ET Awards 2016: full results and analysis

/ Sekhmet Morgan

fridas 2016Eurovision 2016 – This year we resumed the “Eurovision Times Awards” to give prizes (the Fridas) for the best in every category! And you got 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!

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“.

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.

ET AwardsTechnical Awards

  • Best Lyrics
    • 50 Italy (34,2%)
    • 39 Ukraine (26,7%)
    • 20 Sweden (13,7%)
    • 19 Serbia (13%)
    • 18 Estonia (12,3%)
  • Best Composition
    • 58 Ukraine (38,7%)
    • 32 Latvia (21,3%)
    • 27 Italy (18%)
    • 20 Netherlands (13,3%)
    • 13 Georgia (8,7%)
  • Best Female vocals
    • 63 Australia (38,4%)
    • 58 Ukraine (35,4%)
    • 28 Czech Republic (17,1%)
    • 8 Serbia (4,9%)
    • 7 Croatia (4,3%)
  • Best Male vocals
    • 49 Latvia (29,7%)
    • 37 Netherlands (22,4%)
    • 36 Israel (21,8%)
    • 23 Hungary (13,9%)
    • 20 Lithuania (12,1%)

Thoughts: like every year, the ultimate Frida winner either wins or gets second to the awards it’s nominated with and so Ukraine was nominated three times and though it only won “Best Composition”, it got second to the other two awards, and it’s very close. It’s indeed very close in most of these awards, with the other three quite far from the top 2 in these Technical Awards. I’d like to mention, to be 100% fair, that in the middle of the last night before closing the polls, Australia got +70 votes in every category it was nominated (by then Australia had 5 or 6 nominations) and that looked dumb, boring, fishy. The +70 votes didnt happen in any other polls, so we can tell these people didn’t vote realistically in the polls and I manually removed the 70 votes in each cateory. Though Ukraine and Australia were always close in “Best Female Vocals”, I check every day the results and Australia was indeed in the lead even before these votes. Latvia got its only award here, and Latvia already one “Best Female Vocals” last year with Aminata: so Latvia remains a vocalist champion. Netherlands was a strong challenger, and Netherlands through most of Fridas 2016 will be in the top of the polls. While Georgia or Serbia are rather favorites among ET regulars, they almost got lost in open polls to more OGAE favorites like Bulgaria, Armenia or France. So as every year, the ET regulars push some entries in recommendations but the votes show otherwise, for instance with Sweden snatching 3rd best lyrics.

Artistic Awards

  • Best Perfomance
    • 56 Ukraine (36,4%)
    • 44 Armenia (28,6%)
    • 30 Bulgaria (19,5%)
    • 16 Latvia (10,4%)
    • 8 Georgia (5,2%)
  • Best Props
    • 72 Russia (45%)
    • 32 Georgia (20%)
    • 23 Iceland (14,4%)
    • 18 Austria (11,3%)
    • 15 Italy (9,4%)
  • Best Female looks
    • 49 Austria (35%)
    • 38 Ukraine (27,1%)
    • 32 Australia (22,9%)
    • 14 Italy (10%)
    • 7 Serbia (5%)
  • Best Male looks
    • 53 Netherlands (36,6%)
    • 40 France (27,6%)
    • 29 Latvia (20%)
    • 13 Georgia (9%)
    • 10 Sweden (6,9%)
  • Best Backings
    • 60 Belgium (43,8%)
    • 26 Hungary (19%)
    • 22 San Marino (16,1%)
    • 17 Azerbaijan (12,4%)
    • 12 Serbia (8,8%)

