Poland 2019 would’ve qualified if it weren’t for incompetent jurors that didn’t know how to rank their votes in the correct order!
1. Poland – exactly like their titles state, “Light Me Up” and “Pali sie” are shining really bright here among a bunch of really bad stuff. Both deserved the final, Groomee being my choice. 2. San Marino – Spirit of the Night without a doubt! One of the most danceable songs from ESC. “Vola” deserved the final as well, of course. “Complice” was a solid song too. 3. Portugal – I go for “Quero ser tua”, but I really loved “A luta e alegria” too. “Danca conmigo” was a fun one, and “Vida Minha” was a nice fado. 4. Romania… Read more »
Blast from the past: William’s interview with Micha? Szpak! I loved it when Micha? teased William that he apparently prefered Margaret to win. 🙂
Portugal 2019’s entry was a great song with good staging and very original lyrics but killed itself off with that ludicrous outfit. Sad!! I still play it.
Conan Osiris from Portugal will be an music icon of Eurovision!
Portugal 2019 will always be my actual favourite Eurovision song of all time… Still brings a tear to my eye to think it didn’t even qualify never mind win
I think that both of Romania’s non-qualifiers suffered the same thing: decent songs with way-too-much-going-on stagings.
In 2018 San Marino “televoters” gave 8 points to Hungary and nothing to Romania and Latvia. Distance between them (and qualification) was only 4 and 5 points, respectively. Even if I prefer Hungarian song that year, I think Romania could have as well qualified with that staging.
Poland: 2009
Portugal: 2007 & 2012
Romania: 2018
San Marino: 2013
Just a technical question: Why are the Crowdsignal polling results no longer visible to us?
Yes, indeed I can now. Thanks Robyn. 🙂
Portugal 2019 and San Marino 2008. Two great entries.
Miodio’s “Complice” not only didn’t deserved to be last but it also deserved to qualify and get a good place in the Gran Final. The staging was a bit creepy and messy though.
I second everything Tibor wrote about the first semi of 2019. Conan was on my top 3 and Tulia on my top 10. And considering Mahmood and Duncan were my other top 3 acts, it gets tought to blame my indie taste! 😀 I understand his style and their white voice technique aren’t for everybody, but I firmly believe the juries should be behind them. There’s the point of their existence, to balance things up. I also had “On a Sunday” as a qualifier, even if I think they got the wrong tone for staging, by picking something cartoonish for… Read more »
The juries did balance things up for other songs that year, like the big difference with Norway…which only confuses me more.
I could make a case that Norway deserved more love from the juries. I believe there’s a lack of diversity inside them, so they end up favoring well presented entries that navigate through familiar territory: radiofriendly pop or traditional ballads, usually in English. The fact the televote gave Hatari and Zalagasper (great niche entries) more points than the juries says a lot.
Poland: 2011. Jestem was my second place that year; how it got last place is still outside my understanding!
Portugal: 2012. Still gives me goosebumps when I listen to it.
Romania: 2018. This was the hardest, as I love both Goodbye and On A Sunday.
San Marino: 2013. No contest.
I would have liked to see how everyone else vote, though! Why don’t they show the percentages anymore?
Poland: 2006, fine song that should have qualified but Serbia retained their voting rights somehow and pushed “Ninanajna” instead. Terrible.
Portugal: 2007, amazing entry, I love everything about it. 10 points from Poland in that semi include my vote.
Romania: 2018 by default because I wasn’t keen on 2019.
San Marino: 2013 – it’s gotta be. Truly great song with added charm of Valentina’s total reinvention from the previous year.
How come we don’t get to see results after voting anymore?
Hi Tibor. You know my opinion of Telemoveis, but for the benefit of everyone else: I think it is a beautiful song when the backing instrumentation is in tune with the vocal. The problem was the use of microtonality in the backing track, which left me feeling physically sick at the time. However, Conan performed the song with live tuned instruments long after ESC was over, and it was stunning. 🙂
My votes:
Poland: If I’m honest, none of them deserved to qualify. But I voted for 2019.
Portugal: 2012! I know that 2014 only just missed out, but I really think that big 2012 ballad deserved more praise.
Romania: Both, but I voted for 2018 because I love that song.
San Marino: Oh wow. How to choose… 2008. Yep, I still love Miodio.
Conan should win this whole thing.
