In just over one week, #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’ve been running a series of polls asking you to pick your favourite non-qualifiers from each country that had more than one non-qualifier in the semi-finals era. Now it’s time to decide which songs are the best of the best.

The poll won’t include any songs from the Big Five countries as they never compete in the semi-finals. Likewise, Australia and Ukraine are lucky enough to never had had a song not make it out of the semis. Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia, Sweden and Turkey are also excluded as they’ve only ever had one song not qualify.

But there are plenty of other countries still in the running. Listen to the non-qualifying favourites from each country then vote for your favourites. As always, you can vote for as many songs as you like, but you can only vote once — so make your vote count!

What are your favourite Eurovision non-qualifiers?

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Previous polls

Which non-qualifiers are your favourites? Who would you like to see have another shot at Eurovision? Tell us your thoughts below!

See more of our polls here

44 Comments
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Shuester
Shuester
3 years ago

Ester Peony’s “On A Sunday” (Romania 2019) is one of my absolute favorite songs. I can’t believe it didn’t qualify, a year and a half later.

Sam
Sam
3 years ago

Even if excluded, I would vote for Sweden, Anna Bergendahl and This Is My Life. Already a decade ago, and even after all Swedish success, few of us can forget that unfair result.

noah
noah
3 years ago

Blackbird, Hear Them Calling, Stones

Insert name here:
Insert name here:
3 years ago

I could not decide between Sennek (Belgium) and Agnete (Norway) so I did vote for both of them. Greetings from Lithuania!

moramento
moramento
3 years ago

Crisalide and Blackbird 100%

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
3 years ago

They’re all winners, really.

AMPM
AMPM
3 years ago

Ireland’s staging (well the visuals) are very similar to what Salvador used. Travesty that Molly didn’t qualify.

Ulvi
Ulvi
3 years ago

The Why-ay-ay-ay Lady. No competition.

Nicky
Nicky
3 years ago

it will be a proper length show next saturday, 2 hours and 15 minutes

TheDr Mistery
TheDr Mistery
3 years ago
Reply to  Nicky

Are songs already selected? Where was the voting taking place?

moramento
moramento
3 years ago
Reply to  TheDr Mistery

If you’re asking about the Wiwibloggs poll then:

“We’ve been running a series of polls asking you to pick your favourite non-qualifiers from each country that had more than one non-qualifier in the semi-finals era.”

As far as I know the vote for #EurovisionAgain was done on Instagram

TheDr Mistery
TheDr Mistery
3 years ago
Reply to  moramento

Thanks!

Wilfried
Wilfried
3 years ago

Too hard to choose!! ??

Hmm
Hmm
3 years ago

A lot of these song options are from recent years, which makes me think that the overall quality on eurovision entries has gone from bad to better and many, even some good enries couldn’t qualify because there’s just too many good songs

Or people just don’t remember the older entries

Colin
Colin
3 years ago
Reply to  Hmm

I believe that it’s a bit of both. While there were individual masterpieces in 2000s as well, the overall quality has gone drastically up.
Also, many fans who recently joined in, haven’t heard the older songs yet, or have heard them, but don’t equally connect them to a certain memory (which can, at times, also play a part).

Paul
Paul
3 years ago
Reply to  Hmm

I think it’s probably the latter. It’s like the top 250 has way more newer entries because people don’t know the history

TheDr Mistery
TheDr Mistery
3 years ago
Reply to  Paul

Their loss. I absolutely adored going deeper into the history of the contest and discovering hidden gems along the way.

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
3 years ago

A lot of my choices didn’t win their polls so that makes the ones that did even clearer winners for me when it comes to ranking. Verona was my clear #1 and World was my #3 so they’re still there.
I respect everyone’s opinions but Blackbird over När Jag Blundar? Definitely took one of my favourites out of the running there.

dxi
dxi
3 years ago
Reply to  Briekimchi

När Jag Blundar will always be the winner in my heart

Jonas
Jonas
3 years ago

I think the problem is just that – they’re professional. Not actual music lovers.

