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So, for this year’s Phil Explains it all – we’re having the helpful comments of Shai along side my own (Shai is helpfully coloured in blue)- you can always rely on him!
I Suppose you want Part 3 as well?
Greece
Despite my utter hatred of this song it was just a big ball of nothing. Disjointed forced fun for the millions watching at home was, sadly, exactly what the masses wanted – because they are low brow and stupid. The jurors, who should be above this kind of thing – weren’t – especially in Cyprus, shockingly, and Serbia, rather less shockingly. A prime example of what a drunk Televoter likes on a Saturday night – men in cat suits singing three words at them.
This was supposed to be a televoters magnet but it didn’t happen as planned. He got 147 points from the televoters of 28 countries of which 3 x 12 points and 5 x 8 points. The rest was 6 points or less. Not nearly enough to justify this as a televote magnet.
Even in the semi it received less points form the televoters then was expected(7th place, if this was a televoters only semi).
The juries just gave it a node, but not really loving this. Ending at 12th place after the juries’ vote. Sure, it was a fun song and yes the staging was brilliant, though making him breathless, but maybe it was just too much of trying too hard and not really connecting with everyone.
One thing is for sure- when this comes up in any Eurovision party, it will bring the roof down.
Ukraine
Has the televoter love worn off when they put a song in which is made around one note? Apparently not because Ukraine still are deserving of some points no matter what but, lets be honest, considerably less than the last few years I suspect, though, this was only fairly marked by the jurors cos without that not there isn’t a lot to hang your hat on musically. It’s not modern or fresh, it’s old and tired and even the choeo was that.
Wasn’t this the worst staging Ukraine has ever had on a Eurovision stage? We always know that when it comes to staging, Ukraine can up their game and deliver a great staging. Not this year. A staging, which at best can be described as uninspiring, matched a song that can best be described as uninspiring. The juries were not impressed, ending at 15th place after the juries’ vote. The Ukrainian diaspora(I think, mostly) lifted this song to a top 10 position, which is way too high a place for a song that wasn’t good enough.
Moldova
Another drunken televoter favourite. The juries were never going to show this love because a) They are told how to vote and b) Bangaranga exists in the same space. The juries could not be seen giving high marks to two similar songs, so they didn’t. Teelevoters, however, don’t care and saw a good looking long haired man singing word soup at them for three minutes without any regard for what those lyrics actually meant. Even Alyona Moon couldn’t make this any less silly but, then again, would you want it to be totally serious from the house of mental? Still liking the Homepride flour man on the backdrop.
As usual, when Moldova brings a fun song, they end in the top 10 due to the love of the televoters. I have difficulties calling this a song. It’s more a collection of chants and shouts, which are connected to each other by some kind of musical elements.
This song was never going to be a top score by the juries and it really wasn’t. Not much to say here further than that.
Denmark
Dear Olly Alexander. IF you want to be gay and suggestive AND score points – this is the kind of box you should have gone for. Soren is great on the socials and knows just how to be dirty and suggestive but also has a great voice to go with it and so he doesn’t have just the one card to play. Take the box away and you have a well crafted piece of music which builds nicely to an *ahem* climax.
One of the songs I really liked this year, and I even voted for this song, so I find it quite disappointing that it only finished at 7th place. Got roughly the same points from the televoters in semi-2 (75 points) and in the final(78 points) and in both semi and final got more points from the juries than from the televoters. The Greece song got double the points from the televoters than this song, while the Danish song was the better song of the 2.
Not sure why the televoters didn’t vote for this song? was it the Danish luggage, maybe, though I am glad they kept it in the original language and weren’t tempted to sing in English.
I have to say that they slightly changed the color palette from the national final to the Eurovision stage and I preferred the national final performance over the Eurovision performance. The national final performance fitted the song somehow better than the one on the Eurovision stage. They were minor changes, and if you haven’t seen the national final video, you won’t even notice this but for me , the Eurovision final performance was less successful, in terms of colors. Especially adding the red color when he was singing in the box and the bright red background(which was a different kind of red during the national final) towards the end of the song, have somewhat ruined the staging for me.
At the end a respectable and solid result for a song, which was less accessible than one would have thought or hoped it would have been.
Finland
Europe why?! You know this song had everything, a banging tune, a great singer, props, fire, a violin and yet that wasn’t enough for you? – To be honest it was more likely Pete and Linda looked like they had sung the song too many times and were bored of it rather than Europe being sold a pup. It Also proves the adage that if you want something really badly then it rarely happens in a Eurovision Context. I’m still bereft but I can’t help thinking Pete’s last note did some damage.
The hot favorite to win only finished at 6th place. I think the EBU have done everything they could to increase Finland’s chances of winning the whole contest, but unfortunately for Finland, it didn’t help much.
