Eurovision 2016 – This year we resume the “Eurovision Times Awards” to give prizes (the Fridas) for the best in every category! And you get to vote! Today, we resume the polls with the two categories focused on promo vids and spokepersons!
2016 will be the fourth year for Eurovision Times to organize a new contest (you can check 2013’s results here, the 2014’s ones here, and the 2015’s ones here). As with the past few 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“.
The eleventh award is in the “Delegation” category and it’s “Best Promo Video”. Here are the results of the recommendations made by the regular users of Eurovision Times in this category:
- 9 France
- 5 Italy
- 4 Russia
- 4 Spain
- 3 Armenia
- 3 Australia
- 2 Czech Republic
- 2 Greece
- 1 Belgium
- 1 Cyprus
- 1 Estonia
- 1 Georgia
- 1 Iceland
- 1 Israel
- 1 Latvia
- 1 Lithuania
- 1 Netherlands
However, it’s down to the staff of Eurovision Times to choose the official nominees. But it’s up to you to vote in our poll below which entry had the best promo video this year! You need to click on the country’s name to be redirected to the promo video of the song. The nominees in alphabetical order are:
Armenia‘s official video
Australia‘s official video
France‘s official video
Italy‘s official video
Russia‘s official video
Rules: the polls will be open for a week. At the end of the week, an article will announce the winner of the category but not the detailed results. The full results will however be given to you once all polls are closed so that you don’t get influenced (we never know) in your following votes. Every IP gets only one vote, please do not cheat, do take in consideration to watch very careful to the promo video before voting and do not vote necessarly for your favorite song but vote regarding to the category. Of course, it’s pointless to vote only for your own country unless you’re really certain it should win. May the best win!
The Eurovision Times 
My two favorites are Georgia and Latvia; and people have been complaining I nominated these two too much. And since we’ve had plenty of good promo vids this year, I gave a shot to other entries that have been a bit less nominated (plus Georgia and Latvia had very late promos that really didnt help promote their entry)
I didn’t know that Latvia had a real promo video, I just searched it and watched it now. I always assumed the performance from the NF was their promo video, that’s the only one I saw before the contest. :P
Exactly. Which is why I didnt nominate it. But isnt the video so good though?
Yeah, it’s really good, I liked it. It would’ve been my 2nd choice after France.
Will there be a listing of number of nominations for each nominated entry in Grammy and Oscar style with all the speculation of biggest winners and loosers? I would love that. Actually would love to have that conversation first before going into categories. Also would be good to compare how nominations turned into actual gongs.
Well, no, coz usually I reveal results just one week after the polls open and that’s still during the week for more votes
Shame, that’s interesting data as it always is with awards. Jamala will clean the table here of course, probably winning every single category she has been nominated in. Biggest loosers will be Latvia and Georgia. They will be snubbed with their multiple nominations in every single category.
Hm. It often happens, mostly because the same countries are facing one another often, and say if Georgia wins all category then most probzably Latvia wouldnt win one against it. Last year, Belgium got 10 nominations and won 7.
That’s an excellent result. Is that the biggest winner of all time?
yes, 1 award more than Common Linnets who won 6. In 2013, Greece, runner up in TEKO and popular enough for plenty of nominations, got none. Same with Hungary, France and Italy who only got 1 though they had plenty of nominations. Norway and Netherlands battled most awards, with Netherlands getting the most technical ones, but Norway snatching the “Best Entry” one
Thanks, great info and I’m not surprised at all of those two. Worthy winners. UKR 16 will be the new top of the leader board.
Ukraine and Latvia were by far the most recommended, followed by Georgia. Hence why they’re the most nominees, and I try to even the field a bit.
That’s the way it should be. Also as it is the rules editors do the final selection. Professional juries, you love them or hate them, still they do what they are asked to do.
Yes we have to take our responsabilities, and even openly say what the recommendations were so we’re transparent. We get bashed once in every award every year, but it’s the way it has to be. We can’t just have a huge big poll for every category. It has to reflect what the regulars really think and want.
Of course you get bashed, it’s part of the deal. I do seriously Grammies and MTV music awards with friends, and Country Music Awards with another set of friends from the nominees phase on. All the decisions are under the microscope from day one. I love the speculation and the guessing game. Hey, now I got Frida’s in my awards calendar too.
I like big winners in this kind of awards. Winning big always tell what was the true number 1 in this forum by boiling down all the talks and votes in this forum. Of course, not that many people active this time of year.
