Eurovision 2015 – This year we resumed the “Eurovision Times Awards” to give prizes (the Fridas) for the best in every category! And you get to vote! ET regular members made recommendations and open polls were open for a full week and winners were announced. Discover the full results now!
2015 was the third year for Eurovision Times to organize a new contest (you can check 2013’s results here and the 2014’s ones here). As with the past couple of years, our blog hosts now two contests: TEKO which takes place before the contest and the “Eurovision Times Awards” after the contest. The principle of the ET Awards is simple, in each categories, the staff of this website will nominate a few entries per categories and open polls for the public to vote in them so we can reveal afterwards all the winners. The winners recieve an imaginary trophee, entitled the Fridas in hommage to Frida Boccara, the French Eurovision winner in 1969 with “Un jour, un enfant“.
In the past three weeks, the blog has played the game, recommendations, nominations, votes and winners. Now that all polls are closed and winners were announced, it does not harm to reveal the full results. We will also offer an analysis which you will be able to freely comment and disagree with.
- Best Lyrics
- 51 Norway (32,1%)
- 42 France (26,4%)
- 33 Ireland (20,8%)
- 18 Romania (11,3%)
- 15 Latvia (9,4%)
- Best Composition
- 43 Belgium (26,9%)
- 39 Estonia (24,4%)
- 38 Norway (23,8%)
- 24 Latvia (15%)
- 16 Sweden (10%)
- Best Female vocals
- 72 Latvia (41,4%)
- 40 France (23%)
- 31 Russia (17,8%)
- 26 Serbia (14,9%)
- 5 Portugal (2,9%)
- Best Male vocals
- 74 Italy (40,4%)
- 39 Belgium (21,3%)
- 32 Australia (17,5%)
- 23 Czech Republic (12,6%)
- 15 Norway (8,2%)
Artistic Awards
- Best Perfomance
- 56 Belgium (33,7%)
- 40 Sweden (24,1%)
- 32 Estonia (19,3%)
- 32 Latvia (19,3%)
- 6 Norway (3,6%)
- Best Props
- 101 Sweden (62%)
- 35 Estonia (21,5%)
- 13 Lithuania (8%)
- 11 Slovenia (6,8%)
- 3 Romania (1,8%)
- Best Female looks
- 45 Latvia (28,7%)
- 34 Norway (21,7%)
- 30 Georgia (19,1%)
- 25 Germany (15,9%)
- 23 Hungary (14,6%)
- Best Male looks
- 54 Belgium (34,4%)
- 48 Italy (30,6%)
- 26 Sweden (16,6%)
- 24 Norway (15,3%)
- 5 Azerbaijan (3,2%)
- Best Backings
- 53 Belgium (39,8%)
- 27 Israel (20,3%)
- 25 Montenegro (18,8%)
- 18 Hungary (13,5%)
- 10 Lithuania (7,5%)
Delegation Awards
- Best Backdrop
- 51 France (37%)
- 29 Estonia (21%)
- 23 Latvia (16,7%)
- 22 Belgium (15,9%)
- 13 Georgia (9,4%)
- Best Promotion video
- 50 Norway (42%)
- 23 Belgium (19,3%)
- 22 Romania (18,5%)
- 12 Azerbaijan (10,1%)
- 12 Georgia (10,1%)
- Best Spokeperson
- 49 United-Kingdom (32,5%)
- 30 Netherlands (19,9%)
- 28 Australia (18,5%)
- 25 Russia (16,6%)
- 19 Greece (12,6%)
- Best National final
- 50 Sweden (45,9%)
- 31 Latvia (28,4%)
- 13 Estonia (11,9%)
- 9 Germany (8,3%)
- 6 Norway (5,5%)
- Best Internal choice
- 90 Belgium (65,7%)
- 21 Australia (15,3%)
- 14 Montenegro (10,2%)
- 10 Czech Republic (7,3%)
- 2 Azerbaijan (1,5%)
Result Awards
- Most Overrated entry
- 40 Russia (28,6%)
- 34 Albania (24,3%)
- 24 Poland (17,1%)
- 24 Serbia (17,1%)
- 18 Australia (12,9%)
- Most Underrated entry
- 44 France (28%)
- 42 Germany (26,8%)
- 33 Czech Republic (21%)
- 25 Austria (15,9%)
- 13 Switzerland (8,3%)
- Best Song in the top 5
- 65 Belgium (47,8%)
- 28 Italy (20,6%)
- 27 Sweden (19,9%)
- 8 Australia (5,9%)
- 8 Russia (5,9%)
- Best Song
- 32 Belgium (23,9%)
- 29 Estonia (21,6%)
- 22 Latvia (16,4%)
- 21 Sweden (15,7%)
- 16 Norway (11,7%)
- 14 Italy (10,2%)
So now we can discuss a bit these results. Raw stats and comparison to the last two years:
- 40 entries this year (37 entries in 2014, 39 in 2013),
- 29 of them got at least 1 nomination for 18 awards (30 in 2014 and 29 in 2013),
- only 8 countries got an award (9 in 2014 and 10 in 2013),
- 5 of them getting more than one Frida (4 in 2014 and 5 in 2013):
