This Saturday, 19 December, #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 wanted to know which non-qualifier was your favourite. The voting was close, but in the end, Iceland’s Greta Salóme won the poll with her Eurovision 2016 entry “Hear Them Calling”.
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. From the winners of each country, we then asked you to pick your favourite and there was one clear winner.
“Hear Them Calling” is favourite Eurovision non-qualifier of wiwibloggs readers
Greta Salóme topped the poll with 5.32% of the overall vote. While it’s a small percentage, it still represented 808 votes for “Hear Them Calling”.
Greta first competed at Eurovision in 2012, where she performed the dramatic “Never Forget” with Jónsi. She then won Iceland’s Söngvakeppnin as a solo artist in 2016.
Despite “Hear Them Calling” being a hot fan favourite going into the competition, it only placed 14th in its semi-final, missing out on a place in the grand final. Despite Greta delivering an uplifting folk-pop performance, some fans criticised the staging for being too dark and leaving Greta in the shadows.
One of wiwibloggs’ favourite memories of Stockholm 2016 is Greta’s appearance at the inaugural Wiwi Jam. Despite having not qualified for the grand final the night before, Greta and her backing singers showed up and gave an amazing live performance of “Hear Them Calling”, with the Wiwi Jam audience showering the Icelandic diva with love.
In second place was Finland’s Eurovision 2017 entry, the duo Norma John with “Blackbird”. Their heartbreak balled was a close second place with 761 votes or 5.01%.
The Finnish duo, made up of Lasse Piirainen and Leena Tirronen, won UMK 2017. Prior to Eurovision, their electronic ballad “Blackbird” had been a fan favourite, with many moved by the song’s simple heartbreaking lyrics. In Kyiv, the song placed 12th in its semi-final, but placed 10th in the televote.
Third place went to Switzerland’s Eurovision 2018 act ZiBBZ with “Stones”. The sibling duo picked up 721 votes — 4.75% — for their uplifting rock anthem.
The duo — made up of brother and sister Coco” Gfeller and Stee Gfeller won the Swiss national final ESC 2018 – Die Entscheidungsshow. In Lisbon, “Stones” placed 13th in its semi-final, but had been tenth in the jury vote.
Rounding out the top five, in fourth place was Slovakia’s Eurovision 2010 entry, Kristína Peláková with “Horehronie”. It picked up 665 votes or 4.38%. In fifth place was Israel’s entry from Eurovision 2014. Mei Finegold‘s “Same Heart” picked up 657 votes or 4.33%.
What is your favourite Eurovision non-qualifier?
- Iceland: Greta Salóme – “Hear Them Calling” 808 votes 5.32%
- Finland: Norma John – “Blackbird” 761 votes 5.01%
- Switzerland: ZiBBZ – “Stones” 721 votes 4.75%
- Slovakia: Kristína Peláková – “Horehronie” 665 votes 4.38%
- Israel: Mei Finegold – “Same Heart” 657 votes 4.33%
- Bulgaria: Poli Genova – “Na inat” 616 votes 4.06%
- Portugal: Conan Osíris – “Telemóveis” 600 votes 3.95%
- North Macedonia: Jana Burčeska – “Dance Alone” 596 votes 3.93%
- Estonia: Koit Toome & Laura – “Verona” 584 votes 3.85%
- San Marino: Valentina Monetta – “Crisalide (Vola)” 574 votes 3.78%
- Greece: Yianna Terzi – “Oniro mou” 555 votes 3.66%
- Belgium: Sennek – “A Matter of Time” 537 votes 3.54%
- Armenia: Srbuk – “Walking Out” 491 votes 3.24%
- Norway: Agnete – “Icebreaker” 482 votes 3.18%
- Latvia: Triana Park – “Line” 472 votes 3.11%
- Ireland: Molly Sterling – “Playing with Numbers” 468 votes 3.08%