Thoughts: interestingly enough, “Best Performance” was always won by either the esc winner (Austria 2014 and Ukraine 2016), or the ultimate “Best Entry” winner (Norway 2013, Belgium 2015 and again Ukraine 2016) with, then, the ultimate esc winner being runner-up (Denmark 2013 and Sweden 2015). So there’s a tendency on ET to consider the esc winners mostly strong performances than strong songs. Or maybe the esc winner is necessarily a strong performance. Again, Armenia and Bulgaria overshadow Latvia and Georgia in this category. The silent voters align more with OGAE votes than ET’s. But then that’s why we make these open polls! Russia was the obvious winner for “Best Prop”, easily one of the biggest winners this year (it follows Azerbaijan 2013, Ukraine 2014 and Sweden 2015): again all winners in this category were esc top 6, three out of four were even top 3! Nicely done, as the results in this category were more spread out, Italy, the winner in lyrics, moving down to last, with Austria bottom as well, right before winning for its look! Georgia was the closest to winning its Frida! For looks, no surprises, Austria and Netherlands lead from start to finnish. France, the only other country to win more than one Frida this year, is second for the first time here. Belgium wins “Best Backings” for the second year in a row, with a bigger margin this year! Another interesting fact is, Belgium, Netherlands and Austria all win AGAIN Fridas in “Artistic” categories, and they’re easily the best Western countries in Eurovision lately, Austria and Netherlands having battled in the Top 2 in 2014 and Belgium having been top 12 three out of four years in a row now, just like the Netherlands! Ukraine also won an “Artistic” Frida every year it took part in (Best Female Look in 2013, Best Props in 2014 and Best performance in 2016).

Delegation Awards

  • Best Backdrop
    • 64 Ukraine (43,5%)
    • 36 Austria (24,5%)
    • 19 Latvia (12,9%)
    • 18 Sweden (12,2%)
    • 10 Belgium (6,8%)
  • Best Promotion video
    • 42 France (30%)
    • 35 Russia (25%)
    • 25 Italy (17,9%)
    • 24 Australia (17,1%)
    • 14 Armenia (10%)
  • Best Spokeperson
    • 77 Ukraine (53,8%)
    • 26 France (18,2%)
    • 24 Australia (16,8%)
    • 14 Sweden (9,8%)
    • 2 Belgium (1,4%)
  • Best National final
    • 40 Estonia (38,5%)
    • 31 Ukraine (29,8%)
    • 14 Norway (13,5%)
    • 12 Hungary (11,5%)
    • 7 Iceland (6,7%)
  • Best Internal choice
    • 44 France (33,1%)
    • 43 Bulgaria (32,3%)
    • 18 Czech Republic (13,5%)
    • 15 Netherlands (11,3%)
    • 13 Georgia (9,8%)

Thoughts: ultimately, this category was summed up by the competition between France and Ukraine, who won 4 of these (2 each), with each of them being 2nd in a third category… No real competition for the backdrop, and France was always leading for the promotion video, even if it remained close. Interestingly enough, “Best Promotion Video” was owned by OGAE huge favorites and in the end, the Top 2 in OGAE votes got Top 2 here as well. The spokeperson was a huge win for Verka! In the end, the popular figures in Eurovision tend to win this award (Lena in 2013) or voters that mattered for the win (Uk in 2015) or the actual winner (Austria 2014 and Ukraine 2016). Australia’s Lee gets a second thrid place in a row! Estonia, a big favorite country in ET, won its first and only Frida, with Eesti Laul winning this after 4 consecutive nominations! It beat ET favorite Ukraine in this one but this was close and kept changing winner every day. Norway and Hungary’s respective MGP and A Dal have often been nominated, without a win yet. This shows that usually famous, recognized NF tend to overshadow anyone. The only year I thought Melodifestivalen deserved a nomination, it won by a big margin… Bulgaria, not a huge favorite in ET, but a big OGAE favorite and a strong 4th, almost made an upset to France, the OGAE and TEKO winner! In the end, it came to the last day, France had the 1 point lead that last day… and it remained like this til the end! Also surprising to see Netherlands, a big country in Fridas, not doing better after a very strong choice again in 2016. As for Georgia, it’s again last. All of its fans are ET regulars, but no one besides our bubble tend to vote for it…

Result Awards

  • Most Overrated entry
    • 54 Poland (36,7%)
    • 34 Malta (23,1%)
    • 31 Russia (21,1%)
    • 15 Australia (10,2%)
    • 13 Lithuania (8,8%)
  • Most Underrated entry
    • 56 Iceland (38,4%)
    • 34 Latvia (23,3%)
    • 27 Estonia (18,5%)
    • 19 Germany (13%)
    • 10 Croatia (6,9%)
  • Best Entry in the top 5
    • 53 Ukraine (44,9%)
    • 27 Australia (22,9%)
    • 20 Bulgaria (16,9%)
    • 13 Russia (11%)
    • 5 Sweden (4,2%)
  • Best Entry
    • 41 Ukraine (32%)
    • 19 Latvia (14,8%)
    • 18 Australia (14,1%)
    • 15 France (11,7%)
    • 14 Italy (10,9%)
    • 9 Sweden (7%)
    • 8 Russia (6,3%)
    • 4 Georgia (3,1%)

