To sort out and analyze the result of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest will take some time. There were some really weird things going on. This is what I got right now, the day after.

1. (my prediction: 1)Austria: JJ – Wasted Love (overall points: 436, televote: 178, jury points: 258)
First the easy part – the winner! JJ from Austria did an amazing job and everything went according to plan. Just as Nemo last year he got enough lead from the juries to compensate for the lower televotes. Thus, for the third year in a row, the juries favourite won in the end. Easy to predict and all who thought there was another possible outcome was either hoping in vain or plain delusional.

But now to the tricky part – the other 25 results. Or rather, the other 50 results – since both the juries and televotes were more randomly spread out than ever.

2. (10)Israel: Yuval Raphael – New Day Will Rise (357, 297, 60)
That Israel should get low scores from juries and high in televotes was obvious, not at least after last year. The song was emotional and Youval’s performance amazing and should of course have gotten more than 60 jury points if it wasn’t for political bias. But that she would win the televotes with such margin was still a surprise to me. Of course it is easier for all of us not to have Israel as an Eurovision host at the moment, but that should not be anything of concern for the juries.

3. (13)Estonia: Tommy Cash – Espresso Macchiato (356, 258, 98)
Estonia puzzles me even more. How could the worst singer in the whole contest get 98 jury points? Was his song really that innovative or the overall performance that impressive? No…? Was it tactical votes, to make a possible televote favourite stand up against Israel if the Austria plan would fail? And I know Tommy Cash has his loud fanatics, but 258 televote points was way more than what could be predicted by the mid reactions to the song during the whole season. But, there you go. You never really know, and that’s the charm of it. Estonia’s best place in 23 years.

4. (2)Sweden: Kaj – Bara bada bastu (321, 195, 126)
A fourth place for Kaj and Sweden was more than okay, considering they were a dark horse who came from nothing in Melodifestivalen and wrestled down the big favourite Måns Zelmerlöw. Their 40-50 percent winning chance in odds were never realistic anyway, but I actually thought that they should have a shot at winning the televotes, considering how viral their song and dance went overnight. I’m really proud of Kaj and that we went for this “risky” choice. Sweden didn’t need to win again so soon anyway.

5. (11)Italy, Lucio Corsi – Volevo Essere Un Duro (256, 97, 159)
Italy did slightly better than expected both in juries and televotes. Not much more to say than it was well deserved for a quality song and performance that went literally under the radar for long.

6. (9)Greece: Klavdia – Asteromáta (231, 126, 105)
My personal winner ended up with a decent sixth place. More than I dared to hope for, actually, although I don’t understand the mid jury points for this obviously quality performance from the best singer in the contest (along with Youval). Greece best result in 12 years. Great job Klavdia!

7. (3)France, Louane – Maman (230, 50, 180)
I really thought that France would get more than 50 televote points and really be a contestant for the medals, but I have consistently overrated France in Eurovision, every year since 2011…

8. (4)Albania: Shkodra Elektronike – Zjerm (218, 173, 45)
Albania’s televote score (173) gives me hope about the Eurovision audience. They know when they hear end see something original, heartfelt and qualitative. Clearly the most innovative song and performance this year. But what the hell just happened with the juries? Why were they (again) sleeping on Albania? “Zjerm” ticked in on all the jury criteria. Still they awarded Tommy Cash and Miriana Conte instead, that were obviously less jury friendly, or? Norway last year and now Albania… we need to look into the selection process and criteria for the jury groups!

9. (14)Ukraine: Ziferblat – Bird of Pray (218, 158, 60)
Ukraine got high scores from televotes – again. A great disaspora and some pity votes for the war, yes, but does that mean that the juries automatically should downgrade them? They also manages to send quality songs year after year.

10. (6)Switzerland, Zoë Më – Voyage (214, 0, 214)
The strangest result of them all is of course the host country Switzerland, with 214 points form the juries and zero from televotes. I get that it’s a jury friendly song, but this is one of the biggest differences in perception of a song ever. And this time I don’t blame the juries. How could this soothing gem end up with ZERO support from the public? Shame on you, Europe (and the rest of the world)!

11. (5)Finland: Erika Vikman – Ich komme (196, 108, 88)
Finland outside top ten – I did not see that coming, pun intended. Although decent 88 jury points Erika Vikman did not manage to gain more than 108 televote points, which was a miscalculation. Thus we can conclude that all the three ekivoke entries (Australia and Malta being the others) were classical Eurovision fan wanks and flopped with the broader audience.

