They say that history is written by the winners. And for Eurovision that is mostly the case. The victor gets the trophy and reprises their entry, while the whole shebang arrives in the winning country approximately twelve months later.
But that doesn’t mean that we forget about everyone else. Often, some would even suggest that the best songs always come second. We couldn’t possibly confirm or deny such a theory. However, we’re more than happy to put it to the test and look back at all of the runners up from 2013 to 2022.
Which second-place act is your favourite? Vote in our poll and then share your thoughts in the comments.
Eurovision second place acts: 2014 to 2023
Eurovision 2014: The Netherlands’ The Common Linnets with “Calm After the Storm”
The Netherlands shook everyone by taking second place in 2014. It was only one year after the nation qualified to the Eurovision final for the first time since 2004. The Common Linnets’ soft folk song won hearts, and for a moment it almost looked like victory was in their sights.
Eurovision 2015: Russia’s Polina Gagarina with “A Million Voices”
In a year in which the televotes and the jury couldn’t agree on anything, Russia profited and almost won. During the voting procedure, Russia held on to a lead until very late in the show, but Sweden took gold eventually.
Looking back at this in 2022, Polina Gagarina’s “A Million Voices” — with its message of peace — now seems hollow and dishonest. Polina has openly supported Russia’s war in Ukraine, and even performed at a massive Putin war rally earlier this year. Given that, we’re excluding her from the poll below. Sorry, not sorry.
Eurovision 2016: Australia’s Dami Im with “Sound of Silence”
In only its second year competing, Australia sashayed straight into the top two. Dami Im’s “Sound of Silence” won the jury vote and was seemingly on the way to a landslide victory, but eventually finished second, a tiny margin behind Ukraine’s “1944”.
Eurovision 2017: Bulgaria’s Kristian Kostov with “Beautiful Mess”
The top of the 2017 scoreboard was a beautiful mess of different genres. The winner from Portugal won the jury vote and the public, with Bulgaria’s Kristian Kostov finishing second in both. Kostov not only got the highest score ever for a non-winner, he also got the second-highest score of all time. Furthermore, just one year after Poli Genova secured Bulgaria’s top score in the contest, Kristian smashed it and then some.
Eurovision 2018: Cyprus’ Eleni Foureira with “Fuego”
In the days leading up to Eurovision 2018, fans became more and more convinced that Cyprus would win it. But in the end, as Eurovision 2019 host Assi Azar would say, they didn’t. Despite that, the song still became a staple choice for fan favourite all-time tops and achieved widespread success across Europe. We even saw it performed by Måns Zelmerlöw on the Tel Aviv stage.
Eurovision 2019: Italy’s Mahmood with “Soldi”
Mahmood’s win in the Sanremo Festival 2019 came as a surprise to many. But then, in the months leading up to Eurovision, the unique Italian R&B song grew on Eurofans. After Tel Aviv, “Soldi” charted in 24 countries in Europe.
Eurovision 2020: No contest
It’s the year that never was. Eurovision 2020 was cancelled because of that pandemic.
Eurovision 2021: France’s Barbara Pravi with “Voilà”
Barbara Pravi earned her spot at Eurovision the hard way: By competing in France’s quality national final Eurovision France: C’est Vous Qui Décidez! Barbara wowed with her voice, her beautiful melody and her classic-yet-contemporary staging to climb the scoreboard in Rotterdam. She’s subsequently toured Europe and continued to charm audiences with her kind spirit and delightful music.
Eurovision 2022: United Kingdom’s Sam Ryder with “SPACE MAN”
We all knew it would take someone very special to break the U.K.’s cycle of poor results and negative press coverage. Thankfully Sam Ryder was well up for the challenge. With his near-perfect falsetto and positive outlook on life and the contest, Sam gave the U.K. its best result since 1998. He went on to hit #2 on the U.K. charts, making “SPACE MAN” the highest charting Eurovision entry in the country since Gina G’s “Ooh Ahh…Just a Little Bit” in 1996.