Thoughts: well for the fourth year in a row, the winner of “Best Entry in the Top 5” ends up winning “Best Entry”. So Ukraine is the smashing winner of the year. It won 6 Fridas out of 10 nominations, just like the Common Linnets in 2014, and one Frida short from Loïc Nottet’s record of 7 from last year. Nice to see Latvia comforted as an ET favorite with its second place there, but the whole remaining 7 nominated entries for “Best Entry” behind Ukraine are very close, and Australia, often disregarded in ET (it even managed to move far in TEKO in “Second Chance” after losing to Estonia in the first round), snatched 3rd (the only award that came too late, later than the 70 “fake” voters attack on our polls, so Australia wasn’t even virtually first). France comfirms its good form, as Georgia was all the way down, even behind Sweden and Russia. In the Top 5, the three countries repeating their Top 5 results, Australia, Sweden and Russia sorta disappointed, as Bulgaria kept a strong Frida form, without a Frida but closer than expected in almost all of them. As for “Most Overrated” and “Most Underrated”, no real surprises, and far leaders in Poland and Iceland. Latvia came second there, a nice surprise even though its 15th place was seen by people who don’t like it, as already too high… Poland, Australia and Russia seem lock for “Most Overrated” nominations, as they are almost every year and keep switching winners, though Malta seems to be a rising favorite in this category after the justified jury conspiracies that erupted after the 2016 Final.

So now we can discuss a bit these results. Raw stats and comparison to the last two years:

  • 42 entries this year (40 entries in 2015, 37 entries in 2014, 39 in 2013),
  • 27 of them got at least 1 nomination for 18 awards (29 in 2015, 30 in 2014 and 29 in 2013),
  • a record 12 countries got an award (8 in 2015, 9 in 2014 and 10 in 2013),
  • only 2 of them getting more than one Frida (5 in 2015, 4 in 2014 and 5 in 2013):
  • 6 Ukraine, 2 France, 1 Italy, 1 Latvia, 1 Russia, 1 Austria, 1 Netherlands, 1 Belgium, 1 Estonia, 1 Poland, 1 Iceland, 1 Australia
  • Belgium, Latvia, France, Italy and Russia all received Fridas last year and this year. However, Ukraine having not participated last year, it’s the only country to have won Fridas every year it took part in the contest!

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 2017, 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 5 – July 2016, will open soon! So stay tune on our blog!

40 thoughts on “ET Awards 2016: full results and analysis”

  1. Technical Awards: funnily enough, I voted for the 4 winners here! Australia doesnt deserve the screaming criticism. I hate screaming too, but Dami is in perfect control and doesn’t actually scream her vocals, she nails them. And I aint crazy about Jamala as a performer in general, so I didn’t mind her losing that one, as composition was where “1944” shined best. Lyrics, they were all bad but I liked Italy’s better of all, for their rather mature approach to it all. Latvia was magnificient, but I was so mad Lithuania was last, when it should have been second.

    • I got three out of four in technical awards. The exception was Best Lyrics, where my choice ended up last, lol (though to be fair, I didn’t care about any of them that much).

      I also changed my mind in the last minute for Best Female Looks and joined the majority there too.

  2. Artistic Awards: I totally disagree on performance and props. Latvia and Georgia totally owned the performances this year, the only two that were totally above the rest, and Latvia was all down to Justs’ amazingness and Georgia to the prop. So these were the performances I’d reward. Female looks were disgraceful this year, not a single one I liked, but Austria fitting exactly what they wanted to do deserves one. Male looks were amazing, a lot of non nominees like Russia, Lithuania, San Marino could have gathered a nod. My personal favorite is Justs, because he’s making me violently horny. But Georgia, Sweden and Netherlands were hot. And I ADORE Douwe’s tattoo and was glad it won. For backings, San Marino owned the show right?

