Voting Analysis – We already looked at Sweden, Russia, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Albania and Estonia. Today we continue with the countries that achieved the places 7-15. Who voted for them, why and how important were traditional voting patterns. Here we go:
Who voted for Turkey:
The answer would be: Muslim countries and countries with a strong Turkish diaspora. The connection Turkey-Azerbaijan is now almost certainly as strong as the old Greece-Cyprus deal. Other high points came from Albania and Macedonia (high Muslim population) as well as Germany, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Belgium and Sweden (countries with a high Turkish diaspora). The only high points that are not explainable through these two patterns are the 8 points from Malta.
Who voted for Germany?
The Southern Balkans, the former Soviet states and Scandinavia were not impressed with the German song. 10 points came from a couple of smaller countries: Portugal, Hungary, Ireland, Estonia and Denmark. These 5 made up almost half of Germany’s overall points and thus ensured the third Top 10 result in a row. High points also came from fellow Big 5 countries, Italy, the UK and France. Overall a result that does not rely on voting patterns. The only “friends” Germany might have are Switzerland and Austria who both only had 4 points despite a strong German diaspora (Switzerland) and success of Raab shows in both these countries.
Who voted for Italy?
One of the pre-contest favorites, Italy did not do as well as expected. Their points came from almost everywhere, but there was only one set of more than 7 points, which came from Malta. The Italian song didn’t do particularly well in a certain voting block. Norway and Denmark gave it points, while Sweden, Finland and Iceland ignored it. Croatia, Slvenia and Montenegro liked it while Serbia and Bosnia didn’t have it in their Top 10 and so on.
Who voted for Spain?
Spain can count on Portugal! The only 12 points to Spain came from their neighbor. More high points came from Israel, the UK and Switzerland (Portuguese diaspora perhaps?). The song didn’t do very well in the North and the East however. Also fellow Big5 nations Italy and Germany ignored the song.
Who voted for Moldova?
Moldova’s highest points came from its two neighbors, Romania (12) and Ukraine (8). Otherwise the song did will in Spain and Portugal with a high Romanian and Moldovan diaspora there as well as Italy and especially in San Marino (10 points).
Who voted for Romania?
Moldova returned the favor and gave its neighbor Romania their 12 points. More high points came from Spain (the song was half in Spanish +Romanian diaspora of course). Italy, Greece and Azerbaijan also voted for Mandinga. It didn’t get a single points from the Ex-Yugo countries or Central European countries and was also almost completely ignored in Nothern Europe (Scandinavia and Baltics).
Who voted for Macedonia?
Who voted for Macedonia? The Balkan block and Turkey. Superstar Kaliopi got top marks from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia, high points from Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and Turkey. Otherwise she got some points in Easter Europe and from Italy. All other countries did not have Macedonia in their Top 10 which paints our map very red in the West, North and East.
Who voted for Lithuania?
Lithania got the usual 12 from new-found pals Georgia and also 8 from their neighbors Belarus. Otherwise, Norway was quite generous. The rather high points from Ireland and the UK are explainable with the big Lithuanian diaspora there. Otherwise, Love is blind got some points from the Baltic friends, Russia, Bulgaria, France and the Netherlands and was ignored on the Balkans, in the South and in Central Europe.
Who voted for Cyprus?
Of course, 12 from Greece no need to even mention that. But, Cyprus also received top marks from Sweden. In the annual SVT preview show, the panel liked the Cypriot entry and so did the Swedish people. After the preview show was aired, Cyprus entered the Swedish iTunes charts. Surprisingly only Iceland agreed with Sweden (8points) the rest of Scandinavia ignored the song completely. More high points came from Serbia (8), where also the rest of the Balkan countries completely ignored the song. All in all it seems that it was a love or hate entry for most countries.
The Eurovision Times 
I guess the conclusion from your analysis is that diaspora voting is still alive and well when it comes to voting patterns, so I for one applaud the addition of jury voting though I still think there is a long way to go before we get a realistic view re voting 1 – 15…seeing the breakdown of voting for Italy is particularly disappointing…if only?…(per sempre?)…
Poor Kaliopi deserved so much more than what looks on a map like entirely block voting.
off topic a little but maybe not, re choosing the ESC venue (eg Baku human rights), same can be said for Euro Championship 2012, what was behind the choice of Ukraine/Poland and their fascist/racist “welcome”?, my point is ; why should the rest of Europe have to suffer having an event in their country , when even before the tournament we get such terrible things, and Platini said”any black player who leaves the field if he thinks he is under racist pressure will receive a yellow card!!!, am sorry to equate esc with euro 2012 but …how terrible for those black Dutch players for example!
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/08062012/58/euro-2012-dutch-squad-report-racial-abuse.html
I think those statistics are quite senseless when you do not know how the people have voted.
”The only high points that are not explainable through these two patterns are the 8 points from Malta.”
Cmn it is Malta…bribe…
So you are implying that Turkey bribe Malta…your conspiracy theories are no longer funny!
Maltese TV is suspected of cheating since ages. THAT is certainly not a Dino thing. ;-)
Maltese TV is suspected of cheating for ages. THAT is certainly not a Dino thing. ;-)
No wonder for Turkey and FYR Macedonia…again again and again the same pathetic voting patterns…
So proud that my country rewarded such a great song and artist in the final…As for pathetic voting there are dozens, where should we start ;)
Also the distribution of Spanish and Italain points showed that these countries did very bad with tele-voting i.e. less than 15th but perhaps top5….well it was obvious before the contest started.