- 7 Belgium, 2 Latvia, 2 France, 2 Norway, 2 Sweden, 1 Italy, 1 United-Kingdom, 1 Russia,
- Belgium 2015 with 7 awards beats Netherlands 2014 with 6 and Netherlands 2013 with 4 (with Norway 2013 winning only 3 but “Best Entry”)
Winners: obviously Belgium is the biggest winner in this year’s Fridas and so far the best ever in Eurovision Times Awards. 7 is a new record, and it’s 1 more than The Common Linnets’ “Calm After The Storm”. However, both got very similar awards (Best Composition, Best Internal Choice, Best Top 5 Entry and Best Entry) and even share the same runner-up place in “Best Male Vocals”. While Belgium 2015 only got 1 Technical Awards (to no less than 3 for Netherlands 2014), it managed to gather 1 Frida in each Award category thanks to Male Style, Performance and Backings. In general, out of its 10 nominations, Belgium won 7 and finished second for the other three awards. Latvia and Norway were the other two big favorites in the recommendation stage and won 2 each. Not bad, but not as great as expected, since both suffered the competition from Loïc Nottet. They ended up much higher with Female Awards when Belgium could not be nominated and Norway beat Belgium only in Promo video. Sweden, just like in 2013 when the esc winner did better in Fridas than with the regular readers’ recommendations, this year’s winner won 2 Fridas, for what makes Sweden so special in the contest, Gimmicks and National Final. No competition in those awards too as it was a big win (101 pts for the stick figure is the highest pointwise and second %wise behind Internal Choice where Loïc won with more than 65%!) France was a nice little irrelevant entry but out of its four nominations, it won no less than 2 and finished second in the other 2! True, however, besides Backdrop which was an easy win, it won by the smallest margin in this year’s awards for Most Underrated with only 2 votes more than Germany. Last but not least, the United-Kingdom won its first Frida ever, thanks to a nomination I pushed them in.
Losers: the most intriguing case is Estonia. Already the only big favorite that gave us an upset in TEKO, it got many fair recommendations and nominations and sadly did not win a single Frida… However, it finished second no less than 4 times and third 2 more times, being very close to bringing Belgium down only 4 votes behind in Composition and 3 votes behind in Best Entry! So, it can be concluded that Estonia is a very loved entry this year, but in every category it’s only second best to someone else, making it as a whole one of the best entry, mainly overall one of the best packages only just falling to the year’s big favorite. Italy, the televoting and OGAE winner, has definitely fans out there and some of our regulars are big fans. Meaning Italy managed many nominations but only won 1, Male Vocals, which can be seen as a bit of a loss for them. A very significant result is their second place for Top 5 Entry, only 1 vote above Sweden, when they finished 6th and last in Best Entry when Sweden rose to 4th even above Norway. So in general, people like Italy among the entries that did well this year a tiny bit more than the others, but when thrown in against Belgium and Norway and Sweden and Latvia and Estonia, it’s the least liked of these all. Russia keeps winning Overrated even though that was one of the closest awards with Albania, Poland and Serbia battling it out as well! But Russia suffers being the most unpopular country taking part and the fact they almost won it made them the obvious winner in that category. Their Spokeperson won recommendation (ex aequo) but ended only 4th overall. Australia took part for the first (and only?) time and thanks to being top 5 got 5 nominations, doing rather poorly in all including Spokeperson for which they won recommendation (ex aequo) but only finished 3rd even behind the popular Dutch spokeperson Edsilia!