Just to add, I believe that Romania might have a special place in my rankings, because I think it’s the only country from which my least favorite song of all is actually a qualifier (2013… brrrr). I think that even though I think a lot of qualifiers aren’t good, each country with two or more NQs had at least one worse song left in the semi. Not Romania (in my book, at least), but then again, they have a rather good track record of making it. Perhaps Armenia is debatable (Boom Boom vs Lonely Planet), but overall I think I… Read more »
Agreeing again with Romania. They’re a bit of an Azerbaijan situation where they’ve qualified with much worse songs than the ones that we’re discussing in this exercise. I think Romania’s 2018 effort was excellent and their 2019 was not as strong, but still a decent effort.
Romania 2013….oh dear.
I like your support for Romanian song of 2018. For me, it’s just that I really forget the instrumental sound of it. I do think it’s okay when I listen to it, but it just doesn’t stick. But I totally get the support, as it speaks of an important issue and the singer is really good. Perhaps it would’ve benefited from a more concise staging, but IDK… As for 2013, it’s a mess. He can sing, but his operatic vocals are in a total clash with an essentially EDM techno song and it creates such an unpleasant sound. I hope… Read more »
Romania should have a 100% qualification record
No country should have that record. Ukraine was to stay in the semi in 2012 and Australia in 2017 but juries…
Poland: 2011. One of the biggest injustices of the ESC. It was not a perfect song or something that we had never heard before, but it was a decent one and it deserved to qualify back then, I don’t think that this semi final was that tough (but it had a lot of countries competing ). But Poland 2011 dead last?? Come on people! I also liked 2018 but I understand why it didn’t make it. Not a fan of Poland 2010, but I adore a remix of the song that had been released https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwWRZX7s0QQ Portugal: 2012. Everyone loves their… Read more »
Valentine’s memes aside. I think Crisalide is fantastic song, Valentina’s best one, and way more worthy of a final then Maybe. But I’m still happy for her reaching the final!
I like different but it has to good. Otherwise it¨s just weird. Portugal 2019 was weird. No one really got it and if you don¨t get it why should you vote for it? No the juries didn¨t¨like it but neither did the tele-voters He was like a hipster making a pretetious art show only he understands and then thinks it¨s so cool.
But to each his own I guess..
The problem was that, whilst it was interesting, I never found telemovies catchy. Whilst I would like Portugal to qualify, it is hard to vote for a song which doesn’t stick around in your head.
If people got it it would have qualfied. He was being pretentious just for the sake of being pretentious and that people don’t like. Maybe if people spoke Portuguese they would get the message?
Difference with Hatari is that while it was in Icelandic you got the message and what they conveyed..
Serhat made it through because it was fun, made people laugh, was entertaining and had a catchy hook. Portugal only made people feel confused, if they even remembered it. Not saying Serhat was a worthy qualifier but neither was Conan. Just because it’s weird doest mean it automatically should pass every criteria..
Public appeal isn’t necessarily an indication of quality. The juries rewarding Serhat more than Conan was like giving a Michelin star to McDonalds, or 50 Shades of Grey receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Being original is not enough, entry also needs to be good. Tulia’s dreadful whining doesn’t turn into a good song just because it’s different. Originality is great but it can’t replace quality.
I didn’t really form any strong opinions either way on Pali Sie, but Solovey used this vocal style in a far more interesting, weird and absorbing manner, was clearly superior and would have had no trouble qualifying, though would have placed just below halfway.
To be fair, I’m somehow firmly sure if Tulia had brought a song like “Rzeka” they would’ve qualified. Putting aside all the haters of white voice now, I can see how “Pali sie” was, well… yes, lacking something, even for those pretty familiar with Slavic traditional singing (like me). I came to love Pali sie neither from the first, nor the second listening. A thing I can’t say about “Rzeka” , “Travnik”, or all Go_A’s songs, that have enchanted me from the very first listening.
I prefer the Romanian non qualifiers over any of their grand final songs.
There’s no way those are their best entries! 🙂
I have an unusual love for Portugal 2012. It’s actually one of my favourite ESC songs of all time and is my 2nd favourite NQer ever.
Let’s also not forget legendary Andrej Babic who composed it. How a Croat ended up in Portugal is beyond me but it’s great..
Let’s not forget tat he also composed “senhora do mar” for eurovision 2008, and “sobrevivo” for Festival da Canção 2011. All 3 in a partnership with Carlos Coelho.