Roughly the same points from juries and televoters alike, which suggest somewhat less enthusiastic reception from both sides of the equation. In hindsight, it all started in the semi, where they only finished 3rd. It gets worse if this was a televoters only semi. They would have finished only in 5th place, behind Israel, Moldova, Serbia and Poland – it does make you wonder, doesn’t it?
Juries from 24 countries gave this song points 2 x 12 from Sweden(the only Scandi country giving this the full marks) and Estonia(those 2 countries also were the only televoters where Finland received 12 points in the final). Not a single 10 points from the juries and the rest 8 points or less.
You can’t win Eurovision without a substantial amount of 8 and 10 points and you need to have these points from both the televoters and the juries alike. Finland failed to achieve any substantial support from anyone in Eurovision. In any other year, 6th place should be considered as a good result. However, given the expectations Finland had in the months leading to the final, this is a very disappointing result.
If you have read my piece on the Finish song during the countdown, you should remember that I didn’t like the song at all. I thought that this song would be a bad winner for Eurovision. In that sense I am glad the Finnish song didn’t win.
Italy
HAHAHAAHA! Parts of Eurovision fandom wont and never will understand this, so here is a quick summary of why it did well. Italy Innit. This country can, and has, polished a sack load of turds over the years and made them top 10 and this is another in that long list. It is your Uncle Tony getting up at your wedding and singing a karaoke classic badly, but it never pretended that it was anything other than that. RAI took a lacklustre sanremo performance and built the show around it. Televoters voted for that Karaoke singer. Italy are always going to be dangerous, even when they and you least expect them to be.
First, a history lesson.
Here are Italy’s results in the contests since they hosted in 2022- (place in the final/number of points received).
2022 – 6/268, 2023 – 4/350, 2024 – 7/268, 2025 – 5/256. In 2026 they finished 5th with 281 points. This is quite a consistent performance and it seems that when it comes to Italy you can count on at least a top 10 result. Sure, they had in the past results outside the top 10 but this is more an exception to the rules than the rule itself.
More points from the televoters than the juries, but at 13 points difference, I cannot consider this as a huge difference.
A song which celebrates straight marriage and a staging which supports the text with no nuance. It seems that the gay audience turned his backs to that message. Sal Da Vinci sold the song as someone who believes in each word he sings, which he probably does.
A solid, but sort of a predictable result for Italy.
Australia
HAHAHAHAHA – Again. There are Eurovision kweens all over Europe jumping off buildings when this didn’t win. And rightly so, for the world is better off without them. This is where Hype meets Eurofans with the inevitable result. I will still maintain that Europe ‘s televiewers do not want an Australia win because, as a dear friend once told me, once their name is on the trophy, you can’t take them off. The piano bit looked forced, the lift in the piano looked silly, her gurning grin as she hit the ivories was also sick making beyond belief and yet Delta still had enough about her to score high televote marks.
Best result for Australia since Dami Im’s 2nd place in 2026. I think SBS wanted to win, but also to prove they belong to the contest.
A salient detail – If this was juries only semi, Australis would have won semi 2 It was a good pop song but let’s be honest and admit that it was also a very dated song, full of clichés, which were also extended to the staging. A song that wouldn’t be out of place somewhere in the end of the 1990’s and the beginning of 2000’s.
She is a professional and sounded strong vocally, however even her professionality can’t convince the televoters. The televoters, as was the case in previous years, still can’t understand why Australia is in the contest and therefore weren’t really picking up the phone and not voting for her, no matter how good the singer is.
Unless Australia can overcome the obstacles the televoters present to them, they will never win.
Romania
If you tell someone not to do something, the litelyhood is that they will do it even more, and here is your case study. Yes it’s all about sexual violence and yes, she should have owned and admitted it but by not doing so, and letting the viewer draw their own conclusion, TVR played the “you know you don’t want to vote for us, but you are going throw some our way out of sheer spite” – You also can’t cast a negative vote in the contest so this was always going to get a decent score. In hidsight the clues were staring us in the face on this one.
A strong performance for a controversial song.
In both semi 2 and the final, a low amount of juries’ points and high amount of televoters’ points. In the final she received points from the televoters of each voting country. She also finished 2nd in her semi. In the final she had a decrease of 22 points from the juries’ side of the equation, while there were more juries voting then in the semi. However, the decrease in juries’ points have been compensated by an increase of 85 points in televoters points during the final. This increase in televoters points, has placed her as 2nd by the televoters during the final.
You can see the difference between juries and televoters points as a reflection of the attitude towards the song’s text. The juries’ points seem to reflect the critical point of view toward the text. The televoters’ points seem to support her interpretation of the text as a metaphor to a toxic relationship.