Jonas
Jonas
3 years ago
Reply to  Jonas

Maybe I have the wrong idea about who these jurors actually are, but if they’re in the business end, then…yeah. I do recognize and admire a lot of smaller record companies with very passionate people behind them, I’m just not sure these are the ones picked for jury duty.

mop
mop
3 years ago

I’d like to see Tijana from Serbia with a scenography, costume, dancers, that someone has put at least some energy. Her vocals were amazing but she was screwed over by the people around the performance production

Me!
Me!
3 years ago

Finland will get my vote, still can’t believe it didn’t qualify in 2017, maybe there were just too many ballads that year and expecially in that semifinal

Sabrina
Sabrina
3 years ago

My votes would be… Portugal (“Telemóveis”, Conan Osíris): Arguably the most unique song Eurovision ever had. It’ll always be divisive, but I believe years from now other generations of Eurovision fans will still ask how it hasn’t qualified. And maybe they’ll even like the costume! Finland (“Blackbird”, Norma John): For me, this is the most hurtful non-qualifier, because I still can’t find an explanation, since it’s not that divisive and always had a passionate fanbase. Belgium (“A Matter of Time”, Sennek): Sennek’s pre-ESC journey was full of bumps and the final performance was still a let-down, but the song is… Read more »

dxi
dxi
3 years ago
Reply to  Sabrina

National performance of Apollo was so, so good. They should’ve just done the exact same thing, lol.

Sabrina
Sabrina
3 years ago
Reply to  dxi

This is probably the worst thing about it, they messed up when they just needed to adapt the national final staging and improve one thing or another.

Kosey
Kosey
3 years ago

Two of my all time favourite Eurovision songs on this list – I would feel so bad if I had to choose between them so it is a tie between Norma John and Agnete. Still majorly appearing on my playlists, still majorly giving me all the feels when they come on. Bravo!

Yasi
Yasi
3 years ago

It should have been Apollo for Switzerland 🙁

Yup
Yup
3 years ago

My vote is goin for Finland

Colin
Colin
3 years ago

My personal (approximate) list among these songs (several of my all time favorite NQs didn’t win their polls): .36. THE NETHERLANDS – Yeah, walk along indeed. I just don’t like it, especially not her delivery. I have no idea how this won over My Impossible Dream. .35. MONACO – I appreciate the Tahitian language and beat, but this is just too childish and not particularly well performed. .34. RUN WITH THE LIONS – It’s not good, it’s not bad. It’s a middle ground incarnate. But it had no better songs to beat, so I’m fine. .33. SERBIA – Best of… Read more »

Last edited 3 years ago by Colin
Linus
Linus
3 years ago
Reply to  Colin

I like long lists:). Very ambitious:).
Slovakia: I remember i was 100% sure Slovakia would be in a envelope.
San Marino: i was 100% sure San Marino would be in the 10th envelope.
Ireland was a crime. So nice staging and song.

The worst: Monacos live performance, Andorras outfit and staging and Netherlands from a nice party before ESC, and to that on the night.

Colin
Colin
3 years ago
Reply to  Linus

Thanks for appreciating my effort here. It was fun to do, but it’s still nice to hear it. 🙂

I agree on all counts. Slovakia, San Marino and Ireland should have made it in a heartbeat. Monaco’s performance was a mess. I like Casanova as a song, but that outfit was terrible and it deserved it’s Barbara Dex winner. And yeah, the Dutch performance was unfortunately somewhat annoying (Sorry, Trijntje).

Last edited 3 years ago by Colin
Linus
Linus
3 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Some say small countries dont Q because they are small. Often are the smallest sadly the worst. They are not great on having singers who sing in tune, modern songs, staging. Hope Andorra will fix that in 2022:)

Sabrina
Sabrina
3 years ago
Reply to  Colin

This poll made me check who was in 2018’s first semi again… Boy, that was scary! I guess Iceland was the only country with zero chance to qualify then. All the others would qualify in different occasions.