What do you think of these results? Did you enjoy these three weeks of Frida? If you have any recommendations on making ET Awards better, for 2016, they’ll be highly appreciated and taken into careful consideration. Hope it was fun and you’re not too mad about some of these results!
Don’t forget, ETSC 3 – July 2015, will open soon! So stay tune on our blog!
My personal votes:
Technical Awards
Best Lyrics: Ireland
Best Composition: Belgium
Best Female vocals: Latvia
Best Male vocals: Belgium
Artistic Awards
Best Perfomance: Belgium
Best Props: Sweden
Best Female looks: Germany
Best Male looks: Belgium
Best Backings: Belgium
Delegation Awards
Best Backdrop: Estonia
Best Promotion video: Azerbaijan
Best Spokeperson: Australia
Best National final: Latvia
Best Internal choice: Belgium
Result Awards
Most Overrated entry: Albania
Most Underrated entry: Germany
Best Song in the top 5: Belgium
Best Song: Belgium
Are you picking France in ETSC3?
Yes
OK.
By the way if a song say from 1994 has been re-released in 2014 would still be eligible for ETSC3?
nope
OK thank you!
It is not eligible to send a San Remo entry, right? I mean u do count San Remo as esc NF, don’t you?
I find it weird to send a song for us to discover we already know… so I guess San Remo already counts?
Ok I just wanted to ask because it is not clear if San Remo is considered a NF
I think it’s more or less unclear for RAI too lol, but I say since most of us follow it, then it is?
Pity. There is a certain entry I love, maybe I could use it for a special esc-related edition :P
fdlc is there for that
Now give us a teaser of ETSC 3 :p
soon
Love analisis and statistics in general. Kudos and thank you for the article, Morgan!
PS: Only 25 voters thought Austria is underrated!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
that’s 24 with you!
:(
and out of Germany/France, which would you have liked better?
Hmm, too close to call. Probably France which is a bit higher on my 2015 list.
Thanks so much for running the Fridas again this year and all the hard work you put into them!
You’re welcome! I have even more work with ETSC, which most people have been waiting for all year long ;)
Yayyy…
I’m sure we’ll break a participation record ;)
I know I have!
Here’s how I voted (I think, lol).
Technical Awards
Best Lyrics: France
Best Composition: Estonia
Best Female vocals: Latvia
Best Male vocals: Australia
Artistic Awards
Best Perfomance: Estonia
Best Props: Sweden
Best Female looks: Georgia
Best Male looks: Belgium
Best Backings: Hungary
Delegation Awards
Best Backdrop: France
Best Promotion video: Azerbaijan
Best Spokeperson: Australia
Best National final: Latvia
Best Internal choice: Belgium
Result Awards
Most Overrated entry: Albania
Most Underrated entry: France
Best Song in the top 5: Belgium
Best Song: Estonia
almost entirely agreed on Delegation Awards ;)
I surrender to common sense. ;)
You’ve been missed in FdlC7 ;)
Thanks. I’m sorry I’ve missed all stuff but at least, I hope I’ll be able to do ETSC.
I wont allow you to miss it!
I surrender again. :p
Great article and reasonable results!
Waiting eagerly for ETSC 3 :)
Thanks for another edition of Frida Awards, Morgan. Great work.
WOW Ann Sophie almost won most underrated. I hope that she reads ET. ;)
So there were no “Slovenian” results this year after all. It’s a shame Latvia was so underrated generally, but I like that they at least managed 2nd in Best NF.
Italy coming 2nd in Best Top 5 Song and last in Best Song is somewhat odd.
People who couldn’t support Estonia for best top 5 entry voted for Italy
they mostly voted for Belgium
People who couldn’t support Estonia, Latvia and Norway * , as Morgan pointed out
people who supported Estonia, Latvia and Norway ended up having to chose between Belgium-Italy-Sweden and while Belgium ran away with it, the rest made Italy 1 vote above Sweden. But with all the good songs in competition, Italy is the one with the least number of supporters.
A good analysis, I do not have much to comment on. I only disagree 100 % of course with the part saying :
“…for what makes Sweden so special in the contest, Gimmicks and National Final.”
Of course I disagree 100 % with the gimmicks part.
