Worst Eurovision Winners Ever – Hundreds of people have voted for their personal Top 5 of the Worst Eurovision winners ever. The 5th place of each voter got one point, the 4th place 2 points and so on, the first place thus getting 5 points. The result is a ranking of all 60 Eurovision winners. In the coming days we will reveal the Top 15 of your voting. Today we continue with last year’s winner…
It’s the oldest story in the world: young boy meets old lady, they fall in love and sing a ballad while shooting stars fall around them… Well, maybe it’s an old story. Ell, a young music student and Nikki a slightly older singer represented Azerbaijan with the Swedish penned entry “Running Scared”. The song is an R’n'B ballad with an “oh oh uh oh oh” hook. In a year without a clear favourite the duo could achieve the first (and much desired) Azeri first win. Unlike the two winners before and the one after, Running scared failed to make an impression on European charts. Nikki’s vocal performance on the night is regareded by some to be the worst of any Eurovision winner. This may be one of the reasons Azerbaijan got the bronze medal.
Here is their winning performance:
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I totally agree! Such a drab song and I cannot stand Ell! The song is very cringey and the performance was really over the top. (Not just Eurovision over the top, REALLY over the top)
It was my no. 2 although I do not consider it as a real winner. Sweden is the actual winner (w/o ‘jury’ effect) and Greece of course the only true/moral winner that year.
About the song: lame, camp, kitschy, forgettable, Swedovision… everything bad in one. Also all other Swedish songs submitted by the pestilently behaving Azerbaijani Turkish broadcaster are miles ahead imho. At least it was a tad more credible than the winner the year before.
Afaik Azerbaijan would have won with tele voting alone. They would have gotten 223 points, whereas Sweden would have got 221.
And what do you mean with true/moral winner? For someone who is only interested in tele vote results (fair enough) I don’t understand why a song that was voted 3rd by the public is considered a true/moral winner. Why don’t you practice what you preach and embrace the results by the tele voters?
Azerbaijan would of won the respective final under televoting rules, yes. But only because they leave place for jury verdicts when a televoting cannot be carried through due to technical reasons in a certain country. So it happens every year in San Marino, if you discount their points you will see that Sweden tops the list. Besides the ‘jury’ started to have an impact on the semi-finals already. Had Turkey qualified and Estonia stayed in the semi-final, I think Sweden would of been a clear winner regardless of back-up jury votes included or not.
Greece is the ‘moral’ winner to me because they were the highest placed country representing their culture. The technical winner of course should be Sweden.
So we have a real winner, an actual winner, a true/moral winner and a technical winner.
There are too many ifs in your reasoning. And why would we discount San Marino’s votes. Their jury consisted of 5 people. I can’t imagine more then 5 people tele voting in San Marino. For such a small country those 5 people are probably more representative then the percentage of tele voters in Russia, Turkey, Spain or Germany.
Yes Greece presented their culture!
But isn’t schlager a part of Swedish culture now? Why shouldn’T Rafael Gulazzi be called a represenatitve of Italian culture?
I see and agree how Azerbaijan is not representing their culture, but with others I’m not so sure…
In a broader sense perhaps it is but Sweden hardly came up with a schlager. Below the line it sure would be inappropriate to call “Popular” a piece of Swedish schlager. Had the lyrics at least been in Swedish, hm… It is the most subjective category and more of a special notion rather than a factual achievement imho.
* piece of Swedish culture
I would not have a problem with the actual winner (same as the real one but w/o ‘jury’ nonsense) not being the technical televotes winner had not the ‘jury’ manipulated the composition of the final (and hence the whole competition) before. To put it that way: Had not there been a ‘jury’ (save for the purpose substituting a public vote) in from the start, Sweden would of won. At least that is the most likely scenario we can think of. With the national language rule back and a prescription stating that all songs must be written by home country nationals (so no Swedovision imports) there would not be a difference between the real winner and the true/moral winner either.
But, to be fair, the Eurovision started with jury votes only, it was only in the later nineties that countries started televoting. So your argument is flawed.
Because telephone networks were not developed at that time. De jure juries back then were substituting the public vote. Juries antagonising the European vote that were introduced in 2009 is a first in ESC history. That is what some forget.
would HAVE would HAVE would HAVE!!!
I love this.
The split vote was introduced because it was clear that people weren’t voting for the music anymore. So it’s a completely fair way of doing things.
I agree! I think the results since 2009 have represented European taste much better than the years before… The chart positions of Norway 09. Germany 10 and Sweden 12 indicate that.
And where is the link to the ‘jury’ vote here? Has any of them not spearheaded the televotes?