Eurovision 2023: Finland’s Käärijä with “Cha Cha Cha”
Finnish rap doesn’t scream “Eurovision success.” But Käärijä knows how to break the rules. The UMK winner told the story of a man with social anxiety who grows into his own with the help of a sweet libation. He did this with a dazzling green bolero, a massive crate, and dancers performing ballroom dance. The song’s progression — from angry rap to rainbow-coloured joy — was the Jekyll and Hyde moment viewers craved. Finland stormed the televote and a legend was born.
calm after the storm.
voilà. bye
You can all downvote me as much as you want but for me personally and it’s still one of my favorite entries…Calm after the storm… Although I have to admit I like the other ones aswell… Except Beautiful mess, that’s still a big no… Sorry.
“Looking back at this in 2022, Polina Gagarina’s “A Million Voices” — with its message of peace — now seems hollow and dishonest.”
… you mean it wasn’t in 2015, one year after the annexation of Crimea??
Cha Cha Cha, Voilá, Soldi basically the songs in native language
Space Man is nice either, as well as Sound of Silence
I knew Cha Cha Cha would be leading this poll…so I voted for Bulgaria 2017. An epic vocal effort and still the runner up with highest points score…615!!
Voilá, almost perfection Spaceman, amazing staging + very hard song to sing live + beautiful and outstanding vocals. Beatiful Mess, modern concept, impressive voice and vocals. A million voices, not the best song but one of the best vices in Esc history, great performance. Calm of the storm, underrated song, very well produced, sang very well, very calm and peaceful. Soldi, another amazing song but with 0 stagging and the vocals weren´t as good as a second place deserved. Sound of silence, ok pop song increased with the amazing vocals of Dami Im. Fuego, ok song again elevated with a… Read more »
Rusia And Polina Are Shunned But Nations Such As Israel Is A War Mongaring Terorism State . Why Do They Deserwe The ESC Precitipation But Russia And Belarus Are Banned ? Israel Are Murdering People Daily For 80 Years Straight , Russia Is Defending Herself Against This Western Agresion And Is More Punished So It Is So Unfair .
Stop writing with capitals, it’s annoying.
Its How I Chose To Write . Why Dose This Efect You This Much ? I Do This To Imfasize What I Am Saying Because It Is Importent For Others To Know
Kudos to wiwibloggs for doing the right thing and excluding that warmonger Polina Gagarina from the poll! Although it doesn’t change anything for the better, it at least saves us from psychopath Bejba and the St. Petersburg troll army taking a big, massive dump on anything Eurovision stands for.
What Do I Have To Do With This ? Why Do You Suport Silencing Women Who Speak From There Hearts . ?
A Million Voices is a Swedish song. If somebody like Idina Menzel sang it, we’d all still love it. It’s really just Polina that ruined it. No?
I remember on the day of the 2015 contest, the results of a marriage equality referendum were announced in Ireland. The vote had taken place the day before. 67% in favour, 33% against. Marriage equality passed, and the Irish spokesperson got an extra loud cheer in Vienna.
YES 1,201,607
NO 734,300
A Million Voices!
1.2 million, wow. Wasn’t that about a quarter of the Republic of Ireland’s population at that time? 🙂
N.B. I cannot comment on that other matter related to a million voices. Remember that black hole?
If performed by other artists, people may like it or not. It’s not an exceptional song and it doesn’t have any “iconic value” or sorts. It doesn’t seem to have any meaninful “commercial” value either outside a certain space.
AMV was performed in a specific context on a very special stage and the performance was emotionally charged so it did make im pa ct.
I wote for Polina She Is The Best
In almost all of these cases bar a few, the 2nd placer was better than the winner in my opinion! Also, there are some which are very overrated by the fandom.
1. cha cha cha
2. Soldi
3. calm after the storm
4. Fuego
5. viola
6. Space Man
7. Sound of Silence
8. Beautiful Mess
9. A million voices
Calm after the storm because it was a complete surprise, a great song and staging. I can’t remember Fuego, I loved Voila and Soldi as well ??
giving the runner up from 2015 no place in the poll is bad style.
i would have voted for 2016 but i rather pass.
Polina was BOOED to the point of tears in Vienna. Is this what radicalized her into a Putin stan? The crowd that night played right into his hands, confirming for Polina the narrative that the West hates all Russians. Not a proud moment in Eurovision history, really.