- Romania: Ester Peony – “On a Sunday” 433 votes 2.85%
- Montenegro: Who See – “Igranka” 432 votes 2.85%
- Serbia: Tijana Bogićević – “In Too Deep” 389 votes 2.56%
- Albania: Lindita – “World” 359 votes 2.37%
- Poland: Tulia – “Fire of Love (Pali się)” 341 votes 2.25%
- Czech Republic: Marta Jandová & Václav Noid Bárta – “Hope Never Dies” 322 votes 2.12%
- Malta: Amber – “Warrior” 319 votes 2.10%
- Belarus: Uzari & Maimuna – “Time” 314 votes 2.07%
- Croatia: Franka – “Crazy” 313 votes 2.06%
- Hungary: Joci Pápai – “Az én apám” 292 votes 1.92%
- Slovenia: Eva Boto – “Verjamem” 284 votes 1.87%
- Cyprus: Evridiki – “Comme ci, comme ça” 276 votes 1.82%
- Denmark: Lighthouse X – “Soldiers of Love” 275 votes 1.81%
- Georgia: Tamara Gachechiladze – “Keep the Faith” 268 votes 1.77%
- Austria: Natália Kelly – “Shine” 202 votes 1.33%
- Andorra: Gisela – “Casanova” 179 votes 1.18%
- Moldova: Lidia Isac – “Falling Stars” 179 votes 1.18%
- Lithuania: Jurij Veklenko – “Run with the Lions” 178 votes 1.17%
- The Netherlands: Trijntje Oosterhuis – “Walk Along” 169 votes 1.11%
- Monaco: Séverine Ferrer – “La Coco-Dance” 66 votes 0.43%
#EurovisionAgain non-qualifiers special
This Saturday, 19 December, the classic Eurovision online rewatching series #EurovisionAgain will end its 2020 season with a special dedicated to non-qualifiers.
Through a combination of fan votes and a jury made up of Eurovision blogs and podcasts, 26 non-qualifiers have been selected to have a second chance in the #EurovisionAgain grand final.
The non-qualifiers special will stream on the official Eurovision YouTube channel at 21:00 CET on 19 December. You can also join in the fun on Twitter by tweeting with the #EurovisionAgain hashtag and voting for your favourites in the @EurovisionAgain Twitter poll.
What do you think? What is your favourite non-qualifier? Who would you like to see in the #EurovisionAgain top 26? Tell us your thoughts below!
Monaco 2006????
One of Eurovision’s top 10 biggest train wreck performances for sure, not one of it’s greatest non-qualifiers.
No one on stage is remotely anywhere near being in tune for the three minutes, plus that weird growl/ coughing up phlegm bit at the end.
I’m really confused with Switzerland 2018 coming 2nd. I had no recollection of this being any sort of fan favourite at the time, and I don’t recall any outrage at all that it didn’t qualify?
Now apparently it’s the second-greatest non-qualifier of all time? It’s barely even the second-greatest Swiss non-qualifier.
Yes it is! Congrats Greta! You finally got justice you deserve! But I wish we knew the whole results, I just have to know where robbed masterpiece also known as Horehronie ended!!!!
7th place for Slovakia: https://twitter.com/EurovisionAgain/status/1340425424942329861
After watching the show, I’m here again thinking about “Oniro Mou”. What really happened there? Were the augmented reality effects rumors true? Did the Greek delegation thought that staging was enough? Was the stage too bright for the vibe they were aiming for? Great song, but freezing cold performance. Voted for it tonight anyway, but there was potential do be much more.
Congrats, Greta! 🙂 Hear Them Calling is a really good song and Greta is anyway my winner of 2012, so here’s the justice for her!
Iceland placed first
Switzerland second
Finland third
Amazing results indeed
Solid top five, for sure.
I would have preferred Verona instead of Israel, since I am not a great fan of Same Heart, but really good top anyway
Who did you all vote for guys?
I voted for 5 acts.