12. (7)Netherlands: Claude – C’est La Vie (175, 42, 133)
I never understood the hype around Netherlands and “C’est la vie” and the televote score (42) confirmed my suspicion that it was overrated. Why the juries awarded this unoriginal and mid performed tralala-schlager with 133 points – but only gave Albania 45 – is intriguing.

13. (21)Latvia: Tautumeitas – Bur Man Laimi (158, 42, 116)
Latvia did better than I expected, I must admit. Of course it was a skilled performance, but I still don’t think that the song itself had that extra something to motivate 116 jury points.

14. (8)Poland: Justyna Steczkowska – Gaja (156, 139, 17)
Poland on the other hand got tanked by the juries for… what reason? Just as Albania “Gaia” was way more original and artistically craving than “Serving”, “Espresso Macchiato” or “C’est la vie”. Why even have juries that are so inconsistent and unpredictable? At least Justyna got a decent televote score, 139.

15. (12)Germany, Abor & Tynna – Baller (151, 74, 77)
I really liked Germany’s “Baller”, it stood out as something different and the staging was amazing. But, to be honest, Tynna’s vocals were not really serving. So 77 points from the juries was a bit much.

16. (22)Lithuania: Katarsis – Tavo Akys (96, 62, 34)
That Lithuania’s Katarsis should be so popular among the public (62 points) was surprising. I thought it should be too niched, dark and drained of expression. But the Eurovision audience again showed better judgement than the juries when it comes to originality.

17. (15)Malta: Miriana Conte – Serving (91, 8, 83)
Malta’s score was surprising indeed. If anyone would have suggested that Miriana Conte’s ekivoke mess would get ten times as many jury points (83) as televotes (8) I would have laughed out loud. What the hell just happened? Did the juries mistake the hype around the original title “Kant” so that they actually thought she might be a winner candidate, and thus she was not to be tanked? Or did they see some innovative originality here that was not connected to screaming “serving kant” and make it sound like something else? We will certainly never know…

18. (16)Norway: Kyle Alessandro – Lighter (89, 67, 22)
Norway’s score was almost exactly as expected. Kyle struggled with his weakest vocals so far (nervousness?) and that was that.

19. (19)United Kingdom, Remember Monday – What The Hell Just Happened? (88, 0, 88)
“UK… zero points” is as much of a tradition as Sweden being favorites in odds, Cyprus giving Greece 12 points or France never winning. But Remember Monday actually deserved better. I feel sorry for you, British fans. I really do. At least they got 88 well deserved jury points.

20. (23)Armenia: Parg – Survivor (72, 30, 42)
Armenia randomly getting 12 points from Malta was a bit strange, otherwise Parg ended up where he should.

21. (26)Portugal: Napa – Deslocado (50, 13, 37)
One could argue that Portugal got 50 points (and a final ticket) more than they deserved, but they ended up in bottom six anyway, so…

22. (18)Luxembourg: Laura Thorn – La Poupée Monte Le Son (47, 24, 23)
It was expected that my third favourite in the final, Luxembourg, would end up in the bottom. One of the most innovative and catchy songs and captivating performances, but Laura Thorne’s vocals were a bit shaky to be honest.

23. (20)Denmark: Sissal – Hallucination (47, 2, 45)
It was unexpected that Denmark would even reach the final, so the scarce 2 televote points was not really surprising. More so the 45 jury points, just as many as Albania, for the overly generic “Hallucination”.

24. (25)Spain, Melody – Esa Diva (37, 10, 27)
Spanish Eurovision fans are living in a parallell dimension where they are some kind of music super nation and winner contender in Eurovision. The truth is that Benidorm Fest was really weak and “Esa diva” was nothing near popular, nor a potential success, anywhere outside Spain. But, don’t stop believing…

25. (24)Iceland: VÆB – Róa (33, 33, 0)
I’m more surprised that they got 33 points from televotes than 0 from the juries. Even more so, they got 97 points in the semi final… more than twice as much as Cyprus and four times as much as Belgium. I wasn’t the biggest fan of any of these, to say the least, but still, why? What did the foiled juniors have that Red Sebastian didn’t? A disturbingly catchy chorus?

26. (17)San Marino: Gabry Ponte – Tutta L’Italia (27, 18, 9)
Last and least, San Marino… Let’s conclude that this was an overall sad year for techno/eurodisco. Belgium, Cyprus and Ireland missed the final and Iceland and San Marino in the absolute bottom. Only Germany held the electronic beat flag high.

No need to be depresso – all the finalists in Eurovision Song Contest

Serving Kant – all entries in Eurovision Song Contest 2025

Remember the fallen – those who didn’t make it to Eurovision