Polina is not braindead. She knew exactly was she’s being used for. Singing a peace song after attacking another country. She’s a puppet, always has been.
Puppets are braindead, that’s what makes them puppets.
Except for Pinocchio.
Try telling her that. She believed she was singing a song about uniting the world. Back then, she probably thought all Russians supported Putin.
Dont Speak For Polina . She Is Beautiful And Talented And Knows The Right From Wrong .. Why Do U Hate Sucesful Russian Woman ?
She was the same person back then too. Deserved booing 100%.
I’m not trying to defend her, just to clarify. I still think the booing was wrong, and the EBU were right to cover it up with fake cheering.
It Was Very Wrong And EBU Should Have Showed This Booing Evidence And Not Fabracate The Cheers . Polina Was Abused By Eurowision Gays
And what would be an appropriate response for someone singing about world peace while supporting a gen0c!dal maniac? I’d agree in 99% of cases when it comes to respecting the artist, but in this case I just can’t. The whole package is so uncanny that it hurts. This song from her mouth is so ironic that it becomes a parody. Booing was warranted. The alternative would have been a dead silence. I wonder whether that might’ve been an even better message. In either case, fake cheering just sends the wrong message that people are receptive to a person like this.
I was not aware of her political beliefs back then, I don’t think most people were. I did not realize until just now that she was already a Putin stan back then. I think it is fair to say that most voters and audience members did not in fact care about Crimea at all at the time, otherwise she would not have come second. Perhaps the EBU should have kicked Russia out in 2014 if we all felt that strongly… but we didn’t. When I talk about booing, I’m really only talking about from a strategic propaganda point of view.… Read more »
PS. I do agree, however, that people who didn’t know that Polina was actively and passionately supporting the annexation of Crimea, and were just booing her because she’s Russian, are still in the wrong as well!
The booing was all about the recently introduced anti-LGBT laws, not about Ukraine at all. All it took to make the booing go away was to send a hot guy in 2016. No exaggeration.
The Russian sisters of 2014 were also booed afair.
Right, that was even more egregious!
Is Sound of Silence a great song? No. Is Dami Im great? Yes.
Fuego is still banging and one of my fav ESC performance ever in history!
Calm After the Storm for me. It’s a shame that it’s currently in last place.
But lots of great songs here. I actually think all of them deserved 2nd place. Some are even better than the actual winners (Cyprus 2018, the Netherlands 2014)
Please remove the link to Polina’s performance!
That’s modifying history
Voilà, Soldi and Calm after the storm get my votes.
The UK a came second with Imaani in 1998, not highest entry since Gina G. Gina came 8th which is a bit of a joke considering. Imaani, Jessica Garlic and Jade Ewan all scored higher since her.
The article means highest placing in the UK charts, not placing in the contest
Ughhh, that’s a hard one. I cannot decide between Dami Im, Kaarija and Barbara Pravi. Eh, I’ll go with the Aussies this time. Do the voting of the televote/jury winners, I wonder how these numbers would change.
A Million Voices with its message of peace sounded hollow and dishonest even at the time, never mind now. Russia had just annexed Crimea and expected us to swallow this. ??
Unfortunately we did swallow it cause she finished 2nd
Russian diaspora is wild. They pushed through some truly awful entries. And yes, “Scream” was one of them.
Scream was a good song and had great staging.
Try saying that to Azerbaijan or Israel. Get in line, Russia!
I resect all these performaces and there are many songs that I liked more than actual winners. BUT c’moon, there’s only one king of Eurovision here and that is Käärijä.
Appreciate the second place songs of the last two years but it’s still 2017 for me. It got a point total that would’ve beaten winners in many years and was an incredible performance for someone of his age.
2018 and 2022 also deserve nods as they were much better (to me) than the actual winners of their years.
Cha Cha Cha was way better and far more original than Tattoo, too
Also I was about to complain about you not editing Polina’s caption to reflect the year is 2023 but then again she doesn’t deserve your time editing that caption. Bitch
honestly still hard to believe how well Dami Im did- she’s an amazing person and in retrospect I think it’s one of the most incredible results of all time seeing how hard it is now for us to do well with the televote- I do enjoy a couple of our entries more but I can’t help but be filled with national pride seeing a Korean Australian show the world how much of a beautiful diverse and fun country we are.
