It has become an annual tradition for Germany to host its own Eurovision show in the run-up to the contest, with panelists ranking this year’s entries.
Back on Tuesday, Italy topped the third songcheck. But all was still to play for tonight during the fourth episode. And the question on everyone’s mind was, “Can Eurovision favourite Duncan Laurence from The Netherlands take it all?” He did, in fact, win the fourth episode. However, it wasn’t enough to beat the Sanremo winner from Italy.
Congratulations, Mahmood!
Mahmood managed to win the Songcheck with a score of 10.4 points, including the highest score given by the audience. Duncan Laurence from the Netherlands came really close — with 10.25 — but missed out on taking the top spot. Taking the scores into consideration, the two acts are separated by just one tenth of a point. If this is any indicator, then it’s surely going to be an interesting race to watch in Tel Aviv!
THIS YEAR’S OVERALL RANKING
- Italy 10.35
- Netherlands 10.25
- Switzerland 9.25
- Cyprus 8.8
- Malta 8.1
- Norway 8
- Slovenia 7.95
- Russia 7.85
- Sweden 7.8
- Czech Republic 7.8
- Spain 7.7
- Greece 7.65
- Azerbaijan 6.8
- Iceland 6.7
- Belgium 6.65
- France 6.65
- Albania 6.55
- Poland 6.45
- Armenia 6.35
- United Kingdom 6.35
- Australia 6.25
- Denmark 6.2
- North Macedonia 6.05
- Portugal 6
- Hungary 5.9
- San Marino 5.8
- Ireland 5
- Israel 4.95
- Romania 4.9
- Serbia 4.7
- Austria 4.7
- Lithuania 4.2
- Estonia 4.1
- Belarus 4.1
- Latvia 3.9
- Finland 3.8
- Georgia 3.45
- Montenegro 2.85
- Croatia 2.85
- Moldova 2.7
ABOUT THE GERMAN SONGCHECK
The songcheck has taken place every year since Lena’s triumph with “Satellite” at the 2010 contest. Hosted by Alina Stiegler and Stefan Spiegel, the hosts discuss the entries with a panel of experts, and also bring in comments from readers and viewers.
The 2018 programme sees some familiar faces as show guests. Germany’s commentator Peter Urban, radio host Thomas Mohr, Jan Feddersen, “Dr. Eurovision” Irving Wolther, Marcel Stober, Constantin “Consi” Zöller, singer and actor Isabel Varell, moderator and DJ Larissa Rieß, actress Kathrin Ingendoh, YouTuber Freshtorge and members of the Olivia Jones family join the two hosts. And our very own William Lee Adams and Deban Aderimi brought international flair as part of the programme, too.
A new feature of this year’s Songcheck programme was the addition of a fan expert. Back in March, Paul Klur from Dortmund won the voting on their website and thus joined the other guests.
FOURTH SHOW RANKINGS
Duncan Laurence was the clear winner of the fourth and final Songcheck show. Following behind were Malta, Norway and Russia. In addition Azerbaijan came fifth with Albania and North Macedonia not too far behind. On the bottom side of the list were Lithuania and Croatia.
- Netherlands 10.25 (9.5 audience / 12 Stefan / 10 Alina)
- Malta 8.1 (8.2 audience / 8 Stefan / 8 Alina)
- Norway 8 (8.5 audience / 8 Stefan / 7 Alina)
- Russia 7.85 (6.7 audience / 10 Stefan / 8 Alina)
- Azerbaijan 6.8 (7.6 audience / 7 Stefan / 5 Alina)
- Albania 6.55 (6.6 audience / 7 Stefan / 6 Alina)
- North Macedonia 6.05 (5.6 audience / 6 Stefan / 7 Alina)
- Lithuania 4.2 (4.9 audience / 3 Stefan / 4 Alina)
- Croatia 2.85 (3.2 audience / 2 Stefan / 3 Alina)
SECOND SEMI-FINAL RANKING
With all scores in now, it’s time to take a look at the full ranking for the second semi-final:
- Netherlands 10.25
- Switzerland 9.25
- Malta 8.1
- Norway 8
- Russia 7.85
- Sweden 7.8
- Azerbaijan 6.8
- Albania 6.55
- Armenia 6.35
- Denmark 6.2
- North Macedonia 6.05
- Ireland 5
- Romania 4.9
- Austria 4.7
- Lithuania 4.2
- Latvia 3.9
- Croatia 2.85
- Moldova 2.7
What do you think about the results of the fourth show? Did Duncan Laurence deserve to top the scoreboard? And is Mahmood a deserving winner of this year’s German songcheck? Comment down below!
