Eurovision is full of voting blocks and speculations, accusations of this and that, but it's also a lot of question of regional and culturas taste. It is more likely that Swedes like a Norwegian song than a Turkish one, or the Turks a song from the same region like Azerbaijan than the Icelandic one, for example. It makes perfect sense. All this put aside one "regional block" has featured well over the past years all considered, the melting pot of all that's "eurovisionesque" and schlager, that so many think Eurovision is all about. The Nordic countries.
Four out of five have scored a victory in the past eight years (Finland 2006, Norway 2009, Sweden 2012, Denmark 2013) and the odd one out, Iceland, was close in 2009 - kept away from the prize by another country from the block: Norway! Also four times in the past 8 years the Nordic countries have scored two top-5 finishes the same year.
Average score of all five of them making the final is 3,9. The worst year was 2007 when only Finland and Sweden managed to make the final (the year when the block voting speculation exploded big time) and three times all five have been present in the final (2008, 2009, 2013). Finland has missed the final four times, Iceland three times, Denmark and Norway twice and Sweden only once. Altogether they have scored 12 top-5 finishes in the past ten years. Not bad!
Even if there's an Eurovision under genre of Nordic schlager, the winners have been quite far from it really: monsters doing hard rock, Belarusian violinist telling fairytales, Moroccan mystic meets club anthem and little Danish fairy with an irish influenced folksong and stories about royal past. Will Iceland score its first victory sometime soon or complete a Nordic hat trick in 2014?What will they invent to finally make it? Something Björklike madness but with easier touch for the televoting masses?
2004
Sweden - Lena Philipsson - It hurts - 5th
2006
Finland - Lordi - Hard rock hallelujah - Winner
Sweden - Carola - Invincible - 5th
2008
Norway - Maria Haukaas Storeng - Hold on, be strong - 5th
2009
Norway - Alexander Rybak - Fairytale - Winner
Iceland - Yohanna - Is it true? - 2nd
2010
Denmark - Chanée & N'Evergreen - In a moment like this - 4th
2011
Sweden - Eric Saade - Popular - 3rd
Denmark - A Friend in London - New tomorrow - 5th
2012
Sweden - Loreen - Euphoria - Winner
2013
Denmark - Emmelie De Forest - Only teardrops - Winner
Norway - Margaret Berger - I feed you my love
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