ETSC 15: Discover the Draw!

/ Sekhmet Morgan

ETSC – Every year, the summer is the calm after the storm so it’s the perfect time to resume the highly anticipated the Eurovision Times Song Contest! Each one of you can represent an European country and get to send a song and then vote in a fake Eurovision!

43 of you have expressed the desire to join but only 40 got a country!

Each summer, a good number of regular readers stay around for different reasons (they don’t get breaks from work or don’t go on holidays…) but there aren’t much news to keep us going. So the last few years we introduced all sorts of games. The Eurovision Times Awards (Fridas) and the Douze Points Trivia Quiz kept us going in 2013 and Fridas have made come-backs the past five years. Four years ago, a lot of you asked for a fake Eurovision where each one of us would send songs and get to vote. And that was it: the Eurovision Times Song Contest, from then on known as ETSC.

We’ve therefore had 14 editions of ETSC, as we hold two per Summer, one in July and one in August. For more information, you can discover our new page dedicated to the contest, with its history, all songs participating and the rankings here. A specific article for Top 10 stats was also open here. You can also find it by clicking on the “Specials” section of the site, in the top menu in the red box, just under the site’s name. “ETSC 15 – July 2021” will be officially held in Bruges after Billie won.

Does the draw really matter? Maybe so, after all #1 and #12 spots both got Top 3 in the first two editions! In ETSC 1 France won going as #12 while Norway was runner-up going as #1. In ETSC 2 the United-Kingdom went as #12 to achieve second place and Bosnia & Herezgovina finished 3rd going first! In ETSC 7, draw #1 confirmed with a third second place (Norway ETSC 1, Sweden in ETSC 5 and Netherlands in ETSC 7), while Italy finished third at draw… #11! Close but not quite! But in an online game, people get to listen multiple times to the songs, and in any order they want. We had #28 win twice in Summer 2019, the same spot France won from in ETSC 2 (even though it was then moved to 27th after a DQ). While first half tends to do better in general, songs drawn 40th and 35th won and got second last edition! Everything is possible!

So it’s quite possible to say that the draw is more of a gimmick than a true influence on the results.

So, here’s the draw:

1  Belgium
2 Moldova
3  France
4 Georgia
5  Finland
6  Armenia
7 Switzerland
8  Serbia
9  Slovakia
10  Norway
11  Iceland
12  Estonia
13 United-Kingdom
14  Sweden
15  Austria
16  Azerbaijan
17  Ireland
18  Croatia
19  Hungary
20  Spain
21 Portugal
22  Malta
23  Netherlands
24 North Macedonia
25 Germany
26  Israel
27  Cyprus
28  Lithuania
29  Italy
30  Tunisia
31  Morocco
32  Ukraine
33 Czech Republic
34  Australia
35 Romania
36  Denmark
37  Russia
38  Greece
39 Andorra
40  Poland

But who are the 40 HoD who did sign up? And which songs will enter ETSC 15? It will be quite a spectacle again, with two songs going down the Destiny road of songs with a French title but not in French! Two songs from NF artists and both for countries not taking part in esc anymore! A former VFoS star reaches for ETSC fame… a participant in the very first ETSC comes back… How exciting?!

189 thoughts on “ETSC 15: Discover the Draw!”

      • Indeed. I still think that both Belgium and Spain were technically superior to the Italian team, but Italy was masterful regarding tactics. When they realised that their active pressing did not work against Spain’s technical excellence, they returned to playing catenaccio, and tonight they excellently analysed the mistakes they had made in the first half. Sothgate simply pressed the ‘go’ button, and everything that followed from the English team was like being on autopilot.

  11. It can’t get more annoying than this, first Kylian and then Rashford, Sancho and Saka one after the other! I can’t follow ETSC after this.

  14. First time ever that a team has won esc wins the euro at the same year. We had examples of teams winning the euro and then winning esc the following year though (Greece, Portugal).

  18. The Italian team had to celebrate in an almost empty arena. This once more corroborates what I have thought about the ‘fans’ of the English team for some years. Disrespectful!

    • Many Danish fans were assaulted on the way to Wembley before the semi final. Hooligans were spitting at them and shouting ugly things (usually in the “go home” department). Even at families with children were assaulted, and many children were understandably frightened by the experience.

      Italian spectators must have experienced the same today.

      • That’s xenophobic Brexit England … What the hell has happened to this welcoming and civilised country I fell in love with so many years ago? 🙁

  19. Ok, so yes I was rooting for Italy a bit more (but I did like this English team, less arrogant, less divided by PL clubs, younger, fresher), but the whole Covid story telling won me over and this Italian team played “the best”, not football wise (Belgium had some of the best, and Spain in semi were incredible sometimes, though forgot to play forward most of the time…), but tactical wise, they knew how to adapt to each oponent and make the best of what they had, plus they had the player of the tournament (before he got injured). Also feels fair that the team in that side of the board (Belgium, Spain) won over the other side (Ukraine, Denmark), just like in WC 2018. Plus, we all love the Euro predicts the Eurovision winner, except 2020 Euros were played after Italy already won Eurovision lol

    Now on a more serious note, this last decade the finals were all awful? or at least boring? the two exceptions are Spain in 2012 (the masterclass that ended the golden generation that seemed unbeatable) and France in 2018 (because it wasn’t a very levelled final, with one side being superior physically and technically and another side with a lot of heart and a handful of amazing players, which were not enough in the end). Germany-Argentina, Spain-Netherlands, Spain-Germany, Portugal-France and t his one were all very very boring.