    • I adored Jamala’s looks but let’s agree to disagree on this one.
      I will thoroughly read the analysis and give my thoughts on it next weekend. I have to catch an early flight tomorrow morning and will have a very busy week.
      Btw, when will ETSC kick off? I sincerely hope that it won’t be before the end of the month …

  4. Good job on the article Morgan! I am very glad Australia won in the vocal section. Im actually really happy with the results this year except the male vocals. This year in particular people showed that they weren’t only voting for their favorites! :D

  7. Delegation Awards: well again, Latvia for the backdrop for me. Armenaia’s vid was both good, strong and annoying and clichéd. But probably the only one I kinda cared beyond the “hey it’s the song with pictures” that all vids in esc are. I kinda get Italy’s charm and would have settled for it as a winner too. I prefer Elodie, because it was all natural, simple, a big “LIVE TV” moment, and not a persona. But I knew Verka would kill this one. And yes, considering esc past, Estonia and France deserved the last two Fridas in this category.

  9. This is probably the first year since the 2nd Punic War that I don’t think that Eesti laul deserved to win national final. Yes, the production was great and we got “Seis”, which is probably my favourite package of the season (I haven’t yet found the time to properly think about the NF entries …) but all in all, the song quality was a bit underwhelming. Song-wise Ukraine owned this award but alas, the jury and in particular Ruslana were insufferable.

  10. Well my biggest agreement comes in artistic awards where I voted for 3 out of 5 winners.
    The ones I missed were Armenia (Best performance) and Georgia (Best Props) but they both came second!

  11. Results Awards: not sure about “Most Overrated”. I do think that the facts on the Maltese jury bias is the most annoying and unfair thing in the current contest, but Poland’s surreal Top 3 result got me hysterical and insane. I am of course convinced it’s a huge diaspora bias. Since it got picked, Poland had an unfair bent on Youtube, preparing us, just like in 2014, for a big support from diaspora. The 2015 choice was internal and didn’t move any diaspora to massively vote for it, and that explains the bent. Poland first in many Western countries makes me uneasy, reminds me of the dark esc era and ultimately, the song is way worse than the already awful “WoW”. So yeah, Poland had to win this one. Iceland? Never liked it much, the English version was worse, the live was a winner’s rip off and those always die, Greta is an awful performer that was fricking scary in esc, and looked awful. You never get pulled in her performance, she’s so uncharismatic and even scary in her facial expressions. In general, it really was where it belongs, even if I think I’d have it in the bottom 5 of the final. Estonia without a doubt was awful, but the song was Top 10 material. In the end, nah, my vote went to Latvia, the one that actually looked strong, sounded strong, was a perfect song, and should have at least been supported by more juries. Ukraine for the other votes made sense, though I prefer Latvia to it. Maybe even Georgia! 4 votes? Damn :/

  13. Ukraine was clearly the best in top 5, no wonder the double votes compared to the runner up Australia.
    I believe both Malta and Poland were extremely overrated this year, but I find the jury constant top 10 fanwanking on Malta a more serious issue than Poland’s occasional (2/3) televoting top 10s.
    I definitely agree on Iceland winning MOST underrated entry category. It was a good song with a good enough stage performance (though uninspired) and deserved the Final more than let’s say bland Malta or boring Czechia. My second choice would be Germany here. Both ICE and GERM 2016 score a 8.5/10 on my list!

  15. I must say I’m very pleased with the results! :)
    My favourite won in 8/17 awards (Best Male Vocals, Best Composition, Best Female Style, Best Backings, Best Promotion Video, Best Spokeperson, Most Overrated Entry and Best Top 5) and in the other 9 awards the winner was always in my top 3 except in most underrated (where Iceland was my 4th (or 5th if I count Georgia too)). I didn’t count the NF award as I didn’t vote there.
    I think Georgia was by far the most underrated in the results with only a few votes in each category (the exception being its 2nd place in best props where it should’ve won hands down) but it’s not surprising as the song is an acquired taste.

  21. The results were not surprising taking into what was said during the whole season. The Fridas are an excellent way to organize one’s thoughts and put one’s ESC house in order, because the season is over. Thanks for the article, Morgan and for all your work.

    It’s good to see a song like ‘1944’ winning ESC, beating plastic lifeless songs like the Russian and Australian ones. However, it is pretty clear that the rsults would have not been the same, had the same songs been representing other flags. All in all, 2016 was not a good year when it comes to songs, but the show organized by SVT was very good. One can only hope that the growing suppression of backing singers from the lights of the main stage does not mean that 100% live singing is close to an end in ESC. The show will be flooded by a million bimbos (male and female) instead of a million voices,who most probably cannot carry a tune.

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