Other than that I am surprised to see Estonia doing better than Latvia in best entry.
And congrats to Loic for his great results and his record !
I love Sweden in esc, but they mastered the art of esc gimmicks and brought it to new levels imo. It’s NOT a bad thing. Thinking that it’s not true is a bit weird: I’d only accept Ukraine and Azerbaijan as other gimmick-heavy countries.
Sweden has mastered the art of making a gimmick that still makes sense in the context of the performance, versus Ukraine and Azerbaijan whose gimmicks – most times – take you out of the actual song and performance.
so the masters of gimmicks… I was right then?
Hi sweetie😊
Any update on when ETSC will take place? I am very busy,I may not have noticed the date and I’d really appreciate if it is in mid-July😊😘
It should start soon :o When are you available? :(
Will you start it before July? :o I am available second half of July but of course you can start it anytime you want …I will do my best to join if not I will participate in August edition😊no problem😉
I should set it up soon and it should start first half of July :/
you HAVE to take part in :)
I’ll do my best…promise😊
Yeah I’m on holiday in Carcassonne from the 11th of July to the 26th of July. But I’ll still be able to send my entry, hear all of the entries and vote on my phone.
If only my trips were for holiday 😎I sometimes I forget to eat,thats how busy I am nowadays😉
Now to wait for ETSC 3, my second favourite time of the year! I must see if I can find a few more gems before it begins :)
The song Tamar Kaprelian(ARM) composed and sang with Maria Elena(GRE),Elina(EST),Elhaida(ALB) and Stephanie(ARM).Maybe it’s all forgiven when you reach the otherside:
actually that is more horrible than the most horrible of such ESc horror songs
Really?I think it’s an ok ballad but nothing to write home about.
That was incredibly dull. :-/
On this dear St John’s night I wish all my dear old friends here a geat night, here in Catalonia for sure Catalan version of La la la by Joan Manuel Serrat is always sung, being his night as a “Joan” (like my own partner) and representing his Catalan defiance against Franco regime/Eurovision feliç st Joan!!
and if you look up Joan Manuel Serrat he is a star in the Catalan/South American/Spanish speaking world too with very famous songs eg “mediterraneo” , such a wonderful song in Spanish speaking world , equals his la la la in the Catalan world in Catalonia!
I could not follow the later stages of the Fridas, but they’ve become an integral part of the season. Thanks for all your work, Morgan. :)
la la la ..la la la :-)
and the other day I remembered such 80s songs RIP Steve Strange, We fade to grey is such a classic song and the video so ahead of its time! it’s in my top 10 favourite songs of all time :-)
Well congratulations Belgium for the big win! :D Pity Latvia did not win more :( The only thing I can really complain about is the Italian win on male vocals.
I have btw a suggestion for a new delegation reward: ”Best Lighting” As many acts use the lighting on stage wonderfully, like Sweden last year and Latvia this year and many other acts as well.
Lightning was considered this year in “backdrop” but should be added to it next year more clrarly “Best Backdrop and Lightning” (as they’re chosen at the same time and together by the delegation)
Oh ok, yeah that would make things more clearly, cause last year I think you really pointed out the best use of a backdrop and not anything about the lighting, so thats simply why I asked for a seperate award :P
Btw great work with the articles and that you always make the time to do them ^^ :)
barely had time at some point!
I heard on the Uk ESC grapevine even the lovely Victoria Wood (a big ESC fan apparently) was so pissed off with UK ESC decisions she was thinking of entering a song herself? a comedy effort obviously but with great lyrics and performance,(but not her singing) she is considered a national treasure in the UK for her comedy/songs most well-known world wide from Washington to Bombay etc for her famous “2 soups video” especially in English speaking world, and a video that supposedly helped a lot of tourists in English around the world! let’s wait and see..
start the ball rolling..
to be honest I love all those british accents, except the west midlands one (my brother-in-law for example)! , especially the north east (newcastle), and the lovely Scottish/northern Irish one , and it sure affects , I suppose, UK in Eurovision :-) British accents are so beautiful to my ears as opposed to American ones too
[…] a new contest (you can check 2013’s results here, the 2014’s ones here, the 2015’s ones here and the 2016’s ones here). As with the past few years, our blog hosts now two contests: TEKO […]