12: Zibbz (finished 2nd)
10: Norma John (finished 3rd)
8: Valentina Monetta (finished 8th)
7: Edsilia Rombley (finished 22nd)
6: Kate Ryan (finished 4th)
Nice to see Zibbz and Norma John get justice (and 4 of my 5 get into the top 10). To be honest, I never got the hype over Hear Them Calling at all
Good job, Greta! Well deserved win
And we have a winner! Congratulations, Iceland!
Ireland only 15th and Andorra 19th while Portugal’s in the top ten is bizarre.
Totally agree, Portugal deserved top 10 but with Conan
I still don’t understand what the fandom sees in Suzy. We have a few entries in a similar lane every single year and they’re almost always better than “Quero Ser Tua”.
Yes, I don’t like it either, still don’t understand how it scored 6th in televoting, maybe the lack of upbeat songs in that semi?
Maybe. Or maybe it was because people are always complaining about Portugal having “sad and slow” entries and they overcompensated when they sent something that’s more in the vibe the fandom likes. In any case, I don’t get it. For example, in this semi, they had North Macedonia and Norway, but went for Portugal anyway.
I’d have liked Foi Magia as the Portuguese contribution. But probably too long ago for much of the fandom.
And Poland’s 17th! I guess that’s a testament to how strong this lineup was but holy hell
Well, sadly I’m not surprised, since Tulia always have been a nice thing.
Most of these songs are very well picked and I have them most well in the upper half of their respective years. Thanks, #EurovisionAgain. 🙂 This is how I voted: 12 pts – FINLAND 10 pts – ANDORRA 8 pts – SAN MARINO 7 pts – IRELAND 6 pts – CZECHIA 5 pts – ROMANIA 4 pts – BELARUS 3 pts – SLOVENIA 2 pts – SLOVAKIA 1 pt – CROATIA GREECE and SWITZERLAND from 2018 would also deserve a vote and so would POLAND 2019 and ISRAEL 2014… omg, there were so many. PS. Jury votes really made them… Read more »
Wait…who helped Andorra and Belarus out? Where are the results??
Well, since the ”televote” (assuming only Wiwi poll was used, but IDK…) voted for Casanova and Time, I’d assume it was the jury who helped Salvem el mon and Eyes That Never Lie (my all-time picks, anyway). If so, thank you, jury. 🙂
“Throughout November on Instagram Stories we’ll be asking you to let us know your favourite song from every country that has failed to qualify for the Grand Final more than once since the Eurovision Semi-Finals were introduced in 2004.
We’ll also be asking 12 (douze!) sites and podcasts from the Eurovision fan community to select their 10 favourite non-qualifiers.”
(source: eurovision.tv)
Oh, thanks, Skiwalko! In any case, I am glad for most of these choices. I knew that Play has no chance next to Verona and Inje next to Igranka, so I didn’t even count on them. Other than that, I am only surprised that Conan wasn’t the pick for Portugal, but okay. There were so many cool songs presented tonight!
“Merci…”
“…you’re welcome.”
“Merci…”
“Yes.”
“Merci…”
“YOU’RE WELCOME!”
Honestly if every year it was Petra hosting plus a person from the host country, I would be eternally happy.
I would be perfectly fine with that. Nobody does it better.
No you wouldn’t – you’d get bored of her after three years in a row.
Plus she’d probably not be up for it either.
My top 26:
No Eastern European Funk is an injustice
Here’s the voting link! https://www.menti.com/637svzaosx
Gave my 12 points to Norma John, 10 to Tulia and 8 to ZIBBZ (they were quite impressive and seem even stronger now they’re in a weaker semi (this was supposed to be an all-star thing, but the real semi they were in was so much better).
12 to Ireland, 10 to San Marino, and 8 to Finland for me I think
Great picks, both Joe and Sabrina. I wanted to vote for Zibbs and Tulia as well, but then I saw that I never had the opportunity to vote for Feminnem and Kristina, so… but it was a TOUGH choice. Most of these songs should have qualified.
I was expecting tougher decisions for me, but it turns out that without Conan and Agnette, things became easier than I would like to be. At least, Sennek was well replaced by Kate, even if made Belgium lose several places in my ranking.