Colin
Colin
3 years ago
Reply to  Sabrina

It was the most competitive semi I can think of. There were several songs I’d think of as my winners in almost any other occasion and not a single bad song. Iceland was the least competitive one, but it was still cute and melodic.

I think that all 10 of the qualifiers deserved to make it and yet, Belgium, Switzerland and Greece would be more than deserving qualifiers. I wouldn’t mind any of the others qualifying in normal circumstances either. There were some tough semis, but I cannot think of any other example like this.

Colin
Colin
3 years ago
Reply to  Colin

I respect your opinion, as always, but I genuinely think that it’s beautifully composed, written and performed. It’s one of my favorite ESC songs of that time. I seriously find it as good as most of recent Sanremo winners. It’s actually placed even a bit higher than Italy on my 2013 list (even if both are excellent and in my top 10). I can understand people having different tastes, or being tired of a certain style, so, all the power to diversity. 😉 Just to add, I am constantly getting surprised that some of my favorite ESC songs sometimes share… Read more »

Last edited 3 years ago by Colin
Colin
Colin
3 years ago
Reply to  Colin

I just went on Siegel’s Wiki page and saw how he was behind some of the really poor entries as well. I saw only up to ESC 2000 thus far. I see Crisalide (and Maybe, even though it’s less strong than the former) as bright exceptions to the rule. I don’t know, maybe it was a spark of inspiration and perhaps it was a result of collaboration with other artists. I didn’t dislike Montenegro in 2009 either, even though it’s somewhat a nonsensical song (“or just stay”, ha ha ha). Everything else… well… a “so bad it’s good” at best… Read more »

Colin
Colin
3 years ago
Reply to  Colin

I can only speak for myself, but what I love so much about Crisalide is the perfect match of music and the message. We have inspirational lyrics about rebirth and the music always grows with them. It starts slowly, but atmospheric, then grows and grows until the epic finish! 🙂

The purpose of sharing is not to change your (or anyone’s) opinion, it’s just for sharing my personal experiences with this song. 🙂

And IMHO that’s such a petty reason to be dissatisfied. If anything, he should’ve been happy that Germany is now a two times winner.

Last edited 3 years ago by Colin
Briekimchi
Briekimchi
3 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Excellent work on your list, Colin! I enjoyed reading it.
Interestingly enough, a lot of the songs that you have towards the top of this are songs that I didn’t really care much for. I think you’ve seen my choices elsewhere so you probably kno which ones I’m talking about. 😉

Colin
Colin
3 years ago
Reply to  Briekimchi

Thanks, Briekimchi, that’s very nice to say. 🙂 Just like I said to Tibor, I like the diversity in expression. For me, it is interesting seeing someone not liking Crisalide or Blackbird, because it just proves there is no such thing as absolute “universal appeal” and that music just speaks to us in different ways. 🙂

Last edited 3 years ago by Colin
Nobody Important
Nobody Important
3 years ago

This was such a hard choice but at the end I voted for: Israel, Bulgaria, Greece, Slovakia, San Marino, Switzerland, Armenia and North Macedonia. I love so many of them and I could have honestly voted for almost all of them! So many robbed masterpieces!

Nathan
Nathan
3 years ago

Justice for HOREHRONIE!

Hellohi
Hellohi
3 years ago

Of all of these I would say sennek matter of time .. It was an excellent entry let down by terrible staging and nervous live .. if it had the staging it needed it could have done very well at the contest .. still listen to it ..
Also norma John blackbird , atmospheric perfection .. what a shame it didn’t qualify

just an esc fan
just an esc fan
3 years ago
Reply to  Hellohi

couldn’t agree more…it’s like i wrote this comment