However Cha Cha Cha is like my third favourite entry of all time lol
Best Female Led 2nd Places
Best Male Led 2nd Places
Such a bases take.
Based.
it’s still a million voices… the singer’s personal stances take nothing away from the song and performance
“We believe, we can shine” It couldn’t be more cheesy really…
I too try to separate the artist from the state. After all, I shouldn’t like people to judge me on the behaviour of my government. However, we also know from experience that artists are sometimes puppets of the state, such as with Belarus, who were disqualified as a result. It seems Gagarina has gone the same way.
It takes away authenticity, actual emotion, and soul
Same here.
Fuego and A Million Voices (sorry not sorry back, putting aside Polina’s political view, she is a GREAT performer and she did a great job in Vienna’s stage that year) clearly could’ve deserved to win, but Dami Im was ROBBED! She owned that stage, delivered powerfull vocals, she was so kind with both audience and press…. she is the best runner up of this lot, but she should be one of the best WINNERS of the last decade
Thank you for supporting Polina.
This is childish.
I don’t support Polina, but she was second in 2015, where is she in this pool?
We had eurovision in 2015, Russia was second, people can vote or ignore them in this, but they got their second place that year.
She really deserves this treatment after what she did.
What did she do? Just asking.
Efandi supported Azerbaijani war politicians that committed atrocities against the Armenians yet people still give Mata Hari time…
I’m now seeing so many comments here supporting Polina. Is this the ‘million voices’ finally speaking up?
Let’s have some fun with this. My honest retrospective: 2014 – A bland three-chord song that was propped up with wonderful camera work and a musical chemistry between the singers. 2015 – Does anyone remember the black hole in the background of the live performance? That’s where my comment has gone. 2016 – It reminded me of one of my own songs, and I’m also really jealous of Dami’s talents to this day. What an extraordinary musician. Dami took me by surprise. 2017 – A very beautiful and surprisingly deep song. I love playing it on piano. When I heard… Read more »
I never got the hype about Space Man, the 2nd place for it is way too much and well, undeserved.
Europe did not think so. How disrespectful. Ukraine was deserved?
I would prefer UK winning over Ukraine, but not a fan of either.
Nonsense
I would have preferred Spain as the runner-up to, but I also think that the UK had a great song.
Are we pronouncing Iceland as the runner-up of 2020? Who won? My guess is Russia, because of the immense televote! Or Switzerland / Bulgaria / Italy managed to get just enough points from the jury who downrated Uno so much that it was impossible to catch up?
SloMo was, and remains, an awful song. Can you play that on piano even? Chanel is a talented dancer, but I personally found the whole thing deeply unsexy.
Yes on the piano, with “feather fingers” on the edge of the black keys. A bit like this…
https://youtu.be/gfENhCGsXLE?si=qCs5udY_4V-6p6NR
Thank you. That was unexpectedly good. Maybe the verses were a little monotonous, but I think I perhaps underestimated the songwriters at least a bit. I genuinely prefer this version to Chanel’s. A close up of somebody’s butt is no match for the musical flair of this pianist. Bravissimo.
Cha Cha Cha, Calm After The Storm, Voila and Beautiful Mess are the best ones.