I’ve just read that the after the votation by Ogae eurovision fans until 18 april, in the first position there is… Switzerland ! Italy and Netherlands are second and third….
I don’t know… the song of switzerland is really catchy but I hope televote and jury will consider also the meaning and the lyrics of the songs…
Why only focus on the German pre selection show? Other countries have those too, why not show the results there?
The fans clearly underestimates many songs such as Portugal’s one in my opinion… let see 😉
It has indeed potential to win! Conan is a king on stage
Italy still hasn’t proven they can design and implement winning staging.
Wait till 18 May 😉
The Italian delegation let the artists do what they on the stage, so I don’t particularly care about “winning staging” as long as they have artistic freedom.
*they want
What’s a winning staging? Can you explain?
To me there’s winning songs or winning artists. That’s what matters.
Netta, Salvador, Emmelie, Lena or Rybak didn’t have any wow stagings XD
They won for other reasons. People connect with them. That’s the most important thing
As for Italy, they had a great staging/performance in 2015 which smash televoting for a reason.
They also did a great staging work last year with Non mi avete fatto niente.
And music always goes first
I like Mahmood and I like his song, the only thing that surprises me is that it’s doing so well in the polls when in the San Remo televote it came something like 20th? Which makes me think that its reputation as a hit has made a lot of people fall for it, rather than their first impression. Not that I wouldn’t like to see it winning.
I think his low ranking in the Sanremo televote was more due to the fact that he was a nobody at that time. Very few people knew him and people usually tend to vote for the artists that they know.
Dear dutchie, mahmood was 21st in televote only the first night of exhibitions but you have yo consider that Sanremo festival last one week, his exhibition was the very last in this first night on a monday of a working week, after midnight, so a lot of people didn’t even see him performing, and above all he was almost unknown before sanremo. Since the beginning he was the favourite of the experts giuria d’onore. The “problem” about sanremo is that there are always very important and famous singers in competition and in Sanremo who has a huge fan base (as… Read more »
About the questions on the article, my opinions are: Yes, Mahmood deserves to win, in his song there is his painful personal story and the music is a masterpiece… As the President of giuria d’onore of Sanremo, Mauro Pagani, one of the most important italian musician, said “Soldi is a little miracle”, “una piccola meraviglia”. But also Duncan Laurence deserves, and if one of them wins, it is ok. Their songs are so different that the victory will depend on taste of public and jury about a sound more romantic and traditional and other more innovative and urban. Both artists… Read more »
agree with your words 😀
Agree very much about Conan actually!
talent won
If it was 100% in croatian i think it would qualify 100%. ps you should NOT say things about the artists appearance!!!! He seems supernice and look in the mirror yourself!
Larissa Rieß was the one and only of this songcheck! <3 I want her and me to host our next National Final together 😀
I have a feeling that although Netherlands are probably winning the Jury Vote, they won’t do so well with the televote.Maybe a fourth or fifth place…so they will get second or third place in the end.
About Italy i suspect it will get between 5th-10th plce overall….both juries but specially televote won’t vote for this massively.
i think if Lucca give us a visually and vocally competent performance it will please BOTH the jury and the public.And the same with Sweden.
I agree on most parts. I too don’t see Italy doing great either with the juries or televote. I don’t this The Netherlands has got the momentum Portugal had in 2017 going in Eurovision. Although he sings well live, still I don’t see it collecting a lot of televote points. With the juries, Sweden will probably win.