Agreed. A Matter of Time is my favorite Belgian NQ song-wise, but Kate’s performance eclipsed Sennek’s by a longshot and it was a long overdue for her to have her spot in the sun.
Yeah, I’m not that much into the song, but Kate’s performance was great and should be an obvious qualifier by then. And it’s been a while, so it’s nice that she got some love. 🙂
Oh btw, you can vote by clicking the link in the eurovision website on this contest!!
Conchita wiped the floor with the actual hosts in 2015
Wow, I am disappointed. I really don’t like Quero Ser Tua.
I think this proves the Telemoveis fans are a small but vocal sector of Eurovision fans as opposed to the majority. I come down in the middle. Neither love it nor hate it. Same with this song.
They sure did put that floor LED to good use in 2016, didn’t they?
Let’s go Iceland! And then hopefully Portugal or I lose 100 imaginary dollars
Closing the show with Telemoveis would be a power move
There’s one spot left, right? I hope they’re saving Conan for the grand finale…
Well…it’s Portugal, at least.
It’s Portugal, but it’s Suzy. Eurovision fans can’t be trusted.
Btw, does anyone know how to vote in this? I don’t own twitter so…
No clue. How much you wanna bet the last two are Hear Them Calling and Telemoveis?
I’d bet 100 dollars on it tbh, I don’t see a world in which they aren’t the last two
Which means we aren’t getting anything from Lithuania smh
Je t’adore! let’s go!!!
Getting to all the biggies now
Horehronie! The crowd goes wild.
Same Heart didn’t qualify but Cheesecake did. Even with a more limited field, the voters always find at least one way to make me scratch my head.
Tbh, I liked Cheesecake better. Same Heart was just so loud and overdone to me.
To each their own
I would have thought 2013 would have been Israel’s contribution to this.
Anonymous at last! Totally robbed in 2007. The one Andorran entry that deserved to qualify.
If Telemoveis and Je T’adore don’t show up soon I’m going to be pissed, ngl
Nothing from Israel yet either, and they’ve been robbed of qualifiers at least a handful of times.
Omg I forgot about Israel. I hope Rak Bishvilo makes it
Nope, Mei Finegold it is!
Well, never mind
I like both of them but I’m honestly happier they went with Same Heart.
Surprised it’s taken this long to get to 2010 and it’s neither Slovakia (which everyone’s expecting to show up) nor Lithuania (one of my personal favorite non-qualifiers). Nothing from 2004, 2008, 2012, 2014, or 2016 yet either (I’ll bet on at least 2014 and 2016 showing up eventually, but if we’re being real, most of the non-qualifiers from 2004 deserved it).
Igranka just being the robbed bop that it is. this chorus hits me like a truck but I love it, kind of like still breathing this year
Well, people are probably thrilled Igranka made it. With each re-listen, I get it a little more, but generally it’s really not my thing.
Aw man, they showed the proposal too, now I’m all choked up again. Now I can also appreciate Alma and Levina losing their sh*t in the background.
Omg I forgot Jana got proposed to live…..that was so cute
Thinking about how hard Jana was robbed…Dance Alone is such a genuinely good song.
I’m surprised cuz I remembered that performance not being so good, at least compared to the studio cut, but it was actually pretty great!
Switzerland could’ve made the final with Stones in any other year, any other semi-final. That was the tightest they’d been in ages.
once again verona is robbed.
The Australian OGAE did a non-qualifiers poll earlier in the year and Verona won by a country mile.
Also if Vola doesn’t win the whole actual thing it’s rigged. Just saying. (My actual favorite non-qualifier is Playing with Numbers but that little gem is still slept-on).
omg Molly made it!!! I’m so happy, that song is amazing
Well, am I glad to eat my words! Smart people, letting that one show up here!
That song is as good, if not better, than half of the songs Ireland actually won with, and I stand by that.
I can’t believe how deep these lyrics are, its genuinely amazing songwriting, paired with an amazing vocal.
Televote robbed that song. It was an injustice.
