EUROVISION 2026: BANGARANGA! BULGARIA WON

Oh dear, that was a bit unexpected even if Bulgaria rose to the Top-3 in odds the day of final and had its momemtum rising after the rehearsals. Bangaranga everyone indeed. She was fuegoed. And it won both jury and tele , that didn't happen since 2017! Israel was beaten, maybe that's what matters in a way. Next thought is can they afford to host next year? Weren't they away for financial reasons mostly anyways until this sudden return just when other countries stayed home?

Another returnee Romania finished third - who would have thought? Makes one wonder how come these two returnees did so well all of sudden and if they were too broke to participate before how they ended up in 2026? Just saying.

Australia and Finland and most of all Greece as well as Denmark bombed a bit. Is it the time of the odds being right is over? Last year the clear #1 favorite finished 4th, now 6th. But then again Finland 6th place is our 4th best placing ever (compared to number of participants)

The juries voting was worse than the usual televoting, can't we just call it neighboring voting? Greece/Cyprus anyone? But then again Finland got its 12's from Estonia and Sweden.

I expected Moldova and Albania doing better, while Norway doing better with juries than televoters is quite curious. And yes, I did say already back in February Italy will be Top-5. And stays in Top-10 for 9th year in a row. And yes, in the end 6th place is one of Finland's bests and 3rd Top-10 in the 2020's. And we were the best Nordic country. Sweden did its worse result since 2010's NQ or 2009's Malena Eernman.

The jury 12s were all over the place: Bulgaria (4), Poland (4), Malta (3), France (3), Australia (3), Finland (2), Italy (2), Greece (2), Serbia (2), Denmark (2), Ukraine (1), Romania (1), Albania (1), Israel (1), Cyprus (1), Czechia (1), Belgium (1), Norway (1) - that's 18 countries considered the best of them all. Then again, at least the juries didn't go back up only one song like in 2023 or 2024....

Televotes:

Bulgaria 312

Romania 232

Israel 220

Moldova 183

Ukraine 167

Italy 147

Greece 147

Finland 138

Australia 122

Albania 85

Denmark 78

Croatia 71

Serbia 52

Cyprus 34

Norway 19

Poland 17

Sweden 16

France 14

Lithuania 12

Czechia 9

Malta 8

Austria 5

Belgium 0

UK 0

Germany 0

Finland got in the end points from the juries as follows:

12 Estonia, Sweden

8 Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Norway

7 Israel, Portugal, Georgia, Montenegro, Czechia

6 Ukraine, Croatia, Austria

5 Malta, Lithuania

4 Australia, Cyprus

3 Luxemburg, Latvia

2 San Marino, Armenia, France, UK

0 Switzerland, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Albania, Poland, Greece, Serbia

Finland got in the end televotes from:

12 Estonia, Sweden

10 Norway, Australia, Latvia

8 Denmark, Armenia, Azerbaijan

6 Poland

5 Portugal, Luxemburg

4 Malta, Lithuania, San Marino, Moldova

3 Belgium, Czechia, ROTF, Italy, Switzerland

2 Ukraine, Croatia, France, Serbia

1 Georgia, Austria, Cyprus, UK, Albania

0 Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Germany, Israel, Montenegro

Finland gave televotes as follows:

12 Israel

10 Romania

8 Denmark

7 Bulgaria

6 Sweden

5 Italy

4 Ukraine

3 Serbia

2 Croatia

1 Moildova

Not going to comment on Israels 12 but Romania was expected as well as Serbia and most everything really. Very pleased for Italy being there, too.

Finland's Jury votes were as follows:

(the jury was Erno Kulmala, Ilkka Wirtanen, Kari-Jukka Hynninen, Anni Lerche, Goldielocks, Marja Kokko and Sofia Ruija)=

12 France

10 Denamrk

8 Lithuania

7 Australia

6 Poland

5 Croatia

4 Belgium

3 Italy

2 Czechia

1 Moldova

The Marcel Bezencon awards were handed out to Australia (Media award), Bulgaria (Artistic award) and Denmark (Composer award)

Comments

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Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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