Portugal 2017 really had momentum around end of April 2017 on Eurovision fan websites? Well, I don’t think so. Not in the betting odds (7th), not in the OGAE Polls, not in jury review shows. Most fans, even in here, gravely underestimated the potential of Portugal. It was only during the first Kiev rehearsals that people started thinking “Wow….this is kinda magical indeed”. That’s the thing with Eurovision. Sometimes expectations follow the predictions…and even the scoreboard rankings in the final. But sometimes they don’t. Portugal 2017 was very a-typical. It didn’t have lots of momentum as a radio song or… Read more »
Right the momentum started to build for Portugal when the rehearsals started… but right now I don’t see this happening for the Netherlands… maybe we will be amazed by another act we are underestimating at the moment.
i have the same feeling. they’ll either get gabbani’d or dami im’d. there’s nothing special bout arcade, while all the winners since 2016 have had some extra factor that made em win.
Well, dear Bigger, I’m not here to defend Polegend or anything, but y’all dutchies are doing the same since Arcade was released, and all the love I felt for that song faded away quickly because of your unacceptable aggressive behaviour trying to protect your country’s song. The first day it was released I dared to write it was good but I still preferred another entry under the yt video and I almost got eaten alive by one of yours. Look at dear Denis a few comments below, and the same goes for many other people here and elsewhere. I don’t… Read more »
Dear Nvm, the only annoying Dutch fan is Nicky, and he doesn’t even like Arcade! He’s just trolling every post to make people hate Arcade, something which has apparently worked with you.
The rest of us are pretty neutral about it. Heck, Arcade isn’t even my personal favourite. I like it though.
Who the f cares about Nicky, I wasn’t talking about him and I skip all his comments. I’m addressing things that I saw here and elsewhere as well by certified dutchies.
Of course, every country has a few trolls, the comment section for Arcade is also flooded with annoying Russians. That won’t change my opinion about Russia as a whole though. Be happy, you have a great chance of winning Eurovision this year, and I think most Dutch people wouldn’t mind to see that.
lmfao i didn’t even mention soldi but k
Look…i’m not saying that Arcade isn’t good.The song is indeed REALLY good. The thing is: i doubt it has that xtra potential charisma and factor to win the whole thing. At least since 2014, all the winners had something that made them different from the rest: *2014:Conchita story and everything that she represented *2015:Mans stage performance was something really innovative at the time. *2016:Again, Jamala story and all the significance behind “1944”, specially after the political stuff that happened that year *2017:A completely out-of-the-box performance and performer, almost an “anti-Eurovision” song but with an universal artisticity and simplicity that charm… Read more »
I think Sweden will win the Jury votes, while Norway and Russia could do very good with the televotes. I expect that Netherlands will become both 2nd in Jury and Televotes… Let´s see!
Just for you to see how Internet works on these days: Netherlands and Italy are both my favourite songs this year and just because i gave an honest opinion on what i think the songs will do in May, there are already people downvoting my comment and people bashing each other…we are in 2019 and people can’t just discuss things politely? -,-
I wonder where Germany would lie in the ranking
If it was a Spanish or Greek show it would have their own entry at rank number 1, 100% for sure. And in Greece, Cyprus would be number 2, 100% for sure. Those 2 ALWAYS rank their own number one . Germany i dont know how they feel about ALWAYS vote the same.
Rasmus, I can see you are kind of obsessed against Spain! Why don’t we leave us alone, here most people defend their entry and there is no problem about that if done with respect. And yes, despite I have no expectations to win, Miki is among my personal favourites too.
He does the same towards Greece like every year. Don’t feed him and don’t bother. He is just a hate troll
haha you ALWAYS vote the same every year. Stop doing that then and listen to the songs like i do
I actually would be happy if the semi final 2 qualifiers were the same as the ones above. But I think all of the countries ranked 10-14 can be the 10th qualifier.
I’d bet if the Netherlands had won this useless poll the comments section would have been completely different. Worry not b*tthurt people, Italy is not winning, I wish Mahmood lots of fun in Tel aviv and I hope I’ll be able to see him live soon. 😀
Btw: why isn’t The Netherlands included in the tags? After all, they’ve won this last song check. I don’t know if the tags “Eurovision news, Germany and Italy” cover it all.
So salty the nethetlands fans! Love it
Whenever Italy wins in any kind of poll, you know they probably won’t win anything in real life! These polls are the closest thing to a victory they have,,
And of course it’s a crime in every forum, when you don’t like Italy…you always get downvoted….