I am not so sure about Italy but Spain, sure, needs no comment. Awfully generic Swedish ballad gets rewarded by Eurofans and Eurojurors for being performed by a ‘strong diva’ regardless of the actual poor quality. :/ Well at least I am happy Europeans liked Spain 2010 and even 2011 a lot more. Daniel Diges rocked Oslo. :)
Once again, this analysis shows how too many voters vote for flags. Televote has far too much power, but the current jury procedure requires improvements in order to work better: 10 to 15 jurors coming from different age groups and music genres would produce better results. Moreover, televoters should only vote once. RTP have already done that: only the last phone call from each phone number will be counted.
agree with you 100%…
Much of the voting can no longer be regarded as people voting for songs, their motivation is obviously something else. But that doesn’t take away from the results of some countries, e.g Sweden, Estonia or Germany – these are countries that can easily end up near the bottom, so when they do well, it is obviously because of the song and/or the performance.
But while some countries can get reasonable results with mediocre songs and lots of points from the usual sources, many other countries can end up with very poor results, even though their songs are just as good, or better. Too many countries are losing out because of the guaranteed votes of the few.
Exactly, Thats why Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, can send sh*t and still get a decent placing unlike some western countries and central european when they send sh*t we get in bottom 5, or the song might have being better than these eastern countries emtries but still they get poorer results. Why did Peter Nalitch make it to 11th in 2010?
Because I voted for him like crazy? Perhaps others did the same … Laila did for sure. :)
I guese its different tastes isn’t it, I can’t remember our country though giving it points though I think we where completly oblivious to the entry when it came on, we probably thought it was some poor interval act knowing some of the attitudes the Brits have to eurovision LOL :D I hope I havn’t put this and we did actaully give it points, i’d look a bit of a fool then, if we did give Russia anything it wouldnt have being much I think.
so well said Daniel, I agree completely, a guaranteed UK shake your booty in top 10 year after year, will never correspond to a Greek/Turkish shake your booty equivalent for example…
Well, Laila, a guaranteed whichever place for whichever country is always a negative thing. The EBU is not dum and they can read the results as good as anyone else. Unfortunately, there seems to be no will to change things.
Even if they readi them. What is the alternative?
Dino, I answered your question above.
Denmark and Norway voted Italy; Sweden and Finland voted Spain… interesting comparison
Ukraine was 15th and Cyprus 16th so you should include Ukraine in this analysis as well.
you are right. I went by the official scoreboard and there for some reason Cyprus is in front of Ukraine. I will add Ukraine to the next one, though
By “Italy did not do as well as expected. Their points came from almost everywhere..” – did you mean that they didn’t have a voting pattern at all?
You made it sound like they didn’t even do too well in the contest even though they ranked 9th.
Albania gave 6 points to Cyprus
The Spanish song deserved higher than 10th. Nothing generic about it. It was a beauty, brilliantly sung. It merited a higher jury score and should have finished top 5. Russia’s 2nd place stinks. Wait to see the jury pts Russia ‘won’ – people make accusations about Malta, and many have pointed the finger at Azerbaijan. Russia’s score is far more suspicious. It would receive a high televote but that alone should not have been enough to win the semi or come 2nd in the final. Juries are a disgrace. Too much corruption; too many so-called music professionals who clearly aren’t.
Exactly why they need it to be 30% International Jury, and then 30% National Jury, 40% Televote. There should be a stricter criteria laid down by the EBU as to how points are to be awarded, Singing Quality should be worth a certin amount of points, Song Lyrics, Choegraphy and staging, Music Quality should also be marked. It’s a shame we can never see the jurries award the points and them giving their reasons for allocating the points, this would definetly allow there to be more emphasis on the music aspect of this competion.
Plus there should also be a change to how the semi finals are run, instead of 2 semi finals of 18 to 19 countries with the current voting procedure, there should be 5 semi finals between 7 or 8 countries in each, 3 countries from each semi final should qualify along with the 6 automatic qualifyers, this meaning 21 countries in the final, so it would be easier for countries to stand out more. Having more semi finals would mean the voting blocks would be weakend as they would be split up more from each other, and this would give other countries more chance of qualifying. A new voting sctructure should be put in place where 12 points is given to the countries favourite entry, 10 for its 2nd, 8 for its 3rd and final 6 points for its next favourite entry, combinded with the Jurry. EBU would only need to use this voting structure in the semi’s though.
Semi 1: Ukraine, Isreal, Albania, Poland, Lietchenstine, Belgium, San Marino, Iceland. with Sweden and France Voting.
Semi 2: Georgia, Denmark, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, Austria, Armenia, Ireland. With Spain Voting.
Semi 3: Russia, Slovenia, Croatia, Switzerland, Norway, Latvia, Turkey, Lithuania. With Germany Voting.
Semi 4: Belarus, Serbia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Cyprus, Estonia, Romania, Portugal. With the UK voting.
Semi 5: Azerbaijan, Moldova, Bosnia & Hezergovina, Hungary, Netherlands, Greece, Finland, Malta. With Italy voting
Do you want Portugal to get 0 points for sure? There is not a single country in semi 4 that would ever consider voting for Portugal. Well, perhaps 1 or 2 points from Serbia, but that would be all.
Romania, Cyprus Possibly, and the UK would, we would becuase in that semi there isnt much we would like anyway. We would Probably award points to Portugal, Romania, Estonia and either Cyprus or Bulgaria.
You could say the same for Slovakia and Belarus in a way, Slovakia for sure.
Wait a minute… you didn’t do Azerbaijan!
Azerbaijan is in Semi 5 with Moldova and new friends Malta for company LOL :D