SO many of his songs are at the top of my ESC ranking. Definitely my cup of tea.
Complice could and should have won in 2008. Last in the semi is beyond ridiculous.
Agreed. Belarus and San Marino qualifying over Poland and Portugal in 2019 just isn’t right. I wouldn’t say that the succeeding entries would all strictly be described as safe, but we didn’t see as much experimental stuff in 2020 either (although there were some, for example, Russia, albeit in a very different way). We could counterbalance the success of Iceland (and to a lesser degree, Australia) as a reason to continue doing more unusual songs, but Portugal and Poland qualifying would’ve sealed the deal.
I see conventionality as a spectrum rather than a dichotomy and although a bit lower than Pali sie or Telemoveis on the same spectrum, I see HMS and Sebi still pretty high up. Also, in my view, being conventional and being good are two different and somewhat unrelated spectrums. Thus, some of my favorite songs ever are actually in the pop genre why by itself mostly isn’t that unconventional. 🙂 However, crossing the line and becoming not only conventional, but derivative as well, can’t be a huge compliment. Another thing I’ve noticed (and you did as well) is that a… Read more »
Oh, I agree with that 100%. A bland, generic and anonymous pop song isn’t better by adding a few words (or whole lyrical content) in national language other than English. It can be interesting to people less exposed to that language, but sometimes even worse for people who understand it. Because, let’s be honest, bad lyrics are bad lyrics, no matter the language. Also, generic sound is a generic sound, no matter the language. 🙂
I think whilst diversity is being valued in terms of language and cultural traditions, it isn’t in terms of modern genres. We might all be receptive to a Balkan ballad but less so to Latvian jazz…
Kruna has some ethnic flourishes in terms of certain instrumental moments but I wouldn’t classify it as a Balkan ballad.
For me Balkan ballads are songs like Lane Moje, Lejla, Inje etc…it probably needs to come from Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro or Serbia, has a folk sensibility to it and rely on traditional instrumentalisation in addition to being in Serbo Croatian.
Balkan ballad is probably the wrong term though- it technically can just mean a ballad that comes from continental Southeast Europe!
Absolutely agree!
Yeah I believe that was one of the reasons we had a lot of safe entries in 2020.
Poland has been done dirty many times. I voted for Legenda, but I believe that Follow My Heart, I Don’t Wanna Leave, Pali sie and Jestem all should have made it to the finals. Jestem might not be mind-blowing on any level, but it placing last *in 2011* is a joke. Portugal has had some really bad songs early on (everything before 2012, with the exception of 2007), but Vida minha and Telemoveis are both exquisite songs which should have placed in top 10 of their given years. Quero ser tua might have as well been a borderline, even if… Read more »
I agree with you about Legenda but the rest of the Polish entries are either clearly NQ quality or are understandable NQers.
I am glad you agree on Legenda. It’s by far my favorite Polish NQ. Pali sie isn’t in the style I usually listen to, but I really appreciate it for the unique musical experience it is. I admire them for being this bold and creative. Other songs I mentioned I consider to be from okay to solid, not outstanding. Still, the quality of several of the actual qualifiers of their given years would likely push them in the finals in my opinion. For Jestem, I’d say it would be an “understandable” NQ, but maybe as 11th / 12th in the… Read more »
Ahaha. Let’s discuss Poland indeed.
Poland’s non-qualifying entries contain some real memorable attempts made for all the wrong reasons. 2005 has the weird lalala start: 2006 has actual props (yowser); 2007 is entirely inappropriately staged; 2009 was unlucky because the singer sounded ill; 2010 was a genuinely disturbing song!
2011 was okay, the song just dragged a bit. 2018 is all about the drop chorus that just didn’t translate well on the night; 2019… that was okay actually, hence my vote for it.
I really appreciate and the input and understand your views of it. Poland in 2007 had a song which is catchy enough and even enjoyably “trashy” enough (on paper), but made a baffling (and even upsetting) choice of having a girl of mere 17 perform them on stage. By any logic, it should have been DQ, even if the same song performed by an adult could have been a guilty pleasure. 2010 case feels very old-fashioned and dramatic in lyrics, but I see it as him talking about his emotions, not actions. Which would make it a bit melancholic on… Read more »
Who chose the pictures in the thumbnail?? ??
The thumbnail picture chooser.
My thoughts exactly. That’s a bold collection. 🙂