Could’ve picked any non-qualifier for Monaco and you didn’t go for Tout de moi? The one Monegasque entry that actually deserved the final!
Amen to that! 🙂
OK, clearly I missed something with Severine, ‘cuz now they’ve made it to the actual thing and I think it’s probably the lamest of Monaco’s three comeback attempts.
Agreed. Disappointed when it started playing in the livestream.
Monaco, Moldova, and Denmark are the only ones I’m really confounded by so far.
In fairness, Moldova doesn’t have any good NQs, and Eduard is probably the best of that bunch.
Neither does Denmark, really. But seeing as there are more than 26 countries with multiple non-qualifiers, somebody’s getting screwed over.
The rest so far isn’t too different from what I expected. Stones, Blackbird, Verona, Vola…no shocks there. Waiting for a pleasant surprise.
If I understand correctly, the 26 entries were picked by popularity based on online surveys. So not all countries would get representation, and possibly some countries could get more than one entry.
#justice4SofiMarinova
I love Line, Blackbird and Stones the most. But honestly, so many good songs!
Really overrated IMO. Not terrible, I wouldn’t mind seeing it in the final, but I didn’t miss it in the final either. The song is just very unexceptional and Greta is a meh singer with zero stage presence. Throughout the performance she sings with this blank smile on her face. The vido art looked nice but it was too derivative and made Greta run from side to side in order to sync with the video, which was a bit chaotic and possibly kept her from concentrating on singing and connecting with the song. My favorites here were Montenegro 2013, a… Read more »
Totally agree, for me this was never going to the final
Huge recency bias here, only 3 songs from the 00s decade, and 2 of them from countries that only competed in the 00s decade.
never been a fan of this song, I prefer Finland or Slovakia.
North Macedonia: Jana Bur?eska – “Dance Alone”, Romania: Ester Peony – “On a Sunday”, Norway: Agnete – “Icebreaker” are my favorites.
1,2,3,5,9 and 14 were 100% robbed
I predict Finland or Iceland winning tomorrow on EurovisionAgain
Tbh mine is Prison by Natalia Gordienko
Prison is nether a qualifier or a non-qualifier, as the semi never took place. People ”predicted” it not to qualify, but they also did it with Cyprus in 2015, Belarus in 2019, Belgium in 2013 and Georgia in 2016, and we all know how that ended. So, Natalia could have qualified, as much as we know.
Cyprus 2015 is The One Song Which Should Not Have Qualified
I’m amazed Belguim’s entry Je t’adore by Kate Ryan in 2006 isn’t in first place. Fourteen years later I find it hard to believe it did not even qualify for the final
Same
The top 3 songs in this poll are also my top three favorite non-qualifiers. When I started getting into Eurovision in 2016, Hear Them Calling was one of my favorite songs leading up to it. I had hoped it would bring Iceland’s first victory at the contest, but on the night of the first semi-final, I was very heartbroken when it failed to qualify. Even today when I revisit the qualification video, I still feel the pain. Blackbird was really underrated during the 2017 season, and while it had a great staging by the time the show aired, it was… Read more »
Yasss taste Greta was my winner of 2016
Where is Azerbaijan?
They only non qualified once. Your favorite can’t be the ONLY non qualifier. They’d need to NQ at least twice to be included 😛
Comme ci, comme ça, Cyprus 2007 is so underrated. I should have been top 10 in this poll and in ESC 2007.
Take “Stones” out and put “Verona” in and that’s the top five I would’ve predicted. ESC fans are pretty obvious in their taste. 😉
It’s still a disgrace that you all picked “Walk Along” as the Dutch representative. It’s literally the worst one.
I’d put it a the similar category as Sieneke – very weak and unintentionally awkward. However, The Toppers are in a category of their own – That was just atrocious from start to finish in a manner rarely which ESC song is. It wasn’t even ”so bad it’s good”. It was just painful to sit through. They’d probably be my last in any year after 2012, but in 2009, it’s a serious debate between them, Belgium and Bulgaria. 🙂