Why was that clear? Because some (westerners) were unsatisfied with their countries scoring badly? Every year another country is winning and broadcasters which fared well recently might utterly fail tomorrow. Don’t get me wrong, I am not implying all is perfect and you can find certain voting patterns but this hardly ever effects the overall results.
It clearly does. If Russia hadn’t controlled half of Europe at one point it would not have won: Fact.
It was obvious in the early 2000s that people were voting for their neighbours and their political loyalties. While there were still votes for the music it was the political voting that dominated it.
I disagree with most of these, as you put it, “western” ideas of the evil east, but political voting was obviously going on. Whether you like to admit it or not.
At which point in time during Russia’s EBU membership did they control half of Europe? About ten ex Soviet countries are close to them in one way or another and that is it. As for their 2008 victory, if you substract all votes given by CIS and the baltics, Russia will end up marginally (I think it was 6 or 10 points) behind Greece on second 2nd place. Then, Dima is a star in many of these countries and Greece also has numerous allegedly kind supporters. You are free not to like ‘Believe’ but given statistical facts one hardly can call its victory unfair. Or is not Russia allowed to win due to political and historical circumstances?
I am strongly opposed to your thoughts on political voting. There is cultural voting, there is diaspora voting (which is partly cultural, partly friendly I think) but hardly any politics is involved. Exceptions are rare and extreme issues like the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that do not have a significant impact on the final results and self-explanatory will not be defused through an ‘extra vote’ from the countries’ officials (but we know Armenian televoters vote for Azerbaijan).
How could political voting be dominating when the results every year look different? Do you really think it is vindicable that the Netherlands did not quailfy for the first time in eight years in lieu of second-last placed Ukraine? Some people will know that I detest “You and me” but nevertheless it remains a very cruel example of distortion of competition in my books.
umm Greece , moral winner, why exactly???
So far, 6 of my expected 7 are in, and Latvia 2002 will be in the top 2 but I still can’t figure out which other song will be in it!
Azerbaijan 2011 is indeed one of the weakest of all esc winners, terrible vocals, very irrelevant boring forgettable entry and a tacky live performance… Not disappointed it got 3rd in this contest!
dima bilan and marie n. will be the first two
I’d be surprised if Russia 2008 isn’t in the top 2. Such an irritating song by an even more irritating singer. Back on topic though: It was very tacky.
It is #21 on my 2011 list, so, I don’t think much of it; but I don’t think it’s among the 3 worst winners ever. Btw, is it going to be Latvia 02 and Russia 08 in the top2?
off topic: I just read that Rafa Nadal, who was to be the flagbarer for Spain in London, will not even be competing in the games due to a knee injury
Someone out of Germany, Bosnia&Herz., Denmark, Sweden, United Kingdom or Serbia would’ve easily been better winners this year!
looking back at the entries now i have to say from a quality point of view Slovenia definitely had it. Maja keuc had the best vocals without a doubt. Maybe if the song had a little more action an trill she could have done it
Yeah!I did vote for it.The song was ok even though i would have never imagined it as a possible winner.Too safe and lukewarm IMO.Plus,the live performance was so fake and mechanic.In a weak year like 2011 with no clear favorites,it managed to win.
Top 2 Latvia 02 and hmm Sweden 99 or Russia 08.
oh an if Kati wolf had better voice an staging production instead of what was more tacky than it should have been it would have been amazing.
In all if it was Maja keuc singing “what about my dreams” it would have been a perfect eurovision winner
I think we all know why Azerbaijan won public vote. Turkey didn’t make it to the final so all the Turkish diaspora voted for Azerbaijan.
The just got lucky
Exactly. Though they did not even manage to win the public technically (explaination see above).
I think that the most populous Turkish diaspora in Europe is in Germany. Germany gave null points to Azerbaijan.
You have seen our public vote?
I remember that the German presenter who gave the votes in 2011 didn’t utter the word Azerbaijan. End of story
That were not the public votes.
Obviously you pretend that you don’t understand. Anyway, public votes, jury votes, …or extraterrestrial votes, THOSE on the video are the votes given by Germany in 2011. And since Germany is the country with the largest Turkish diaspora in Europe, the fact that they gave 0 points to Azerbaijan proves the fact that the arguement of all those claiming that Azerbaijan won because Turkey wasn’t in the final (therefore AZ were voted by Turks around Europe instead of Turkey) is 100% unfounded.
It is a 50/50 combination of the Germans viewers’ vote and the opinion of the German broadcaster NDR. A difference since mike wrote:
“I think we all know why Azerbaijan won public vote. Turkey didn’t make it to the final so all the Turkish diaspora voted for Azerbaijan.”