    The reasons imo are: the season is too long now, UEFA keeps inventing new reasons to play dumb friendlies and adds teams to C1, C2 and now a new C3 so that players are extremely tired come Summer, especially in the bigger teams. Moreover, the bigger teams are only made of players who know each other from the same 5-7 European leagues. They’re tired but, let’s face it, there are no “small” teams really anymore, so when it comes to quarter-finals, except for a specific scenario (red card, lucky penalty, VAR, a resurection storytelling, unfair travelling for Euro 2020 which were awfully hosted in some of the stadiums), the teams just “try to not lose” more than anything. All three matches of semis and final this year went to ET and two in penalty? Is that the football we should be seeing?

    Obviously, Qatar in the winter will be a whole new story, but with 48 teams now, and 32 in the Euros in 2028, it’ll be the same sad story until they really kill our interest (except if our team does well). Can’t see how they can prevent a Superleague to happen, not many people watch basketball here besides NBA, who else thinks the best matches in football are in C1 anyway? Money makes the world go around.

    And damn it, the BoJo making an unfair decision to have 60 thousand people in the stadium, the not very covid friendly crowded London streets, the arrogance of the “coming home” and Southgate unability to make a single change (Graelish, Folden and Rashford sure helped from the Bench at 1-1!) had me root for Italy of all teams! The penalty in 1998 in quarterfinal, the drama in Rotterdam in 2000 (like Eurovision 2020 lol), the awful 2006 game, it’s all in me and I had to go “Forza Italia” today! Against my own Harry Kane :'( Aw come on!

    • I agree that the 2014 WC final wasn’t great but Germany’s semi-final against Brazil was. Atm ‘safety first!’ seems to be the motto of most teams when they are up against a strong opponent. We need a team like Spain’s golden generation to shake things up asap.

      • Yeah. In 2018 the France-
        Belgium semi was the real final and was boring like one! But lucky for us Croatia went for it feeling inferior and kess fresh physically so France had to find a way and resources. And did!

  21. Forza ragazzi what a game! Everything seemed lost after that 2nd minute shocker but Italy came back.Southgate lost the game by taking off experienced players like Henderson and Walker and then letting kids do the penalties – WTF?!? After ESC win, Italy continues its resurrection arc in another tribute to Raffaella Carra!

      • Henderson looked sad. Some of the English players were jerks tearing off their silver medals, he didn’t.
        If Patel has the team deported tomorrow, can we take in Hendo?

          • The team (apart from obvious narcissists like Walker and Grealish) on the whole came across quite likeable – the fans seemed boorish and drunk as usual (the booing of anthems, etc.). Then the government wanting to hijack the team’s success after initially badmouthing them for taking the knee was pathetic (again).

            • Indeed. That’s what I mean by package. Parts of the country seemed to be in a nationalist frenzy fired by BoJo’s Brexit. Some ‘fans’ interviewed on English TV seemed very arrogant and rather aggressive. Also I don’t think that Mr. Southgate is a great team manager when it comes to tactics. If the team you are up against is in total disarray like the Italians were for the first 25 minutes, you need to go for the 2nd goal.

            • Yeah I really thought the Southgate’s plan was to press hard for two goals at the start – but then they kind of fell asleep in the 2nd half. Southgate did much better than you would have expected when he got appointed – but he’s no Mancini.

          • PS the taking-off-the-medals thing was childish tho so several team members looked bad there… I think they were mainly younger incl two of the guys who missed penalties.

            • The first time I remember seeing someone do that was the figure skater Surya Bonaly at some Winter Olympics. She’d prob win the gold now that the jumps are 90% of what matters.

            • She was always terrible to watch I thought – very choppy and as you said v little artistry.

            • You’re right, it was at one of the World’s where the placed second – she also initially refused to stand on the podium then.

  22. The world has gone totally bonkers. People planning space tourism when we are facing a climate emergency. And nobody is doing anything to prevent this obscene insanity. 🙁

  23. Just came home after being away for the weekend.

    Interesting draw. Some surprising absences (notably Turkey) and nice surprises (Andorra, etc.). Was not expecting to be drawn where I was, but I trust Selena has the best in mind for me. So excited for tomorrow!

    P.S. My postcard looks gorgeous <3 Can't wait to see the full poster :)

  24. Meanwhile, tthere was the finale for the u19 World Championships in Basketball, and the USA beat France by only 2pts (83-81) after France beat Lithuania in quarterfinals and Serbia in the semis!

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