I am not a fan of the song but Romania’s 3rd place after returning from a few years absent, is good for Eurovision. It shows that you can do well, even if you have a limited budget. All you need is a song which can generate interest , which transforms into a good result.
Israel
It’s not the second best song in this contest and there are, probably, reasons as to why it’s this high up the board but as a performance it was just bang average but, as I have said on the radio, it is the most authentic performance that Israel have brought in the last two years. The jury vote confuddled me as I genuinely believed that it got too many points and I was struggling to seehow – but hey..
The winner of semi 1 and if you rank all the songs in the semi according to their score, Israel is placed 2nd behind the eventual winner, Bulgaria. In the semi, Israel received 106 points from the juries, which was already higher than the amount of juries’ points Israel has received during the 2025’s final.
In the final Israel received only 220 points from the televoters(3rd in televoters points), a decrease of 97 points from 2025. This was compensated by an increase of 63 in juries’ points in 2026.
Let it sink for a bit- in a year time Israel has not only passed the amount of juries’ points received, but basically doubled the figures from the juries. The 60 points mark from 2025, was passed by the 20th jury voting, where thanks to the Polish jury, which gave Israel 12 points, Israel reached 68 points. This was probably a combination of 2 factors: a more relaxed attitude toward Israel and acknowledging the quality of the song and how likable the singer, Noam Bettan is. As Mr. Phil said in his live blog for the juries’ final, if it was a different country, this would have been better received.
When we look at the televoters points we see that Israel was missing 44 points from the 5 boycotting countries, received 6 points less from the rest of the world vote and received 12 points from only 6 countries, compared to 12 points from 13 countries in 2025. The fact that there were 2 stronger songs on the televoters , explains Israel receiving less points from the televoters.
Of course, that repeating scenario, of the split screen during the final vote, where Israel was part of the last 2 countries which could win, wasn’t received well. The fandom and his wife was accusing Israel of manipulating the televotes. Not that anyone has a proof for that, but hey, Israel is an easy target and no one really cares about the facts anymore. One would think that if Israel was manipulating the results it would have received more televoters than previous year and not less. If I am not mistaken, there was no government founded campaign and when Israel was founded breaching the contest rules; they got an official warning and stopped with that particular campaign. What everyone seems to forget is that the high score Israel has received this year is partly due to a better juries’ result(in 2025 Israel’s juries score was around 16% from the total points. In 2026 this was around 36% from the total score). Another thing people seem to forget is how lacking the EBU is about the voting. Yes, they decreased the amount of voting per telephone/credit card to 10 votes, but they seem unable to close the loophole where people can still vote more than 10 times if you have more than 1 payment card. Let’s say that a motivated group still can bring enough votes for 1 song.
Bulgaria
Now hands up, who amongst you had this for the win? Anyone? Don’t lie at the back because hardly anyone thought that this would win. Except, of course, the crowd in the hall who were very loud on Thursday and gave the audience polls big wins. It’s not the world’s best song lyrically but Dara who, remember, was 24 hours away from jacking it all in because “people” had their say about the song were kicked squarely in the balls when the juries saw a hit.
When you win both the juries and the televoters, you are the winner of Eurovision, fair and square. It doesn’t really matter if you like the song or not. This song managed to attract both sides of the voting equation and won Eurovision.
She won semi 2 and doubled her juries’ point on the way to the final. Televoters wise, she received points from every televoters in the final, with 4 points as the lowest score. In a nut shell, this is how you win Eurovision.
On course to winning she broke quite a lot of records, which you could read about, somewhere else. However, here you have some information I haven’t seen elsewhere: 204 points are the 2nd lowest juries’ points for a winner(the lowest is Ukraine 2022) and this is also the lowest number of points a juries’ winner has ever received. On the other hand that ratio between televoters and juries points(204/312) and the total score around 516 points has happened before among Eurovision’s winners(Ukraine 2016-211/323=534, Israel 2018-212/317=529, Italy 2021-206/318=524). In those cases the juries’ score for the winning song was good enough for 2nd or 3rd place after the juries’ vote.
A Bulgarian win is good for Eurovision. A new country has been added to the list of Eurovision winners. It seems that the song is becoming a worldwide hit, something Eurovision desperately needed. It is also good towards other countries as it shows them that you don’t need to be a big country or have a big budget(rummored budget for the Bulgarian song was € 200.000, which is peanuts compared to what other delegations spent) in order to win Eurovision. All you need is a strong song, accompanied with a tight, energetic and innovative staging, which suited the song very well and it does help if your singer can actually sing a song she helped write and her energy on stage matched the energy of the song. This is how you win Eurovision.
We are going East for 2027, which will bring a different flavour and production to Eurovision.
See you all in 2027. 🙂
And I echo Shai – I presume we’re going to be here for 2027 because where else am I gonna talk the shits about songs!!