He explicitely was referring to the public vote. Also in the NDR jury, which gave zero points to Azerbaijan, there was not a person of Turkish or Azerbaijani Turkish ancestry.
You may check them here: http://www.eurovision.de/news/international/jurypunkte101.html
From this follows that Azerbaijan received up to six points from our televote (The ‘jurors” 7 resulted in 1 in the combined score). Theoretically it could of been zero too though I consider this as rather unlikely since our votes are usually pretty much in touch with the overall trend.
CC,
“From this follows that Azerbaijan received up to six points from our televote”. That’s exactly my point. It proves that their song hadn’t been MASSIVELY voted (12pts, 10pts or 8pts) by the German televoters as the Turkish one would have been f.e.
Anyway, I don’t see any point in continuing this.
But usually Turkish entries also benefit from the support of the “native” population. From what I have noticed general reactions to “Running scared” in Germany were kinda meh. However, I agree with you that Turkish diaspora does not really seem to boost the entries of Azerbaijan. Unfortunately we do not have much data but it is reasonable to draw this conclusion from the 2009 edition when the televotes for the very succesful ‘Always’ were even below-average in countries with a significant proportion of Turkish immigrants (e.g. 0 from Switzerland, 4 from Germany, 3 from the UK).
Then again, the difference amounts to two tiny points only and Turkey was not in. But yea, we shall never know *hundred* per cent, unfortunately.
Did you recognise the spokeperson’s bitter face while announcing the points to Greece?
So funny. Later on she (who was also’jury’ president) ranted about the Greek song and asked the audience how we could vote for it.
Ina Müller sucks big time!
you seem to show some bitter underlying sentiment towards Germany in your comments. Could you please not on this site. We don’t need it , thank you very much
@ mike
I do not see what you mean, sry. oO
Germany never votes for Azerbaijan, just 1 point in history, so Germany gave the same amount like Armenia, Azerbaijans enemy uuuuh….
anyhow, their win was undeserved, he is obviously gay and she could be his mother….bad vocals…i dunno, i thought it was going to be Bosnias year
I really liked it the first time I heard it, and I thought it could be a potential winner. Somehow it reminded me of Eskobar and Heather Nova”s “Someone new”.
But unlike that song, “Running scared” fades after a few listenings. Imo it is very bland. And the performance was rather lame. And despite that I liked Eldar last year, I changed my mind since this years eurovision. He is possibly the fakest host you can imagine.
I really like “Running Scared” and predicted it to win after I had listened to it in studio version for the 1st time. It is a contemporary RnB ballad with a very catchy chorus you can easily remember after listening only once.
And then came the live performances in D’dorf … and the song plummeted on my list. There was a tackiness to the whole act that … (attention: I won’t mince my words now) I found utterly repulsive. The white garments, the getting intimate with each other, the gold rain … Good gracious! Nikki is not Danaë … Gosh! golden divine semen showering down onto an ESC stage … that is definitely taking tackiness too far, even by Azerbaijani ESC standards. Well, televoters and juries around Europe liked it nevertheless.
Add Nikki’s non-existent live singing qualities and we get a very well deserved WEWE top 3 placing imo. Finally, I am very angry at Ell/Nikki because now I cannot even stand listening to the studio version anymore … because I keep visualising if I do.
I did not see this one coming… I think, however, that it’s so high on the WEWE list because it’s so recent – the same reason that out of 15 “Worst Eurovision Songs Ever” voted on this site, all but one (!!) are from the 2000s. Do we really believe that in more than 40 years of 20th century Eurovision there was just one terribly bad song?
Some of my current contenders are Yugoslavia 1969, Israel 1989 and Israel 2000.
I prefer to let a song pass the test of time before I consider it my personal Worst Eurovision Song Ever
All but one are from the 00′s?So far,8 out of 13 are not from the 00′s but from earlier editions.
Are you referring to a different list?I so,i misunderstood.
Yes, I am referring to Worst Eurovision SONGS Ever (the only 20th century representative is, of course, Remedios Amaya).
Whatever people say about this song, the fact remains that dearest Nigar cannot sing a single note live. She looks fantastic though and that was why she was chosen. The song itself is a valid effort.
I don’t like this song very much, a bit annoying I must say in some way. The song is typical Swedish radio music (American
), and there’s nothing interesting there. The chorus feels rather planned and plastic, and the couple didn’t show much chemistry. The only Azeri song I like less than this is “Drip drop”.
But now I’m waiting patiently for “Save your kisses for me” to show up on the list.
Are you now? I love UK 76. It’s just one of those silly things that I can’t resist LOL
If I want to listen to a good silly song, I prefer Norway 1968.
