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’ve reached the final four group of countries: Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland.
What is your favourite non-qualifier from Serbia?
- 2009: Marko Kon & Milaan – “Cipela”
- 2013: Moje 3 – “Ljubav je svuda”
- 2017: Tijana Bogićević – “In Too Deep”
What is your favourite non-qualifier from Slovakia?
- 2009: Kamil Mikulčík and Nela Pocisková – “Leť tmou”
- 2010: Kristína Peláková – “Horehronie”
- 2011: TWiiNS – “I’m Still Alive”
- 2012: Max Jason Mai – “Don’t Close Your Eyes”
What is your favourite non-qualifier from Slovenia?
- 2004: Platin – “Stay Forever”
- 2005: Omar Naber “Stop”
- 2006: Anžej Dežan – “Mr Nobody”
- 2008: Rebeka Dremelj – “Vrag naj vzame”
- 2009: Quartissimo feat. Martina Majerle – “Love Symphony”
- 2010: Ansambel Žlindra and Kalamari – “Narodnozabavni rock”
- 2012: Eva Boto – “Verjamem”
- 2013: Hannah Mancini – “Straight into Love”
- 2016: ManuElla – “Blue and Red”
- 2017: Omar Naber – “On My Way”
What is your favourite non-qualifier from Switzerland?
- 2004: Piero and the MusicStars – “Celebrate”
- 2007: DJ BoBo – “Vampires Are Alive”
- 2008: Paolo Meneguzzi “Era stupendo”
- 2009: Lovebugs – “The Highest Heights“
- 2010: Michael von der Heide – “Il pleut de l’or”
- 2012: Sinplus – “Unbreakable”
- 2013: Takasa – “You and Me”
- 2015: Mélanie René – “Time to Shine”
- 2016: Rykka – “The Last of Our Kind”
- 2017: Timebelle – “Apollo”
- 2018: ZiBBZ – “Stones”
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
- Part 8 – Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino
Which non-qualifiers are your favourites? Who would you like to see have another shot at Eurovision? Tell us your thoughts below!
My votes:
Serbia – 2013. I have a fondness for those types of theatrics, lol.
Slovakia – 2010! That’s not even a question.
Slovenia – Really difficult to choose. I love “On my way” as a song, so I voted for 2017. But, I also liked most of these. I don’t know why 2012 or 2005 didn’t qualify; those were strange semi final results.
Switzerland – 2018 certainly deserved to qualify. Funny how Switzerland had so many poor entries in the late 2000s.
I voted for the anthemic “Stones” (Zibbz) -and I’m happy to learn I’m not the only one who thinks they should have qualified. I also voted for “Straight into Love”, it has a memorable beginning and an essence that makes me feel nostalgic for Malmö 2013 (the first ESC edition I watched completely, the one that made me a ESC fan for good); I would always listen to it with pleasure again. Finally, “Ljubav je Svuda” is by far one of my best “should haves”, I just adore its intro and the “conversation” those 3 have all along the song.… Read more »
Ouch … so far, Piero & the Music Stars got 4 votes. Four.
Slovakia: I remember how mad i was when Horehronie was not in a envelope.
Serbia: No one
Slovenia: 2008 Rebeka Dremelj deserved final
Switzerland: 2015 Melanie Rene, 2013 Takasa and 2018 Zibbz deserved final.
Good swiss songs but horrible live i cant choose. A lot of them
Slovakia 2010 had so much going for it, huge shame she seemed so nervous on the night. Especially compared to the smiles from her national final performance.
Lovebugs are a huge favourite of mine, his live vocals were a little raspy but it still deserved to qualify, also shocked to see it low here.
Slovenia 2009 I enjoy, but the lyrics really feel tacked-on (which they had to be, think they wanted it to be fully instrumental). Would make a great piece of music for a magician! Their 2005 entry shows why they needed two semi finals then
you know Kristina should win it all…
Ah, 2012, the first year I watched with a hype similar to the one I have today. I actually agree with the notion that most of semi 1 qualifiers are not as good as some of the songs which didn’t make it and some NQs were totally undeserving. Sinplus and Pernilla definitely should have made it. I am glad that you like Greta & Jonsi (my personal winners of 2012), as well as Eleftheria (IMHO, a better Greek ”sexy banger” compared to most others, including their bronze medal in 2008). I think that Romania and Denmark also deserved their qualifications,… Read more »
So sad to see The Highest Heights so low!!! It was one of my 2009 favorites!!
Glad to see everyone knows what’s up with Horehronie though. (:
Slovenia is so underrated in my opinion….
My favorite country in Eurovision <3
In my top 10 Eurovision countries.
Judging by Serbia’s curse. Looks like they are not going to qualify next year. XD
? hadn’t noticed that! Good point! It seems that they do not make it to the final every 4 years. But tbh I think that Hurricane can make it. We have to wait for the song though.
Let’s not forget Anna Bergendahl in 2010 for Sweden. I know it’s pointless to make a poll for it, but it’s still a good non-qualifier to remember
She has no opposition in this department, hence why she isn’t included. This reason is also Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Bosnia aren’t. You can’t just vote for one option.
Oh, I actually didn’t realise those weren’t included! But I still think they could’ve, not as to vote for them as the best (I already said it’s pointless mate), but as to remember them. But who knows, maybe we can get a post on Wiwibloggs focusing on those ones!