Unfortunately, that is true. Same if you like Sweden, Russia. You will get like 30 downvotes..
Maybe the problem is the way you’re saying things?
No, it’s more that every single positive comment for Sweden will be downvoted on here, go back and watch. Its the trend hating on Sweden for whatever reason so anyone saying Sweden is genuinely great and deserves to do well will be taken down by the mob. However dare to say anything not positive about class favourites Italy and Netherlands and the class mob will take you down as well. Cause these songs are appareantly such masterpieces that everybody must love them. If not you probably either is a Swede or cheering for them and we can’t have that.. Double… Read more »
Those feuds are boring and I won’t get into them, but talking about double standards…
somebody here said Sweden would get 21 televoting points again, and you said it was a stupid thinking: just because it happened last year it doesn’t mean it would happen again in Tel-Aviv.
However, your first comment about Italy basically follows the same trend.
So I do wonder why. No that it really matters tho, just to point it out.
I’d love The Netherlands to win again; 44 years after its last victory would be iconic! However, I’m surprised by all the songs this year, and especially the ‘underdogs’ might go to higher levels (which no one expected). Netherlands, Malta, Greece, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Italy, Cyprus and Switzerland are the favourites – in random order. But I reckon Slovenia, San Marino, Poland, Spain, Azerbaijan, Australia, Portugal, Belgium and France may surprise us. Even simple songs like Denmark, Ireland, Belarus and Czech Republic might do better than expected. So, all in all, this might be a very surprising year of… Read more »
And diverse one as well:
Wanna some pop banger? Check. Emotional ballad? Check. Disco? Check. Opera? Check. Techno? Check. Smooth jazz? Check. Rap? Check. Musical theatre? Check. EDM? Check. Folk rock? Check. Ethno shouting? Check. Gospel? Check. Ambient? Check. Whatever Portugal is. Check. The only thing I miss is some proper metal entry and yodelling.
Last year songcheck Top and in comma the finished result
1 Israel (1)
2 Czech Republic (6)
3 France (13)
4 Sweden (7)
5 Cyprus (2)
6 Italy (5)
7 FYROM (NQ)
8 Bulgaria (14)
9 Belgium (NQ)
10 Austria (3)
….
16 Moldova (10)
25 Estonia (8)
27 Denmark (9)
Brackets not comma (ofyi)
Close enough for me, besides that it’s not meant to be treated super seriously.
they had estonia 25th last year ? electric kraut
It’s like with Portugal being on the 24th place this year… It was very polarizing, many people gave high points, but many also gave very low points. Estonia was therefore not able to get a high score. Also, Alina gave only 2 points (while Stefan gave 8), so that dragged the score down even further.
I couldn’t agree more.
I like their ranking.
Love to see Mahmood first and Slovenia not being underrated.
I am not the biggest fan of “Soldi”, but it seems that I am part of a minority and it is definitely not a bad song, so if he is going for the win then I wish him luck. Wouldn’t be my favourite winner, but I could live with it and wouldn’t mind if Italy would host the ESC next year
yaaaay!!
They have a bad music taste. Just look at many of the points….
I like the fact that Italy & Netherlands are on top (as they deserve) but the whole list is such a mess.
Pametnjakovic (Gscheidwaschl), especially the two hosts.?
Yeah, nothing really surprising happened… The Norwegian song is kind of weirdly received here in Germany tho. I either see people who totally love it or people who hate it. There’s not much in between… As time progresses I’m more and more believing that Italy and the Netherlands will battle it out. And I still don’t know why Russia is 2nd in the odds and not Italy… Considering how small the amount of people is, who are actually convinced by Russia’s entry.
Same here! From the beginning it was going to be between Italy and Netherlands for me. And now I’m even more convinced
Even if Italy did hugely in the televote , his vocals are not that great to get a lot of jury points. If an Ill volo type televote happens Italy can win. The jury would at best have it at 7-10th spot.
What are you talking about? His vocals are great!
Have you heard the exhibition in London Preparty ? His vocals are great, look for it in youtube.