No, but the ones who are are our true fans and readers. Almost all awards reach 130 votes in 48h, then only two dozens for the rest of the week. So we have 150 or so real regulars. The ones who stick through it all.
Great numbers, the results surely are valid.
Except the bes tbackings in 2014 :o
What was that?
Armenia and Australia are in but no Spain and Cyprus?
I actually think I’ll go for Italy here. The 3D glasses from the 80’s made it for me, lol.
I voted for France! I think it’s the most professional video and it’s the one I watched the most before the contest.
I was torn between Armenia and Italy, but come on I love everything about Italy this year <3 (except from the live rendition)
I voted for Russia. France and Italy are both okay too, but Armenia and Australia are awful, cheap and uninspired (much like their songs).
Hmm… I agree about one of them.
Which?
I cant say, I remain neutral. Did you vote in yesterday’s polls?
Voted for Russia. Kitchen sink approach, yes, but done better than the live performance. Cut screen, dissolving body on the bed, etc were really interesting.
I voted for Russia. Credit where credit it due.
Ooh, visuals. Now I can be overly verbose again.
1) Italy
2) Russia
3) Armenia
4) France
5) Australia
Overall, four pretty solid efforts and an outlier. Italy’s overall aesthetic and execution won it for me, as I loved the hand-drawn elements that made it actually feel modern while contrasting the song just enough to pop. The Russian video was really what garnered all the hype, wasn’t it? The performance was never going to live up to this, so it only feels right to give it second-best here. It felt like a big production and the projections were way better used here than on stage. Armenia’s high-concept effort tied into their song’s philosophy of “disguise the lack of meaning with cool stuff” and it worked. Very aesthetically pleasing and probably the slickest video of the year. France’s traditional narrative was a sweet little story that had a good balance of Amir and the actors. Finally, there’s Australia, which doesn’t deserve a spot at all, imo, as it was mostly glamour shots of Dami in an empty parking garage. Out of all these entries, aside from only maybe Armenia, this was way better as a live performance than video.
Russian’s video have “Here comes the winner” written all over it and that was my comment when saw it for the first time. Classic, golden era MTV stuff.
I normally feel like this with videos: they should be made if you have an artistic vision with doing it – otherwise it is pointless, except from a commercial point of view, and that doesn’t interest me.
And unfortunately, really interesting videos are rare in Eurovision. One of my favourites were the video for the Norwegian song “Silent Storm” in 2014 as it contained a lot of symbolism (a storm in a glass of water and things like that). It wasn’t nominated if I remember correctly.
My vote here will probably go to Italy, but I will need to catch up on the rest of them later tonight. The Russian one was all about effects, and it seemed to me as spectacular just for the sake of being spectacular. It didn’t really have anything to say.
(* One of my favourites was the video…)
I did not watch most videos, but I took the time to watch these five. Italy and France stood out, imo, because they had something to say along with the song. The remaining 3 are too much about being glossy and glittering only. Voted for Italy.
Russia, they were all poor this year.
Italy and France followed by Armenia.Russia is nice for what it is i suppose but not my taste in videos and i feel that Spain and Greece were definitely better than Australia.
Oh,how could i forget.Israel was very nice too!
France is easily my winner here as it made me fanwank Amir all over the place haha. Italy is my second! Armenia was ok, cool, but lacked a red thread or something, while the bad acting from the russian model were the LOL of the season imo. Australia was just meh and had almost nothing to do with the song :P
France by a mile. Simple with a strong message, delivered by a well directed narrative. Contemporary and fitting. Great job.
Australia would be my 2nd of those 5.
OK, so I’ll land on Italy here. There are some good elements in it; f.e. the visible “ready to shoot” clipping before she begins to sing – reminding us of the fact that this is a video – but there are also kitsch elements of it (the beating heart, the handing of balloons etc.).
G’day everyone! I’m Esmond SeeToh, and I’ve taken the time to watch ALL 5 Countries’ nominated promotional videos!!!!! [And I’ve voted] The singer Dami Im portrays the pain of not being with her loved one(s) … Lyrically, the song laments the time spent away from her loving husband Noah to chase her dream of an international pop career. The video although simple, but hey, it captures the audience attention; as the video is not cluttered with other multi-movements or multi-colors (which would have lots of distraction effects on one of the themes of this Dami’s song). When I watched this video over & over again, each time it relates fully my emotions of “yearning to hear the sound my loved ones so badly, so much so I could feel I’m hearing from them … but is not – b’cos – it is the “Sound .. of .. Silence”.