Kaarija wasn’t on point vocally. My favourite is Dami
Yeah yeah fire
Cyprus 2018 Fuego
I appreciate wiwibloggs for excluding 2015’s runner-up, that song aged horribly and then some. As for my favorite runners-up of the past 10 years, those are (in no particular order): 2023: the song was bonkers and terrific at the same time, the entry’s success was both unprecedented and deserved 🙂 2020: yeah, I know the contest didn’t take place, but Iceland and Lithuania were going to be the top 2 anyways, and both songs are bangers 2017: such a cute and outstanding song, my favorite of that year, but Portugal deserved the win imo 2019: loved Soldi and its originality… Read more »
I appreciate wiwibloggs for excluding 2015’s runner-up, that song aged horribly and then some. As for my favorite runners-up of the past 10 years, those are (in no particular order): 2023: the song was bonkers and terrific at the same time, the entry’s success was both unprecedented and deserved 🙂 2020: yeah, I know the contest didn’t take place, but Iceland and Lithuania were going to be the top 2 anyways, and both songs are bangers 2017: such a cute and outstanding song, my favorite of that year, but Portugal deserved the win imo 2019: loved Soldi and its originality… Read more »
Netherlands last, why??? Looking at this point, such calm and slow-rythm country song to almost win Eurovision is staggering to me, Europe must have been in some special kind of mood and taste that year if they let that song get TOP 2. Beautiful.
Thank you sm Wiwiblogs for excluding putina gagarina from this poll.
2014: would have preferred the Netherlands to win over Austria. 2015: I liked and voted for both Sweden and Russia back then but I like the Swedish song more 2016: I never really liked the Australian entry as I found it basic but I liked it way more than the Ukrainian one and I would have preferred Dami to win. 2017: I liked Portugal more than Bulgaria though I voted for neither 2018: I equally dislike Israel’s and Cyprus’ entry that year 2019: Soldi was my winner of 2019 and would have loved to have seen it win, although the… Read more »
I think “Calm After the Storm,” “Soldi,” and “Cha Cha Cha” would have been excellent winners.
Netherlands 2014 should have won, imo. It was utterly original and well beyond its time in the contest. 2015 – I was going to prepare the potty but I read the article again. No more potty!! Australia 2016 was a piece of art. Well deserved second place but Ukraine was better, imo. Bulgaria 2017. I’m forever grateful for Portugal’s win. Bulgaria’s (cough cough) game to bring a Bulgarian-Russian singer for a song made by a “renown” songwriter with a Swedish package (in the absence of Russia) for a contest held in Ukraine was so in the face. Like they could… Read more »
UK 2022 is the best song ever? Are you from this planet? lol
The recency bias by the readers here is frustrating. People are rewarding nipples and fluorescent lycra over talented songwriting.
Voila felt a bit plastic and fake emotional, something taken from the Rottatouille movie from 2017.
Didn’t like Fuego either. The rest – Ok.
Happy to see Käärijä here, but tbh, I’ve forgotten about him as a honest Finlander.
Both Loreen and Käärijä are ESC superstars but complete nobodies IRL, and thats FINE!
Måneskin and Blanka are doing succesful glory career after ESC though!
Correction: de movie is from 2007, a typo.
Blanka)))))
1- Mahmood
2- Karijja
3- The Common Linnets
4- Sam Ryder
5- Barbara Pravi
6- Eleni Foureira
7- Christian Kostov
8- Dami Im
Why Is Polina Banned ? She Has The Best Preformance Of Song From All Of This Acts . Stop With The Politic , Polina Just Wanted To Preform For Big Crowd . She Isnt A Army
Yes I agree, since now the Ukraine invasion is not longer in the headlines, so we need to stop
Shame on you, peace first!
She’s a fascist.
Ok ?
It’s hypocritical of the Eurovision community because Azerbaijan and Israel have committed war atrocities over the last 20 years but are not cancelled like Russia is.
Such a good decision to exclude Polina from this poll. Her behavior is unbelievable. Thanks!
I absolutely agree
Agree!
I for one disagree.
You don’t need to do it under every single comment, though.
For me best 3 from 2019 , 2023, 2014
Overrated for me 2015,2017,2018
Most overrated 2015
Italy 2019 was such a hit, a modern song that brought urban sounds to the ESC stage, a unique creation and masterpiece from a contestant that few thought could win Sanremo back in February. Big surprise in Italy, and one of the greatests contributions they have made to the ESC music styles, bringing a great work of art that some of us still play on repeat. It deserved to win as much as Arcade, there were just a few points of difference actually. Calm After the Storm and Fuego are also history of Eurovision, what performances those were. My winners… Read more »
Nlands 2014 and Italy 2019.
Honestly Australia 2016 is my least fave from this list by quite a margin, deeply overrated IMO
France 2021 also top notch