Maybe you don’t like his timbre but he can sing very well.
https://youtu.be/4E8_ZsqRSVA
Mahmood-cover Django freedom
Disgusting. Duncan is the real winner. Mahmood should not even be in the top 5
Nicky get the f* out of here.
Can you please leave us all alone and go to bed kiddo.
Imma ask wiwi team to ban you again. I swear I’ll start a petition
Well, that nick “Nicky91” comes with at least 3 different avatars, so it might be just one troll using different email accounts or different trolls pretending to be the same one.
I wish there was a way to ban these “people”
I don’t like those quotation marks. I think it’s a step too far.
Was not ment in a too harsh way. But I can hardly call them trolls and people at the same time…
In any case this/these guy(s)/girl(s) annoy me like hell
If we are honest Italy deserves top 3. You can hear its a great song and he sings so good. If you are a neutral ESC fan like i am. Then you can hear what deserves the top and the bottom. Italy, Switzerland,Russia, Netherlands,Israel,Australia deserves the top and UK, Latvia, Belarus,Finland, Austria,Portugal deserves the bottom
@ Rasmus, I could not disagree more. There is no such thing as a “neutral ESC fan”. Some of us try not to be biased by things like our own nationalities or just sympathies or whatever, but we still have all our own taste and backgrounds. If it were like you said why should we need the voting then? After the show you could just appear on stage to tell us a ranking we would all already know.
No i just said that i have heard when i have listened. Portugal dont deserve final and Italy dont deserve the bottom. Its what i hear 🙂
I agree for the most part. I have Russia and Sweden ranked in the 11-20 range and Spain and Portugal in 8th and 9th place respectively. Not a fan of Norway, love the Sami Joik, but the rest of the song is so cliche Eurovision of the early 2000s. However, I know it will be top 10.
Unless something unexpected happens, I foresee the battle between Italy and The Netherlands. Although Italy is my favorite, I would be happy if The Netherlands won.
Personally I wouldn’t mind a two horse race (possibly with some dark horse to join them, Slovenia, Portugal and Iceland, I’m looking at you). This year it seems it’s gonna be anything but a clear win, even if some people (ekhem, Hague Council, ekhem) think otherwise. Get that popcorn ready for the 18th of May!
Wait, what happened?
Ohhh, okay!
And Bigger forgot to say that, due to some of us complaining about this half-fake news, wiwibloggs decided to just disactivate the comments on that post but did not rectify…
But lets forget now about this incident
I know, it was an unfortunate mental shortcut, anyway you’re right, let’s forget what Groep De Mos did and call it a day.
Agreed. A former member of PVV now making its way in city politics in The Hague. Just some rhetoric from one person that’s much ado about nothing.
This Top 9 is exactly how I predicted , the 10-15 are in what I assess them and 16-18 too !
This means it is too cardboard cut out to actually materialize
nasty german neigbours……………………………
Okay lmao, what the heck do you mean?
I couldn’t really tell, some people are just nasty sometimes. I always thought the Dutch and we Germans were friends. 🙁
I only know about the massive amount of jokes here in Germany about how the Netherlands didn’t make it to the worldcup lmao. And look what happened, we completely failed.
It sounds really cool, never knew that was a thing! Something like US-Canada, or Australia-New Zealand? I wonder what other friendly neigbour competions are out there!
Yes, it really is a thing. Personally, as a Dutch person, I love the friendly rivalry between Belgium and Germany with a bit of humor. For example, check out this commercial about ‘road rage’ between a Dutch couple and an elderly German woman during the 2004 UEFA Euro Cup (they’re pulling an ugly face just because she is German):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0ldGjb-caI
Yep, perfectly explained!! Thank You!!
Wonderful!! We have a new top-favourite to win the Eurovision trophy: ITALIA :-)! Congratulations Mahmood. Hugs from The Netherlands.
Was this on TV in Germany then?
it was a live stream on the internet (eurovision.de).
They seem to have consulted the betting odds before giving their votes.
The betting odds are pretty similar to the general taste of the Eurovision community and I’m sure they looked at it, but I doubt that they influenced the scores they gave.
It’s obvious. Rigged tv-show in germany.
In 2017, France won the rating. And in 2015 it was Norway. Wouldn’t say they’re following the betting odds really!