Those acts are not included bcs official Eurovision won’t include them in their “Semi-final special” as these countries missed the final only once.
Serbia: 2017. Tbh all of these 3 songs deserved their non qualification, at least based on their live performance. But as a song I think that their 2017 is the best, so I voted for it. However, I have to admit that their 2009 act is a great one to watch when it’s 3 am and you’re facing an existential crisis, it cheers you up Slovakia:2010. Unfortunately it didn’t work live, but it deserved qualification more than Russia 2010 or Belarus 2010 imo. I also voted for 2011, it was a decent act and personally I prefer it to Bosnia… Read more »
Slovakia 2012. Though his live performance could have been far better. The studio version is really good..
About Switzerland I’ve realized they have had so many good entries. My favs are: 2009 (Lovebugs) and 2012 (Sinplus). Also like 2018, 2016, 2015 and 2008.
Serbia: 2017
Slovakia: 2012
Slovenia: 2009 & 2012
Switzerland: 2007
Easy choices for me for all 4, but still bittersweet with such a parade of brilliance we’ve got here today. 1. Switzerland – and here finally comes the country I had in mind when first said it’s a pity we can’t select more than one entry per country. Starting on from 2012 till today, every entry of theirs is an outright 10/10 for me. Pure masterpieces. I’ve made my choice tho, and that’s Apollo. 1st both in my top for 2017 & in my ranking of all non-qualifying entries. 2. Slovenia – stunning Blue and Red by far. 4th in… Read more »
The fact that “Era Stupendo” is only the fifth most-voted song of the Swiss NQs here makes me believe that not all the voters know the song. It’s just amazing and, in my opinion, should have placed in the top 10 in 2008!
I do think it’s the best non qualifying entrant from Switzerland in terms of song only,but the performance was horrible from start to finish..
I just re-listened the live performance and I personally wouldn’t say so. It might not have been really flashy in terms of staging, but his vocals were good and the song itself is so beautiful. It should have qualified in a heartbeat. I guess that in 2008 the staging really started to outshine song quality in some cases and some weaker songs qualified mostly on being ”fun” on stage.
I am happy someone else appreciates this song, EurovisionBenny_AUT 🙂
Serbia – None of them were close to qualifying on my list, but I guess that In Too Deep wins by a default. It’s not a bad song, just tad anonymous. Slovakia – Both Let tmou and Horehronie should have qualified, with the former being the underrared one. Slovenia – 2005 and 2012 should have qualified. Switzerland – They are fascinating to me. On one hand, Celebrate is perhaps the worst song of semis era in general and on the other, they’ve sent some great songs which should have made it: Stones, Unbreakable, Apollo, probably You and Me and Highest… Read more »
I still have a hard time believing that Slovakia was lost in 2010, the question is will Slovakia ever come back to Eurovision and when it comes to Slovenia, Ewa Boto had a nice song and the truth is Raiven has great potential to be successful at Eurovision, but the Slovenes Raiven do not digest
I voted for Switzerland’s “Red Dress and Rose Petals” a.k.a. “Apollo” before it was butchered in Kyiv.
Slovakia 2010 is one of the best non qualifying entries I think.
She was very nervous at the performance, so that’s why they failed probably..
Eva Boto in this selection and it’s not even close. What a song that was.
I absolutely loved that song. It’s my favorite Slovenian song ever (and that’s saying something since I love Slovenia in esc) and probably my joint winner in 2012 along with “När Jag Blundar”.
När Jag Blundar and Boto? Throw in Vida Minha and you, friend, have the best taste ever.
Now the 0 votes for Celebrate I can understand…but 0 votes for The Last of Our Kind too? Whoof. Neither were Switzerland’s finest hour at Eurovision, but don’t make The Last of Our Kind take that L, it’s been through enough.
the song was decent but nowhere in this world did she deserve to qualify with this horrendous staging including the squat dance, the flushing toilet, hair and dress
Not 0 anymore. Amazing lyrics, song and oh God, I remember how bewitched I was back in 2016 the moment I saw Rykka appearing on stage. She’s like stepped right out a fairytale, with those hazy lilac curls of hers, and kept me hypnotized so I didn’t even notice she messed up some singing and put her right on the 2d place in my top. Later I reviewed my top for 2016 but she is still in my top 10.
The truth lies somewhere in between your two comments I think
Also it would be great to see Slovakia back in the contest!!!
I don’t get why Mikolas Josef, Lake Malawi and Benny Cristo haven’t inspired them to return to the contest.
I really thought Austria winning might’ve been a catalyst for them to return as it was for the Czechs, who returned to ESC when it went to Central Europe. If that didn’t work, then the Czech renaissance should have…maybe they just don’t want to return?
At this point I can only see them returning if the Czech Republic wins
I’ve heard that the people’s interest for Eurovision in Slovakia still keeps being very very low so they don’t see returning as an expedient decision.
I think that money is also a problem, their broadcaster doesn’t have a lot of budget unfortunately.
I will never get over Switzerland 2018 and Slovakia 2018. Stones and Horehronie deserved so much better. If Switzerland wasn’t in that blood bath semifinal they would have qualified and I still don’t get why people people didn’t like Slovakia.
Horehronie was from 2010