UK 1976 is so nauseating that I don’t know where to begin. I can just say that it was pretty good timing by Schmetterlinge to do that parody of silly dance routines the year after Brotherhood of Man. Boom boom boomerang!
I agree with you on this one. I have never seen or heard the appeal UK 1976 seems to have for many people. On the other hand, I really like “Boom boom boomerang”, the lyrics of which are still as relevant as they were back in the 70s. All those plastic products and silly lyrics the pop industry produces these days …
Norway 68 is sounds a bit annoying to my ears, but I can see what you mean. UK 76 is good plastic though. Anyway, I would never have chosen it as one of the best winners, but is not one of the worst winners either. People are different and that is good.
P.S.: I tend to fall heavily for songs performed by several voices singing together, much like Norway 73 and Belgium 11, songs that I also love and that are much better than UK 76.
@togravus
“Boom boom boomerang” is a song with a message, which I agree 100% with. But I think the message somewhat backfired in London. Especially with these masks on their back, which I guess confused and annoyed the audience. But if there’s one song in that year that really did backfire with its message, it was the song that finished below Austria.
P. S. I lift my hat for your writing about “golden divine semen”. Could have been something Serge Gainsbourg had written.
@Shevek
Thank God our musical tastes are different. Otherwise there wouldn’t have been much of ESC. I have never been a fan of Norway 1973, which in my opinion is the weakest of Mr. Bendiksen’s songs, but Belgium 2011 was an underrated entry that deserved a final place.
P. S. I did suddenly remember a song I think fits better for me in my “silly songs I like” list: Sarkim sevgi üstune.
Indeed, Eulenspiegel.
Turkey 87 is wacky! LOL
I have to go now. Good night.
Il pleut de l’or … ♪♫♪ LOL
Worst vocals of any winner? I think Bucks Fizz after voting could claim that prize. Other worst vocals of winning singers-
Sweden 84,Israel 98,Ukraine 2004, Finland 2006, Russia 2008.
No Wonder, since we all remember it;D
It’s a pretty ok song…the vocals are a severe let down, and lip-syching it in the reprise this year doesn’t help the matter. I had a hunch the day of the final that Europe was gonna go for this song, and turns out they did.
It was a bit bland song (although beautiful) but I’m glad people who were booking hotel rooms in Paris because of inevitable win of Amaury Vasili had their plans crashed. It’s not always the favorites, people.
Did people really do that? From the start I never got why France were the top favorite.
I heard somebody did it, although I have to say, I don’t know for sure. I was thinking France would be a possible winner too because it was something different and everybody was raving about it. It only proves that one should think for himself.
I could go on arguing on why I do consider this a very decent winner, musically credible and how the intimate performance was a very nice one but obviously the amount of points and the margin which consist some of the smallest in the recent history of the contest would make such an argumentation questionable probably. The extremely damaging for the reputation of the contest hosting from Azerbaijan has only made me feel different about the winning song as well. Nevertheless the song was well rewarded from the jurie vote, which is the only vote I usually value in terms of music (although they do make some mistakes) thus I have nothing more to add. Estonia Germany or Italy could be better winners IMO but hey that’s the result and I don’t feel like music was not rewarded here. The scandals last year were Ukraine’s high placing due to stage gimmicks (beautiful and artistic but irrelevant gimmicks..) and Greece’s high placing with this shameful excuse of a song which only embarrassed the contest. So in a few words no that’s not a bad winner IMO. 2011 results have other aspects to be ashamed of.
That’s me btw.
P.S. Russia 08 is the only song I can think of winning this category of worst winners and it’s only fair if it happens so.
I heard this song at Woolworths supermarket music/radio in Australia just a day ago! Someone who programs the Woolworths radio must like Eurovision.
are you talking about running scared ??
Yes
:0 that would have me running scared!
haha me too! lol
Last year when they won I have heard their song on radio here in Serbia a lot! Actually more than Loreen – “Euphoria”!
Running scared was a dreadful winner and still cannot quite believe how it won.
I remember myself liking it from the very first listening but then through time and especially after watching their LIVE performance I grew a slight dislike over it ( Still , nothing can beat the hate that I feel for Drip Drop !!! ).
Now , it only lingers at #15 on my 2011 list ( which is actually bad for an esc winner ).
Greece is my runaway 2011 winner followed by Italy and Germany . Serbia and Estonia conclude my top 5 ! Slovenia , Albania , Iceland , Georgia and BiH are very good as well !
To put it simply, I thought this song was awful. A real blip in what is being a good ESC era. It seems to me that most of the songs on this list are from ’80′s up. Do you think this is a coincidence.??